The Queen's Style - Making it My Own

(A second post for the GPP Street Team Crusade # 31 - Make It YOur Own. Check out all the great stuff going on here !)

I spent some fun time in the studio this weekend. I have be so loving the art journaling process these days. Since I have started meditating regularly, I have come to see that art journaling is a very similar process to meditation for me. It is all about being in the moment, being present and spending time, good quality time with your self, your soul and your inner artist. I am loving going with that arty flow...

I am hooked on the color orange right now and it is appearing a lot in my pages. As I mentioned before, I am loving the fountain pen and the dark black indian ink - it is my current tool of choice for mark making, along by the white Elmers Painter marker.

I decided it was time to make some more tools of my own and got out the bits of rubber and my carving tools as well. I looked to my recent pieces for inspiration as well as to some of my favorite stamp carver artists (seen Ro Bruhn's stuff ? Her painted papers are so awesome and colorfully rich !). I carved a couple of stamps using patterns that keep coming up in my doodles on my pages and the "pod" shape was inspired by Ro's own carved stamps.

As I was carving, I tried out each of the stamps on a blank journal page in orange acrylic paint applied with a make up sponge. Here is the page that came out of that experimenting once I added some other paint, and of course, some fountain pen work ! :

"Go Wandering " - Art Journal Page, May 24, 2009

I added a quote from Rumi too - his poetry is another tool I am really into right now !

The walking girl was a photocopy of a girl I drew for one of my earlier pieces in this journal, one that also had a Rumi quote.

I feel like I am on to something right now in my art - on to finding a style that is all my own. I am influenced by other artists I admire along the way, but these recent pieces kind of have more of my own signature on them. That is a real accomplishment for me as an artist, because I have been flitting from one thing to another for a long time. I am making art for me, not for anyone else. Not to sell, not to get recognition (though the recognition from my blog pals is so very appreciated !!!) but just for the joy of creating. And that is starting to show in what comes out of me too. So very, very, cool !

Here's another page done just this morning. I used my new tools again and another Rumi quote. It kind of sums up how I am feeling today pretty well. My words are in white, and the universe's words are in black.

"Enormous Things" - Art Journal Page, May 26, 2009

(click to enlarge if you need to)

Hope you feel the Great Love inside of you today ! Happy Tuesday !