The Philosopher Artist

I Love Camping! But not the Flies;-(

2011-07-23T23:07:00.001-06:00

We have gone camping a couple of times now and have enjoyed the time in the mountains. The big problem we have had this last time is flies. I really do not like them! The flies will land on my legs and cause me to itch and that makes me not so happy.

~This is the grotto that I love to camp at, very peaceful~

Our camping grotto that we had last time was taken by other campers. We had to pick a place up the canyon and unknown to us, a place where the herd of cows love to hang out. Yes, real cows, cowboy cows and what do cows leave behind? You got it, cow pies;-) What loves cow pies? Yep, flies! Buzzing and annoying flies. No worries though, because my lovely oldest daughter went down to Walmart and bought a cheap, but nice screened tent. After my youngest and his big sister put up the tent, I was (we) were happy campers once again. We left the trailer up the canyon to come home to take a shower and will be going back up tomorrow.

I did manage to finish a complete journal dedicated to my wild trips in the mountains the last time up the canyon. Got started on a new journal this time around and wrote a lot. There are times when I am in bed and want to jump up and start writing, but I do not. What I should have is a notebook by my bed, in my bag, the car, bathroom, and here and there...well everywhere I am there should be a notebook. That way I can write when the thoughts come to me. Write! Write! Write! Leave your thoughts for those you love! Create, go now and have fun!

Too Much Time Between Entries, My Bad!

2011-06-24T17:49:00.001-06:00

I am finally getting ready to go camping! However, my favorite campground (see photo) to go to is probably still covered in snow and/or too many people. What I really want to do is to go camping and where I go, as long as it is in the mountains, does not really matter. I will take my trailer, books, writing stuff, art stuff, dogs, bird, a child or two, husband, misc. camping gear and of course food and head to the canyon near my home.

The camping is rustic, but not too far from home, which means my husband can come and go to work and home (he likes to take a daily shower, not much for getting dirty;-) taking care of business. My trailer does have a potty, so camping would not be too rustic;-) The key is, we just want to go camping!

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer with your families and taking time to be creative or relaxing with a good book. If not, take the time to do something for yourself, it fills the creative well.

I will post more often. I know that I have made that promise before, but now that I am not working there is more time. In order for my writing to get better and read by more people, it is key that I write more. My goal is to write more, plain and simple, right? So, hold me to it and I will. Now go create!

Merry Christmas and Happy However You Celebrate to My Blog Friends!

2010-12-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

My Dad took us up Kolob Canyon and I was able to take some cool photos. (Note to self: Add more photographic trips in order to take artistic and fun photos to my New Year's Resolution list.)

I know that it has been a very long time between blog entries, and I am sorry for that. Many changes have taken place in my life that has taken me away from updating my blog. There really should be no excuses for slacking on keeping my Blog Friends updated. I will add keeping my blog updated more often to my New Year's Resolution list.

Now, back to what I have been doing. I believe that many of you know that I have gotten back with my Mom and Dad, and in doing such has helped me tremendously. We went down to S. Utah to visit them twice, once to see them after their long summer travels and another time was for Thanksgiving. Both times were fantastic.

My parents took us to Zion Lodge for Thanksgiving dinner and even though my lovely Mom tried to add some weight on me with all her fantastic baking, I lost weight. In fact, between working and watching what I eat, I have lost three pant sizes. Yeah!!!!!!!!!! Still have more to go, but I will get to the size I wish to be and shall be, (not going to add it to my resolution list because it may sabotage my path to a smaller me;-)

I know that this blog entry is short and I promise that I will be better at adding more in the future, plus more often. My wish for you all is that your Holidays are happy and filled with love. That your future in the new year is bright and filled with all that you and your families need.

With love, Rhonda (aka: The Philosopher Artist)

Now go create and be happy!

I Have Been a Busy Girl!!!

2010-08-29T19:05:00.000-06:00

Hi to all my blog friends,
I know that it has been a long time between posts, but a lot has been going on this summer.

First, we did manage to redo the trailer, not completely, but the floor, wall and the decor is really nice. There is just a few more decorations I want to do. They will have to wait. We got to go camping a couple of times and will be going the weekend after Labor Day.

Second, I am getting healthier by the day! In fact, I got a job outside of my home and it pays money;-) not much, but that is not the reason I took the job. I am a Classroom Instructor (teacher's aid) at our local charter school. My son went there last year and he really wanted me to be a substitute, but the instructor job came up and I went for it. They hired me before I got home to read my email. My son was so excited he did a little happy dance. I work about 34 hours a week and I drive there by myself. Many of you who have been following my blog know what a major deal all this is. The only sad part is, now I do not have much time for art. I will save my Sundays for art and perhaps Saturday, too.
I worked on my Partnership Artist Art Journal today and that was fun. Need to let it dry before sending it off to my partner in AZ.

Finally, the best part of the summer is getting back with my father and my mom after nearly 15 years of not speaking to them. It is a long soap opera story. Long story made short; I just thought that my dad did not want to have anything to do with me after marrying my mom (step-mom, she is now my adopted mom). I got to see them for a bit and hug my dad and mom, plus we talk every weekend (they are a retired traveling couple). Just that little bit of time with him (them) helped my health a great deal.

So, you see it has been a busy summer. Now fall is coming and then winter, but there is always time for love and art.

Now go create beauty!

(Top photo is of Mt. Timpanogos one of the highest peaks in Utah, over 13,000 ft above sea level. The campground is around 8 to 9000 ft. a very beautiful place to be. One of my favorite spots in Utah. I love Aspen Trees. In fact, I have several in our yard.
Bottom photo is of a blooming Iris in my backyard up against the fence. We had a cold spring that lasted into June and my tulips never really bloomed much.;-( maybe next year.)

My Trailer & Happy May Day!

2010-05-01T11:07:00.001-06:00

Happy May Day!
I am still working on my vintage trailer(it actually belongs to my hubby) and not doing much in the way of art. Perhaps working on my trailer is part of my art, because it is taking some imagination to figure out how to fix the problems and to update the decor. Yes?, No?, Maybe? Anyway, here are some photos showing some of the damage that can be done if you do not pay attention to water.
I have fixed the wall and will be adding white bead board over the walls, the outer walls. Hubby fixed the floor and we will put down some kind of tile. He has also fixed up the peeling paper off of the ceiling and will be priming that and the bathroom today. I am sewing covers for all of the cushions and making curtains. We also have to fix the potty because someone got into the trailer during the winter while the trailer was in storage and burnt a sanitary napkin and tossed it into the toilet and burned the bowl. It did not cause any holes but an ugly black burn mark with bubbles. In order to fix it we have to use a two part epoxy filler and a two part epoxy paint, which is a lot of work, but unless we find a new used (yuk!) toilet we have to do the work.
There is a bit of work to do on this 35 year old trailer but have you seen the prices of the new ones? Yikes! Besides that they just do not have any history or style, just blah, blah, blah, same ole stuff.
Well, today I am going to work on the cushions, since it is still storming outside. I hope to have them done soon. I will post some updated photos when we get done.
Once it is done I am going camping! Even if it snows;-)

Now you all have a happy and creative day!

Where Have I Been?

2010-04-28T17:14:00.000-06:00

It has been a long, long time since I last added a new post to my blog, my bad! Well, here goes my excuse as to why it has been too long. First, I got really sick, second, I got really busy and finally, I got really lazy. There that sums it up, now onto more important details.
I did do a few pages for my AJS class and some artist journal pages in my partnership journal, but other than that I have not done too much in the form of art. The obstacle in the way of my art, is that I have been dreaming of Spring and Summer, which means camping. Now that I am feeling better and have medication to control my panic attacks I want to go camping, but my trailer needs some work.
I also got the notion that I would like to spend a month in the mountains working on a book. Alone or semi-alone in the mountains away from the safety net of my home where there are neighbors to come to my rescue if I have a panic attack, which I have not had to do in three years. I want to be free to drive to different places and not be afraid. I want to be back to my ole self again.
My hubby and I fetched the trailer a couple of times from the place we store it at and began working on making it pretty. It was a dirty mess and had a bit a dry rot, but mostly the decor is tired looking. We have been working on it as often as the weather will allow, which in Utah is not very much and because our garage is up a steep driveway we have to work in the street. It will probably take us another few weeks to get it done. As long as it is done by the first of June I will be happy.
And that my friends is what I have been up to. Stay tuned for photos.

Now go create some magic!

The Rest of the Story: January 2010 Art Journal

2010-02-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

I have at last finished my January 2010 Art Journal. Yes, I know it is now February and the journal should have been done by the last day of January. I tried real hard to keep up with it, but life and other art projects got in the way. Okay, I take on too much and at the time it seems like I can get it all done, and yet somethings get pushed to the side and done later or perhaps never done. At least this project got done and it was a lot of fun doing it.
Some of the pages or prompts are not done in order and some of Milliande's prompts I did not do. My journal only contained sixteen pages, therefore I picked the prompts that fit or that I liked. It was fun watching her videos which you can see on YouTube. She is an amazing women and very talented!

Anyway, here are the rest of the pages I did in this journal. I hope you like them and that some bit inspires you to create. Have a fun and very creative day!

