Stuff

When you connect with people you care about....you get the chance to share stories and compare notes.  You can vent if you need to and celebrate victories and accomplishments no matter how small.  And you almost always learn things and take away ideas and inspiration that can resonate with you for days...and days. That's what happened with Becky.  

It rained all day...this photo is 
from a couple days ago.

She and I spent quite a bit of time talking about our lives....past and present. We talked about our hopes and joys....and our worries and burdens.  

We both face challenges with our "stuff." We hang onto things we no longer need and collect too many things just because they have potential. And we both find ourselves making new piles from ones. Some of our "stuff" overlaps....and some is very different.....but our challenges are the same. And we are going to quietly support each other as we try and weed through our past and see what stuff will be part of our future. 

Shortly after I got home Becky sent me an article from  The New Yorker called"How to Practice" by Ann Patchett. Ann helped a friend clean out her father's house after he died.  She knew the house well because she had spent a lot of time there as she was growing up.  Kent went through several stages and phases in his life...and he kept everything. All of it had meaning.....to him.

I read the article and was quite moved....and now I am reading it again picking out nuggets of wisdom to record.  Writing it down will preserve the words that resonate with me...and give me the chance to practice my hand lettering. 

These are Ann's words as she began to participate in the purge.

There are lots of nuggets from this article that I'm going to write down....and some of them may find their way here on the blog in one form or another....others just in a notebook for me to revisit.

Ann goes on to write about how she and her husband declutter their own home....going through EVERYTHING as they pretended to move....but stayed in the same place.  "This was the practice: I was starting to get rid of my possessions, at least the useless ones, because possessions stood between me and death. They didn't protect me from death, but they created a barrier in my understanding, like layers of bubble wrap, so that instead of thinking about what was coming and the beauty of what was here now I was thinking about the piles of shiny trinkets I'd accumulated.  I had begun the journey of digging out." 

Edges

 Beautiful things can happen at the edges of melting. 

Today I experimented with a simple fused fabric square in the middle of the page....

and lettered a quote from Conscious Creativity, by Philippa Stanton around it. I do think it's an idea with promise. 

 I'm not sure if the coloring technique was the right choice to go with the fabric....something simpler would have been better. But that's why I experiment.  And I do really love what stitching adds to a page.

And....one more little watercolored alphabet experiment.  It's a page from a journal....and not watercolor paper so it didn't take the paint all that well.

The colors actually seemed a little flat...so I lightly covered them with colored pencil. Not quite sure it was my vision...but I'm having fun playing around. 

Maybe it needs some writing around the edges for interest....and more shading in the letters.

So before I posted this.....I wrote something around the edges. 

Yup...it's better.

Back To Mud

I've been doing a little hand lettering practice almost every day.  It doesn't matter what I write...because it's just for me. So I've been using versions of a passage from Broken for You, by Stephanie Kallos, a book I read many years ago that still resonates with me. I'll put a photo of the actual passage I've been using at the bottom of this post if anyone is interested.  

I am taking some liberties with the passage...changing or eliminating words here and there....but the idea of Wanda and her studio belongs to Stephanie Kallos. And I guarantee....there are errors. 

Here I used colored pencil again to fill in most of the negative spaces blending the colors as I went along. There's something visually soothing about blues and greens.....it looks like summer.

Then I switched to watercolor.  

I started with just three colors: blue yellow and pink....made some mud in the middle...and mixed all my own colors. The magic is in the mud.  These are old tubes of paint from Connie...and they seemed to be just fine.

I was reminded how rich hand mixed colors can be and how well they 

can all go together when they are mixed from each other.  It's good to get back to mud....and I need to remember to do it more often.

I actually stitched the black lines on the paper before I did the writing....you can only tell if you look closely.  I wrote out the quote in light pencil first and erased the lines after the black pen was good and dry.  I still made a mistake I had to fix. I think it's inevitable...so I'm embracing the imperfection.

Then I painted. I watercolored just the bottom half of each line...and after it was dry I went in with a damp brush and softened some of those lines creating almost an ombre effect going up in some places.  I think the white spaces at the top add a lot of interest.  

The rainbow joy part of me always wants to use the bright vivid colors.  But when I actually mix my own colors....I am reminded how beautiful and bright they can be while also being a bit muted.  And I love adding in the neutrals.

Wanda's way....is my way too.

The enormous bulletin board on the other side of my studio...the side of my room that hasn't really been organized and cleaned yet. I'll get there eventually.

Negative Space

It reached 40 degrees again today....so all the snow has fallen or melted off the trees and fences.  There's still a lot on the ground....but it's melting! When Paul and I were walking this morning....noticed that

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade " Great Expectations

And boy...was it windy today!

Here's a few photos I took yesterday....the day after the storm.

Now that I have a place for my hand lettering practice to land....I'm more motivated than ever.  One of my favorite techniques so far is filling in the negative space....and there are so many ways to do it.

I did this one late last evening....and since I was working on my lap...I used colored pencils to fill it in rather than watercolor.  I strung together random quotes....and tried to be so careful. But STILL....I left out a letter.  I spy where I had to squeeze in a "j"?  

I sewed it in opposite this watercolor page that was already in the book....and I'll be thinking about something for the middle....and to accent the watercolor page.  Maybe I'll shop my snippets!

When I started this book a couple years ago...the most important aspect of the book was that it was flexible.  You have to do a little maneuvering to get it under the presser foot....but so worth it.  Stitching changes everything!

This was actually one of my first handwriting spreads in this journal.....another experiment with Roseanne's artist tape.  I don't really like it...but I thought I would share it anyway.  I've painted on this artist tape with watercolor....so I wanted to try acrylic.  

I sliced up the tape on my cutting mat just like I did before. After I transferred it to the release paper I used this little circle stencil and a couple colors of fluid acrylics and a makeup sponge to make some dots.  Because the stencil was small I had to move the it around a lot so it was kind of messy....but I didn't mind that imperfect look.  In some places....I got a little messy on purpose.

I was pleased with the result...this was the perfect page for it in the journal alongside this gelli print.  

BUT......it looked the best at THIS point before I added the practice letting. But that's what practicing is all about.....not being afraid to make mistakes.

Don't love the spread.....in hindsight I should have stuck with just blues.

 But I'm trying to "embrace" who I am.  I don't always make the best decisions....I love color....I'm often a bit messy....and I don't always know when to stop.

A Journaler?

I found an art journal I started a few years ago....it's been missing in action since the permanent move.  I remember enjoying creating the bones of this book....but I'm really not a journaler.....never have been....and probably never will be.  I don't think.

I guess I'm a blogger....but that's even hard to say.  I'm a doer...and a noticer....and I just happen to write about what I do....or notice.

This blog is my journal of sorts....where I say what's on my mind....and where I celebrate or share something that I've made or experienced. The topics are random....and totally depend on what presents itself on any given day....what has brought me joy.

So I was excited when I found this journal....but was also reminded of the fact that I didn't know what to do with it next. 

I wrote about starting it back in 2020 in this post:  http://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2020/12/do-everything.html

What I enjoyed most was this process of transforming this store bought journal by ripping down the pages....and adding my own attachments.  I stitched in all kinds of things including a postcard, some of my boys' art, and my own experiments....and I loved the way some of them layered.  I liked altering the journal.....way more than the idea of writing in it...or arting in it.

As you know....I've been taking a hand lettering class called Love your Imperfect Lettering.  We're at the point where there is a 30 day challenge to practice the "imperfect lettering" styles and techniques we've learned....and I decided this journal is the perfect place to do the exercises.  It doesn't matter what I write or if I make mistakes....it's just for me.  

This was day one..."just write."  So I wrote the quote from the top of my blog.

Day two was completing the sentence I am a lover of: 

(I could have gone on and on....maybe I will on another page.)

I've kind of mixed up some of the next days.....playing with the prompts....and doing my own thing. I made some terrible mistakes on this page of Mary Oliver quotes....but the green gelli print snippet covered most of them up.  And I kind of like the look. 

These are random notes I found in a notebook.....things I heard in a podcast....or in a class....or things I need to remind myself. I write stuff down all the time...and it's everywhere. With hand lettering practice....it doesn't matter what you write....just write. If there's not room for the whole word....just carry it over to the next line. And I'm certain there are mistakes.

I'll share more as I go along with the lettering prompts.  AND.....I may reflect a bit more on this whole notion of figuring out what I am. I don't think I'm an art journaler.....

....or am I?

And...maybe it doesn't really matter what I am as long as I just do what brings me joy.

Practice

This project has been taking baby steps for a week or so.....but it finally grew up and became a card.

I used some of Roseanne's artists tape....and I'm trying to work on my hand lettering.  

Hand lettering will never be a strength for me....but I'm practicing.

I taped a few pieces of the tape to my cutting mat....and sliced them with curvy lines using my rotary cutter. You have to look closely....but the lines are there.

I pulled them up and attached them to a piece of release paper...and painted them with watercolor paints.  I just love how this tape takes the paint!

Then I taped some of them to a piece of mixed media cardstock....and did the lettering. I used felt tip markers to fill in some of the negative spaces.....and stitched it onto a card.

When I'm hand lettering....as opposed to handwriting I'm trying to think about each letter.  I misspell words or leave letters out all the time.  So when it really matters I have to write it out in light pencil first so I can edit....which I did for the card.  This piece, however...has a lot of mistakes because I didn't do it in pencil. But it's just practice.  I'm going to keep working on variations of this negative space painting.

Do you notice how I turned one crossed out misspelling on the left into a little  painted doodle?  And I'm strategically covering up some of the other problem areas.

Practice Practice Practice!

I've been taking the "Love your imperfect letters" with Wendy Solganik, also known as Willa Wanders. 

I've been working on an alphabet that can be my own....and it's a mixture of upper and lower case.  

And if I find a stip of paper....I write out an alphabet.

Practice practice practice!