Happy New Year!

Wishing you the most JoyFull New Year ever!

xoxo

Deborah

Keep a Journal!

It dosen't have to be fancy. It just has to be real.

Waiting

I cut my left hand today. Not badly, but enough for it to bleed for what seemed like forever.  As I held a paper towel to the cut with my right hand I found I was rendered useless.  I couldn't do anything.  I paced around thinking of all the things I should be accomplishing while waiting for my cut to stop bleeding. Then it occurred to me to just STOP.

I sat down and started to think about waiting. How much of our lives are spent in that suspended state.  Waiting for a plane. Waiting for a phone call. Waiting for a check in the mail. On and on. Just waiting.

Waiting is exhausting.

Smarter Than Me

 

Have you ever looked back to some part of your life and thought,                  
                               "What was I thinking"?
I often struggle with making life choices.  So many times I look back and realize that the choice I made at the time was not the right one for me. I wish I could go back and tell the "then me" what to do, or that I had some wise council to advise me going forward.
So I painted a "wise owl" in my journal to help me with future dilemmas. Hopefully, she's smarter than me!

Spooky Bat Girl Tutorial

Yay...summer is over and we are about to fling ourselves into Craft Season. Let the glittering begin!

Lat year I posted this project and planned on doing a free tutorial.  But things got busy and I never found the time to write the PDF. Looking back I wish I had filmed the process...but I didn't.  So here is the (FREE!) PDF tutorial and clip art downloads!!!!!

Of course you can add tons of embellishments to your taste...this is the "basic" shadow box and super easy. I hope you have fun with this project....I'd love to see what you create!
xoxo


Spooky Bat Girl PDF

Waiting

I drew the girl in my journal while I was taking Misty Mawn's class several months ago.  She just sat there until today when I decided to paint her.  I was thinking that while we wait for our "ship to come in", we build our castles in the sand. What we are waiting for...we already have.

American Gothic/Pretty Pink House

I read the news today, Oh boy..

I usually like to make pretty pictures...but today I just felt heartsick at what is going on in the world and felt moved to journal about it.  We all know that women and children will suffer most by the current situation.  Our children will be the first generation not able to "do better" than their parents.  The riots in England....I so get it. I saw a news report where the reporter asked "Where are the parents?"  I'll tell you where they are....at work. It takes two incomes for a middle class family to survive...a working class family has to have both parents working two jobs each just to keep a roof over their head and food on the table.

Not to mention all the single mothers out there.

End of rant...I will now return to making pretty.

Free-hand Mandala

Sometimes life just seems too hard.  It's important to remember how beautiful it really is! I sketched a mandala in my art journal just to remind myself. Sometimes, I forget.

The Inner Critic

Everyday I look forward to the hour or so I can "work" in my art journal. As I sat down this evening, I flipped through my latest journal,critiquing every page. I realized I was no longer just having fun....I was trying to "improve" and falling short in my estimation.

So.... I decided to just play and draw one of those silly girls I used to doodle in school instead of learning math.

I didn't line up her eyes, decide where the light was coming from, shade, or try in any way to "make art". I just doodled and splashed around some paint and ink.

Look who showed up on my page!  My "Inner Critic"!  Flame hair, tight little lips, and condescending sloe-eyes  Yep...that's her!

Do you have an Inner Critic?  What does she look like?

Show me!!!

Butterfly Mail

more fooling around in the art journal

Another Journal Page

I just keep on playing in my journal....waiting for the recession to end so I can go back to work. I mean, really. When is it gonna end? I'm running out of art supplies! Geesh!

Journal Page

I've been looking back through all my flicker photos and enjoyed seeing how my "style" has evolved through the years and how I've grown.  I actually like some of the "early" stuff...before my "scared stage" where I got all tight and controlling...lol.  Now I just slap down paint and stuff and have fun.  I still have some control issues...but I'm not working on that...tee-hee

eekk!

We had to do a "paint over" self portrait in Misty's class.  I had no idea what I looked like until now!  Humm guess I gotta tame that hair! Funny, my mom has told me since I was a little girl that I am "cock-eyed"...she's right...grrr!