I got an email this morning from a friend advising me that the ‘Imagine’ workshops that were due to be running at Ally Pally have been cancelled. So, no cool workshop with Leandra, to look forward to then <pout>.

I phoned the event organisers and they confirmed, that, Yes, the ‘Imagine’ event had been cancelled as there wasn’t enough interest. <sigh> Maybe they should have run more altered art-type workshops, and less card-making or scrapbooking-type ones, because I’m sure all the altered art ones would have been booked up in a snap. Perhaps it was the price. I think lots of crafters in the UK these days are card-makers (partly due to shopping channels such as QVC), and lots of those, that I know of, see their card-making as a means to an end - the ‘end’ being, making ££££s. For that reason, I can see lots of those that attend Ally Pally, not wanting to fork out £65 for a VIP pass to Imagine (including a workshop) or the £30 that each subsequent workshop would have cost them. From what I know of Art Retreats and Crops in the U.S., people spend much more than that to learn with their ‘heros’ in whatever speciality they are interested in. Maybe it just boils down to disposable income, but it’s a shame.

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You know how everyone learns in different ways? I love books, they’re great, and I have a lot of them, but what I’d really love to do is go to workshops and classes. I think I learn best by watching someone and getting ‘the hang of it’ before I make strides in altering the technique or customising the outcome. Considering that sooooo many people that I know of, in art circles, have disabilities and health conditions, you’d be surprised to learn that so many craft/art shops have their workshops either up, or down stairs, i.e. in totally inaccessable rooms. Even the Adult Ed college I used to go to, only has one art class on the ground floor, all the others are on the 4th floor. It’s good news that they recently put a lift into the buildng, shame it only goes as far as the 3rd floor - pht!

So, I have never been to a workshop, and am really excited about going to one run by Leandra at Ally Pally next month. Anyhoooo, not getting to many workshops, I love watching DVDs. The best bit, obviously, being able to stop and pause and watch certain bits over and over again (no, not just on Sir Tim’s DVDs) at my own pace. and…errr… I can’t remember why I started this post, apart from to have a little rant….

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What would you send to someone you don’t know very well (at all) for their birthday? Eagerly awaiting your answers……

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Here’s something I never considered…. Stop The Traffik make it known.

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I finally decided for a title for my book on loss, I took the title from the book I was using for the rr, on Yeats’ Poetry of Death. I thought it quite a fitting title, and a serendipitous find: Elegy, from the Greek Elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally.

I got really into altering the covers for this book, I did test runs, using both moulding paste and artist’s cement. I must admit, I was very happy with the results, It’s a bit of a strange feeling for me, actually enjoying making art, having fun doing it rather than it being a labour of love, if that makes sense?

I evetually decided to use artists cement (US ArtQuest), to make this pretty cool texture. After painting the covers gold (Lumieres Sunset Gold), I rubbed oxblood shoe polish (Kiwi) into them, randomly. I also painted the spine and about an inch of the cover with Quinacridone Magenta (Goldens).

For the sign-in spread I used these cute images of doors, that I cut out and into so that they open, for players to sign in on the page behind it. The background I painted with white gesso (unknown) and micaceous iron oxide (Goldens). Using the gesso beneath the micaceous iron oxide gave the page a textured feel. I think I’m quite liking creating texture in my art, there’s something deeply satisfying about the different textures that can be created simply by using materials in different ways. I am referring to sensory textures other than visual ones.

This was supposed to be my first spread of two that I was planning, but things didn’t end that way. This spread wasn’t about my loss, but my Father’s loss, when my Mother died. She died 22 years ago, and my Father’s life has never been the same, it is like he stopped living when she did. Yes, he goes through the motions but doesn’t put his heart into anything. The words on the opposite page were chosen from the original text on the page.

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Happy International Womens Day!

I hope you that today you remember to celebrate your strengths as Artistic and Creative Women.

