Worms Inspire Art!

In spring, my thoughts turn to gardening.  I've wanted to set up a worm composting bin for ages, and finally made it happen.  

When the UPS package of worms arrived, I assembled all the parts, added some vegetable scraps, and then created this art journal page about my vermicomposter (worm bin). I used collage, colored pencils, ink, and alphabet stamps.

The page shows the thrifted tote I punched drainage holes into the bottom of and used as the worm bin, the shredded paper that became the worms' bedding, the mortar pan to catch water drips, and the worms that I dumped on top of the bedding.  I can't tell you how exciting this is for me! 

I had a worm bin years ago when I worked as a park district naturalist.  Setting up my new worm bin brought up feelings of nostalgia and happy memories from those days.

Celebrating the things we love in our art journals is a way to deepen our enjoyment of them. 

Happy Creating!

Art Journaling with Word Art

Part of what makes art journaling so freeing is the fact that there is no wrong way to do it.  You simply follow the little sparks of ideas you get when you pick up art supplies -- from paints to butterfly wings, to old books.

Above is an Altoids tin I glued vintage book page bits, tea bag paper and other ephemera to. It stores snippets of text for art journaling.

Words snipped out of old books, magazines or wherever you like can be added to your art journal pages.

Clipping them out can be a relaxing way to slip into your creative mode, and you can assemble them into poems that don't have to mean anything to anyone but you.

I was thinking of a dream cruise to Alaska, and found these bits in an old travel book.

You can often find old books in thrift shops, rummage sales, and in free piles at libraries, etc.

The books I use were mostly saved from going into a dumpster.

Why not give some old text a new life in your art?

Happy Creating!

Mark Making and Art Journaling in Wanderlust 2024

I enrolled in Everything Art's Wanderlust 2024 last November and have been enjoying the weekly art inspiration and instructional videos.  A recent session with French artist Eugenie Billotte invited us to look for treasure in our homes to create with.  

Of course, treasure could mean a wide variety of things.  I gathered words and pages clipped from vintage book pages, an old photo, and interesting papers like the textured brown paper packaging above.

  Eugenie walked us through upcycling and mark-making activities that I found freeing, relaxing, and calming.

After creating a small stack of decorated papers, we began working in our art journals.

Here's my finished page spread with a B&W photo I took one spring decades ago of blooming Bloodroot as the focal point of the page.  Nature is my treasure.  I love walking through the woods in the spring, watching birds at my feeder and listening to their songs.

I made a wheel with samples of the decorated pages I created in this lesson.

If you're interested in joining Wanderlust 2024, you can find information here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/wanderlust-2024-artjournalingcourse

I played with the remaining words I had clipped from old books to make poetry.

And I took some of my leftover materials to create this little treasure about my excitement about an upcoming adventure.

I hope you take the time to play with art supplies, make an art journal page, or express yourself with words cut from magazines or books.  Making art just for yourself is a great form of Self Care!

Taking on my Hobgoblin in my Art Journal

When an artist shares their work and their techniques, I always take away inspiration. The most recent example is Lynne Perrella's book, Artist's Journals and Sketchbooks.  

The image on the cover fascinated me, and I figured that Lynne must have created the bold pages by layering on acrylic paints in contrasting colors -- red orange and blue violet, for instance.

I wanted to try to duplicate Lynne's gorgeous colors in my own art journal.

I began by squirting blobs of Cadmium Yellow Hue and Vermilion acrylic paint onto a blank page spread.  Using the side of a sturdy plastic membership card, I scraped the paint and move it around.  The corner of the card made a good tool to carve back into the wet paint in places to create texture.

After the first layer was dry, I used the same technique to add Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue to the pages.  Where the Ultramarine was applied thinly, it looked black against the red-orange.

I love the contrasts of light to dark and of the orange and blue color opposites.

I did some written journaling separately about my fear of making a failure when creating art.  My Hobgoblin (inner critic) yelled that it was dangerous to make larger and more personal artworks.  As I responded in my writing, I realized that there was no danger in creating, even if I made a total flop.  I always learn from my failures.  

The real danger was in not creating that piece of art that my Muse was calling me to make.

Regretting later that I didn't make the art was much sadder than making a messy attempt that didn't come together.

I added these words using Posca paint pens.

Along with a printed butterfly and some little flowers from a Valentine's bouquet. 

Here's the final page spread.

I found the whole process of answering my inner critic with facts and logic empowering.  Rather than just listen and follow along with the noisy negativity, I had the power of truth and reason.  It made me feel invincible!

