Welcomes! and A Peek At My *Doodle~Time*

First things first; we have a few new followers at El Milagro and I would like to extend big and hearty WELCOMES to them! You never know what will be found on these pages; it is about as mixed up a media as you can possibly get! LOL!

Second, I have to thank Roberta at rcs creations~just a girl and her art for the inspiration to start this project. The link above takes you to the page of her journal project.

I had never started an art journal for many reasons...one being I really do not sketch, two being everyone else is doing them (which means I have to dance to the different drummer), three was I had seen so many that looked alike I was utterly discouraged with the thought of it. Roberta's project changed my mind. And that's not easy!

Well, we e-mailed about it, and I thought, hmmmm, I should be able to paste papers into a book, just to clear my head and also use some of the POUNDS of scrapbook paper I have acquired. (dirty little secret.....I love the stuff! I love all paper; that's the problem!)

But when I sat to start, I just stared at that blank journal page and nothing at all happened.
For several days.
Finally one evening, in a fit of pique (or just a good old FIT!) I took a couple of drawers of paper junk, slapped it on the floor, started cutting and tearing and somehow, out of some dark recesses of this thing I call a mind, I made the piece above.
I have called it "Creation" due to the fact that with the Hebrew writing, I was immediately struck by the text in Genesis about the creation of the world and the seperation of light from dark. And that was how I felt getting it done; I had created something and stepped from the shadows back into the light. Click on it to enlarge it to see a bit more detail.
This is not "ART". This is *art*. No pretense, no planning, just letting the creative mind wander and see what it comes up with.

What I used in this:
♦ glue sticks
♦ prismacolor pencils
♦ permanent markers
♦ gel pens
♦ assorted papers (save everything!)
♦ a foil candy wrapper that looks like a coin
♦ a die that cuts the rounded corners like the journal pages

The beautiful thing about a small project like this is there are no rules. You can use tidbits, you can plan if you really feel you need to---I don't. You can experiment with color combinations you like--or ones you normally don't like. You have no obligation to fill the book, though once you start, there is a delight at a page being done and then those scraps for another.....and another.....and another!
If you are in a state of creative block, this is a good, relaxing, nonthreatening way to get the artist skills awake and moving. It let's you attain *the zone* without a lot of effort. It really is a meditative process.
And, it is FUN.
Just plain fun.
So why not give it a try? I dare ya! Go ahead.
HAVE FUN. (and let me know if you do!)

Pax....

A Creative Mess.....It Must Be ART!!!

This morning I woke, wide awake at 4 a.m. again. I can't blame the birds or the leg or anything else......there is a simple reason. Today, as long as I hold up, is my first ART DAY since the operation!!! I was like a little kid before Christmas last evening; too anxious to sleep, ready to bound (well, okay, slide gently!) out of bed and waddle out in the dark of morning to post this! :-)

I hurried out to the studio, after brewing my trusty cup of 40 weight coffee (some day, it will eat right through the mug and walk off....), grabbed the camera and clicked off a few shots of what is on the sewing table. Creative mess! Thought in process of becoming reality. Papers I have saved up and love for their color or pattern, that will become little hearts of all varieties. Big and small......square backgrounds and rectangular. Traditional and non-traditional.

I am soooooooo excited! No, this is not *high art*, *fine art*, art to hang in a gallery.

This is an explosion of from-the-heart-art that I am pretty sure describes the joy I feel at being able to make anything artistic after a long dry spell. It is fairly easy, with collage and a bit of fluid acrylic and colored pencil, paper and scissors, canvas panels and gel mediums.....the things I love.

Today is also the first day poor DH has to return to work, and believe me, between the two of us, I have the better job! I am excited! (not that he has to go back to work....) Of course, I will have to cook a good warm dinner for him as he ventures out in the arctic blast of Indiana in January, but this means my life is returning slowly and somewhat to a state of normalcy, whatever that is.

Now if I can stay awake long enough to revel in my mess and make some more, it's going to be a  glorious day!

Thanks all, for the kind words yesterday on Charlene's photos---yes, there is a Huskey gene for photography, I am pretty sure. Oh the bedlam we could create if we were together!!! That could actually be frightening.....heehee!

And now, as I cannot bear it any longer, and the brain drivel is drying up and slithering in the direction of the sewing tables, I must bid you adieu. I still have some things to move from the wet studio and a chair to get in place down there.

If I could bottle the happiness I feel right now, I would send a 50 gallon drum off to all my gentle readers! Alas, instead, I must wish you a most creative happy day and bid you......

Pax.

P.S. I am thinking about a mystery give-away for Valentine's Day. Any thoughts from my public? This is still in the brewing stage......just sending out feelers to see what the response would be on a mystery give-away.....