50 First Dates. I don’t know if any of you saw this at the weekend, but I managed to miss it so we got it out on DVD. I watched it today and I loved loved loved it! Obviously, I don’t get to watch many ‘RomComs’, living in SciFi Heaven, but it was Grrrreat! If you haven’t seen it but intend to, read no further! I think my heart sank to the floor when Lucy dumped him and he set off on his voyage - boohoo

Anyhoooo….. off to work on my Dark Themes AB. I finally decided on a title, well, more of a theme really, “Exploring Loss”. This was the sort of ‘dark theme’ I envisaged when I first thought of doing a rr. Like I said, a bit deeper than the usual themes we do but not all satan worship - lol!

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… I LOVE it when a plan comes together! You know when you spend days and weeks labouring over some idea? Well thanks to my nifty knack of not being able to work on anything until I have completed the piece that is due first, and not being able to finish that book on time due to various complications, (which I shan’t bore you with here) I ended up running over the due date for my current Literatura Infantil book. Crikey, that’s a long sentence. Anyhooo, Enid Blyton’s The Wishing Chair must have been loitering in the back of my befuddled mind (if not on my desk!) for several weeks, because no-sooner had I opened it up again, smoothed open the pages and begun reading, than the ideas for my spreads tripped over themselves trying to get my attention.

The spreads themselves aren’t super-complicated or full of the latest techniques, but I really enjoyed making them. I found THE perfect image for the chair itself. The tatty blue armchair in the first spread is printed on fabric so you can feel it beneath your fingers.

Dame Quick Fingers’ flying dogs sounded just soooo cute I couldn’t resist including them in my second spread. I hope Michele likes it, they are just too adorable.

OK, that’s the last time you’ll hear me referring to cute animals in the context of my art, I promise.

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I looked at my book-shelf recently and was mightily impressed with the breadth of art-related books I have managed to acquire. Some are good for dipping in and out of, gleaning techniques, or full of ‘how to’s’. Others require more consistent attention whilst there are others still, that are just bursting with great eye-candy!

There are all the ‘usual suspects’ of books that are doing the rounds in the altered/alternative art circles and are causing much chatter on Yahoo groups, but I love finding the odd gem of a book that missed the path to fame through that route.

One book that I particularly like is Drawing from Life: the journal as art, by Jennifer New. Now, never having kept a journal myself, I have only ever considered journals as art journals, full of lovely vibrant colours and intricate sketches. It never occurred to me that people from other walk of life might keep journals, some of them equally beautiful.

Late last year I traipsed around London to view a Moleskine exhibition held at four different venues. There I saw nearly 70 different journals kept by people from various walks of life. There were books there by artists of all description; painters, architects, musicians, illustrators, designers, you name it they were there. It was great to see so many different art forms in one space.

Jennifer New’s book is a little like viewing exerpts from those Moleskine journals, and storing them at home. The first thing that struck me, design-wise, is that the pages have rounded corners, which immediately makes it stand out from the crowd. It contains pages from the journals of painters, travellers, photographers, a songwriter, a psychiatrist… and the list goes on. Unsurprisingly, the book displays as many different journalling styles as there are contributers and “give us a peek at how artistic souls observe, reflect, explore and create.”

I like the description that journals are “the kitchen drawers into which we place all the little scraps of things” and with that as a new definition in mind, I have reassessed all the books I have filled with reference numbers, phone numbers, doodles, banking ID codes, passwords, lists and wot-not, and finding that maybe there is hope for me yet.

I think Drawing from Life allows us a peek inside those kitchen drawers.

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I must have got this AB a couple of months ago now, and have been struggling with my ideas for one of the spreads. This spread came to me relatively easily. I think I got the stamps for it ages ago, and then forgot all about them. The elephants were stamped using the Castaway inkpad. For anyone who has not tried it yet, it is a bit fab. I painted the page using a watercolour dye and then stamped with the Castaway pad. The ink in the pad seems to almost bleach out the colour you stamp onto.

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I’ve finally got my new web site up and running! what do you think? I’m so excited, it’s pretty cool and Miles is such a star for getting it all together in a relatively short period of time amidst all my mind changes relating to colours and banners and… oh so many aspects. Gotta love him. This is part of the reason why I have been so quiet recently, but what else can you do when inspiration evades you? That’s not actually strictly speaking true, I’ve created very little but part of that has just been life getting in the way, health-hiccups AND inspiration evading me.

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