Of course, I make creative messes all the time.  I once read that if you like everything you make, you're not trying hard enough. I take these "failures" as signs that I am a creative explorer.

If you find that taking on your inner critic feels overwhelming to do on your own, a therapist's support can create a safe space for these investigations. 

I hope you find time and space for creativity just for your own joy this week.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Wanderlust 2024 with Kasia Avery

If you've read recent posts, you'll know I've been taking inspiration from UK-based artist Kasia Avery, through her Care December and other online classes.  Her enthusiastic & encouraging teaching style makes art journaling exciting.

 I signed up for Wanderlust 2024, a year-long series of weekly art journaling lessons & downloadables, to keep the inspiration coming.

Here's a step-by-step look at my first Wanderlust class with Kasia!

We began by selecting a color scheme for the first spread.  Kasia provided a great deal of background information and tips on picking colors to make pleasing art.  She went into depth on brushes and techniques for each step of the process as well.

Once we had our materials and our color palette, we began with a relaxing technique for writing our word of the year in India ink all over our blank page spread.

As soon as the ink was dry, we added acrylic paint in big, sweeping strokes over top of the first layer.

We selected an area of the spread to make our focal point, and added more intuitive brush strokes.

More paint, some scratching back into wet paint and a little collage came next.

As I added more colors and marks, I kept some music sheeting and junk mail scraps on hand to spread excess paint onto rather than rinsing it away in water.

Acrylic paint is basically plastic, so it's best not to flush it down your drain as it can build up and clog pipes.

I found that having extra papers painted in my chosen colors made it easy to add collage bits to the spread to create texture.

I finished with some hand-stamped words.

I'm learning and enjoying the unfolding process of art journaling.

If you're interested in joining Wanderlust 2024, there's still time!  

Follow this link: https://www.everything-art.com/p/all-courses-everything-art

Scroll down through the courses to Wanderlust 2024.

Of course, you don't have to join this class to create an art journal. Art journaling can be as simple or complex as you want to make it.  You can tear pages out of old magazines and glue them down, paint papers, and layer on different media from watercolor pencils to ink to acrylic paint. Simply follow what interests and inspires you in the moment.

Happy Creating!

Happy New Year Art Journaling!

Even though December is done, I continue to enjoy Kasia Avery's Care December 2023 art journaling class.  You can access it for free anytime here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

The prompt that I loosely followed was the New Moon prompt from day 4. 

I picked out a page spread, gathered some Prismacolor colored pencils in shades of blue, and began intuitively making swirling lines across the page. 

I had just been flipping through old nature journals made when I lived in Ohio, and revisiting those journals allowed me to revisit my favorite park there, Oak Openings Preserve Metropark. Going out into nature then, as now, helped me to relax, feel grounded, and to connect to nature and my creativity.

As I recalled my afternoons wandering the park with my nature journal and Prismacolors, my art journal page organically grew into a representation of the Oak Openings sand dunes that I loved.

I found that as I listened to the quiet, tiny voice of my intuition, that inner guide suggested colors (yellow ochre) and ideas (draw winter grasses & dead weeds).

I listened and sketched, all the time remembering the joy I felt in nature hiking the Oak Openings trails, reliving the gratitude I felt for time to spend in my favorite park.

The memory of a nature escape brought up the same feeling of refreshment that I felt all those years ago. 

What a powerful practice nature journaling is to provide a well of renewal to dip into again and again!

May the new year bring you opportunities for renewed creativity!

Copyright 2024 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

Care December: Gratitude

Today's Care December prompt involved thinking of the people that make us feel loved and the places that make us feel at home, and feeling gratitude for them. 

I began with this page spread, and picked out some paper bits that made me think of my best friend.  Just the thought of her makes me feel loved and grateful.

I collaged on a stamp -- my BFF and I write lots of letters -- and some tea-stained papers because we love drinking tea and chatting for hours.

A variety of acrylic paint colors added their brilliance.

After the acrylic dried, I painted on a layer of clear gesso so I could easily draw with colored pencils.

A heart with two teacups finished the pages for me.

I hope you'll join Kasia Avery's Care December, too,

and take some self care art time this week to create something just for your own joy.

Happy Creating!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

Care December: What Makes You Feel Joyful & Fluid?

I've been taking Kasia Avery's online art journaling course, Care December, at my own pace.  I love that I can have days that I jump right in and follow the prompt, 

and days that I take time off and save the session until I can savor it. 

