art journal – Dear Liza

Scrapbooking Fifty Years

Dear Liza,

I’m making another book, because I really love making books! Also, with Grandpa Nelson and I celebrating FIFTY years of marriage, it seemed like a retrospective was called for.

My first thought was that it would be a simple photo album, maybe a picture or two from each of our 50 years. But the more I thought about it, I realized that I have some skills and imagination, and if I put them to work, this could be something worth sharing, maybe even passing down.

First, I needed a book to build the album in. Down at Belmont Books, Joe has all sorts of possibilities. I chose this one because it is sturdy, lays flat, and has enough (probably too many) pages to work with. Collage always makes a book much thicker, and I can tear out the leftover pages when I’m done.

For the covet, I found just the right papers in Auntie Bridgett’s collage boxes. A very 1970s vibe….

I went through my own collage boxes for postcards, maps and ticket stubs that will help tell our story. I also pulled dozens of photos. Since original photos from back then were printed on stiff paper, I used my scanner to make more flexible copies.

I’m afraid Grandpa and Bridgett are putting up with the dining table being a bit cluttered!

Still, slowly, page by page, front to back and with lots of moving and shifting (and not gluing anything down until I’m sure it’s in the right place!) it is coming together. I use mod podge as my adhesive, making sure to let each page dry and get pressed before building the next one. Each page will also have some sentences about what was happening at the time… I’ll type them in Bridgett’s vintage typewriter to feel old fashioned and cool.

As I collect pictures and remember more adventures, I keep shifting things… like real life, this project is going to be more complicated than I first thought.

But each page will tell of another adventure… even though some are not very detailed yet. All I can promise is that it probably won’t take a whole fifty years to get it done!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Danish Travel Journal

Dear Liza,

Yep, there is a new travel journal, and it’s heading your way! I will be bringing it this week when Grandpa Nelson and I visit you in Denmark.

As usual, I started with a nice thick mixed media spiral bound sketchbook. Their paper is good for writing, collage, and even watercolors, if you don’t get too wet.

My front cover is frenetic and busy, like I am feeling about the trip. I used a weird polar map projection and a compass rose to show travel, a flag and color scheme for Denmark, and words to tell about the excitement of anticipation.

Since most of our travel once we get to Denmark will be by car, my inside cover shows a road trip. The background started as a celestial map, and you can still see some of wording under the grey acrylic. I wanted a grey and red color scheme, and found all those little figures in a magazine ad for Target. Posca marker let me write in WHITE.

Since the back cover represents the end of the journey, it has words like ‘exhausted’ and ‘I had an enormous breakfast’ as well as things I hope to see. And just because I had them, I included the Danish national anthem in Danish and English.

Since every trip is different, every travel journal is different, and I can’t promise anything special. But I’ll show you what I come up with. Heck, you’ll probably see some of what I’m drawing while I’m drawing it.

And I will like that very much.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Playing Around

Dear Liza,

With the weather being so nice and sunny, I have not been making art as much as I did when it was cold. My creative juices have been working to decide what to plant in the allotment. I have even re-designed my garden plot. Here is my new idea, with veggies planted in bunches instead of rows.

But this morning, I got inspired. I wanted to make a flower in a different way, without actually painting a flower. I had gotten inspired by watching Ruth Inman make backgrounds using acrylic paints and old credit cards.

First, I cut a stem, a rose, and leaves from heavy paper and glued them down to the page. Once they dried, I dabbed some yellow, white and blue acrylic paint around. I wasn’t too fussy about where the dabs were.

Then I took an old credit card and used it like a palate knife, scraping the paint around a bit. This mixed the blue, yellow and white together to make some interesting new greens.

I liked the way it looked, but it needed more.

As I put more paint down and scraped it around, I began to despair. It got too dark! It lost the definition of the stem and leaves!

But when I hate a picture, I keeping working until I don’t hate it anymore. I got more delicate and laid in a bit of red and pink for the rose, using a small corner cut from the card for better control.

I was liking it better, but it wasn’t done. I knew it needed more but I had gotten wary. Was I just going to make it worse? I stepped away for a while. We had dinner and worked on the new jigsaw puzzle.

I was in pajamas by the time I figured out what was needed. I pulled out the art supplies and worked for about five minutes, laying down a scraped bit of white here and there around the leaves. Now I liked it.

I really enjoy this new way of painting! It is unpredictable and surprises me with colors and textures. One color will cover another, or reveal it, and it makes my eyes sing. I love staring at a picture I painted and seeing things I didn’t expect.

Love,

Grandma Judy