Category: Art Journal

Sep 06

i carry your heart with me


i carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

The theme of my friend, Andria‘s, circle journal is based on this poem. Andria is one cool chick, a writer, a teacher, a gal with a heart to share her passion with others. I met her at Artfest in 2008 and am so glad I did. She is one of the highlights of my Artfest experience.

The above pages are my addition to her journal. I’m finding my art journaling becoming much more simplistic. I love layers and hidden treasure, but am finding myself more and more satisfied with a cleaner process.

This simplistic style may also be a representation of the changes my life and heart have experienced this year. So many layers of others’ beliefs that I had thought were my own have been stripped away; layers about money, education, boundaries, life experiences, relationships, secrets, all gone. If you’ve been wondering why my blog has been so quiet, I’ve been totally engulfed in renewing my mind.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12: 1-2

Transformation is a continual process. Because I have arrived here does not mean I am at my destination. But now I am content to find my place once again in the ebb and flow of life.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal, God's Word, God's leading, Hidden Art, Transformation

Aug 08

The saga of bad hair, growth & openness

I picked the correct theme word for this year, Unsafe. Combine that with my church‘s theme word, Grow, and stir the pot. Although I’ve been relatively silent in the cyber world, my life has been moving and shaking.

Here’s the 2010 checklist for my theme word, Unsafe:

  • be bold
  • put my heart on the table
  • make art that speaks LOUDLY
  • risk rejection
  • give myself wholly as God commands
  • surely offend someone
  • get hurt
  • heal and grow
  • live a life focused on helping others
  • trust

Not that I’ll stop doing what has been crossed out, but now I turn my focus to making art that speaks LOUDLY, and at the rate I’ve been Growing this year, my mind is full to bursting with creative thought and worship for my King. Now to bring the art to fruition.

And about the bad hair drama in my life, a dear friend of mine turned me on to her hairdresser who worked a miracle on my awfully-colored, poorly-cut hair. After 2 months of wearing my skull cap, it felt so good to like my haircut. The grey is still growing out which I can usually deal with, but get that occasional twinge of “oh, but I’ll look so old!” Reality is, I’ll look my age and 41 is not a bad age to be.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal, God's leading, Transformation, Worship

Jun 11

Summer Soldering Class

This summer I am doing a great deal of growing and planning. My business is unfocused. As many of you know, my heart is really aimed towards creatively worshiping my God, and sharing the creative process with others to facilitate growth and healing, introspection and thoughtfulness. The small income I do receive from my Etsy shop and from the classes I teach go to fund supplies used in teaching monthly classes at Veronica’s Voice. If I were to make a larger income, it would go towards furthering my own artistic education, so I could continue to expand what I share with others. As I refine my business plan this summer, the classes I’ll be teaching outside of Veronica’s Voice will be minimal. Besides the soldering class below, I will also be scheduling one art journaling class (date will be announced early next week). That said, my dream is one of growth, and of sculpting and refining many new and fun classes to come.

Introduction to Soldering: Making Jewelry

Date: Sat, July 17
Time: 1-4pm
Place: 2926 Campbell St, Kansas City MO 64109

Hear pendant promise ring*Examples: your pieces will be unique.

Learn the funky art of soldering, and make your own one of a kind jewelry. After receiving instruction, you will be constructing and soldering your own ring and pendant. We will be using images from vintage books, music, and papers, or if you have a special image in mind, please bring it to class. The glass sizes available to make pendants include 1×1, 1×2 and 1×3. The diameter of the ring will be approximately the size of a dime. All supplies are included in the cost of the class, including choker or ball chain for your pendant. If time allows, you may make a marble charm as well.

Class size: 8 students max.
Fee: $35

Policies:

  • Prepayment is required to register for class.
  • A 48 hour notice is required to cancel your spot in class, so that I may contact others who may be on a waiting list. If you do not notify me of cancellation, your class fee will not be refunded.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal, Balance, VERONICA's Voice, Worship, soldered

Jun 09

Fermentation

This evening the kitchen filled with the incredible aroma of grated ginger, daikon radish, nappa cabbage, carrot, and garlic. Yep, it was kimchi makin’ time.

I use the recipe from my Nourishing Traditions cookbook, and although it is not as hot as real Korean kimchi, the flavor is delightful. Once a jar is opened in our home, it is usually devoured by the end of the day.

My food processor grated and shredded all the lovely veggies so quickly. The only seasonings added are sea salt and crushed red pepper.

Fresh whey is added to promote fermentation.

Then the whole mess gets pounded for about five minutes. The aromas that are released in this process are euphoric.

Then into wide mouth jars it goes for at least a month of fermenting. And the wait begins.

While I was at it, six jars of fermented cucumbers also were put together. They are so quick and easy to do, and I prefer their funky, fizzy taste to the traditionally pickled cucumber.

The house is quiet tonight. My husband is away shooting “Most Terrifying Places” for the Travel Channel, and my children are off enjoying a party. Although tempted, rather than put away that folded laundry, I choose to work in my art journal for the rest of the evening…and dream of kimchi.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art Journal, Good Food

Jun 05

Summer Shift

Morning laundry load blowing in the breeze, the constant sheen on my face, meals cooked on the grill, yes, summer is here.
(Don’t you love the clothespin bag? Thank you, MaryZoom, for such a gorgeous, functional bag. It brings delight to my laundry routine.)

We don’t run our air conditioner unless it is really hot. Acclimating to the heat allows us to embrace our yard as part of our living quarters. Winter is very hard on me. I get so cold and don’t want to venture outside much, so when it warms up even a little, our living space quadruples. This includes the kitchen as the gas grill has become our oven. We have learned to use it quite successfully for all our baking needs. A good heavy cast iron skillet or dutch oven works the best since the heat can be intense. The cast iron evenly distributes the heat and has kept many a dinner from burning.

The front porch swing is so inviting to sit and visit with my family. A sweet breeze always seems to be blowing through. This swing was built by my husband’s great-grandfather. I am so grateful to be able to use this cherished swing.

Living the “green” life before green was politically correct, I love the earth because I view it as a gift from my Father, a gift to be treated with care. This is why I personally choose to not to spray my yard with chemicals. (Tonight as I type, a breeze fills my nostrils with the stench of RoundUp. My neighbor cares for his property differently. I’m hoping tomorrow the smell of chemicals will be gone.) This is also why I try to slow down and embrace the earth, air, plant & animal life. I learn so much about God, myself, relationships, true beauty by pulling weeds, by hanging the laundry on the line, by opening my windows to the bird song, and strangely enough, by not freaking out when I sweat.

Been giving the Strathmore Visual Journal a test run. The one I’ve chosen to begin with is the 5.5X8in, 140lb. watercolor journal. This will be my first shot working in a spiral-bound journal. I’ve heard that many people prefer the spiral bound because it can lay open flat. I will not proclaim a favorite binding as of yet, but am finding the spiral to be getting in my way. I will form my opinion from more than a couple pages though.The watercolor paper is working nicely for both watercolor and acrylic paints. Next test will be collage.

I’ve never used a journal so large as the 9X12in, but am excited to begin using this as my Creative Entrepreneur journal. Yes, my book arrived in the mail, and I’m diving in. Love it so far. It has my mind whirring.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal, Creation, God's leading

May 29

Strathmore Visual Journals

Strathmore is introducing a new product which will be released in stores June 1, a line of Visual Journals designed for those of us who love to paint, draw, journal, collage, and otherwise freely express ourselves in journal form. These spiral bound journals are available in 3 sizes and 6 paper selections, so we finicky art journalers can chose the right size and paper for our favorite medium. I received a box with a variety of the sizes and papers this month, and look forward to giving each of them a try. Thank you, Strathmore, for including one of my pages as an example of visual journaling at your trade show, and for the generous box of inspiration. My favorite to touch is the 140lb. watercolor paper. Its thickness and texture are inviting me to express myself in collage and paint. I can already envision the messy hands and joyous heart. My plans are to visually express the goals & visions that come from diving into Lisa Sonora Beam’s book, The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real. I’ll be sure to share the pages that come from the union of this book, my mind, and the visual journal.  Pam Carriker will also be sharing a series of instructional videos using these journals. Can’t wait until these are available!

When I ordered The Creative Entrepreneur, I also ordered another book that grabbed my interest while I was Christmas shopping last winter, Art Journals and Creative Healing: Restoring the Spirit Through Self-Expression by Sharon Soneff.This book goes hand in hand with the monthly classes I teach at Veronica’s Voice. I look forward to the postal carrier delivering these books to my door, so that I can absorb all they have to teach me.

Speaking of teaching, I am planning summer soldering and art journaling classes.The planning phase of teaching classes stirs all sorts of creative juices within my soul. I often think that I learn more by planning than I am ever able to teach. My all time favorite phase of putting classes together would be the hands-on instruction. Each class is so unique depending upon the personalities and collective groove of the students. Dates will be announced very soon! All classes will be taught from my home in the Kansas City area.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal

Feb 25

Spreading the word: March Art Journal Challenge

Just wanted to encourage you all to join the March Art Journal Challenge hosted by Comfortable Shoes on the Ning network. Here’s what Comfortable Shoes has to say:

Each day in March I will post a prompt of some sort in this group. The prompt could be one word, it could be a material, technique or even a quote. The challenge? To use it in some manner in your art journal THAT DAY!

The idea behind this is to jump start daily art journaling. The goal is to art journal daily but not necessarily to finish a page or spread every day, just to open the journal and work.

The challenges will be posted by their respective week in the discussions. So Week 1′s challenges will go into a discussion titled Week 1 and so on.

You are free to discuss the challenges in the forum, post pics of your results and get ideas from wherever you can!

Did you catch the FREE part? I dig free inspiration. And just in time. My new Moleskine needs to be filled with color.

I’ve gotten a page started and am loving using my Polaroid Pogo Printer I got for Christmas. I took some really bad photos, before and after, from my latest salon experience.

Next to my new Moleskine, you can see the full old Moleskine. It’s quite a bit chunkier once full. My favorite Moleskine journal is the sketchbook, although the watercolor notebook comes in 2nd. Since I write so much, I’ve found I prefer the sketchbook layout rather than the longer spread of the watercolor notebook, but I love the watercolor paper. Next I just need to take the time to make my own custom journal, but one thing at a time.

There is still time to enter the Clean Drawer Giveaway for a chance to win a Sweet & Chunky Ephemera Package. I’ll be drawing this Sunday! In the package will be a juicy mix of ephemera from old handwriting, to typewritten pages, to card, embroidery patterns, magazine articles. Yum.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal, Challenge

Feb 08

Art Journal Class

This past Saturday was art journaling extravaganza. I taught an art journaling class to the coolest crew of gals. They were cranking out the journal pages. I was thrilled to see all they were accomplishing, and not a one worrying about making things perfect. Love it!

The focus of the class was to teach making backgrounds for journal pages, and viewing daily objects differently, by shape, color, texture, making almost everything game to be added to the journal. We used acrylic paints, vintage ephemera, magazines, staples, tape, even bullet canisters (they make these great dotty shapes). My greatest desire in teaching art journaling is that a freedom is felt in creating. There is no set formula that makes a page good or bad. Color and shape combinations that are put together intuitively can bring surprisingly refreshing results. We also tried out the new Tulip Graffiti Paint Cannon for some stencilry. Although the paint cannon satisfies that urge to stencil during the coldest part of winter, it really makes me miss spray paint.

This will be my last class taught from my home for a season. I need a bit of rest. One thing that teaching has taught me is huge amount of work and preparation that goes into putting together and teaching classes. The great respect for my own teachers has vastly multiplied.

But I’m still offering to bring a class to the student. Occasionally a group of friends likes to get together in their own comfort zone, so I pack up all the supplies and bring them on location. Currently I’m offering two basic classes. Check out my CLASSES page.

Outside of teaching, I’m currently working on an album cover, and preparing for Artfest coming up in March. Yes, I am so ready.  The classes I’ll be taking are Encaustic Play taught by Patricia Seggebruch, 3″x3″ Portraits by Misty Mawn, and Drawing+Collage by Carla Sonheim. I am sponge.

Oh, and I added a new contact page on this blog. Just click CONTACT on the top menu bar. Voila. Now you can reach me more easily. I am particularly excited about this new way to contact me because contact feature is Spam Free. I had tried a contact  feature in the past that was attacked by spam bots, not to mention the loads of comment spam I’ve been dealing with lately. WP-Spam Free, will you be my Valentine?

