This is NOT About Halloween

I suppose most people writing blog posts today will be all about Halloween.  This post won't be.  I have nothing against Halloween - I'm just indifferent to it for the most part.  I do remember the costumes my mother made for us quite fondly, though.  And candy.  Definitely candy.

I would change kids to cats here

No, this post is once again about art journaling, because that's where I've devoted a lot of time and energy lately.  I'm really trying to make it an area where I'm thinking about things.  I might think too much but it's fine with me.  I also seem to be spending too much time and energy cleaning and organizing, but let's not go there.  

(non sequitur - this post is being written while listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony - glorious)

Back to the point, ahem.  the journal exchange Lisa and I are doing is still in full swing and I just wanted to show you what I've done recently.  As I think I've said, I usually don't have a plan when I do the journals.  I'm making myself play (kind of a contradiction in terms) because I have a bad habit of sticking to tried and true.  And even in the journals you'll see that.  However, I'm breaking out of the bonds of sameness ever so slowly.  Like molasses.

So here you have the early stages (I have no idea which journal these pages belong to as the journals are packed and ready to go back to Texas)

The left page has a a paper foreground of punchinella-style white paper over a red bronze paint background.  On the right, a very thin, delicate webby type paper was used. On the background I used things like jar openers to create texture but I thought it'd be more fun to use the webby paper instead - both papers came from RISD's store, I think.

 I used a set of rub-ons from 7 Gypsies to add interest - I forget the name of it but it's been discontinued.  I bought a bunch of them from Lisa (she has an online shop called collagestuff.com) on clearance.  I like rub-ons better than rubber stamps, actually since I never seem to stamp properly without leaving marks that shouldn't be there.

I then added a bunch of stuff to the left page.  The "Work Hard..." quote comes from a postcard advertising the recent Pawtucket (RI) Arts Festival, a month-long celebration of the arts held every September in this industrial city trying hard to find an identity (and the city where I was born, incidentally).

Obligatory cute picture of cat

As usual I have my helper - if you want to call him that.  He and I were playing a game of "who gets the chair first?"  Doesn't matter that he has four chairs to choose from - he wants the one I'm using, and so each time I get up to find something (a neverending activity), he sits on my chair.  Doesn't mind being turfed off it though.

The final result of the second page is something I quite like.  It's weird, like myself, and perhaps I need to do a larger version of him.  He's so serious yet he's flying around attached to a card from a game called "Flinch," which I've never heard of but you can read about it here.  

I think the wings might be too small for the weight of the card, though.  He's wearing a deerstalker hat too, though I think he's probably wearing it wrong.

So there you have this week's art journal session.  What do you think?

later,
lin