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 !

GPP Street Team Crusade # 31 -Make it Your Own

How do I make it my own ? How do I use tools and pieces I have created on my own, tools I have bought, images created by other artists and mix them all together with bits of my imagination and creativity to create a piece that is all mine ?

That is the joy of art journal pages for me. No real rules. Just play and see what happens.
So here is how the process played out this morning. Take out the paint and play !

Make a background using some glued down pieces of scrap. Add an image of a fish eye that doesn't work after the paint is applied and scrap it off. Add more paint - ooh, that looks like a little map in the upper left hand corner...

Rip off the orange electric tape when the effect isn't quite what I want. Hmm, that white line may be a good place for journaling or a title of some sort.

Go through a file folder of images that I have collected along the way from magazines, old books, etc... See what jumps out at you, what seems to go with the ideas emerging from the background. In this case, this image from Oprah magazine appealed :

The words read "seek seek the source of the roaring the great replenishing, cleansing, life-giving river". Seeker...map...river...Inspiration, indeed !

I then looked through the drawers of rubber stamps, hand-made by me and store bought. Find this "seeker-girl" stamp from Magenta Stamps that was a gift from a friend at Christmas and has remained un-used so far.

Pick up the swallow stamp purchased from the $1.00 bin at Michaels. Flying seekers they shall be.

Play some more ! Compose your page - what fits where ? Create a map with a fine tipped black pen on that blob in the corner. Stamp the "seeker-girl" - argh, it kind of smeared. I am stamp challenged most of the time with those fine detailed stamps ! Oh well...
Add details with a ultra-fine tipped Elmers Painters pen. Now she looks a little less perfect - road weary maybe ? A little more mine, anyway ! ;)

More play...I keep going until it feels done somehow. Add phrase "Always a seeker be." in India ink with an old fashion fountain pen from my dad. I love the permanent black it leaves on the page, in spite of the permanent black it leaves on my fingers too. Add a little hard-to-read journaling with some gel pens. Throw in a spiral or two with that great white Elmer's pen. They always appear somehow, those whoopsy-do's of mine !

And there you have it - my very own art journal page !

I took the pieces...

and made it my own !

Join in the GPP Street Team fun - Number 31 and going strong ! It is a great place to be share bits of yourself, make your mark and cheer on the rest of the gang as they do the same !

Onward, Crusaders !