Journal Friday #59: Reflection

It's been a couple of busy weeks with the NAEA Convention last week and teaching an all-day professional development workshop this week, and when things get busy, it's always good to spend a little time reflecting about things in the journal in an attempt to sort it all out.

I spent time today in the studio gluing things into the journal and adding color, shapes, and words with water-soluble pencil. I tend to collect a lot of fodder when I travel, especially at a conference or convention, and Seattle was no exception. As I glued bits and pieces in today from my trip, I began reflecting on the whole experience. Reflection doesn't have to be deep and personal writing, and it doesn't have to include many words at all. It's easy enough to get into a reflective mindset as you handle, cut, and glue the physical material and ephemera of an experience. It's a physical as well as mental kind of reflection, and as I glued in business cards, photos, tickets, and such from my trip I thought about the people that I met and interacted with, the sessions that I attended, and the places that I went.

I didn't limit myself to just collage today, and I broke out the Derwent Inktense pencils and added some color, lines, shapes, and words to many pages. These water-soluble pencils are great for building layers of bright colors, and work well to tie many of the collage pieces to the pages and surrounding elements. Like cutting and gluing, the repetitive movement of the pencil helps create a state of reflection since I was able to allow the experiences of the past week to just mix and mingle in the back of my mind as I worked. As I explored these pencils, I simple rolled things over in my mind and pondered the experiences. 

A few words and ideas did keep popping up as I worked, and I kept coming back to the idea of connection. This year's convention was probably one of the best, and not because I presented a bunch of things or I went to a bunch of mind blowing sessions, but because of the people - the connections. I got to see and hang out with good friends, and I got to know some acquaintances better than I had in the past. I got to talk to so many people and share stories and ideas, and I got to meet quite a few people who I have been able to inspire. I am always amazed and humbled when someone comes up and thanks me for inspiring them or shares a story about how I un some small way have been a help. For me, that's what it is all about. Art and education are all about the connections, and I am grateful for the opportunity to connect.

Something else has been going through my mind as well over the past few weeks, and my recent experiences have just reaffirmed the notion. Everyday, I want to know how I have uplifted people - how have I helped and inspired - how have I aided and motivated others. If I am not lifting others up, then I'm probably tearing them down, and I don't want to be that way.

I choose connection and inspiration. I choose to help and to uplift. 

Journal Friday #58:Travel

This past week was the National Art Education Association's annual convention in Seattle Washington. Though I'm no longer a public school teacher, I stay active in the the association, which means traveling and presenting to art educators from across the country. Whenever and wherever I travel, the journal goes with my, whether I'm traveling for business or pleasure. On this trip I took four separate journals with me to share and to work in.

The NAEA Convention is a huge gathering of art educators, and it's always invigorating to be surrounded by my tribe. Of this tribe, I'm closest to a handful of artistic accomplices, especially David and our friends Sam Peck and Michael Dodson, and we often sit and work on journal in all manner of spaces during the convention. We can often be found working in our journals in our hotel rooms, hotel lobby, and bar, taking notes during sessions, and even passing around journals and sketchbooks before dinner.

For this conference, I was fortunate to spend an entire day working in my journals, as David and Sam presented a pre-conference, full-day workshop. It was great to spread out and journal. I was able to add to a lot in all of my journals. One thing that I used a lot was some punchanella - also know as sequin waste. These narrow ribbons of circles make great stencils for painting and drawing.

Of course, since the convention is a massive professional development, there are all kinds of presentations and workshops, and the journal is a prime space for taking notes, but these aren't the notes from your school days. These are visual and colorful, and often include imagery and collage elements. I'll go back in the future and embellish the notes and include more color and imagery.

I am always amazed at how much journaling gets done while traveling.

Artful Layers at Studio Joy

Please join me in Kansas City, MO at Studio Joy the weekend of April 28 and 29, for an in-depth look at layering with mixed media in my 2-day Artful Layers workshop. I'm excited to teach in friend Amanda Jolley's wonderful space, and I'm looking forward to sharing my layering approach to a Midwest audience. So make plans now to join me!

