Bringing Home the Goods: Baum-kuchen

Thank you, Maria and the Gang, for the most wonderful weekend in Fremont. I had a blast teaching and I hope that folks enjoyed the workshops as much as I enjoyed teaching them. I left inspired and eager to keep working. I hope to see you all again in December for a special weekend of workshops and art field trips (more on that very soon.)

I'm teaching in Los Angeles (Mar Vista) this Saturday. If you're interested in LA workshops, catch them there while you can as I will be on hiatus from teaching in that studio very soon (insert sad face.) 

The first weekend in November, I'm trekking North again to teach in Sacramento. More information here. I'm super excited about heading back there!

For the past couple of years, I've used a Shinola Detroit planner (which I LOVE.) With my planning for France, I wanted something smaller with sections I could remove so I decided for 2019 to switch to a Traveler's Notebook. 

Before I left for Fremont, I placed an order from a local shop called Baum Kuchen. I've been wanting to visit for quite some time but various things have always kept me from getting to their in person shop. I placed an order for the above goodies. They shipped insanely fast. I'm super excited to use everything. I'll share my planner ideas as we get closer to 2019 and I start to put everything together.

Visit Baum Kuchen here (I can't wait to visit their in person shop!) 

Fremont Workshop Weekend

What a wonderful way to spend the weekend... 

9 October 2017 Journal Page

Leaving tomorrow for my Fremont, California workshops. Packed, prepped and roaring to go. Will post pictures and more while on the road.

7 October 2017 Journal Page

Lots of planning lately. Always grateful that my journal forces me to be in the present.

Just found out that there is a major Van Gogh exhibit planned for Houston in early 2019 so now I am wondering how to get to Texas (for workshops and Vincent...)  So grateful that I am able to even think of doing this... 

6 October 2017 Journal Page

I've got a busy week ahead as I prepare to leave for the weekend to teach at Maria's in Fremont this Friday through Sunday. Lots of last minute prep work and home stuff to do before I go.

This is another journal page in this book that I love. No idea where it came from but I'm rather obsessed with the pod on the right and the lines coming down from it. 

My favorite pages are always the ones that make me wonder, where did THAT come from?

28 September 2017 Journal

Finding shapes in the movement of the paint on the page. Trying to move towards my own mark making. Always pushing and pulling. Forever learning.

27 September 2017 Journal Page

I love how art making translates to problem solving. I had cut out the text in the bottom right hand corner. I flipped it upside down and glued it as you see it. I took a black paint marker and colored on top of it. Something didn't look "right" so I let it dry and then extended the loops and "letters" (they became something else in the process) from the left side of the page. 

Sometimes it doesn't matter if you can read it or not, the beauty is in the letter form. 

26 September 2017 Journal Page

One of my favorite pages from this journal that still makes my heart ache when I flip through it. Maybe even more so now than then, not knowing what was ahead...

Stopped at Blick yesterday to restock for my upcoming workshops. The stores stopped carrying my favorite hand barrier cream for painting (it's online only now), so I was forced to try something new for now. Hopefully my hands will behave and not break out.

Super excited for my new Fremont classes next weekend!!! I still have to just pick up cardstock and print out the handouts. Less than a week now!

"Ruin it into something better"

I was reading "Art Students League of New York on Painting" and found this gem:

"One day a little boy was visiting my class. I gave him some paper and colored pencils to work with. He became annoyed, and I asked whether the drawing was boring him. 

"What do you do when something is upsetting you?" I asked.

"I just ruin it into something better," he replied.

Picasso once said, "We don't learn painting, we find painting." Mark Rothko once told me, "We have to know that miracles can happen. We can never give up."

-William Scharf

21 October 2017 Journal Page: Mother! Journal Page (an Ode to a Film)

I posted this page (from start to finish) when I completed it last year.  You can see the entire progression here. 

I love when art inspires more art! I saw the film, Mother!, a year ago and I'm still thinking about it. That's my kind of art...

10 September 2017 Journal

Lots of things on my To Do List lately. 

Doing prep work for my upcoming workshops in San Diego (this Sunday), Northern California (Fremont and Sacramento), L.A. and France (I have been doing something on a daily basis to prep for France.) 

Sorting through my book and magazine piles again. I'll be bringing books to sell to my Northern California workshops as well as posting them soon on my book blog (which is in need of an update.)

My brain is a bit like a leaky faucet with ideas lately. Trying to make the time to get them all out. I know I'm not alone with this.

I don't like being the bearer of sad news. In case you haven't heard, Cloth Paper Scissors is shutting its doors. I'll confess that it has been a long time since I've read a copy but it still makes me sad. Like Stampington, I used to scoop up every issue and devour the pages. My heart goes out to the workers now out of a job as well as the readers who looked for it on a regular basis. Another part of our mixed media history is brought to an end. 

Paper Meditations: a Work in Stages

 Paper first

 Beginning paint layers

 More paint layers with additional marker/pen/water soluble pencil work

 
 close-ups

Finished journal page 
5 October 2018

This journal that explores my upcoming 2019 trek to Europe. I'll be sharing WIP pages on my Instagram, facebook and twitter feeds.