This is he back cover. Date finished: 2/8/10 [only eight days late;-)]

January 2010 Art Journal Project

2010-01-12T09:18:00.007-07:00

I have ventured into yet another project. Milliande of Milliande Art Community for Women has started an art journal project in which we, those that wish to join in on the fun, will do a daily entry (with prompts) into our art journal for January. It is to start the year off with art. You can read more about it here and watch Milliande's fun videos of her doing her pages. It has been a challenge, but a exciting one to say the least. I am a day or two behind but that is okay, because there are to be no worries in this project. Anyway, here are photos of the pages I have done so far.

First and Second day: I made the Journal, which is a Teesha Moore 16 page journal made out of a 22"x30" piece of watercolor paper. It is a fun and easy way to make a journal. After I got the journal together I pre-painted all the pages using artist's acrylics in blue, red, green and some black to make the pages different shades of purple. Once the paint was dry I created the cover. There is a whole bunch of stuff going on in this layout, stamps, ink, embossing powder, collage, stickers....and so on.

Third day: We were to add a large circle to our layout. I took photos with my cell phone camera while I was outside having coffee and reading. The photo on this page is of the sun and printed with my new Polaroid Pogo printer. I added a bit of white on the first few days work over the dark purple. The star is cut from a Christmas card and has glitter on it but the scanner does not pick up that very well.

Fourth day: This is a layout using a Pogo print of my cup of coffee. The challenge for that day was to add a checkerboard pattern to the layout. I cut a square from a styrofoam meat tray and then used silver metallic paint on the stamp. The stamp was used around the edges of the fourth, fifth and sixth day pages as well.

Fifth day: The assignment was to add a piece of old calendar or journal page. I just made a new journal page and wrote a bit about my day then I did some collage work on the page.
Sixth day: Draw a tree was the task of the day. I drew three winter trees using pastel pencils. It took me a couple of days to finish this page because I wanted to find a quote from Thoreau's Walden. I just knew there would be a good quote in one of his chapters based in the winter. Here is the kicker. I did not just want to read the chapters, I wanted to read them while I sat outside. I live in Utah, Northern Utah where the high for those days that I sat outside was only 29 degrees. On one of the days there was a slight breeze, very slight but enough to make that 29 degrees feel a lot colder and because we live on the bench of a mountain there is still snow in our yard. At least the sun was not blocked by clouds like it usually is. Despite the cold though, I did manage to find my quote: Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. I wrote the quote on a piece of plastic, added a bit of gold beads and then used my heating tool to shrink the plastic a little. The page also has some vanilla inked 'snowflakes' with clear embossing done on them. The snowflake stamp was made out of a cork from a wine bottle (thank you, Gretchen;-).

Seventh day: Add a smile to your page. Well, I added three cute little smiles to my page. The photos are of my youngest son and my two grandsons and their funny little smiles;-)

Eighth day: Journal about our word or phrase for the year. I want to be creative every day, not just in art but in my writing as well. Thus far I have been doing very well at creating art and writing daily. Of course, it is only day twelve of the new year, but they say it only takes a few weeks to create a habit. If I continue at this rate my Create Daily creed will be a habit. Not just an "Ah, do I have to do it again!?" type habit, but a habit that I enjoy and I do enjoy it.

Well, that is all the days I have scanned into the computer. There will be more soon, I promise! For now, I wish that you all have a word or a phrase that will carry you through this year and perhaps beyond and that it is a joy.

Now go create something!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

I hope your first day of the new year is going great and that the year 2010 is a very creative and fun filled year. The above photo is for one of my Creative Lettering assignments done in metallic pens, which do not show up well when scanning.

This is the time of year when many people reflect on the previous year and make resolutions for the new year. My main goal (I prefer the word goal to resolution, not sure why, just do;-) this year is to get back behind the wheel of a car, in our case a Tahoe, and drive to various places to create. I stopped driving a few years ago because of my illness, but that is getting under control, which will make it easier for me to drive. I will start with short trips and then work my way up. That way my anxiety does not have a chance to flare up. If I watch what I eat, keeping soy and certain wheat products then my shaky problem does not occur too much. Baby steps!

Other goals are to continue to be creative in my art and writing and I would like to get up each morning and get ready as if I was going out of the house to work, only I travel to my art/office studio to work (play;-). Another activity I need to get better at is doing my job for the doctor. At least once or twice a week should be enough to get his stuff done.

For now that is all the goals I am going to make. As time goes on this year I may or may not add more, but I will let you all know if I come up with more.

Now go be creative and have a load of fun doing it!

Merry Day After Christmas!

2009-12-26T15:06:00.001-07:00

I hope that you all had a fantastic and loved filled Christmas as I did. It was a low key event but fun all the same. Today, I am playing with new toys and getting caught up on some scanning a blogging.

I can now show you the ornaments that I made for my family and the Wichtel exchange. It took two different designs, because I could not find the Mints box I had used on the Wichtel ornament. I had to go with the Altoid Smalls container and that meant I had to redesign the front of the ornament. All in all they came out fantastic. It took a lot of work but the giving of them far out weighed the work. I also made two cute Domino Guy ornaments for my two younger sons (they are the bottom photo).

This photo (top) is of the outside of the tin, the little card I made and also the outside of the box I made, yes I made my own boxes.

The A. Smalls are a bit smaller than the Mints tin, which meant I had to make my elements smaller. I used small photos of a lady with child on the front and Santa on the inside and various other fun bits. I also used a small photo on the inside of the card with our Christmas wishes. The card and boxes were made from the same cardstock I used on the ornament.

I made patterns for the papers that I had to cut out. First, I made the angels which is a photo of the paperclip angels I found online. Not sure where the maker of these angels found those strange paper clips to make their angels. When I had gone to the store the week before I had bought some red wire not really knowing what I was going to make with it, that is until I saw the paperclip angels. All I did was make the photo the size I wanted the angels to be and then put small nails at turning points and bent the wire around them. Oh, I used the back of one of my mini cutting mats to nail onto. It turned out great, real easy to do.

After making the angels I realized that they needed a home to hang out in. Well, as a "junk" collector I searched my treasure boxes to find the right home and that is when I thought about using the Mints tin. A little black paint and then a bit of silver paint and a bunch of this and that and viola! a glorious home for an angel.

These two cute little guys are the ornaments I made for my two sons. I used small wooden Dominoes and Scrabble pieces plus some of my treasure bits. The dots on these little guys bodies are the ages of my two sons. The 'head' is their initials, L for Liam and E for Erick. I need to make a third guy for my 23 year old son, Darin, which I will do soon. Anyway, it was a blast creating these little domino guys. I was in my art studio laughing while I was making them, which I am sure my family thought that I had once again lost my mind, or maybe they just think that I am always a bit crazy;-)

Look What I Got in the Mail Today

2009-12-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

On Milliande Art Community for Women under the sub-group The Lucky Ladies, some members joined in on a Wichtel Christmas tree ornament exchange. A Wichtel is a secret Santa type activity where names are exchange and that person is to send their person a gift, in this case a homemade ornament. I got a beautiful lady in Henderson NV and made her a nice ornament. Though I would love to show you the ornament I made it is going to have to wait until after Christmas. This is because I made more and will be giving those to my daughters and they sometimes read my blog. I will post the photos of those ornaments after Christmas.
I got my Wichtel ornament today in the mail. It was a complete surprise because I had forgotten that I was to get one. My ornament came from Canada and I love it. It is the domino doll pictured here. I do not know how this wonderful lady who made this ornament knew that this beautiful piece of art would fit my style. It is perfectly me! I am not going to put it away after Christmas because it is way too cool for that. It will hang on the wall in my studio so that I can be reminded of how wonderful it is to have artist friends from all over the world.
If the Lucky Ladies do this again next year I am sure going to join in on the fun.
Happy Holidays to all!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

2009-12-14T08:43:00.001-07:00

There are times of the year in which many people become over loaded with what needs to be done and this month holds the biggest event in most peoples lives, Christmas. I have tried over the years to not get bogged down in the "to dos" of the holiday season. For the most part I have succeeded. My children have learned only to ask for gifts or a gift that is around a hundred dollars, not counting stocking stuffers. I really only have two younger boys to buy for because my older children are adults and I try and make them something cool.

The other people I make things for are neighbors, only a select few, five to be exact. What is important is the act of making the gift with those whom you have in mind to give to. I enjoy the process of coming up with a nice thoughtful small gift for my neighbors who are there for me if and/or when I need them. Last year it was a cool Christmas card book made out of a paperback (you can see it on my Flickr page, the link is on the right side of blog). It took a bit of time to make and because of my Fibromyalgia I was in a lot of pain, but it was worth the effort because those special neighbors loved the card.

Today and the rest of the week I am working on this years gift for neighbors and children. I have my pain under control so there will be even more joy in the making. Once the season is over I will post photos of the gifts I made. I pray that your holiday season is full of fun, family and friends and that you can leave the stress out of it. Enjoy the season!

Now about these two photos. These are the work I did for my online Creative Lettering class. We were to pick a bit of a song to use over wavy lines that were to be left in the final piece. The top piece is part of the song Kodachrome by Simon and Garfunkel and the second piece is a couple of quotes that I like. I loved writing on black paper. Some time this year I am going to make an all black papered journal and use cool pens to draw and write in. I have a sort of black journal started now but it is a place I put my Haikus and poetry in. I want and all black journal to draw in. But that is going to have to be put on my "to do" list for next year, for now I am off to work on my Christmas gifts.

