Playing In Janie's Exotic journal.

Janie's Exotic arrived the other day and I was determined to get to it early this month, so I had thought about the spice markets and wonderful tiles and colours of Morocco as being about the most exotic thing I could imagine- however the lovely Lisa Jones already took Janie's journal to Morocco so the pondering continued.

Thinking back over my life - what have I done that is exotic, I mean I love gardening and herbs and trees and art and making compost-  There was that time the circus came to town and I raced down there as they were leaving to collect the elephant poo to make my most exotic compost heap ever!

Hmm - maybe not- there are already elephants in Janie's journal and the other images, well nothing exotic came to mind, however the kaffir lime tree and the lemongrass that eventually got that compost loved it. 

Oh well, I had some time to play today so bugger it I will just jump in and let it unfold.  

I started with a magenta oil pastel - that is pretty exotic, right?

and I scrawled the word exotic across the double page.

Looking around my desk I spied the stencil I used for Alice so I grabbed 2 warm and 2 cool 'exotic' colours. I love pink and orange together, it makes me think of Indian sari's and teal is very exotic, as well as my favourite colour, next I picked ultramarine.  I played with the stencil to cover the page and my word.

It was wonderfully vivid, but all those blank spaces! Grab another exotic stencil and some black paint and work in strips to cover some of those spaces and I am loving it.

 Then I scratched off the acrylic paint from the oil pastel to re-expose my word and outlined it in a white posca paint pen.  And in all of that exotic- maybe even chaotic background what would be more exotic than a calm white egret.  He looks like the page was built around him- pulling the whole thing together.

 So I went in without any idea of where I would end up simply following my impulses and intuition and I am very happy with how it turned out and it was lots of fun.

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