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.

Flying Fox

I am the last artist to work in Roz Willoughby's lovely silhouette travelling art journal.

My page is inspired by the 20 000 flying foxes we have on Susan and Peanut Islands in the mighty, mighty Clarence river in Grafton NSW. 

They are such a magnificent sight filling the sky at sunset, swooping down to the river to skim the surface wetting their furry chests so they can get a drink after a long hot day sleeping in the trees before dispersing for their evening of foraging and pollinating.

These colonies are native to the east coast but innocently inspire quite a bit of contention in human communities. Personally I admire and appreciate them and I am a keen gardener and fruit tree grower and spent 2 years living right next to a huge colony further down river. I like to live and let live and tread lightly upon this earth. 

Funky Town

Robyn's cute little journal from round 6 of the Australian Art Journal Swap has been sitting on my desk just waiting for me to play.

I have been trying to remember what I dreamed of as a kid and I think it was living in a real community. 

My Mama had a really cool friend who homeschooled her kids and I had a girlfriend down the road with an exotic hippy extended family. I so wanted to live in that funky imagined utopia.

My page is created using home made stamps, acrylic paints, gel pens and posca paint pens.