Have a great and very creative day!

Teesha Moore Style

2009-12-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Happy first of December!

Yesterday I finished a collage in the style of Teesha Moore and boy was it fun. This style of collage work takes a bit of time, but the results are fun. I do not think that I will attempt another full collage in this style, but I will probably end of using some of its elements.
I love looking at other artists work because it inspires me to keep creating. So many artists have found their "voice" in certain forms of art. I know what my photographer's voice is, however I am still searching my style in my other art forms. It may take me a bit of time to find it, that is okay because searching for it is half the fun.

What I am planning on doing for this month is to create some gifts for family and friends. This time of year is always tight when it comes to money so I make gifts. I believe that my neighbors love their hand created gifts as do my family members. I do not make everyone in my family something, it is usually my two adult daughters. I will not tell you what the gifts will be because they read my blog from time to time. It is hard to make gifts for my boys, but at the same time it is easy to buy them what they want if we have the money. Creating something for others is always a fun and exciting time for me and I look forward to creating this years gifts. I will post them after Christmas for y'all to see. In the mean time have fun with your creating and Happy Holidays!

If Only I Could Get Back in the Habit ;-)

2009-11-28T11:37:00.001-07:00

I plan on getting back in the habit of posting on my blog. Lately, I have been really bad about putting my creations up on here and that is making me feel crazy. From now on I promise to post at least once or twice a week, even if I do not have any work to show. Most of the time I have work to show and want to share it with my followers or those who happen to stop by. I promise!!!

I am still working through the lessons for my online art class and I also joined another art class that is learning how to make our lettering more creative. Being more creative with my lettering is something I needed to work on and this class is helping me to realize that goal. One of the main bits of information I have learned is that I must draw a light guideline with pencil in order to keep my lettering going in the direction I want it to go. My hand still shakes at times and the lines help me to keep on track, so to speak. The other bonus is getting to use different kinds of pens. I love using colorful pens when working with my lettering. My favorite is pens that are made for children, like Crayola markers and glitter pens. Really fun and because they are not expensive to buy I can enjoy using them.

These two pages are from lesson two in which we were to draw a guideline and then write a quote on it. One we were to erase the line and the other incorporate the line into the design. The Durrant quote is my line left in layout. The line erased layout is very bright and a lot going on in the design. I am still having a bit of trouble getting my letters to be equal in size, but at least I followed the line;-) I cannot wait for this weeks Creative Lettering class assignment. Not sure what she will have us do. All I know is that it will probably be fun.

I will add my other art class completed lessons this week, but for now I just wanted to get some images and words up on my blog and to put out there in the cyber world that I plan on doing a better job at posting to my blog.

Have a fun and very creative day!

It Has Been Too Long!

2009-10-31T11:21:00.006-06:00

What Have I Been Doing? Well, for one thing I have been neglecting my blog. It has been too long between posts, I am truly sorry for that. I promise not to go so long between posts.

Now as to what I have been up to for the last couple of months. All the normal mom/teacher/wife stuff and my new job as bill collector for my doctor, which has taken some time to sort out the files of who owes what. As far as my art goes I joined another class on the Yahoo group Artists of the Round Table. The book we are following this time is Artists' Journals and Sketchbooks by Lynne Perrella. We are on lesson 4 now which is to create ATC cards that are journal prompts. I will be working on them today and/or tomorrow, but for now I will share some of my completed lesson projects. There will be a lot of photos to look at because of the amount of work I have done lately. Just wanted to warn you. I hope you enjoy them.

Lesson 1: We had to create a journal. I made mine out of black poster board and other various materials. The baby journal is a piece of embossed cardstock with various papers in it. It was fun creating these two journals.

Lesson 2: Take one image and do a different treatment eight times. The first image is the one I used and instead of photocopying the image I used my inkjet. One must always remember to use fixative on inkjet images otherwise the ink will run! I learned that lesson on the version that is on silver. I had forgotten to use fixative and when I glued the image down it made the ink turn green. I pulled off the image from the background and used a marker to add more green. Lesson learned! Some of the images I tweaked in Print Shop Pro X instead of straight printing. You know me I am a computer artist as well as all the other types, so I had to change the image a bit.

Lesson 3: We had to search through Perrella's book and find a page layout that we really liked and create our own version of it. I chose the page in which an artist made a journal just for her Haiku and poetry. I began the project by finding an image in a magazine and then writing a Haiku for it. After writing the Haiku I did the page similar to the inspiration piece in the book. Lots of stamping and inking went on. I used a piece of cardboard as the background and that is why it soaked up the ink even though I had painted the board first with a brown glaze. Oh well, it was a lot of fun creating the page. The page fits in the middle part of the journal I made (see above) and a bit of the page sticks out. The next pages I make outside of the journal will need to be on thinner paper, otherwise they will not all fit. I plan on putting some kind of fiber on the upper edge and not in the same place as the Haiku page. I think it will look cool with the many strings and such hanging out the top.

Well, now you know about some of the activities I have been doing the last little while, okay, long while. I will add my ATCs to my blog ASAP. I hope your days are creative, fun and full of joy!

Sunday Afternoon Creations

2009-08-30T19:02:00.008-06:00

I have been taking a break from drawing for quite some time now and I miss it. Today my hubby took the boys to the movies and I was left home alone (well, not completely alone, I had my animal babies with me) and it was a day of good health, so I did some creating.

I turned the music up and got busy having some creative fun. The first creation was an experiment on making clear embossing powder crack. I learned the trick the other day at a friends house. She has card making classes once a month and it is always fun. Apparently she was going to do the crackle technique with some other stuff, I cannot remember what it was. She called around to the various craft stores but no one had it. However, one of the stores a store employee told her that the technique would work with several layers of clear embossing powder. We tried it and it worked out just great. It does not crack as much as the other stuff but still it did crack. (I will give directions at the end of this post). I was so excited about the technique, I just had to try it again. I used a bit of watercolor paper and made it almost the size of an ATC. It worked so well that I now have a new technique to try in my art journals and other works of art. The best part of my day with friends is being out of the house and creating with like minded and fun women. We were of different ages, two grandmothers (me being one of them, young grandmas of course;-) and two young mothers. We got to chat and create, a great day!

The other piece of art work I did today was a colored pencil ATC drawing of a rose. I had taken several very gorgeous photos of my neighbors beautiful roses a few weeks ago and decided to draw some of them. This red rose is my favorite photo (I will put the original on my nature blog). The colors that the camera capture were wild red and very bright. I did not have all the right pencils but enough to do a red rose. This drawing did not come out the same as the original, which is okay with me. I used another piece of the same watercolor paper as I did with the crackle piece above. It is roughly the size of an ATC, close enough for me. After I finished the drawing I antiqued the edges with a bit of black ink. It took layers and layers to get the rose to where I could say that it was done. In order to do any more of the roses that I took photos of I will need to buy more pencils. I did like drawing on the watercolor paper and will probably do a series of these beauties on the same paper and similar torn edges. So much fun, so few pencils! ;-)

I loved having my day alone and not freaking out because I was alone (taking a Valium always helps;-) No excuses anymore, I will create without pain or through the pain, which ever I will not let it get to me. Create, Create, Create!!! I will use the gifts that the Lord has given me. I hope you can, too! Have fun.....

(The technique for the crackle process is to do your stamping or what have you then use Versamark clear ink and clear embossing powder. Do the heating as usual and then let cool. Repeat the process at least four times. After it is done put the piece in the freezer and leave it there for a bit. Take it out and bend it the way you want the cracks to go. I had to put the piece back into the freezer several times to get it to crack. After I was happy with it I used black ink to antique it. It turned out rather well. Next time I may do a couple more layers and/or try my gold embossing powder with some of the clear. It is all good, because it is more play time for me.)

My "The Decorated Page" Workshop Lesson 6 (final lesson;-<)

2009-08-15T13:46:00.008-06:00

Well, I think that I am done with the workshop I have been involved in. It has been fun coming up with page elements to fit certain applications and layouts. The hardest application for me was 'changing forms'. It just took a bit of thinking to come up with some design that fit both the theme of my art journal and the application. The final page is a story about me getting my driver's license. A road with trees and then writing. I used my brayer to make the road and dauber ink stamps for the trees. Getting the yellow for the divider line on the road was difficult because it did not show up well. I ended up using a glitter pen. The irony of the story is that I loved driving and up until four years ago I drove everywhere we went. Now I am driven around because of my illness, which by the way is getting much better. Soon, I hope, I will be able to drive more and more. I miss getting up and going when ever I wanted to. In due time I will be off again.

The next layout and application was Borders and Storytelling. It is the story of my birth as well as that of my twin brother. I did an earlier page of me as a baby, which is just on the other side of my twin's page. I do not have a baby photo of him, only his high school graduation photo. Which shocked me when I found it because my 23 year old son looks just like my brother. It is very amazing how much my two older boys look like my brothers. My 15 year old son looks like my little brother. Scary! but good;-)

The final page is a map of the places I have lived up until now (and for a good while). I really do not like to move, but I do like seeing and living in new places. This is why I wish to travel in a motor home around the the USA and work as an on the road artist, writer and such. I need to get healthy first and that means it will be a couple of years before this can happen. I can dream though and work on getting better. Practice my art and writing and enjoy being where I am, the here and now.

