Louise in Wonderland

Alice blew into Grafton is a whirlwind of crazy activity, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do so I gessoed my spread in black and Debs gorgeous little journal sat patiently waiting for me to find the time to play day after day and suddenly- its the end of the month!

Deadlines are great motivators, I had a day off today and besides the other million things, I needed to do I made sure to put some time aside to play- and play I did!

I wanted a grungy background with the iconic image of Alice stripped back to a silhouette and the harlequin diamond pattern distinctive but grungy. Where to next? I was lost and then I remembered the quirky wrapping paper I picked up at IKEA recently so cut out some collage pieces to add.

The flower faces and the mushrooms were rather Alice-ish and as it's my wonderland the funny little woodland creatures came along too. The Magic of Alice is Deb Stephens travelling art journal from round 6 of the Australian Art Journal Swap.
We are mustering for round 7 over at the Australian Art Swap Group on fb. 

Destination Egypt

Egypt!
What an mind boggling place, it conjures up so many images and thoughts and is one of our most documented and most studied ancient places- so many ideas were present for Annabelle's amazing travelling art journal. 

We are a homeschooling family and when my lads were little my eldest was obsessed with ancient civilisations, especially Egypt. We had some dear friends spend time there and we followed their journey from home and they bought us home a stack of goodies on their return. I raided some of these for the center of this spread, all of those wonderful places to visit.

One needs hieroglyphs for Egypt  and they are great graphic journal fodder too :) I have no idea what I was talking about up there but I like the way they look.

I also had the lyrics of this old song from Mental as Anything that insisted on being included so I squeezed them in too and my page came together. It is a really fun journal and Annabelle I am sure you will enjoy your journey through it on its return. 

Egypt

Mental As Anything

Egypt, I saw you 

On the television

I saw your name 

Written on a wall

I saw your picture

In a magazine

Egypt, can I ask you 

To lend me your blue sky

And your dreamy

Virginal tenderness

I don't know you very well

But I really like you

Egypt, I'm a gonna 

A, see you soon

Said I'm a gonna walk on 

Your foreshore

Egypt, won't you hold me

Like I held a map of you

I learned your location 

From a travel brochure

Egypt, I need your 

Sophisticated silence

Egypt I'm a gonna

See you soon

I'm a gonna walk on 

Your foreshore

Songwriters: Chris O'doherty

Life is a Circus

Some times I think my life is a circus,

 there are certainly enough dare devil occurrences

and no shortage of clowns.  

This month has been very circus focused

 as I live near the show ground 

and the Rio circus from Brazil 

has been there performing 

so I have had their lights and tent viewed from my window

 and some folks from work also attended and enjoyed it. 

However aside from my own very dramatic family circus 

I have had the pleasure of playing in 

Sharon Rogers's lovely Vintage Circus

 travelling art journal from round 6 of 

the Australian Art Journal Swap. 

I have been super busy but had my vintage circus radar peculating in the back of my mind and nothing was grabbing me. I was in a shop though and there was a notice up from an old news paper story about a long ago flood that had a circus stranded in town and Samson the strongman was assisting in the rescue efforts and also put on a benefit show to support the town. 

He must have loved our dear Grafton as he then stayed on and became a shop keeper or maybe it was a publican. 

We almost had a strongman theme  but unfortunately I didn't make the Vintage Circus connection at the time so went on my merry way and can not remember the shop or all the details beyond my curiosity in that moment and googling gave me no answers either, meanwhile time was ticking so I went back to good old google and started looking at Vintage Circus images for inspiration. While looking I didn't want to use any animals and I don't think animals in circuses are a good idea even though they could have been a great page and of course once I go going I just had fun and played and I think they fit the theme ok. 

Book Week - Beautiful Books Display

Our lovely librarian has been after me to do a display at our local library for a while  and we have finally managed to get it happening. 

I included a selection of hand made books by me and also others I have swapped with. 

This one is on cultured foods- 

strange Brews. 

They all look pretty lovely sitting in the cabinet 

and hopefully I will get some feedback from our community. 

If you are in Grafton, do pop in and have a peek. 

Creativity Prompts

Are you looking for a friendly supportive space to share your creative projects and be inspired?

I have a new little community on my River Girl Art Healing fb page where I post monthly prompt lists. Everyone is very welcome.

Mixed Media Art Patches

I remember years ago seeing the amazing Teesha Moore on youtube making these gorgeous little patches to make journal covers and bags and things and it was something I always wanted to do but never got around to it.

I finally decided the time was now and started a swap on the Australian Art Swap Group to help keep me on track and motivated and I found I was not alone there are quite a few who were inspired by Teesha and also needed the extra motivation.

We are into our second month and I am so keen for bthe patches in the mail to arrive here. I am planning to make a messenger bag with mine

Looking for Wisdom

 The travelling art journal
Words of Wisdom arrived with winter, things were insanely busy with trying to sell our house and homeschooling and just family life.

I wasn't too concerned as I can usually create a reasonable spread in our allocated month fairly easily and incubation time always takes up the begining of the month for me.

I love the arrival of a new journal.  I love the anticipation and excitement and I love that first perusal over a cuppa. 

I tend to put it on the shelf then and let my ideas brew. Sometimes I will look through the journal a few times in this process until my idea starts to form. 

Sometimes I dont get an idea at all!

I just start playing and let it happen.

And this page is one that evolved on the page, intuitively.

 After 6 days sick in bed I was desperate to art despite have no wisdom on what I would create.

I just doodled all over the page with intense pencils then activated with watered down white and a tiny brayer. Looking at what came out made me think of pebbles on a beach and away I went.