Teaching at John C. Campbell Folk School

I am beyond excited! I'm teaching a week long class at the renown John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC! Since Dave and I began teaching workshops thirteen or fourteen years ago, I've dreamt of teaching at the Folk School, and thanks to good friend and artist Erin Keane, I have a workshop scheduled for January 2019. Erin has taught at the Folk School and put me in touch with the right people. Thank you so much, Erin!

As I talked with the folks at the school, it became apparent that the workshop couldn't be your ordinary journal or mixed media workshop, and I kept coming back to this notion of what do you do with a blank book. The center offers a variety of bookmaking classes, but what happens to the book when completed? Many students create these amazing handbound books but don't know what to do in them afterward or are a bit intimidated by the blank pages. So, I developed a slightly different approach to working in a blank book, whether handmade or store-bought. I began thinking about creating a visual narrative or thread that ran through the book - about how one page relates to the next, and a workshop was born.

Using a variety of materials, techniques, letterforms, and much more, students will spend five days delving into pages of their own. We will explore painting, cutting, printmaking, and so much more. I am truly excited to work with a group of students for such a sustained endeavor!

I invite you to join me Sunday, January 20 through Friday, January 25 for Beyond Blank Pages at the John C. Campbell Folk School. You can find more info on the Folk School website.

The Journal Fodder Junkies Daily Challenge: Part 11 - Ebook

This summer has been extremely busy, and I've fallen behind in getting the last two installments of the The Journal Fodder Junkies Daily Challenge completed. I'm afraid that I've fallen a couple of months behind, but I finally have Part 11 finished! It's up for sale in the Shop, so stop by and check out the latest installment.

In the latest part you'll find 30 new daily challenges to get your visual journaling and art making going. Use it for your own personal inspiration, or if you're a teacher, use it with your students. Like all the books in the series, it's just 5 bucks for a 80MB PDF!

Check it out!

Journal Friday #70

For the past couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of reflecting in my journal in the form of writing and text embellishments. Specifically, I've been reflecting on creativity and the possibility of creating a workshop designed to help people connect with their creativity.

Though there was some actual reflecting with writing, most of the reflecting was done while embellishing text. By working on outlining, filling, and drawing text, I was able to allow my mind to turn the ideas over and over. I haven't worked out the details, but the ideas are starting to take shape and gel.

Art and Soul: Virginia Beach 2018

I'm excited to be heading to Virginia Beach in October to teach another round of Art and Soul. I'll be teaching three workshops, and I'd love to have you join me in the creative fun.

I kick off the week with my Monster Maker Workshop as an evening class on Monday, October 1 from 6:30-9:30 PM, so come on out and get in touch with your inner mad scientist as we create cute or scary or silly creatures and monsters!

On Tuesday, October 2, I'll be teaching my popular Stencil Savvy class where students learn the basics of creating and cutting their very own stencils. So, if you love using stencils, but want to learn to create your own, please join me from 6:30 to 9:30 PM.

And finally, I'll be teaching my Luminous Liquid Layers as an all-day workshop on Thursday, October 4, from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Come out and join me in learning to use liquid acrylics to create layered work that seems to glow!

I hope you can join me in one or all of my workshops in Virginia Beach!

Journal Friday #69: Subtlety and Investigation

It's been a busy week, so I've turned once again to some simple techniques to keep myself working in the journal. I focused mainly on shading with graphite and colored pencil to keep my hand moving. This added some subtle results to the pages, but not everything in the journal has to be big and grand. 

Like I said, it's been a busy week. I've been teaching a high school summer art program, but as the students worked, I was able to explore some ideas in the journal. Based on some recent colored pencil work on black paper, I've been investigating the notion of holes. I've explored these ideas on and off over the past five or six years, and the ideas have floated back up to the surface. I want to explore them more and figure why this notion appeals to me and what I want to do with it, so, I've been sketching and reflecting in the journal. I haven't come to any solid conclusions, but that's the beauty of art - the journey to discovery.

Journal Friday #68: Processing

The journal is an ideal place for processing the good and the bad of life, and over the past few weeks I have been feeling a lot of anxiety over what has been happening in this country. I don't want to get all political, but the divisiveness, the eroding away of so many things, the hate, and so, so much more. It's all been getting to me, and so I turned to my journal throughout the week.

I really thought that I'd delve into a new two-page spread or at least work on a spread that I already began, and create something specific and purposeful. But instead, I found myself returning to some simple techniques like embellishing words, doodling, painting, working with watercolor pencil, and even drawing in a calendar. All of these techniques are simple and don't require a lot of concentration, so my mind was free to wander and ponder. And it dawned on me that you don't have to do something poignant and deep to process emotions. Just giving yourself the space to sort through the thoughts and feelings can do wonders.

Now I'm not a licensed art therapist. I'm just a guy that's done a lot of work in my journal, and I know that the journal helps me to sort through issues. Though I didn't come to any cathartic conclusion this week, I've been able to come to terms with some of the anxiety and worry, and I'm filled with a bit more optimism.

Journal Friday #67: Compulsions and Obsessions

This week has been a busy and exhausting week as I started my summer teaching two kids' summer camps, so I haven't had a lot of time to work in the journal. But I've eked out a little time here and there. During busy times, I like to use what Dave and I call compulsions and obsessions. These are marks and techniques that are easy to add pages, and I come back to them time and time again. This week, I spent time adding some rectilinear lines to the background of a page, filling in some letters, thickening lines and shapes, and adding some spirals.

It's not much, but the the steady accumulation of actions leads to rich, full pages.

Journal Friday #66: Contemplative Mark Making

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I've been focusing on slowing down and finding time to work in the journal. In order to slow down, I've been concentrating a lot of my efforts on contemplative mark making over the past couple of weeks allowing myself to get more present with the art materials and techniques. It seems that as life gets busy, the art making is hurried and rushed happening in fits and starts, bits and parts. So, I've turned to tried and true materials and techniques to help me be more deliberate and contemplative.

For me contemplative mark making is all about repetitive actions that don't require a lot of thought and concentration. This allows the hand to move while the mind focuses on the physical act of making the mark. I like to turn to slow and deliberate techniques such as shading with graphite or colored pencil, drawing short repeating lines and shapes, or creating radiating or web-like designs.

I get caught up in the motion of my hand, and my mind has a tendency to wander a bit as thoughts about all kinds of things come up. In a way, it's like mowing the yard. The activity requires a bit of awareness as not to be boring, but it is just monotonous enough to allow the mind the freedom to churn and turn. I try to be mindful and to stay present with the physical act focusing my full attention on the shading or the drawing, but it's easy for my mind to chase the random thoughts that come up. In the end, I let the thought go and come back to the pen or the pencil point and the line or mark that it's making.

Here's to slowing down, and being deliberate with our marks!

Journal Friday #65: Getting Back to Work

It's been a few busy weeks around here, and I haven't had much of a chance to work in my journals. I dedicated the bulk of my time and energy these past weeks getting ready for the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour that was this past weekend.

So, instead of working in my journals, I clean and organized the studio, purging a lot of old artwork. I also painted the floor and rearranged some of the furniture in the studio. Despite a time crunch, I got the studio ready and had a great weekend on the tour. I really like how the floor turned out, and I am glad that I was able to sort, purge, and organize.

I was finally able to work in the journal this week. I primarily continued adding layers to pages in progress. Using watercolor, watercolor pencil, collage, and even a little acrylic paint, I further developed pages in all three of my current journals creating some rich layers on some pages and in some initial layers on others. All in all, it was just some typical work.

Journal Friday #64: Artistic Accomplices and Layers

Although it has been a busy week in the studio of cleaning, purging and organizing, I have found some time to work in my journal, especially on Monday when Dave came down for a good chunk of the Day, and we spent the day in the studio working in our journals. There is something about making art along with someone else, and it has been quite a while since Dave and I got together to simply work in our journals. It was good working and chatting.

As I've mentioned before, my journaling process is a slow accumulation of marks, colors, lines, textures, ideas, and so much more, and I build up pages layer by layer. It's not uncommon for some pages to have 10 or more layers, and it is this build up that gives many of my pages their richness. Much of my journal work this week has been working in all of my current journals, adding layers of materials and techniques, trying to build richness. Right now I have three journals - a large 11x14 journal which is my basic, everyday journal; a 5.5x8.5 journal where I am focusing on how colors, techniques, materials, and ideas can link and connect pages creating a true visual narrative, and a 4x6 collaborative journal that I am sharing with a friend in North Carolina. It's interesting to work in journals of various sizes, since each size poses it's own challenges, and the size affects how ideas, shapes, and colors relate. I like having multiple journals going simply for the fact that as I allow something in one journal to dry, I can work in another, and it's quite easy to rotate through them.

A few pages from the large journal.

A few pages from the collaborative journal.

Finally a page from the visual narrative journal.