My weekend is going by too fast. I should have a button with that on it that I wear every weekend, because I always seem to find myself thinking that halfway through.
As I started learning collage a lot of the mixed media artist's videos I saw frequently included their art journals or junk journals or various other types of journals. It didn't make sense to me mostly. I wasn't sure why someone would create art inside a book with pages instead of making it on single pieces of canvas or board or... whatever, but something you could hang or give or.... it just didn't make sense. Eventually I bought two books of different sizes in case I decided to do it too.
The first time I played in one of them and for a number of pages, I thought I understood it as a place to play and practice, while not using a more expensive "substrate" as they like to call whatever surface you are creating on. After filling one journal and being maybe halfway through another, I think I still don't understand it. LOL ! I'm going to use up the pages all the same eventually, because it is there. I do understand that what they call "junk journals" are a little of a different thing and some artists that make them go to some great lengths to create things to attach inside them. I have seen some pretty neat creations and of course if someone enjoys doing them, it is still creating and there is totally nothing wrong with that.
With that said, since they are here already, occasionally I will sit down at my art table and having nothing particular in mind to do next, I'll take out the journal and use up another page. I actually filled up the first one and eventually found I never went back to look through it. One day a couple of weeks ago I did go through it and looked at all the things I had made in it early. It was mostly a bunch of crap, even for my standards...LOL.... so I tore out the few pages that I thought had something fun on it and threw away the rest of it. I don't know how long they will float around here or why I would be willing to store them endlessly....till one day they follow the rest of the book into the trash. We'll see.... but, today I am sharing a few pages from this second one that I have played in more recently. It's not that I think these are great art, but hey, if I don't share them, they have even less purpose and some of them are still fun in their odd little ways.
As usual, I nearly never start out with an end product in mind, I just make it up as I go along. I'm sure they testify to that in the end. LOL!
When I created this one, in the end, I think the wavy lines at the bottom almost made it hint of water and after putting on the little house shape, my brain said "triple decker house boat!".... ha ha.... my brain is so funny, but somehow, after several weeks, it still says that when I see this.
I have included a black and white of each, just to add some fun to the post.
This one has a fun color combo I think, but when it was done, the two yellow/blue swatches at the top left and bottom right with the dashes of white painted across them, looked like corn-on-the-cob to me and now I think that every time I see it. If it had to be named, that would be it's name, Corn On The Cob.....you might get the vibe better by clicking on it to make it come up by itself....or not.
Now in black and white.
....and one more. This is the most recent one. I don't know what to say about this one. LOL ....but there it is.
Now in black and white!
The last two I am showing today are photos I took during one of my sessions of making a fresh batch of collage papers. This one I thought was beautiful with the wet paint on the gel plate. I actually stopped to take the picture, because I knew the print would not come out nearly a fun as it looked at this time and I was glad I did, because I was right. When I laid the paper on it, smoothed it out and let it sit a little bit, when I pulled it up, I had not left it long enough and although it certainly did make a colorful paper, it was not that special and it made me glad I had decided to take a picture before I did that.
Thus is one where I had put the peach white paint on the press plate, laid a stencil on it, laid a piece of paper down on top to print and after, I took the stencil off which left the background design you see here. I blopped some turquoise down and before I rolled that out smooth, I took this photo of the wet paint on the press plate again. Then I smoothed it out with a roller and pressed a paper on top and left it to pick up both colors of the paint. I liked this photo too for some reason.
Ok! That's all about that for now.
So....Can we talk about getting older?? No?? .... ok, then I'll just tell you something. LOL I may have told this before, but it is so revolting that if I did, I still need to tell it again. Two summers ago, I started getting cold in the summer. WHAT??? Yes, cold! If I walk in somewhere and it is 70 or 72 degrees inside and the air conditioner is blowing nice cool air, I literally can get miserably cold.... maybe not even that low, maybe even at 73 degrees. If it is that cool and the A/C is not on and blowing, I am just fine. Somehow, the cool air moving across my skin causes me to feel like I am freezing! In general, winter has always been my least favorite season and just for that reason, I detest being cold! So now the universe has played a cruel, cruel trick on me and has made it where I can get cold in the summer too. It really stinks ! Yes, I'm still alive and YES.... my life is still good, but for real, what is up with this? I already knew the the best way to be as older age started was .. adaptable and previously, I have been quite happy with myself as I thought I had been very good at adaptable, but this revolting development is nearly impossible to make peace with. Of course at home I can control the thermostat, but another truth is that, it still gets to hot too when the A/C is off. I have used my fans more, similar to the olden days. I occasionally slip on a soft winter flannel shirt like a sweater, leaving it open in the front like my Grandmother used to do when she had company and chose to keep the air on for the comfort of the her guests. I think about her every time I put it one on while waiting to warm up, after I have turn the air down.
That was my best whine for the day. I hope you are happy. 😂
