Ink over white crayon, digitally altered to create different layers. A filter was also applied to change the color values some.
(Double click on the image to see the whole thing if it appears cut off.)
The latest paper.
The pulp was made with recycled card stock. I crumbled dried red geraniums between layers of pulp. The change from red to blue is a PH reaction. I have no idea how long it will last for but it's beautiful at the moment.
Digital play.
Another heart...it might have to be opened as a separate page to be seen.
The cordage was made with rhubarb stems (the outside strings).
The screen is what I am using for making paper with. I want to see what I might do with screen coated with paper pulp.
Ink dots.
From left to right, black tulip, roses, the bachelor button, and walnut.
The rings are coffee.
I've started working on a little book to pull together thoughts and things learned while taking Donna Watson's class The Way of Wabi Sabi (Fibre Arts Take Two).
A lot of the pieces I am assembling are photos of the collages I've been making.
Thinking about so many things (as usual), but especially compass roses and direction this morning.
I've been tearing pages out of an old journal for my boats and found a quote this morning that I had written down.
"The human soul doesn't want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is." Parker Palmer
I went to find the source and found Palmer quoting Mary Oliver, "This is the first,the wildest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built out of attentiveness."
I signed up for one more class (from Fibre Arts Take Two) this year... I was interested in what Karen Olsen had to say about altering photos, paper making and paper sculpture. One of the things she suggests is changing the settings on cameras so that they aren't "auto." I've been playing with that and will continue to do so.
Thinking about the power of making choices and how we pay attention.
How can we alter things to tell a different story?
How are we altered by the things around us, by others?
From yesterday's lunch break walk:
Untrue images.
Or are they?
The daffodils are done but I have pigment to play with!
I used these tulips to make ink.
The background layer of this image is a layer of that ink. I am not sure if I would call this image done. The edges aren't really as soft as I'd like but I like the colors.
Four versions of the ink. The bottom is unmodified, the left is with soda, the middle iron, and the right alum.
This ink is fugitive and will fade.
Another version of the tulip. The edges are softer here and it is mysterious in shades of black and white but I miss the colors. Still not calling this done.
Other garden things...
Found blooming yesterday. Cecile Brunner, the Sweetheart rose.
Azalea and lichen at my parents.
In the tarot the fool is a beginner, off on a new journey.
There is something appealing and beautiful about that.
The potential, the ability to keep learning.
A foolish choice?
Yesterday while pulling out dead branches, I discovered that the Lady Banksia rose that I thought was dead had a live shoot. It's not a particularly hardy rose for this area and has died down to the ground a couple times during cold winters. Luckily it is on it's own root stock so I know that there is always the potential it will come back.
Yesterday's life boat on hand painted paper.
Every fool needs a paper boat.
Fooling around as another way to consider play?
Digital layers and filters.
Warning: I am climbing up on a soap box but it seems like a good time to state intention.
Wishing everyone moments of peace and joy.
Paper + stitching, digital layer.
Layers of paper + a digital layer.
A couple months ago I had a discussion with someone about how she felt guilty for being joyful. That it was how she approached life and yet how did that make sense when our world is so full of conflict and grief?
My response was that the world needs our joy. It does come easier to some of us and we need to share it.
Life isn't one thing.
It's also needs to be shared with respect. Right now I often feel the need to check the news before I post something here...
I am wondering if I post something, will it seem insensitive to what is happening in our world? If I focus on the joyful, will it seem as if I am hiding my head in the sand?
I've decided I can't worry about these things. It makes it too easy to freeze and not sharing anything.
I chose to blog because I wanted to participate in a conversation about creativity; and ultimately about resilience and sustainability.
I am on vacation this week...well staycation.
One of the things that I want to do this week is spend 3-4 hours each day working on projects.
All sorts of projects.
All the projects that bring me joy.
All the projects that I see as forms of activisim.
All the projects that help me be the person I want to be, the energy I want to put out into the world.
Yesterday I considered story telling, collage and Jane Hirshfield poem, "The Bowl."
Cauliflower + pasta + toasted bread + lemon olive oil + olives
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Lunch inspired by a recipe in The Secret of Cooking by Bee Wilson.
Images inspired by a Carla Sonheim Class: Portraits with Aris Moore
Research on how happiness might be genetic can be found here.
Ross Gay, someone who is so good at exploring the idea of joy even when it isn't easy.
Today...just at sunrise, snow.
It's gone now but there will probably be more over the next few days.
And then there were two zoom calls.
The first a wrap up for the rust mark making class with Alice Fox.
I tried stitching a face into this one but didn't like it and pulled it out.
I love it like this.
A face and heart imagined.
The mind making meaning and telling me a story.
While I had things out on the table I realized the rust marks (iron and tannin), created a color similar to the mussel shell pigment I made (on the right).
Another perspective. The color inside the hole is mussel pigment and the top is some of the paper I made with a rust mark. I tore the paper in the process of making.
It's still beautiful and full of potential.
I love that the marks are a chemical reaction and are about change.
That they contain iron, something that each of us carries within our bodies.
That iron is a building material.
That stars contain iron.
All this reminds me of Ada Limon's poem, "In Praise of Mystery."
The second zoom call was for the book discussion on Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler) and A Paradise Built in Hell (Rebecca Solnit) hosted by the Studio for Playful Inquiry.
It was a wonderful conversation about resilience (the focus for the month) and how it might show up in our lives...in particular for this group, while working with children.
Throughout the afternoon I kept thinking about the ways that those of us who explore creativity practice resilience. The need to experiment and consider multiple ways of doing things. The knowledge that not all things work and that we might have to try again; problem solving.
That we need to create meaning.
That we are storytellers...
Moon over the house.
Moon through the trees (that shade of blue above the tree line!).
Decided to try the paper bag snowflake again this year (directions found here, I used glue stick).
The above image is with no filter. The one below has a filter applied.
I think it's always worth experimenting...
It's both.
This is three different drawings that I layered on top of each other, keeping the parts I liked the best.