It is hard to believe that David Bowie died 7 years ago. His song came to mind when I plugged off the calendar page from the 2022 Artist Almanac which shows a part of an art journal page I created back in the days.
I loved playing with the stamps and I like the stars that evolved. I love using those little calendar pages as a Creative JumpStart wether it be the colors, the words or the image – in this case it was a combination of all of it.
I hope your January goes well – you might have noticed I am blogging less this year – intentionally but I will blog – because I am playing hard this year and I am having fun – I will tell more later:) Have a wonderful day and happy arting!
I had fun playing with some Spray Paint and my Downtown Stencil (you see some grungy remains of a blotted Space Age Stencil as well)
The photos is from an old album with a lot of double nature photos my great aunt must have taken on one of her trips – she didn’t write anything about it down- but I can see the beauty.
“Sometimes you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory”
This is a photo I found and to be honest, I have no idea where it came from – was it from a box of my great aunt, was it something I found at a flea market? In any event I found it again, put it on my work bench for later use and accidentally had some spray paint get on it…making the image even more blurry. ..hence ..this is the store how this page with it’s quote came along ;) I used my Downtown Stencil for the background – moving it around and spraying it over with acylic spray paint in different colors. I also used an old napkin with a german beer quote and some snippets I had in my stash. I love rummaging through my collage drawer to see what could fit my idea for a page.
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when they are created by everybody” Jane Jacobs
I used another page of the 2022 Artist Almanac calendar with my artwork – at the time I am writing this blogpost I am not sure if the new – 2023 Artist Almanac Calendar is still available in my store- but check it out if you are interested – I had a lot of fun playing with the 2022 version.
The page is based on this original artwork “Highline”
Acrylic Paint, Spray paint, marker 12×16″ – Available for PurchaseFor the background I used my Star Struck Stencil and some Liquitex Spray paint. I filled in some of the grid with green acrylic marker to pick up the green in the collage paper.
“We are living in modern times and yet we are dominated by medieval minds.”
Isn’t this the truth.
For this background I played with my Buenos Aires Stencil and Star Struck Stencil using Acrylic Spraypaint. I outlined some of the areas with acrylic marker to add some colors that were used in the painting in the collage calendar page.
I remember when I created the original painting that the colors were unusual to use for me and yet I still love the painting- which is for sale here: Highline Original Painting also available as prints.
For my background I used an old credit card to spread Golden fluid paint and then a Catalyst tool to spread Liquitex soft bodied acrylic paint onto the page.
The small hexagon shapes were stamped with my Hex Set Small rubber stamp set and Moonlight Duos on watercolor paper, then cut out and glued down. I added my journaling with Posca markers.
“A Crossroad. What a pain in the ass spot to end up in.”
I started by stamping one of my Mini Motif foam stamps in a circle with grey ink…
then layered a second Mini Motif stamp on that in teal…
and then finally added the rubber stamp Mini Motif stamp on top, using the Versafine in grey again.
Next I added the Versailles rubber stamp from the Floral Tile Large set for a pattern – it reminds me a bit of all those Minton tile patterns I have been seeing lately while looking at house accounts on instagram.
I did my journaling with a water soluble sketch pencil.
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post and video from Riikka Kovasin who is sharing an art journal page that is an abstract and thoughtful take on our theme this month: I am a Collage – We are all complex beings with many different facets. Create a “self portrait” piece using collage to represent parts of yourself, either literally or in an abstract way.
Moikka! It’s Riikka Kovasin here today with a project for the monthly theme “I am a collage”. If you look at the photo of the project, I’m fairly sure you don’t immediately recognize me from it. But I’m in there! It’s a kind of jigsaw “Where’s Wally”.
Usually, when reading the month’s theme, my head starts spinning with all the possible ideas. But this time, funnily enough, I had a clear picture in my head from the start. I wanted to do a photo transfer and then hide it by cutting the surface apart. In a way going cubistic, but not quite.
Besides the photo transfer, I wanted to use other papers, too. As in my mind collage is a sum of various parts, acquired differently. Like some old book paper, a bit of painted paper and then maybe a cut out photo. Various sources, different textures. As this collage was about me, I wanted to add different aspects of me in a way. For example, like I say in the video, I stamped the “Queen Anne” house to the piece several times as home is important to me. Maybe I should have said “family” instead of “home” as it’s not that much about the building itself but more who are in it and what that building represents.
If you want to see how this quilt came into being, please see the video below!
When making the surface for the photo transfer, I added some of my handwriting in it. My mind drew a complete blank at that point, and I didn’t want to scribble a shopping list this time, so instead I used the first quote that popped in my head. Those were the opening words of Kalevala, Finnish national epic. The opening words in a way were appropriate in several ways – the theme of the phrase is about getting started, the speaker declares that he has an urge to begin the story, much like I was eager to get started or continue with the project. The other thing is that the words are in Finnish, my mother tongue, which bring my nationality to the piece. After all, that’s the culture I’ve grown up with and it’s rooted in me in ways I might not even come to realize.
Even though I had the idea of cutting the photo apart from the start, I needed some pondering when it came to the size and amount of the cuts. Cutting it into same sized squares seemed the easiest solution, although I first played with the idea of different sized rectangular bits. When I had the decision about the squares, it then came down to thinking about the size. Not to have the squares too tiny, I pondered between four and three centimeters, which meant three or four squares in a row. As you could see, I chose the bigger squares and three in a row as I thought that might be more pleasing to the eye.
Throughout the project I also used a lot of the “Love Knots” stamp. I love the graphical design of it, but also what it stands for – the combining, integrative force of love.
Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a lovely, love filled day!
Xoxo Riikka
Thank you Riikka! Love all the different levels of you in this piece and reading your post too. Sometimes abstract work can be tricky to understand at first glance, but by spending time with it we are gratified with new ideas and ways to create art. This piece is certainly inspiring!!!
Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps in my Online Shop and in addition to a laser printed image and some ephemera, here are some of the supplies Riikka used:
Looking for more projects? Follow the Creative Squad on Instagram here.