Today's prompt invited us to think about what makes us feel relaxed, fluid and joyful.  

We used string and blue ink, and I luckily had some of both, 

from the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.

We dunked the string in the ink bottle, then flopped the inky string on the page, closed the journal and pulled the string slowly out.

I love the wispy, swirly lines that this technique creates.

The designs looked like the engraved drawings of seashells found in vintage science books. 

Relaxing by the ocean is one of the things that makes me feel fluid and joyful, so I kept the "seashell" marks and added ink washes & colored pencil lines around them.

  

The blue, Serendipity ink ($2 at PCCR) has lovely, shimmery qualities when it dries, 

and looks red in the photo.

Interestingly, I bought the white Prismacolor pencil at the PCCR, too. 

If you haven't joined in Care December yet, there's still time to participate!

Even if you read this post long after December 2023, you can still find the course on Kasia's website.

I hope you take some time to make some art just for joy, just for yourself -- For self-care!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.

 

Care December: Setting an Intention

I have been participating in Kasia Avery's Care December art journaling project.  If you'd like to join this free online class, you can find out more here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

The first day of Care December involves tuning into your own heart about what you want to focus this self care art journaling time on.

I wrote out my thoughts on a sheet of paper, decorated it with some watercolor paint and paper bits, and then jumped into painting the pages of my journal with acrylic paint.

After the paint dried, I added clear gesso.  

Acrylic paint is smooth & slick when dry, so it's hard to draw or write on top of it as is.  

Clear gesso goes on looking milky, but dries clear and adds grit.  

A layer of (dried) clear gesso over top of acrylic allows you to draw with colored pencils, add pastels and makes ink "stick" better.  

I added colored pencil lines, collage bits, and penned a shortened version of my intention statement:

Hear my Intuition & 

Follow Her

Create for Joy

Celebrate & reflect on my art

I have found that when I focus on the tiny voice of my Intuition while creating, I worry less about what other people will think of my art, and less about making "perfect" art.  Of course, we all know that there's no such thing as "Perfect."  Humans are by nature messy beings -- delightfully imperfect.

When I create out of my Intuition, I feel joyful, curious, and playful.

I feel happy, calm, and as a side effect, I usually like what I create.

Something I've recently begun to do is to reflect on my art.  I have always propped up my journals and paintings where I could see them after completing a particularly satisfying project, but recently, I've begun poring over art journals and handmade books, looking over what I created and reflecting.

This reflective practice magnifies my self-care art.  I get the boost of creating it in the first place, and then an extra boost every time I look over and consider how good it made me feel while I made it.

In effect, reflecting on my art creates a positive upwards spiral, and makes me want to create more art for self care.  Life feels more sparkly.

And isn't that what we want out of our art practice?!

Wishing you many happy hours of creating and reflecting!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley

 

Painted Collage Papers for Care December!

I recently discovered artist, teacher and art journaler Kasia Avery on YouTube.  She has a delightfully enthusiastic teaching style that makes creating easy & fun.

If you haven't seen Care December, her free art journaling class yet, you can check it out here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

In preparation for participating in Care December, I followed two of Kasia's YouTube videos on making papers of your own design and colors for art journaling. These are the videos I followed to create all of these painted papers. 

Video 1: https://youtu.be/78hXnnl8fdU?si=DGuh25Km8VmQNK7D

Video 2: https://youtu.be/ki9E6mQPxgw?si=sXCrQRdX24cF23hh

 Kasia uses a lot of different supplies, but a person can just use what they have on hand and have success.

I used office papers and forms from The Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, my favorite thrift store in Pittsburgh.  They sell everything from fine art materials to vintage items, photography equipment, fabric, jewelry & scrapbooking supplies and lots more.

I spent a lovely afternoon splashing acrylic & watercolor paint on a variety of book pages, magazine pages, pieces of graph paper, used gift wrap tissue paper, music sheeting, old maps, etc., and turning them into colorful papers for art journaling.

I worked on a big piece of kraft paper on the floor to give myself lots of room to paint.  I turned on some inspiring music, brewed up a hot tea, and experimented with lots of different techniques and materials.

 The beauty of this approach is that I didn't have to drive to a store and purchase anything new.  I used what I had, and the items I had found secondhand at PCCR.

Each piece of brightly-painted paper was made in my own intuitive style, so it will match my art journal. And, I got to spend an afternoon playing with paint, listening to music, lost in the hum of creativity and joy.

I hope you'll join me in doing some creative self care this December!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley.