Posto alla musica

Scrapbook papers, three hands, hand printed papers and whatever else happened to be lying around ...I don't write much; usually the found words will do the trick. Sometimes, I wish I could write more but that does not seem to be "my thing".

Le Petit Journal

I had some scraps of paper that I peeled off a closet door (I know .. crazy ...). I wanted to use them because th were from a french magazine from 1894. I pasted them haphazardly on the journal pages. Then, I saw the hands - with cut fingers, but still. The niche-like whole was perfect for a small Virgin of Guadeloupe collage image.
On the left side, the negative shapes made me think about a pregnant woman, but my drawing looks more like a pregnant peanut. "I am very sad because my heart is bleeding" is a piece of text I found among other knick-knacks on my desk. The shape fitted perfectly at the top of the hand with cut fingers.

Meat, fish, provisions

In these pages, I decided to go "complicated" and fold the right page. The idea was to build the pages in such a way that the "story" flows from one side to another. I succeeded only partially... but I like the result.

Doodles

This exercise started with a blind contour doodle. I made six copies and I turned each one of the copies into something else (exercise from Aimone's book as well).

This is what I got:

While I was looking at these pages through the camera lens, I realized that they are not finished. Here they are,with few more touches.

Working with flux

Here, I took the results of an older exercise (from Dean Nimmer's book) and applied the methods from  Steven Aimone's book: black and white paint using both hands, charcoal, pencil.

Circus City

These exercises are from Steven Aimone's book - working with flux. In other words, intuitive work. Adding shapes, lines, obstructing and revealing with paint, charcoal, markers. Enjoyable exercise - I am pleased with the results, especially the bottom one.

Crusade nr 41 - Grid

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa for missing the last crusade! I was swamped with preparations for the marathon and I did not make it in time to post.But this time I hurried!

Here is my grid. The apple and the pear on the left page are remnants from past drawing classes as all the pages in this journal are recycled. On top of the aple, there is an acetone transfer on watercolor paper and the original. The shape at the top of the left page was used in the printing crusade and the pears on the right are from the same exercise.

Fruit labels

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to collect some fruit labels. But what do with them, may I ask?! Hmmm....I glued this older face on a page in the journal, glued few other scraps of paper; found a funny broccoli lady "hiding" in my scrapbook paper. I decided that the fruit labels made for nice hair jewellery; as for the profile face, it comes from a newspaper article about the new Cirque du Soleil show. Et voila ...

Heart tree

I tried a portrait using Adirondack waterbased inks. The result is OK. I filed the paper and did not think much about it anymore. But then I saw in a photography magazine the picture of a tree covered in pink blooms and I had an aha moment. I realized that it could fit around the face; the final image reminds makes me about the Sleeping Beauty and how the weeds and thorns grew to cover the castle walls ...

I am back

... after being missing in action for the last few weeks. But I had reason!

I run a marathon last Sunday - my second one. The week before the race, I was busy praying the God of runners. I suspect the other 4499 registered runners did the same because the weather was perfect for racing. We broke the heat record few days before the marathon; it was hot, humid and deadly for running ... at least for me. But the race day was perfect, cool, cloudy, breezy. I finished in the  whooping time of 4:35:35, about 15 min faster than my previous marathon.

This week, it was recovery time, nursing a mini leg injury and finding any excuse possible to not run anymore ...But that's ok, soon I will start the training for the fall marathon in Hartford, Connecticut.

Now, I will try to catch up on posting my latest creations.