April 28-29, 2018; 9:30-4:30pm
Cost: $220

Immerse yourself in the art of mixed media layering, and delve deeply into a wide range of techniques for creating artful layers in your work. The focus of this workshop is on developing imagery with complexity and subtlety as you explore the vast possibilities of layering materials, ideas, and images and incorporating personal themes, ideas, and images. Explore how to build up color and texture using transparent media like watercolors and water-soluble pencil. Discover the layering possibilities for using papers such as vellum, tracing paper, and tissue paper to incorporate color, writing, and drawing. Experiment with collage, image transfers, and personal text to develop narratives and themes. Learn to embellish and enhance elements to draw out focus and detail, and walk away with a variety of richly layered work.

Check out Amanda's website for more info.

Artful Layers at Larkin Arts

Please join me on April 14th for my Artful Layers workshop at Larkin Arts. I'm excited to be returning to this awesome art gem in Harrisonburg, VA to bring a full-day version of this workshop to the Shenandoah Valley.

SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 11AM-5PM  
$150, with an additional $15 materials fee

Immerse yourself in the art of mixed media layering, and delve deeply into a wide range of techniques for creating artful layers in your work. The focus of this workshop is on developing imagery with complexity and subtlety as you explore the vast possibilities of layering materials, ideas, and images and incorporating personal themes, ideas, and images. Explore how to build up color and texture using transparent media like watercolors and water-soluble pencil. Discover the layering possibilities for using papers such as vellum, tracing paper, and tissue paper to incorporate color, writing, and drawing. Experiment with collage, image transfers, and personal text to develop narratives and themes. Learn to embellish and enhance elements to draw out focus and detail, and walk away with a variety of richly layered work.

Check out the Larkin Arts website for more info!

Spring Workshops

I'm so excited to have three awesome workshops coming up over the next couple of months, and I invite you to join me for one or more of them.

In just under a month, I'll be teaching a full-day workshop at Larkin Arts in Harrisonburg, VA. I taught a workshop there last year, and I am excited to be heading back on April 14th to teach my Artful Layers workshop! If you're anywhere near this Shenandoah Valley city, you have to join me for a day of art making fun!

And later in the month of April, I take Artful Layers to Kansas City, MO to teach at friend Amanda Jolley's Studio Joy. It'll be my first time there, and I can't wait to share an expanded two-day workshop version of this workshop the weekend of April 28th and 29th. If you're in the Midwest, I'd love to have you at this in-depth mixed media workshop.

Finally, in May I'll be heading back to Asheville, NC to teach a weekend workshop at 310 Art in the Riverside Arts District. I'll be offering Mapping the Journey the weekend of May 19th and 20th. I love Asheville, and I taught a sold out workshop there last year, and I'm excited to be heading back. If your anywhere Western North Carolina, I'd love to see you there!

I am looking forward to all of these workshops, and I can't wait to share my approach to art with you all! I hope to see you there!

Stay up to date with all of the JFJ workshops, exhibits, and happenings by checking out the Events and Workshops page.

Journal Friday #57: Tracing and Teaching

Sometimes getting to work in the journal is a simple as tracing something, and this week I focused a little on using a variety of circles to trace. Though I have a variety of store bought stencils and templates, it can be interesting to trace found objects like rolls of tape and paint palettes and found stencils like punchinella. I used water soluble pencil and ink to trace a series of circles on several pages in my big book, and I used watercolor to paint through some of the punchinella.

I didn't have too much time to work in my journal this week, but I did have the opportunity to work with a group of high school students at Roxbury High School in Succasunna, NJ. David and I taught an all-day workshop with about 50 students, and it was great to see their enthusiasm and willingness to dive into the journal.

Journal Friday #56: Layering

For me the journal is the slow accumulation of actions, which means that a lot of layers get built up on the pages. Though I didn't spend too much time this week working in my journal, I did manage to add some layers using watercolor paint, ink, and water-soluble pencil in both my big and little journals. Often when I layer, I kind of ignore what's already on the page, and I add lines, shapes, or colors pretty much at random, especially for the initial layers. As I develop pages, the layers get a bit more subtle as I become more deliberate with the marks that I make. Many of the pages now are in that initial stage and only have a few layers. It will take time for them to develop more completely.

