Reveal your True Self- Wendy's travelling art journal

I have spoken before about how I love to be in a journal swap,

 I love having the journals travelling around between us all, and I love having them arrive to be mine for a short while. It is like having an intimate gallery arrive right into your home, that you can visit over and over while it is here, and can share with your friends and visitors. 

And then it is gone- 

you have done your piece and added your energy and sent it on its way and then you are eagerly awaiting the next one and contemplating the theme.

This journal belongs to Wendy Pepyart 

who is a very talented and creative member of this round of 

The Australian Art Journal Swap

Wendy's gorgeous art journal is a repurposed childrens story book and her title is 'Reveal Your True Self'

Well, asking me, Who my true self is?, 

just about turned me inside out, lol- I do love how these journals challenge us and as Wendy is a very intuitive artist I just got out some supplies and started to play and let my own intuition guide me.

I pulled out some colours that were calling to me on the day and arranged them into a rainbow and then I started to get some ideas.

My thinking went along the lines rainbow, 

colours, 

colour groups,

 different aspects of me are all my true self

- paper dolls!

 I chose six colour themes and six aspects of me,
I pulled out the gelli plate, a brayer, some stencils and some watercolour paper and just played.

Once I had created my 6 dolls, I then played with stamps building up their mixed media texture and finally I journaled on them about who this aspect of me really is.  

Momento Mori - travelling Art Journal

Happy New Year and Solstice Blessings to you all.

With the long hot summer holidays here we have been doing a bit of travelling

 so I have found it hard to get to the waiting art journals I have.

Both of the journals I have waiting for me for the Australian Art Journal Swap
at the moment are altered books and
I chose to work in Mary's amazing "Momento Mori" first.

 Mary has created the most incredible sculptured cover, the detail and colour are amazing for something I was initially thinking quite macabre.

Mary is one of the artists from The Art Shed in Townsville Queensland and her journal shows her sense of fun and colour from the start.

 I really appreciate the challenge of this journal,

I love things that make me think and reconsider and feel.

Come with me for a wander through this gorgeous journal.

This is a lovely page Deb Parkes ,

I find this page so beautiful and moving.

One of the really lovely things about doing a journal swap like this, is getting to know your fellow artists and their work. These pages are by Sharon Williams from WA and I have fallen in love with her beautiful style and use of colours.

I also love Sharons use of printmaking.

Over to Victora and these pages are from our gorgeous Nicole Dixon and her quirky style has won all of our hearts I am sure.

Nicoles pages are always fun and make me smile.

Still in Victoria, Jan Mullane did these hauntingly beautiful pages.

I love Jans use of the skull in these pages, so subtle and ethereal.

Jan also shared some personal experience of a loved one in ICU and the significance of the 1000 cranes- the book we are altering is about the cranes as well. 

Now we head up to NSW for Roz Willoughby's  beautiful pages

her colourful skull looks rather friendly I think.

And I really like this page by Roz, 

all the pages in this journal are beautiful, 

I feel so lucky to receive an art exhibition in my mail box once a month.

Into NSW Janene McAnally did this delicate and beautiful page,

Janene's grungy style is also distinctive and she loves to play with texture and detail.

This is my page and after lots of thinking

 about just how mortal we are and how little time we get

 this is what I came up with.

My flying clock because "Tempus Fugit"opens up to reveal an hour glass and a quote

 We really do need to make the most of this wild and precious life.

And I close with Mary's back cover that is all about infinity and rebirth.

We have a new group on Facebook

 if you want to join in with art swapping within Australia

 in an effort to save on postage - 

we would love to see you at Australian Art Swap Group 

and we also have another blog for this journal swap

 and I have shared some of my process in making my Momento Mori page today.

Animal Totems Travelling Art Journal

A journey through my wonderful journal Totem Animals

It has been travelling around the world

Gathering beauty and wisdom from fellow artists.

Stunning details and embellishments.

Beautiful colours and different techniques.

I feel so spoiled to have this private gallery on my shelf.

You can see more and find out who contributed on my facebook album

Lyrics travelling journal

Liz made a beautiful journal to travel the world,

 collecting lyrics and art from countries near and far.

This is the page I made for Liz

 it is based on the song 'Great Spirit' by Medicine for the People.

I played with bright silk dyes and inks and textures and tried to make a beautiful page and also to capture a little of the beautiful energy of the song. Adding in an Owl Spirit as I have such a connection with owls.

Liz signed up to an art journal round robin with 16 other artists all dedicated to a smooth and regular exchange but sadly that is not how it worked out. From the start we had troubles with the lady who started the swap pulling out, the others rallied around and we got ourselves organised to continue and then we had quite a few journals go missing over the course of our swap so four lovely ladies including Liz will not be getting their beautiful handmade with so much love and energy art journals back. We have all done lose pages for them though and even replaced pages already done in the lost journals. 

It is a sad thing to lose your journal and I really do hope that where ever they are someone sends them home one day. I have also lost on of my journals in another swap the International Art Journal Swap  begun in 2010 and there are many lovely women still waiting on their journals from that swap besides me as well. 

Nomad- Travelling Artist

I recently joined a group of artists to work collaboratively on a CRAP artist survey  chapbook. we looked at the artist as nomad.

 It was great to see how everyone took the idea and went in so many different directions.

As artists, we need to travel to work, sometimes I sell work online but markets and exhibitions are where more work is sold and commissioned and to supplement my income I teach all over the place. 

I worked in my usual style with plenty of layers to build up a rich background with stencils, inspired by recent play in my journal. Knowing we had limited time I was much more relaxed with a plan in my mind even if it was a vague one.

I then used one of my hand made stamps and added some of my own thoughts

As rural and remote artists we are nomadic, like seeds in the wind we float about until we find some fertile ground to settle and share our gifts of passion, knowledge and skills then we move on and leave more seeds behind to flourish, grow and bloom.

and a very apt quote,
contributed by a much loved fellow traveler.

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the journey. They are Home.”

~ Anna Quindlen.



This shows both sides of my pages, we had to make 60 pages each that ultimately became 60 books, all in 2 days and we all came home with 5 each and the others are to be donated to various libraries. 

Julies gorgeous pages used vintage pages and imagery

 she picked up on overseas travels

Doug made an incredible collage of our town map

 and our mighty river

And I love Hayley's pages with the view from a traveling van

 printed onto map pages.

The whole weekend was a lovely experience working collaboratively with a great group of talented artists.