the X facta: October 2011

A new challenge

Once upon awhile ago I decided it was time to do something stretchy. You know the deal, stretch yourself to do something outside the comfort zone.

So I selected myself to participate in the Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Journal Project 2012. Don't you just love inclusive community art projects, where anyone who is brave enough can jump in and have a go. I can't even remember how I found out about this, but having recently joined twitter, I'm gonna' say a little bird told me! You'll see a familiar icon image over here. Of course I had to choose the theme "treehouse".

All the sketchbooks will be exhibited throughout US and Canada. Then the books from Australia will be shown in Melbourne, Nov 2012. After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of "The Brooklyn Art Library", where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.

I just received my barcoded journal in the post today. If you like the idea and wanna play, entries close Oct 31 (that's today in Australia! but tomorrow in the US, so I'd hedge my bets you might still get in on Cup Day).

If you wish you'd heard about it earlier, then you should follow me on twitter. That's where I shared the idea as soon as I found out about it.

Never before has a blank journal seemed so scary. It's not even that big. Think the best thing to do is stop looking at all the amazing work everybody else is posting online, and just go play in my treehouse!

do my knees look too big in this?

Weeping warrior

There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep

and still be counted as warriors.

~ Adrienne Rich

My name means 'warrior woman' but lately I've lost any ability to fight the good fight. In fact every day feels like a monstrous battle, just to get up, get out the door and get home in one piece. Most of the time I manage to put on the armour, get out there and do what needs to be done. But today is not one of those days.

koala capers

This little fella' mistakenly thought one of our house poles was a gumtree. He climbed as high as the roof and finally realised there were no eucalyptus leaves up there for his dinner. We have 6 of these poles outside our house, and two inside. Wonder if he'll try them all . . . (click on thumbnails above for a closer look)

beat creative block

Got creative block? This is how you bust it.

inspired by my childhood favourite,
Mr Squiggle, creating pics from doodle lines

is a great way to exercise creativity

and get yourself unstuck

grab a big piece of paper

start doodling on the page

no plans or try hards

just doodle shapes, colours, patterns

then take a look to see what you can see

the trick with doodle art is to look at it

sideways or upside down

my brain said, "looks like a clown hat"

so with the paper still facing that way

i continued to turn the doodle into a clown

then when done, turn the paper right side up

As you can see below, this is quite a big piece of paper.

Working large means you have to move your whole body as you paint/draw.
This helps you become unstuck literally and energetically.

This might appear to be a creative block busting tool for artists or illustrators. But it will help beat blocks of any kind. Writer's block, chef's block, business block. In fact any part of your life that's feeling stuck will benefit from stimulating your right brain. And that's what this doodling exercise will do.

Remember it works best if you go big on some butchers paper or newsprint, rather than small in a notebook. Give it a go. See what happens. At the very least, you'll have had some fun and forgotten the stress of being blocked for at least half an hour.

Weather watching windsock

Whirly windsock, photo by Kel

Mr X is a sailor and keen weather watcher. He installed a flagpole and windsock on our property for an instant visual on wind direction and speed.

The one above was the first version. A pretty little number, but not quite up to the strength of wind that sometimes whips across our island. So we now have a real one, an airport windsock!

If you look closely, you'll see it in the foreground above.

It certainly helps us keep our eyes on the skies.

my contribution to Skywatch

Scratch art

I don't think I'll ever become a fine artist; someone who hones their techniques and skills to become an expert at one or two particular techniques or mediums. Dabbling is my favourite sport in the studio. It's all good homework for being a creative coach at workshops and retreats. So I'm always trying something new.

Not that this is new. We all did 'scratch art' back in primary school. Of course, now that we're older and think we have to be arty-farty, we call it sgraffito. While I use a version of sgraffito in some of my textured acrylic paintings, I haven't done any simple scratch art for a long time. It was fun. I'm gonna do some more. Of course the thing I love about it is I get to use one of my trademark styles, a black background.

Big skies

Living on an island with plenty of space around our house, we get many 'big sky' moments. The trick is taking the time to notice. To stop, look up and absorb it all. This 'moment of noticing' is looking to the west from the rear of our house, across to the studio. Late afternoon sun sending some stripes along the paddock below, with moody skies above.

What scenes do you have in your surroundings that need noticing?

this is my creative contribution to skywatch

Sing your story

La La La : Singing my Story

(detail of collaged element)

If you sang your story onto paper with paint, what would it look like?

Work with what you resist the most

Ten journals, travelling hand-to-hand, throughout a regional area for two years.

My contribution to a travelling journal project.

Some of you may recall this face. I created it as part of an online course last year. It was a bit softer then, but I cut it from the original background, sharpened it up with some strong black edges and reworked it into a new journal spread. I have a real love/hate relationship with this image. But when the journal landed in my hands, I knew straight away that I had to somehow use it - this image that holds so much energy.

But oh the pain. I resisted it for awhile. My ego didn't want that style of imagery to be seen as what I do. It couldn't be more opposite than the intention, style, purpose of what I think art journalling is, at it's best. The misconception by many people that art journals are supposed to be pretty, light and fluffly - full of doe-eyed beauties, hearts and flowers, with embellishments vomited all over the page . . .(yep, I guess that pretty much sums up how I feel about that!)

So in an effort to work with what I resisted the most, I jumped in the deep end. Looking at this image I created, which I hate for all it represents to me . . . I asked it a question.

What do you have to tell me? It's more than skin deep.

Mr X happened to walk through the studio just then. "I need some skin!" I exclaimed. He looked at me like I was a madwoman. "Somehow I have to put a layer of skin over the image." I explained. A thought whizzed through my head that I wish it were mid-summer and Mr X had got himself a nice sunburn. I could harvest the peelings off him and put them on the page. Ewww! Gross!

Excuse me, didn't you just say you hate it when people think art journals have to be sweet and pretty?

Realising I was in the art zone, Mr X dissolved out of the room just as quickly as he came in. Scanning the studio for inspiration on 'skin-like' material, I threw some waxed paper over the image. No, not that. Some thin recycled paper. No. Then I saw the box of disposable gloves on the end of the bench. Aha! I cut the fingers off a glove, then cut the hand part open. Nah, it didn't look right. But it 'felt' right, the texture of thin skin. I grabbed another glove and started ripping the fingers off it. This shredded the latex into interesting shapes and left edges like peeled skin. Yes!