I did find some time to work on a couple of other pieces using a similar layering notion, and I created a video of how layers are built up in a particular piece. For the video I used a 9"x12" piece of Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media paper, and steadily built up layers. Of course in the journal the layering takes place over time and over many pages. But the video still gives you a glimpse into my layering, and it must be said that this isn't a set procedure that I follow when I create art or work in my journal. The sequence of layers is particular to this piece.

The Journal Fodder Junkies Daily Challenge: Part 8 Now Available!

It's a couple of days late, but Part 8 is now in the Shop! Check it out for more daily creative inspiration! 

This new ebook in the series has 31 new challenges for the month of March, and is full of techniques, concepts, and ideas for your art work and visual journal.

I hope you enjoy it.

Journal Friday #55: The Portable Studio

One thing that I really like about working in the journal is the ability to anywhere and anytime. Whether it's in a little journal or in the big 11"x14" journal, it's nice being able to take the journal with me and work in it. I've been known to work in coffee shops, bars, restaurants, airports, and hotel lobbies. Today it was the coffee table.

This portability is one of the reasons that I use the materials that I do in the journal. By limiting myself to watercolor, watercolor pencil, collage, pens, markers, and a few other materials, I can fit everything in a brush bag and a couple of pencil pouches. I'm not limited to a dedicated studio space, making it much easier to get to work. Having the flexibility to pull out the journal anytime makes anywhere the studio.

Journal Friday #54: Fodder and Interaction

The basic definition of fodder is the coarse food fed to livestock, but another definition is the widely available materials for a given purpose. For me, fodder is the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life -- the ephemera that gathers from some of the most mundane places. I don't go to an arts and crafts store, a thrift store, or an antiques shop and buy papers, materials, and photos to use in my journal. I collect it from my life -- movie tickets, business cards, labels, maps, name tags, and much, much more. These are the things that I collect on my excursions out into the world whether I'm going to see a play or traveling across the country to teach.

Over time these bits and pieces gather into piles, trays, and bins, and they seem to take over my studio. Although I collect all of this stuff, I'm not great about gluing it all into my journal, and it piles up. So I sat down this week, and began using up some of this fodder. I dug through old and new alike, and decided to use as much as I could, and in fact, I spent a couple days where about all I did was glue things into my journals - maps, tickets, labels, drawings, and so much more. I used up an entire jumbo UHU glue stick.

When this fodder is glued into the journal, it's transformed from the mundane to the extraordinary and it becomes a great way to document my travels, my activities, and the little things that happen along the way. So I glued pieces to pages with lots of layers and also to blank pages as the initial layer. 

With some of the fodder, I worked and layered over top of it with ink, watercolor paint, and watercolor pencil as a way to push the collage into the page. This makes these somewhat random pieces become an integral part of the page. Since this ephemera is food for the journal, the journal slowly becomes fatter and fatter as the extra layers of stuff build up on the pages.

Along with gluing fodder into my large journal, I worked quite a bit in my smaller book. I began this book a couple of weeks ago as I began pondering ideas for a new workshop that I'm hoping to teach in a variety of places in 2019, but my approach has been a little different.

I've been thinking about how pages can relate and tie together, and I've been linking pages with similar colors, similar lines, and similar ideas. This week, I added more fodder and collage to the book as well as ink, paint, and watercolor pencil. I've also been trying to create more interaction between and among pages with windows, cutouts, tunnels, wrap arounds, and even page tears. It's been a challenge to think of the journal in this way, and though I'm using ideas and techniques that I've always used, it's been great to stretch myself in a new direction. It's been interesting to explore how to create a visual narrative that threads through, between, and among the pages.

As I have worked in both journals, ideas and themes are beginning to emerge, and though this emergence is still in the early stages, certain pages have started to take on a direction all their own. I love witnessing how these pages take shape. I never have a specific idea in mind when I start, and ideas and concepts emerge in the making. I can't wait to see where these pages and ideas are heading!