I will miss working on these workshops but will continue with my art journal autobiography. There is many more pages to fill in this journal and probably many more journals to fill. I will post my pages as I get them done. Now go create!!! ;-)

My "The Decorated Page" Workshop Lesson 5

2009-08-06T16:16:00.007-06:00

I have done three more layouts for my Decorated Page workshop for the Yahoo group-Artists of the Round Table. This workshop has been a blast and using the theme of an autobiography has made making the pages sentimental. As I go along not all the memories of my childhood are good, some are even scary to remember, but I have to do it. This is a book that I want my children and their children and so forth to enjoy, even if they know of the horrible things that have happened to me. AT this point I am not sure I will make pages for those memories. I might just write about them and I may or may not leave them in the open. One of the exercises of this workshop was to insert an envelope as a page, so I may put the stories in there and leave it up to the reader to decide as to whether or not he/she wants to read them.

The layout of the two little motorcycles are done using the Diagonal and Springboard layout. The point of the springboard is to put objects that will remind you of a story. On the blank pages after this layout I will write the story of me and these two motorcycles. I loved these bikes a lot and they are the part of my childhood that bring me great joy.

The bookshelf page is done using the Columns and Information Gathering layout. I used a gold pen but the scanner cannot translate it. The writing is some of the authors I have read. The photos of the books are the ones I enjoy reading over and over except for Jasper Fforde. I have only read his books once through, but I enjoy reading the books in his series. I love to read, among other things and this love has thankfully passed onto my children (hubby loves to read also). I was privileged to teach two of them how to read (wish I had started teaching my children at home when the oldest was starting school) and that is one of my favorite accomplishments.

The final page here is actually the next to the last page in my book. I am saving the last page for my 50th birthday, which is next May. The page layout is using Organic Shapes and Decision Making. Once again the scanner did not pick up much of the shiny pink flowers. The paper I used was a 12x12 scrapbook piece that I thought was very pretty. I did antique it a bit in order to fit the theme of the page. I love antiquing paper because bright whites bother me. My fingers are still burgundy from the inking I did on the background. I should have scanned my fingers, they were a big mess. Hey, they looked like artist's hand;-)

I only have three more layouts to do (I think) for this workshop, but many more pages planned for this art journal. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Have a happy and creative day!

The Weekly Challenge - Stamps

2009-07-30T10:51:00.004-06:00

The Weekly Challenge - Stamps is for another artist's Yahoo Group I am on called: Blissfully_Art_Journaling. There are several challenges given often and this one sounded fun.

We were to do an entire page using only rubber stamps and ink. I also used embossing powder in gold, which may not show up on the scan I did. I also used my children's alphabet stamps to stamp out the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. I could not use his full name because of two reasons; one not enough room and two there was one letter missing from the alphabet stamps and that was the letter D. A bunch of other stamps were used and several different inks.

Not perfect, but a good challenge to do. Limiting the materials or tools is a good way to get the brain thinking of different ways to use them. Sometimes when we have too many tools or too much material to use we get lost and cannot focus on what it is we want our page to say. Perhaps I will do this again and see what comes out of it.

Have a fun and creative day!

My "The Decorated Page" Workshop Lesson 4 (so far)

2009-07-28T12:32:00.008-06:00

I am a member of "Artist's of the Round Table" Yahoo group, which is another group of artists. The group offers free lessons (you have to buy the materials and/or the books used) and I joined the group that is working its way through the book, "The Decorated Page" by Gwen Diehn. It has been a fun way to create an art journal.

The theme of my art journal is an autobiography of my life. Okay, it will not cover all of my life but a good amount. It sure is eye opening reflecting back on one's life and fun at the same time. This book is another acknowledgement of my wonderful 49 years. I might have it done by the time I turn 50, which is almost a year away.

The fun part is finding the material to use on the pages. I gathered up the few photos I have of me and will use copies of them on the pages. The other great adventure I had was going through postcards at our local antique shop. I found a lot of groovy postcards and a couple of magazines from way back when. I went with my 26 yo dd, who adores antiques (so, I guess she adores me;-) and while I sat searching through boxes of postcards she rambled, very slowly, through the rest of the shop. Great fun!

I did not post my other lessons because I just did not think about posting them on my blog, my bad! What I did in those lessons will be seen for the most part in the upcoming pages I do finish. For now, I hope you enjoy these pages.

Have a fun and very creative day!

The space postcard was the coolest one I found. It is very thick and I wanted to be able to read the senders message to his son or daughter (Kitt is the name) on the back, so I used a springy thingy to hold it to the page. It can be removed in order to read what I put on the page.

This is the front cover of the book and yes that is me when I was 14 or 15 cleaning the BBQ grill.

These are the homes I lived in when I was a kid until we moved to ?, you will have to wait to see where we moved;-)

In order to get the photos of the homes I had to use my digital SLR camera to take a picture of the computer screen. The maps I got from Google Earth. My scanner is not big enough to scan a two page spread so I copied and pasted, etc., in Corel Paint. It turned out okay. The one side is slightly off so San Fransisco has an extra letter, but that is okay.
Now, I am off to work on more pages. I hope you enjoyed these.

What Have You Read?

2009-07-26T09:45:00.003-06:00

I got the following list from another blogger and thought I would go through and check to see how many I have read. There are many books on this list that I plan on reading and a few that I will not, namely that Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. I saw the movie and that was enough for me.

So how many books on this list have you read?

The BBC says most people will only read 6 of these 100 Books.Instructions:Cut and Copy the list into your notes... then...1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. (remove other persons X's)2) Tally your total at the bottom.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte XX
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare XX
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy X
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres X
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne XX
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (I have read 3 other books of his)
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom X
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad XX
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare XXXXX
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Total: 31 (I have reads hundreds of other books not even listed. I marked more than one X on some because that is how many times I have read them.)

EDM #230 Draw a Map

2009-07-14T12:57:00.006-06:00

It has been awhile since I have drawn an EDM challenge. Drawing a map sounded fun and yet I had a hard time wondering what place I should draw a map of. It has been a long time since I have gone anywhere exciting. In fact, I really only go to the Doctor's office, maybe Walmart or on a rare occasion to Salt Lake City to an art store or a book store. Mostly I stay home for weeks at a time. Sounds boring, but when you suffer from anxiety going places is a chore. I am getting better at getting out of the house. I have the right medication now and so it is a little easier. However, I do not like to shop and I do not drive, therefore I only go to a few places and neighbors. When I thought about this it dawned on me that I should draw a map of my house.
I did not want to just draw a simple map of my home because that would be boring, so I drew a map of my home and how I travel about it daily.
With colored Sharpies in hand I drew my house and the stuff in it (to a point;-). Once I laid that out I drew the steps I take through out the day. (click on the photo to enlarge it)
Wow! I did not know that I wandered around the house so much every day, but I do.
Now about my drawing and why it does not look exactly like my house. Well, honestly I do not know why it came out so not like my house. The rooms are in the right places, but the hallway is straight. Oh well, I guess that would be what they call artistic license;-)
I drew a pencil layout of my house the way it really is, only the drawing is way off scale, but you get the general idea as to how the house is suppose to look. I hope you enjoyed My Daily Walk.

Have a very Happy and Creative day!

Love This Book and the Things it Taught Me!

2009-06-18T14:26:00.004-06:00

I finished reading Danny Gregory's book, "An Illustrated Life" yesterday and I enjoyed every page. The big bit of wisdom I got from his book is that no matter your journal style you should just focus on working in your journal/sketchbook. Many of the artists in his book have been working in their sketchbooks for many years, while others have just started. Another bit of information I gained is that these sketchbooks to most of the artists are treasures and that they would run through fire to protect them.

I loved seeing the art from these featured artist. Some made me laugh and others brought tears to my eyes. Danny's book is one of those art books that belongs on your bookshelf with all the other art books. Not to just sit there and collect dust but to be taken down read and to be inspired by the treasures inside. If you must check it out at your local library do so often. It is worth the effort.

I begun this sketch the day I got Danny's book and finished it the same day I finished reading his book. What caused the subject of this page is this. When I first receive books I will skim the pages look at the contents, the index, Artist bio and then the catalog information. I like knowing when an author is born. Most modern books have done away with listing the birth year of the author but Danny's book does. In the shipment of books I had also received another art book and finished doing all my scanning of that book and then started on Danny's. Both books listed the birth year of the author, the other book the author was born in 1943, and Danny's says that he was born in 1960. I was shocked to see that he was born the same year I was. Then it sunk in, "he was born in the same year as I was, but he has books published and is successful!" and I thought, "what have I done?" "What do I have to show for my 49 years?" That is when I got the idea to make a page, in the fashion of a mind map to see if I had actually done anything important in my years.
Guess what? I have done extraordinary things in my wonderful 49 years and this journal page shows nearly all that I have done. Not all because the page is only so big, but most of the major activities and accomplishments. I have done cool things and I plan on doing more cool things. Thank you, Danny for a wonderful book and the inspiration I got from it, oh, and Happy Birthday!

Kabob Spine Handmade Book

2009-06-08T11:16:00.006-06:00

I have finally finished a project that was started a month ago. I made a book out of a heavy drawing cardstock type paper and Kabob skewers. Not quite sure what the name of this spine is but it was a dickens trying to get it to work. Of course it would have been easier if I had found instructions on the internet for it instead of going on memory. What is the fun in reading instructions;-)
After I finally got it together I painted and added pattern paper and ephemera. Once that was done I used this little book as my writing journal for nine days off and on.

Front cover

First page spread

Second page: There is a quote under the film.

Third page: I started writing around the edge.

Fourth page: My bird, Chickie chewed on my book, bottom of right side. Silly bird!

Fifth page: Made transfers with packing tape.

Sixth page: Made stamps out of wine bottle corks.

Seventh page: Kids thought Mom was silly for gluing chocolate wrappers in book. Hey! What ever is not nailed down I might use it in an art project;-)

Eighth page

Ninth page: I got a new purple Sharpie pen to write with.

Back cover

Well that is all of the pages that this fun little book contains. I hope to do another one in the future, perhaps I will read the instructions, or not!

Celebration! Happy 1st Birthday!

2009-05-12T11:38:00.004-06:00

My blog is 1 year old today and I have finished my website, so I want to celebrate by giving away a gift. Please enter a comment in order to have your name put into a hat. I will have my son draw a name this Saturday, May 16. The winner will receive a 5x7 matted photo chosen from the photography section on my website. The winner will pick the photo. Good Luck to you all!

I cannot believe it has been a year already. My blog got off to a slow start, but after I joined a fantastic group of artists (Everyday Matters Yahoo group) my blog began to take on a shape that I am proud of. I have been working more at my art and that makes me happy.

I have not drawn much lately but I have been working on taking more photos. Another activity I have been working hard at is getting my website built and uploaded. It is finally done and online! I will tweak it and add more art work to it, but for now it is done. You can see it at:

http://www.thephilosopherartist.com/

Now I am off to work on more portraits, photography and writing. Oh, and I am back to schooling my boys. My 9 yo ds has just started year 4 and so that takes a bit of time, but well worth it.

Do not forget to leave a comment so you can be entered in the drawing.

Working on the Computer

2009-04-22T19:51:00.011-06:00

I have been playing around on the computer all week. Scanning in photos of my daughter that I took of her a few years ago. She loves to wear vintage clothes and posing for the camera. After scanning the negatives I had to do some touch ups. It is hard to have a clean environment when one has animals and kids in the house. No matter how hard I tried there was always dust spots on the photos. However, we live in a time where photo programs have a cloning tool. I love the cloning tool. All the photos turned out pretty great and what matters is that my daughter is happy with them.

My other computer project was to create more kaleidoscope pictures with my tulip photos. These are the photos that were taken last year because the tulips in our yard have just budded out and will be blooming soon. I will be out there taking their little photos. Not sure if I will do anymore kaleidoscopes because I created over thirteen this week. They did turn out really well and were quite fun to do. Many of them contained hearts which was strange or perhaps part of the kaleidoscope effect. I uploaded them to Walmart Photo 1hr and then pasted them in my journal.

My journal has gone through another phase. It now contains more than just drawing. To be honest I am secretly trying to fill it up so that I can say that I filled an art journal and then it will be okay for me to order a new fancy Moleskine or a Hand*Book journal. Anyway, I pasted the photos of my kaleidoscopes and copies of work I have done outside of the journal. After pasting it all in then I go back and explain what is going on in the photos plus my feelings about them. During the week when I journal I will write in the leftover areas of the page. I will have to scan a page or two so that you can see what I am talking about.

I made this page for an Artist Date challenge on Milliande's ning page. The page was also made it as a 'Photo of the Day', which was a nice surprise.

That is pretty much what I have been doing lately instead of drawing in my journal I am working/playing on the computer.

Tulip Kaleidoscope Project

2009-04-14T17:01:00.006-06:00

I have started a new Spring project using my photos of tulips and the kaleidoscope effect in Corel Paint Shop Pro X. The project began with the sub-group Artist Dates April challenges of Milliande's Creative Community for Women Artist*. The first two weeks we were given the challenge of creating a piece of art with the theme of flower/s. The white kaleidoscope is from a tulip photo I took last year and the red piece is from a photo of the bouquet of tulips my husband gave me for Easter. I had to use these photos because my tulips that are planted in my yard are not blooming yet (you can see their beginnings on my nature blog: http://thephilosopherartistsnaturejournal.blogspot.com/ )

I am looking forward to taking many more photos of the various colored tulips that grow in my yard. It has been a long time since I have seen them that I cannot remember all the colors they are. It is snowing today and it is a good thing the tulips are not up yet. I do love it when the tulips do bloom early and then we get snow which looks interesting up against the colors of tulips and other flowers.

After I take more photos I want to continue turning them into kaleidoscopes. The way the colors and patterns turn out intrigues me and it is a lot of fun manipulating the photos.

(*My white kaleidoscope was picked as a Featured Artwork on Milliande's site ;-) this sure helps keep that inner critic away)

Portrait Project Continued

2009-04-09T13:36:00.009-06:00

Okay, I reworked Auggie's portrait and while it is better than the first try, I am not satisfied with it (see below) . I went ahead and started a portrait of his big brother, Gabe. This final of Gabe is much better than the final of Auggie. I still have much to learn about doing eyes. The problem I have with these two portraits is that I did them using a pastel pencil on the rough side of the paper. That gave the drawings a strange texture up close but far away they are okay. The next portrait that I do will be on the smooth side and that may help with the eyes a bit. My goal is to really get my abilities of drawing portraits down so that I can do them for others and charge a fee. I know that I have much to learn, but having that goal helps me to continue on.
My little grandson, Auggie saw his portrait and said, "Hi, baby!" Now that is a critic I can live with;-)

(Final Auggie)

(First Auggie)

Encaustic Painting

2009-04-03T13:46:00.004-06:00

Hi all, I have been playing in my studio again;-) The other night as I was falling asleep I was thinking that it would be fun to do an encaustic painting using Crayola Crayons. I have always wanted to do this type of painting but the materials to do it are just too expensive. Besides, I always have crayons around that I am constantly stepping on or picking up and a bucket of crayons that have lost their own boxes. After five kids there are plenty of lonely crayons to experiment with.

I used a piece of watercolor paper about 9in x 12in, Crayola Crayons (the other cheaper brands did not work as well), and a small iron that was meant to be used in order to iron small parts of clothing such as collars (it looks like a wood burning iron only white and has a clover head on it).

What I learned from my little experiment? Well, as I have mentioned, the cheaper brand of crayons do not melt so well and that it was fun, fun, fun melting crayons. I know next time to put more crayon down before trying to make trees, or use dark paper under the wax and to add more white to the trees. I also learned not to turn the iron up too high because the crayons can smoke and to always save those broken pieces of crayon.

My boys wanted to try so next time I get the material out I will let them have a go at it. After I was done I asked them if they could think of any thing else I could use to make art with (I have asked them this before because I do altered art;-) They went screaming towards their playroom to protect those Legos that always seem to be on the floor and when I step on them they manage to hit on the worst part of the foot, the arch. Ouch!!! Hey, it would be cool to melt a whole bunch of them together to make a sculpture;-) (my oldest said that I could buy my own Mega Blocks and melt them;-)

Well, I am off to work on a portrait and to celebrate my 9 yo son's last day of Year 3!

My Newest ATC/ACEO Drawings

2009-03-31T18:47:00.008-06:00

I am so excited about working in this small form (2.5 in x 3.5 in) that I went online and found free photos to use. I know what you are going to say, "but, aren't you a photographer?" The answer is yes I am and I have a lot of photos to draw from but what happened was that I was not in the physical frame to go downstairs to my studio to find a photo to use (and the other part was that I was being lazy;-) My goal for this month is to organize my photos into groups of 'to draw' and 'to sell', etc.

I am enjoying being an artist again and seeing how my skills develop. Some day I wish to sell my art, but for now I am having fun creating it.

I created the horse, my first horse by the way, using graphite pencils in 2&3b. As I look at the horse I drew it seems a bit off. I think that it is the nose, it may be too short. Once again, practice makes perfect. (I downloaded the photos from this site: http://freeartisticphotos.com/?cat=3 )

I created the sunflower using Prismacolor colored pencils. For some reason the scan makes it look duller than the original. Both drawings were done on Bristol paper. (I got the flower photo from this site: http://freeartisticphotos.com/?cat=6 )

I am off to create another masterpiece ;-) and will of course share it here with all who stop by my little blog.

