PLAY Visual Journaling Retreat

We enjoyed Teesha's visual journaling PLAY retreat at Fort Worden In Port Townsend, WA. For more photos, check out Gwen's, Fran's and Liesel's blogs. Here is the recycled cardboard journal that I made out of an old album cover and various commercial boxes cut up and collaged onto the cover.

Here's the back cover.

The journal signatures are made of cut-up grocery store paper bags gessoed in white and black.

One day we walked on the beach and made designs on the sand and built things. We took photos and used these in our journals.

We also made box sleeves to hold mini-journals made with gift card or postcard covers.

I took a granola box and cut off the ends, used black duct tape to cover them.

On the back of the box I blacked out words to make my own statement.

The last journal, we made out of one 30x22 inch sheet of watercolor paper to make 16 pages. Tear the paper into thirds, each 10 inches high. The cover is folded in half with each end folded back to form narrow end pages. The other two sheets are folded every eight inches twice.

Here are two pages that contain the start of journaling- collage, lines, doodling, text, etc.
Hopefully, this inspires you to make a recycled journal or the 16 page one.

Cabinet of Curiosities- ex-tinc-tion

For my January Nature Gathered piece , I chose to highlight extinction in my cabinet of curiosities. The images are drawn and water colored. The theme reminds me of life cycles and what survives or not. Life can be very fragile. Climate change, global warming, over population and development make this more apparent. What wild life will become extinct in our lifetime?

Volunteering in Mexico for a Year

Check out Mari and Dick's new blog which describes their work to develop literacy projects and sketching workshops in a little village north of Puebla. Both share their many years of experience in Tlaxco's "escuilita" or elementary school. Their community involvement demonstrates their commitment to serving others at a grass roots level. I'm looking forward to following their journey and new adventures.

Obama Soul Collage Card

I am the One Who offers HOPE to a world battered by war and economic chaos. I am the One Who speaks of change, a way to work together, to find common ground and to help one another in the pursuit of liberty, justice and diversity in tough times. I am the One Who is strong, intelligent, listens and solves problems. I am the One Who is proud to be an American.

Suttle Lake Lodge

Last weekend, my book group spent a wonderful weekend at Suttle Lake Resort on the Santiam Pass near Sisters, Oregon. The sketch depicts the view from our cabin window. We saw an otter, bald eagle, a couple of swans and many ducks.

We stayed in the historic 1925 Pointe Cabin right on the lake and creek.

The week before, it snowed but the rain melted most of it by the time we got there.

Black Butte towered over the lake. The Lodge and our cabin are on the distant shore.

The other direction gave us a spectacular view of Mt. Washington and the sunset.

The full moon reflected in the lake.

Another view of Mt. Washington the next day as we hiked around the lake.

The mushers getting ready to take off at Hoodoo as we snow shoed around the area.

The Strategist Soul Collage Card

Soul Collage is a way for me to reconnect to my dreams, plans and desires for life. Recently, I read Suzie Wolfer's soul collage newsletter about starting the New Year with a strategist card
to help achieve visions and keep key planning tools at hand. The visual representation speaks of new frontiers and decisions made wisely. This card was made with intention. I collected magazine images that spoke to me about forming a life strategy, scanned them into Photo Shop and re sized them to fit the 5x8 inch card with a composition that pleased me. The card sits on my desk to remind me of what I want to accomplish in 2009.

I also recommend that you check out Leigh Bunkin's blog.
Her inchie grid drawings in a theme or another artist's style are very inspiring. She is also doing some wonderful life drawings.

Nature Gathered December Snake Piece

The Nature Gathered theme for December was amphibians and snakes. I enjoyed working with the quilted pet portrait idea and decided to make this one 3-D. All is made with fabric except for the polymer clay head. The complementary color palette is one I want to explore again.