How can it be...

 ...that September is nearly over, and it's well over a month since I posted last?  Talk about making plans and life laughing.

I've had a wee bit of time this past week to work on a previously-started journal spread, and it is, at the least, colourful by now. 

While there's a long way to go yet, some areas are well in progress.

I'm really like the contrast between the masked areas and the dark overlay,

as well as the patterned work next to the wild abstracted leaves.

With lots of infilling yet to complete, 

I can see that it will be another week or two before this spread is finished.

There are more stencils and masks waiting for additional inspiration, just in case.

And with luck, it won't be a month before I get back to it!  Now, I'm off to catch up with what you've been doing while I was 'out to lunch'!  Happy creating, my friends.

I've been wondering about The Space Between recently...

 ...whether it's the space between people (a safe 6 feet right now in pandemic times), the space between our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies, the space between quarks which comprise protons, neutrons and electrons which combine to make atoms, and so on.

In fact, we really don't know what the space between actually is, which means, of course, that I had to create something to represent it.  Remember a while ago I told you I was saving bits of paper from the cutting of snowflakes?  Well, there's a use for everything, right?

The Space Between, a journal spread

I started by gessoing a large journal spread (11" x 16.5" when open) with black gesso, and then tore into it with gel pens.  I've done several gel-on-black pieces, but none this size before, and it took a long, long while.

The pages are densely covered with an array of dots, geometric forms, symbols and more.

Some areas have pencil additions that are near-invisible.

There is such a wide range of wonkiness,

winding paths,

and wackiness that it really makes me smile.

And I have to wonder if that is what is really going on in our lives...the path is sometimes dense, occasionally easy to follow, once in a while impossible to understand and so much more besides.  Are we meant to understand our lives at all, or is it enough to navigate through it to the best of our abilities, caring for the space between ourselves and others (those who are all one with us).  

What is your perception of your life?  Is there a space between at all?  Of what is it comprised?  

Well, wasn't that...

...a bookmark-making party at the library?   Those ladies were ready to go all night they were having so much fun.  With around 80 bookmarks completed, that's a lot of donation-funding from an event that was such a blast.

My inner colour pig was SO happy...

...and I was most certainly not the only one feeling that way.

In marked contrast to all that colour...

...we had an overnight snowfall this past week, and it was still falling at 6 am when I took my morning walk.  It was so beautiful - snow-puffed trees, lacy in the dark and aglow with lamplight. Just as I walked out onto the street something flashed in front of me and was gone. I walked a few steps to see, to my left on Cedar Street, a family of deer poised for further flight. There were half of dozen of them, standing in the middle of the street, frozen like a 1950's postcard, waiting to see if I meant them harm. We spoke to each other silently for a few moments and when I finally said good morning, they literally bounced once and then danced off towards 16th Avenue, flapping their tails in a cheeky goodbye. This world is pure magic. 

While these photos were taken later that day, it's easy to see how lovely it has been.

I had a studio visitor this week as well - Laura Leeder and I tested some acrylic markers by Amsterdam, Golden Hi-Flow acrylics and their markers, and some needle-tipped paint applicators.  Naturally we had a lot of fun, and made some great comparisons of the different styles.

It's obvious that we both need to add to our stash of tools!

And something that made me laugh hysterically...I was moaning to Laura that I couldn't get a good photo of some gel pen work I'd done, and she asked whether I'd tried to scan them.  Well, duh!!!  No, I hadn't, so here they are.  ☺️

Since we're coming up to Valentine's Day, I'll leave you with some love.

Happy week, my creative friends!

Pattern, pattern, pattern...

I showed you the start of these fun foam prints a couple of weeks ago, and thought you might like a view of the plate after the first print:

Of course, one can't do just one print with fun foam plates, especially given they pair so nicely with  gel plates.  The prints on the left are done with Golden Open paints on the gel plates with the ones on the right done from there directly onto white cardstock.  I can see there will be more of these in my printing future on both counts.

Blaming another recurring addiction directly on Lynne Mizera, I have to tell you we got stencil burning this past week...she'd taken a class a couple of years ago with me, but hadn't done her own since.  

We were so into the whole thing;  I used her Natalie Kolbach stamp to create paper mask and stencil and soon there were flying elephants all over the place.

The first elephant materialized when I used the mask portion over a gel print...yummy colour, don't you think?

Of course, I had to go back in with some gel pens and play some more - a whole lot more, in fact.

Then I used the paper stencil to create an outline on the house wrap, and started burning.

I was going a little bit googly-eyed, so I put a colourful print underneath the glass so I could actually see what I was doing.

It showed up really well, I thought.

Pretty soon there were elephants everywhere; they seemed to multiply faster than I could corral them.

I used the burned stencil portion over another gel print, and then the paper mask to pounce back into it for the background.  More gel pen play, and this happy, heart-ful elephant is well on it's way.  I think she looks like she's going on an adventure, don't you?

What have you been up to this week?  I love hearing about your own adventures during these hot summer days!

Still obsessed...

with patterns, I just cannot stop doodling with gel pens on black paper.

There's something about the intensity of the colour contrast that does it for me.

It seems to me that the repeated patterns create a state of relaxation

and the empty spaces tell a story, too.

I can hardly get enough of doing them, and I'm afraid the house will soon be overrun.

I suspect these will soon be housed in their own little book...terrific, another creative project!

Because patterns are invading my mind, I was playing with a set of coasters that were on the coffee tables, naturally arranging them into various patterns (doesn't everyone?). It was fascinating to see the four mandalas that arose:

Noticing Klimt's mastery of pattern and colour made me wonder if there is richness all around us that I'm just not noticing. What patterns are you seeing in your life?  Are they physical, or something else entirely?  I'm wishing us a day of noticing them all.

I've been on holiday...

...in the studio, doing nothing but playing.

I've been doodling up a storm with gel markers on black paper.

While the metallic ones photograph poorly, they're fun to use and give the original pieces a good deal of sparkle.

Even the white pencil on black has some great impact, and with the coloured ones, I've already incorporated some into a journal cover.

I can't seem to stop; I worry that my family will starve, the rivers will dry up and dust bunnies will creep out of the house and take over the world as I work my way through this current obsession.

I also spent a couple of afternoons this past week playing with Lynne Mizera in her studio...we got heavily into her supply of Pebeo products, testing the Vitrail colours (check out that intensity!!!!)

as well as the Cerne Relief, the Prisme and Moon paints.  While this test project is pretty butt-ugly, I had a lot of fun doing it and could see how one could get addicted given the possibilities.

I tested both the Vitrail and the Relief on a panel that had been sitting around waiting for action.  I first added six different sections of mediums over top of a red cheesecloth monoprint including (clockwise from top left) fibre gel, no addition, texture gel, bird seed in heavy duty medium, clear tar gel, white opaque flakes and glass beads.  I scrubbed the sun yellow Vitrail over all and added a splash of red to the bottom.  The black Cerne Relief, while adding nothing to the overall composition (what WAS I thinking?), was fun to do!

I also rolled some printed paper scraps into fake beads and will incorporate them into something sometime in the next decade.

All in all, my Meandering Muse kept me well occupied this week, even if it was doing nothing that but playful exploration.  These are the things that lead to the 'something more' that leads to the bigger and better.  I 💖💖💖  studio play.  How about you?