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal

Jan 31

Self Care: Play

Yesterday, January 30, 2010, was the first day I had really let loose and played in my studio just to experiment and have fun since this year began. Although I am so thankful for the day, I am also sad that a month passed without playfulness. This month has been full of creativity, but the time of creativity all had a purpose. It was all done with an end goal in mind. I had to create X to accomplish Y.

This year, this decade, began with focus and goals. I really want my art and teaching to provide enough income to cover workshops and supplies to enable me to teach at Veronica’s Voice. Now at the end of January I am ready to pitch this focus on making money, even for a purpose, even doing what I enjoy, for freedom and play. Although this focus has forced me to jump hurdles and set goals that I otherwise would not have accomplished, I also built myself a huge wall of ARTIST’s BLOCK. The wall is officially torn down, and I’ll be using the rubble to have fun and play this coming week. While I will not be changing what I am doing creatively speaking, I will be changing the reason behind it all. What a great reminder to do what I love to do because I enjoy being creative and sharing this joy with others, not because I have to.

Yesterday, to begin my playfulness, I tried out the new Tulip Fashion Graffiti Paint Cannon, but rather than using it for fabric, I loaded it with a watered down mix of fluid acrylics to try out potential Art Journaling applications. It’s been a cold winter and I miss spray painting with my stencils. This appears to be a great alternative, although the lines are not as neat and crisp as spray paint offers. This newly released product is currently only available at Michaels. And thanks to Pam Carriker who gave me the heads up on this fun tool. She’s also done a great video tutorial on her blog. Here’s the first little spread I created, background painted haphazardly with acrylics then sprayed with the paint cannon over a paper stencil. Then I added detail with paint pens and those cute little kids.

And a couple more just to try out different stencils and backgrounds. Both of these images were created using paper doilies.

On another note, I just have to share how much I have been enjoying this book:

Patti Digh does a great job of addressing the complacency that often immobilizes our society from being compassionate, but she does it in a way that makes one want to take action and live intentionally. Rather than preaching, she tells stories, relational stories, that enable the reader to see past every day happenings into the richness of caring about others, about being oneself, about seeing life through a new lens. She gives a great dose of fresh perspective. Besides thought- and action-provoking stories, Patti also compels further thoughtfulness through a series of writing exercises and additional challenges. Since I began the book during the busy holiday season, I opted out of doing the exercises, but intend to work back through the book after I’m done reading it the first time. Yes, I’m already planning on reading it again.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal, Balance, Inspiring, VERONICA's Voice

Dec 31

UNSAFE by choice in 2010 and beyond

My theme for 2010: UNSAFE. I choose to live my life unsafely.
I will:

  • be bold
  • put my heart on the table
  • make art that speaks LOUDLY
  • risk rejection
  • give myself wholly as God commands
  • surely offend someone
  • get hurt
  • heal and grow
  • live a life focused on helping others
  • trust

Today I’ve seen so many well wishes for 2010 including the phrase, “Be safe.” While I totally understand the intent of this phrase for a night like tonight, “Be safe” has struck a nerve within my stubborn and passionate self. “Be Safe” to me is a command, and I choose to say NO. (Let me qualify this statement. I am not referring to drinking and driving.)

My heroes sum it up. Meet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Jews living in captivity in Babylon. Unwilling to bow to the king’s very large golden image upon risk of death by fiery furnace, these bold men said right to the king’s face:

O Nebuchadnezzar (the king), we are not careful (full of care) to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Did you catch that? They knew God was able to deliver them from the furnace, but were willing to die either way. They definitely did not make a safe choice. (By the way, God did deliver them. Check out Daniel 3 for the whole story.)

I don’t want to make choices that are comfortable, relevant, trendy, or safe just because the outcome of the choices would make my life easier or more socially accepted. I want to live boldly, serving and giving in ways that may be difficult, challenging, or risky. While I will not go looking for danger, I’ve found that following God’s lead makes life quite interesting.

Wishing you all a fruitful 2010 full of boldness, risks and adventure.

amanda ∞

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Posted in Art, Art Journal, God's Word, God's leading, Hidden Art

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