My Work for the Week & EDM 216

2009-03-29T16:00:00.016-06:00

I found another wonderful group of artists on the internet. It is a community of women artists run by the artist Milliande: http://milliande.ning.com/ (Sorry fellows it is just for women, do check the web for a guy artist only site) There are many talented women on this site and a lot of art to look at. On the site I found out that there are sub-groups to join, such as photography, groups from certain countries, and so forth. I joined the Milliande's Artist Dates. Each week she posts a challenge or activity to do and then post to the website. Others can then comment on your work if they wish.
I decided to do week one and four. Week one was to create a work that included a postage stamp and week four was a piece using the colors yellow and blue.
Wow! Once I got started I could not stop, because instead of drawing my EDM#216, "draw your inner critic" I created a collage of me overpowering that critic. My yellow and blue collage is one devoted to affirming my artist /person. In some ways the two collages are a set, even though I created the EDM piece after the yellow and blue collage.
I have them both up in my living room where I do most of my drawing so that I can be reminded of my artist self.

I AM AN ARTIST!!! I CAN HEAR MY MUSE!!! I AM DEAF to my inner critic.........

Journal Pages & EDM 215

2009-03-25T14:14:00.005-06:00

Spring came for a few days but now has left for who knows how long. One week we have warm sun and then the next we have cold and more snow. I am ready for spring to come and stay for awhile. In Utah the weather can change quickly. One of the sayings we have is "wait 5 min's. and the weather will change!" I have gone camping at the end of June and be caught in a snow storm and needing coats and the heater turned on. Okay, it was at an elevation of over 9000 ft. but still it is a crazy thing to be in a snow storm in summer.

This is my EDM 215 drawing, 'Draw your thumb'. It is actually my first drawing of my hand not sure what is wrong with the picture other than my wrist is too fat for the size of my hand. All in all I had fun drawing it. (I do have Reubenesque hands and body;-) more to love I suppose)

First ATC or ACEO

2009-03-23T17:09:00.007-06:00

This is my first ATC or ACEO project. It was made on bristol paper with a combination of inks, stamps, scrap paper and ribbon. The poem is a left over from a altered book of Emily Dickenson's poetry that I made for my daughter (you can see that book on my Flickr page.) The amount of time it took to make the ATC card was about 15 mins. I had to clear my art desk first and then cut the cards from the sheet of bristol paper. It was fun working on a small piece of paper and not having any expectations about it. I did not even hear my inner critic wake up. My Muse got there first and we had a fun time creating together.

It will be exciting to see what else I can do with these little canvases. I did a Google search of this art form and found some amazing pieces of art. It is crazy how much detail can be put on a 2.5 x 3.5 surface. You all that have yet to try making an ATC/ACEO should cut some paper up and have a go at it.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Journal Title Pages and That Annoying Critic

2009-03-22T10:54:00.011-06:00

On the EDM email list we had a discussion about beginning a new journal and how hard that was. Is it the blank page that scares us or is it our inner critic that is nagging us? I think it is that nagging critic telling us that we are not good enough to fill those beautiful empty pages. It is very difficult to quiet that critic and nearly all artists have one. Some artists are good at keeping that critic quiet and some cannot. At times my critic is yelling at me telling me that I am not good at all and that I should just give it up. I am getting better at letting my Muse help me to shut that critic up.

The first thing I do with a new journal is to create a title page. At times the title pages are very involved and at other times it is just simple writing. Some journals have two or more title pages. One at the beginning and then another in the middle. This happens when I change my mind or add a new direction of the journal. The top two middle layouts above are in one journal. I like doing fancy layouts using different media to create the page.

It is still difficult at times to start a new journal and I know that as soon as I buy my Moleskine (may have spelled that wrong;-) that critic is going to be yelling at me and telling me that I am no good and to leave that pretty new journal alone. I am going to yell back and just start drawing and writing in my Moly! Because by then I will have filled a drawing journal and my Muse will be helping me.

New Project

2009-03-11T12:46:00.004-06:00

I have noticed that many of the artists on EDM have their own challenges that they have set up for themselves. One is taking a photo everyday others are drawing certain items like lemons or doing fancy doodles. This to me sounds like an excellent idea. I started thinking about a personal artistic challenge today wondering what it is I would like to do a lot of. Then it came to me that I had already started a challenge a couple of weeks ago and that is to draw portraits from photographs.

The first photo I started with is one of my youngest grandson, August (or Auggie Doggie as I love to him, after the old cartoon of Auggie Doggie and Daddy Doggie;-) Anyway, the drawing is still in progress, because after working on getting the detail of the lips and eyes I realized that I needed an eraser that was pointed and small. I did not have one and the closest art supply store is 35 miles away and I did not want to go all that way for an eraser. I went online and ordered a bunch of Prismacolor pencils, paper, the pencil erasers and a couple of cloth portfolios that were on clearance. The shipping was less than $6 for over 7lbs of material. The only problem with ordering online is waiting for the shipment to come to my door. Hopefully the material will be here on Friday as the tracking information claims. Until then I can only work on the larger areas of the next portrait to do which is of my other grandson, Gabriel or Gabe as Nana calls him;-)

I will post the final projects as they get done. Now off to have fun I go! Have a creative day!!!

First Week of March

2009-03-07T15:24:00.002-07:00

Okay, I drew my challenges out of order, at least I got around to doing them. That is a good thing, right?

It was a weird week for me. I felt off for some reason, probably female reasons, still strange. I just did not have the energy to do any art and I really wanted to do art. One bright spot is that my 22 year old son is on his way home for a visit. He is in the Navy stationed in Virginia and this will be the only visit for six months. They are off to do another high seas adventure. I miss him when he is gone but he is doing well in the Navy which has been good for him.

Another good thing this week was that I got to order some art supplies from Utrecht.com and they will be here sometime this coming week. Yeah!!! One piece of art equipment I really need is an eraser that is shaped like a pencil so I can get into those tight areas on my drawings. I am still very much attached to my erasers. I just love to draw with pencil or pastel pencils and erase my mistakes or put highlights in. We all have our quirks and this eraser biz is one of mine.

This drawing is my Mirror Image challenge. I used the photo that I just uploaded to the right side of my blog. I had fun drawing this, trying to get the effect I wanted. Could have been better if I had that eraser pencil, but it is good enough. It only took about 40 minutes to do it. My 9 yo son, Liam asked how it is that I can draw so fast. I told him it comes with practice. Right my artist friends? Practice, Practice, Practice!!!

This journal entry is my draw a microwave oven entry to the challenge. So I did not draw the outside of the oven, but I did draw the most important part. It is called a magnetron and it (I think) makes the microwave oven be a microwave oven. Check out Wikipedia.com for some fascinating information on microwave ovens.

Finally, this was just me goofing around with my pastel pencil on a the day this week that I was at my strangest, a very gloomy day. Hormones I guess and weather to match. It helped to at least doodle in my book and talk about my new art materials I ordered.

Have a very creative and happy week, y'all!!!

Colored Pencil Drawings

2009-03-01T11:08:00.003-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if I am on the right track when it comes to my art. It makes me think, do all artists at some point in their career or development question their abilities? Is this questioning always a part of the artist's mind, is it what makes their art so intriguing to those followers of their works?

I am not sure about the answers to these questions. All I know is that creating art in some form or other seems to be in my blood. Just as I cannot do without my blood, I cannot do without being creative. Every day I feel as though I must create. Some days I draw, others days it may be that I want to paint, take photos, experiment on the computer or even writing a poem, a journal entry or what have you. What is at the core of it is that I ache to create, not a painful ache but a thrilling one. I go to bed at night thinking about what it is I wish to create the next day and on many days, more so now that my physical pain is under control, I go about working on that creation I dreamed of the night before. Of course, the first activity I do in the morning is schoolwork with the boys, but after that I start or continue working on an art project. Before my pain and jerky head was under control I only managed to get the schoolwork done. On rare days did I ever have enough energy and less pain did I do any art. This made me very depressed. Now my days are full enough to make me very tired and satisfied when my head hits the pillow. This makes me very happy!

About these two drawings:

I did the daisies this last week with Prismacolor colored pencils on black drawing paper. It took a bit of work getting the flowers to look bright. It was a lot of fun working on the drawing. I nearly used up a whole Pumpkin Orange pencil, mostly because the lead kept breaking. It made me nervous because to get another pencil I would have to go 35 miles to the nearest art store. Not that that would be a sad thing what would be sad is that I did not have the money to get other materials while there. What would be the point of only going for one pencil and nothing else? No point!

The second drawing was actually started several years ago and only finished this week. It was an experiment with tones of grey on black paper. The problem with the paper is that it was cardstock and therefore it is not pure black. All in all, I love the way the trees turned out. At the time I had started this drawing I had finished a drawing of Christ using tones of grey on blue paper, using the blue as the shadows and the pencils as the highlights. I remember this assignment as a trying one, because I was used to filling in the shadows and leaving the highlights the paper or a white pencil and this drawing was the opposite. Perhaps I will try this technique again. Create, Create, Create!!!

Work Done Last Week

2009-02-26T11:37:00.006-07:00

This is a bit late only because I had scanned all the pictures onto my laptop and then the power cord went out. I was a bit upset about that because I knew that replacement cords would be expensive, however a local computer repair shop was able to get me a new cord for about a third of the cost of the item if ordered from Dell computers. That lifted my spirits until I realized that my newly scanned pictures would have to be scanned again which meant that I would have to download the Epson scanner driver for Windows Vista. I never wanted to do this in the past because Vista was always messing up the programs. But I wanted to put my pictures on my blog so I needed to buckle down and get the driver and get the scanner all hooked up. To my surprise Vista did not have any problems with the driver and so now my scanner works on my desktop. The scanner is easier to get to when I need it than it was before. Now I am happy!

About my drawings:

The red flower drawing is done in colored pencil and is of a boquet of carnations.

This drawing of Chickie is done in fine tip markers which means that I cannot erase my mistakes. My drawing makes Chickie look like a vulture. Not a good likeness at all. I need more practice with ink.

The still life of fruit was drawn just before the Chickie picture and the problem with it is the banana is a bit off. If you follow the banana around the orange than it would prabably be growing out of the orange. Oh, well! Need more practice with composition and pin.

The drawing of the tulips my hubby gave my for Valentine's Day is much better, so see, practice does help.

Why did I draw a dagger, a needle and a pin? I do not know, I just did. What had happen was that one of the shows I was watching had a sword used in it. It looked cool and as I was watching I was thinking to myself, "self, do you think you could draw that sword?" "Well, yes I will give it a try. It looks like a fun subject for a drawing." So I drew it. Now as to the pin and needle? I cannot tell anything but that the images popped into my head and said, "draw us!" So I drew them and this is what I got. All in all it was fun. My boys loved the dagger, go figure!;->

I did finish another colored pencil drawing last week that I had started years ago. That drawing will be uploaded this weekend.

Now go create some art!!!

The Week We Have Had!

2009-02-22T12:44:00.006-07:00

Oh what a week we have had! I had scanned in all the drawings I had done this week to my laptop, but before I could put it on my blog the power cord burned out. This caused me to be mad because when I checked how much a new one is on the Dell website the cord was $69, holly cow! After searching the web to find a cheaper version I decided to call a local computer repair shop. It was a good call because they said that they could get me a new one for $28 which includes shipping. The bad part is that it was five minutes before they closed on a Saturday and that I would have to wait until Monday to order a new one and that it would take a week to get. After I realized that it would be a week before I could use the laptop and get to the scanned drawings, I would have to hooked the scanner to the desktop computer. I just did not want to do this because it runs on Windows Vista and I did not have the driver for the scanner to work on that operating system. Plus the scanner was down in the art studio and the computer was upstairs in the office. Okay, I was being lazy! To slove this problem I had my 15 year old son fetch the scanner and all the cords to it. Good thinking, isn't that the reason one has children, to fetch things? ;-> Once the scanner was upstairs I went online to Epson and found the driver and downloaded. To my surprise there was no problems getting the scanner to work on Windows Vista (not my favorite operating system, laptop has Windows XP, much easier to use, no tears!)

Now that it is working my only problem is rescanning all the art work from this past week. I will do that later, for now I scanned in the journal drawing I did of the mishaps of this week. Like I said it was a crazy messed up week. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

(Note to self: Always check journal page for errors and fix before posting on blog.;-)

EDM #211 In The Style Of. . .

2009-02-19T14:41:00.005-07:00

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) surrealist painter~

I have been intrigued with the works of Dali for quite some time. I have other drawings done in his surrealist style. It is a lot of fun thinking up strange arrangements and then drawing them. My family believes that it is just my crazy thinking or the dreams I have. I do have some wild dreams and thoughts. Really it is just a vivid imagination and that helps when it comes to thinking of subjects to draw. I had lost this imagination while the pain in my body was taking center stage, but now I feel my brain coming alive again. I am very happy about that.

About this drawing~ Well, I could tell you what it means to me, however I would rather you come up with your own thoughts about it. It is done with both pastel pencils and colored pencils on blue paper. The paper has a lot of texture and to get the black all black took a lot of time to achieve. I had a blast doing this drawing. So much so that I forgot to do the dishes before hubby came home, oops, my bad;-) He was understandable, he knows how I get when I am deeply involved in an art project. (he is such a nice guy;-)

Here is a site with more info and paintings of Dali, enjoy!
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/dali_salvador.html

Happy 26th Anniversary!

2009-02-15T11:00:00.004-07:00

My husband bought me a rose, a card and a t-shirt for our anniversary on the 12th. He bought himself a pair of work boots and said that they were from me. I just did not feel that that was enough. For 26 years of marriage I thought he deserved more than that so I painted him the rose he bought me and I wrote him a poem, which is on the back of the painting.

I used watercolor pencils which I had not used much before, so I was a bit awkward with them. It was a bit difficult for me to get the vase to look clear. The original vase has a lot of texture on the side, it looks like bark only glass. It is a very pretty vase. One of my sons bought it for me from a yard sale.

The painting is a bit rough, but my husband thought it was wonderful. As long as he liked it that is all that matters.

My Work for the Week

2009-02-13T14:09:00.002-07:00

I decided to keep a food diary for a day. That was a eye opener for me on what I actually eat, which is not much at all. Why am I over weight then? Because of the pain and problems I have in exercising. It cause more pain so I do not do it. I would like to walk but I need someone to go with me to hold on to. I do manage to go up and down the stairs a few times (my art studio is downstairs) and I try to use my rubber band strength building things. It will just take me longer to get the weight off.

This is a day when I did not know what I wanted to draw so I doodled and then wrote about finishing Danny Gregory's book, The Creative License and what I learned from it. The main point of the book, "You are an Artist, now get to work creating and have fun!"

And finally this drawing is my take on the EDM challenge #210 draw some underwear. One of my sons was playing with a new box of 96 Crayola Crayons and I thought it would be fun to play with them too. I used a metallic crayon on the heart but it does not show up on the scan. There is just a little sparkle to it. Have you ever noticed how certain smells take you back and bring up past memories? Crayons are one of those smells. Every time I open a box it is fun to take a deep whiff of them. Childhood rushes to the front of my memories. Go open a box and take a whiff. A box full of joy! Now create a drawing with crayons or finger paints, be a kid again.

My Baby Kitty Mooch

2009-02-08T13:40:00.007-07:00

As I was listening to Philosophy Talk on the web I got out some colored pencils and drew my baby kitty Mooch. Ok, he is not a kitten but he is my baby, well at least one of my babies.

I had quite a time getting enough black pencil on the dark blue background paper. Originally I wanted to draw him on black paper and use the highlights to make him stand out, but I did not have any black drawing paper. I am not sure if it would have turned out. It was only going to be an experiment. It has been a few years since my last colored pencil drawing so I was a bit rusty. I really do like working with colored pencils. Many of my pencils have disappeared which means I need to go to the art store and get some new pencils. Hey, any excuse to go to the art store is a good one.

I think that I will have to draw my other baby kitty, the dog, the bird (in pencil this time), the two rats, the grandbabies. . . . . . . . . . .

2009-02-07T13:23:00.004-07:00

I did not manage to do art everyday because of too many appointments and a husband who was not at work this week. Having a husband following you around is about the same as a child wanting all your attention. All in all it was a pretty good week.

I finally found a doctor who believes me when it comes to my pain. He said that indeed I had Fibromyalgia, which I had told the other doctor about and he just blew it off and treated something I did not have. The new doctor gave me some shots around some points of pain and then a whole bunch of medicine to control it. The doctor also gave me medicine for my cholesterol and a diet pill to help me with my weight. I told him that it was hard to exercise because of the pain and balance problem. In order to walk someone has to go with me and no one wanted to or I was in way too much pain to go. I really do not eat much but because I do not move much either, the weight has gone up a bit. Now that the pain is being controlled I can get moving again. I still have a jerky head and feel as though I am on a rocking boat all the time. The doctor said that for now we are working on the pain and in two weeks he wants to see me again so we can deal with the jerky head symptoms. He explain that my brain is still thinking I have pain and some of the medicine takes a few days to work. So I have to wait to see the jerky stuff goes away. I did tell him that my ears are always full of fluid and that that might be the problem. He checked my ears and sure enough there was some fluid in them. One of the pills I take may help that but I will have to wait to see. It is good to be able to do things without a lot of pain.

About these two pictures:
The pencil drawing is weird, I know. I started out drawing ellipses and then it turned into this tube thing that spits out ellipses. I had a lot of fun working on this and trying to get the tube to look clear and that ellipses were actually falling out of it. My family just shook their heads and smiled, probably thinking that, "oh there goes mom again drawing weird Dali type pictures again." Well, I do like Dali and yes I have painted a picture or two that are strange but hey that is just what is in me and what my brain and hands want to paint. Art is to express! So I express!

This colored drawing is a doodle. I was waiting for my art student to show up (which for some reason she did not) and decided to doodle something. My 9yo son's Crayola markers were there and so I drew a doodle picture with them. It was very relaxing.

Art helps me to relax as I am expressing! I love being an Artist!!!

First Thing-A-Day, Feb. 1, 2009

2009-02-01T15:54:00.006-07:00

I played with my camera today for my first Thing-a-day creation. It was a pain trying to figure out the Thing-a-day website. I had a hard time uploading this photo. I think that it is on there now but part of the top is cut off. My photos are large files when I take them and I am still working out how to get them smaller for the web. Just when I think that the file is small it turns out that it is not small enough. Oh well, I will get it sooner or later.

I love how the sky's blue shows up in the icicles. This photo was taken through the bedroom window because there is no way to do it outside. I thought that the spots on the glass would show up, but they do not.

I Have Art Students!

2009-01-31T12:38:00.003-07:00

On Tuesday I had my first Experiencing Art class. I only have three students, two of which are my own boys, but it is a start. It was a lot of fun teaching the kids (two boys 9 & 15 and a girl age 10) how to draw. The plan for the class is to do a different type of art each month so that the children get to experience other art mediums. Our first month is to learn basic drawing and keeping art journals. Next month will be composition and design. March will probably be altered books. In April or May it will be photography.

My boys who have been around me and my art never really wanted to learn to draw or anything. Now that I have another student they are game for the fun. Even if I did not have a paying student I told them that I was going to have the classes anyway. They were game for some artistic fun! I am extremely happy that I am an artist and their teacher (we home school) of course my favorite job (not really a job more of a pleasure) is being their mom.

These are the two drawings I managed to do this week. Drawing a remote is crazy because of all the buttons. As I was working on the drawing it made me realize how little patience I have for completing complicated drawings. I want the pictures to be done quickly, however at the same time I want them to look perfect. Perfection or speed? one of them has to go. I think it shall be perfection. It would be nice to be able to draw using only brief lines to indicate an object or what have you. Watercolors have always been difficult for me because I want my paintings to be perfect and yet I like the watercolor paintings that are not perfect. It may be because of my photography that causes me to want perfect watercolor paintings. It is something I wish to work on because I like working with watercolors.

Practice at non-perfection!!!

A Very Busy Friday!

2009-01-23T15:42:00.003-07:00

My shell is not the typical seashell. It is the tastiest shell, M&Ms. It was a good day to draw, not too much shaking going on in my head and hands. I believe that if I am able to draw each day or at least every other day my abilities will get better. It is a little scary drawing and then sharing it with others, but that is how one learns to get over that fear.

Practice! Practice! Practice! then Share! Share! Share!

2009-01-23T00:48:00.005-07:00

Hi all,

I did not draw today, but I did play with my camera and computer. This is a picture of my Blue Fronted Amazon bird, Chickie. I was taking pictures of various things and she saw the camera pointing at her and came towards me. She is a camera hog, Silly girl! I uploaded the photo to my computer and then played around with the filters in Photoshop. This was the sharpen filter adjusted way to one side.

This is the same shot of Chickie using the kaleidoscope filter on it. It is just left of her eye. It was fun playing on the computer today because I got to do art. This week has been hard for me when it comes to drawing because of my shaky head. The shaky head cause my hands not to work quite right. I did draw some and will place that on here as soon as I scan it in. I also want to draw my 'shell' EDM challenge and scan that at the same time. It will all be up to my hands. I will do it even if the hands shake! Art is therapy for me, therefore I must do. It is a joy to create! I hope you all have a very creative day, now go create!!!

2009-01-16T13:47:00.004-07:00

Some drawings are not so good but at least I tried. I must. . .
Practice, Practice, Practice!!!

2009-01-16T13:33:00.003-07:00

I started a new art journal for the EDM group challenges. It is a fun and encouraging group of artist. Each artist is talented in his/her own right. Some are new to drawing and others are veterans. No one has ever shown any air of being better, only encouraging words. Inspiring words. They have given me the drive to go beyond the pain and jerky head and hand and just draw. Draw because it is fun! Draw because it is in me and wants to come out. Thank you!

Chickie

2009-01-10T15:21:00.003-07:00

I finally got my scanner hooked back up and now I can scan away.
After I got the scanner done it was time to play. First, I made a couple of book marks and then it was time to bring out the markers. I got a piece of green card stock about 5" x 2" and then looked for something to draw. Well my Blue Fronted Amazon parrot was sitting on her little

box which rests on my art desk. We like to sing together while I work. She is one of my art buddies.

I drew a pencil outline and then used a white scrapbooking marker to fill it in. I was just going to leave it white but I pulled out my other markers, yes scrapbooking ones (Le Plume) and some colored Sharpies. The drawing is layers of the different markers and blended them with a blending marker. After it was done I cut it out and placed it on aged red paper which is the same size as the green. The effect was strange. It looks a bit like I painted it. After awhile the markers were roughing up the paper. I glued it in my new drawing book but before I did that I had scanned it in. Art book was upstairs so I will have to scan that some other time.

2009-01-08T15:49:00.028-07:00

I finally got my art studio clean. It seems that my darling little grandson rampaged it the last time he came to visit. He had fun getting into all my things. Oh well, I still love the little fellow.

My desk is only clean after a project. Next time I do a project I will have to take a picture of just how messy the desk can get. ;-) (ok, it is not perfectly white, too many glue and paint remnants.)

This is my little helper, Liam. He wanted me to take his photo and then put it online.

The words by the painting express: Clean up your Mess. I thought this would work with my kiddos when they used the studio, well it didn't. I guess it is hard to enforce this law when I have a mess too. I do clean it up after each project, that is a good thing, right?

The tv area is home to my boys most of the time so enjoy it now while it is clean.

At one time my art desk was closer to the tv where I could see it, but it was up against a wall and that was bad on the creative spirit. My hubby fixed the drywall and then painted the walls two shades of purple (the darker shade is on the post wall on the other side, cannot see it from this angle.)

2009-01-03T12:33:00.002-07:00

It felt good to get out and take pictures even though I only went out the front door;-)

One of the photographic tools I need is a new tripod. My old one broke and those that I have left are too small for my camera. I asked Santa for a new one but he brought me new flannel sheets. I guess he thought that I needed to be warm instead. Maybe my hubby will get me a new tripod for our anniversary, one can dream!

2009-01-03T11:54:00.004-07:00

One of my favorite things about winter is how the snow makes the trees seem surreal. Absolutely beautiful.

2009-01-03T09:46:00.004-07:00

My Bad!
I did not do so well at keeping up with my blog. This year I hope to be better at it and get some of my art uploaded to the blog. Creating art makes me feel good when my body is hurting. If I can manage to do more art perhaps I will be able to overcome the pain or at least work through it.

In December I managed to complete several projects which I will share asap. I will also try and take photos of my art studio and share those here.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

2008-07-04T15:50:00.003-06:00

Hi all,
I hope your BBQs went off well and that you were surrounded by lots of friends and family. We are just staying home reading and relaxing, fun stuff! Erick, my 14yo ds went over to a BBQ party at the home of one of his home schooling friends. Liam, my 8yo ds is waiting for night to come so that he can set off his fireworks. He went with his dad to get some snacks to go with our afternoon coffee but still is moaning about it being a long time until dark, silly boy!

I have not done much with my art lately. Still working on my 24yo dd's altered book that I need to get more done on it if I want it to be done by her birthday on the 18th. I do not think it will get done, there is just too much to do on it. Perhaps I will give it to her when I get it done, maybe Christmas;-) I can only do what I can do no need to stress about it. The project was planned several years ago, so what does another month matter? My health only allows me to do so much in a day and part of that energy is given toward schooling my boys.

My goal for this coming week is to work on my websites which means scanning in a lot of my photos. Stay tuned.

Once again I hope that your day is going great or was fantastic.
Happy Independence Day!
;-)Rhonda

Summer is Here!!!

2008-06-23T11:35:00.003-06:00

Hi all,
Yes, summer has finally arrived in Utah. It is going to be in the 90s for the next few days. OK, it is not all that bad because in Utah there is hardly any humidity only about 10 or 15 percent. That low humidity makes the heat easier to take, as easy as one can take hot air. I like air that is around 65 to 75 degrees. Usually I sleep in a cold room, even in the winter my bedroom must be cool to cold. It is a little harder to make it cold in the summer unless I run the air conditioner full blast and I do not want to do that, too much money and not so good for the environment. I have a bedroom in the basement and that makes for nice comfortable sleeping.

I hope all of you are staying cool but enjoying the nice weather. Do something fun today!
Enjoy,
;-)Rhonda

2008-06-11T08:50:00.002-06:00

June 11, 2008
Yes, it has been nearly a month since I last posted. Shame on me! I have been busy trying to be busy. There are days when I feel as though I am going in circles. I wake up with a plan in my head only to have that plan fall apart or be pushed aside. I am one of those types of people who are considered perfectionist who would rather not do anything than do something part way. It has to be perfect or I just cannot do it. Add a little bit of procrastination in and well you have a mess. It is beyond me as to how I fix this. One day at a time I guess would be a good place to start.

One of the things I have been trying to do for the last year is to put together a website in order to sell my art. However, I am afraid of doing it. Silly thing to be afraid of doing something that should be so easy for me. I have had the web addy for that long also. I must work up the nerve to get it done. One day at a time! One or two items added to my page and blog will be better in the end than not doing anything at all.

A list of what I want to do:
Blog once or twice a week
Get webpage finished and published
Do more art
Sell my art
Have fun
and so on and so on. . . .

Today I am at least adding to my blog. I hope that there will be someone out there who will read what it is I have to say. Until then I will continue to write as if there is.
Have a great day!
;-)Rhonda

Welcome to my blog

2008-05-12T09:20:00.001-06:00

Hi all,
This is my first time having a blog. Yes, blogs have been out for a bit and yes, I have been slow on the uptake, but at least I am here now. I am sure at first my blog entries will be rough but as time goes on I shall be better at it. Be patient with me.