Lori's Lexicon

Okay, so I've been working on this sort of artist's journal for a while, and I think I'm ready to share. I made a book using watercolor paper, with enough pages for a spread on each letter of the alphabet. On each spread, I'm including images and words starting with that letter that I'm drawn to. It's been very therapeutic, and I'm starting to like the outcome. Here are a few finished pages:







This one's my favorite so far. If you click on the image, you can see a larger version:









I've finished the pages up to G, and all the others are painted and ready for me to start adding images and words. Here are some of the painted backgrounds:







I'll continue to post the finished spreads as they emerge!

Emma's Recycled Sweater Purse

I mentioned in a previous post that my friend Melissa came over and made a purse for her daughter out of recycled and felted wool sweaters. She had sewn very little before and was able to finish it in just a few hours.

Emma loves it; her new journal (see post before last) fit right in and the pockets are perfect for pens and pencils, so she's going to use it as her art bag.



Here are some close-ups:





Great job, Melissa!

Mexican Primitive Postcards

Here are my March postcards for the postcard exchange group. The colors for March were chocolate brown and turquoise. I found this picture of a Mexican sculpture with turquoise mosaic across the face, and I just had to try to continue the mosaic look.





I used modeling paste to create the primitive-looking tiles, then painted the "grout" and embossed the color onto the top of them. Different, huh?

My First Art Class (as a Teacher)

I taught my first art class today with a delightful group of kids and one mom/friend who got the group together. The kids made wonderful journals with painted burlap covers.

As always with kids, I was amazed at their natural artistic abilities. How do we lose that confidence as we become adults?

Here are the kids (and Melissa!) hard a work:











And here they all are with their beautiful books:



















Working outside in the sunshine helped to make it a truly enjoyable day.

Jen's Recycled Sweater Purse

Just finished a purse for my sister, which she really loves. If you look back in my January posts, you'll see her daughter Alexa with a pink and dark gray sweater I made her, and Jen requested a purse in the same colors. So, here's what she got:







I lined this one, since I know she'll be giving it some abuse, and the lining helps strengthen the purse, since it's not stretchy like the felted sweater fabric.



These are so quick and easy to make. My friend Melissa came up last week and made one for her daughter, and she's hardly sewn before. I'll post a photo of that one as soon as she sends it to me (and you can bet I'll be bugging her about it!).

I'm hoping to get back to posting more often. I've been working on some personal artwork lately that I'm not ready to share. I picked up a pretty profound book, at least for me, called The Soul's Palette, and have been doing some of the exercises it contains that are purely process-oriented. Thus, not a lot of showable work, but I'm stunned at the personal transformations that can take place when you let your feelings out on paper and pay attention to the images you choose to work with. More on this topic later!

February is for RED

Somehow, without conscious effort, I've been making a lot of red art this month. Now, I'm not big on Valentine's Day, as i think it's a Hallmark Holiday, but red has been speaking to me this month.

SPOILER: for those of you in my postcard exhcange group, I'm posting photos of my Feb. cards, which you have not received yet!

First, I was inspired by a broken red glass bowl a friend of my Mom's gave me, as she knows I do mosaic. It was this gorgeous, thick red glass with a scalloped edge tipped in gold. I tranformed it into a candle holder, which ended up with more of a gothic feel than I intended:





Here's the best photo I could get without a tripod when the candle was lit:



Looks like it belongs in Kyle's apartment. Hmmm . . . .

February's color theme for the postcard exchange was red, and somehow I ended up with an India and Yoga theme for this one. The background is created with gesso and tissue paper and various texturing effects:





It's kinda cool to see them all together:



And I'm only sending ONE this month!

Susan's Freeform Purse

I'm absolutely fascinated by freeform knitting. I'm just beginning to understand all the amazing artwork that can be created with it. I just finished a purse in purples and aquas. As often happens, after I was about halfway finished, I realized who should have it. My friend Susan loves these colors, and it just looked like her kind of thing. I gave it to her a couple of days ago she seemed to love it.

Here's the front of the purse:



And a closeup of the front:



Here's the back:



And a closeup of the back:



To see some incredible examples of the ultimate in ths art form, go to Prudence Mapstone's site.

Black & White Postcards

I joined an online group in which I'm doing a monthly postcard exchange with eight other women. Each month has a color theme, and other than that we're free to create whatever moves us at the moment. The first month's colors were black and white, which I found much more challenging than I'd anticipated.

Black made me think of crows and ravens, which are a current fascination for me, so I started with an inket transfer of a raven and a really cool doorknob, plus a quote from an article about ravens and their mythical significance, and came up with these cards:



I just wasn't sure about this one, as I'd never seen any of the artwork from the other women in the group, so I set it aside and created something a little more "mainstream." I started with a vintage black and white postcard of a gargoyle, and some black and white scrapbook papers, and came up with this card:



I went ahead and sent this one, then had second thoughts and sent the first one too! So, the first impression the others have of me is a schizoid, insecure artist. That's okay, though, wait until they see what I'm working on for February, in reds!

Scarves of Sanity

Knitting has become one of the threads that tie me tentatively to the real world. I don't like to blog about my health challenges, but lately I've been itching like mad, all over my body, including inside my ears. I've been to five different doctors, including a team at UCLA, and they're still not sure of the cause.

Anyway, in the evenings, knitting keeps me from ripping my skin to shreds while I watch TV. I've become a bit manic about it, but it's better than drugging myself, I guess.

So, here's a scarf I finally finished for Kyle. It was meant to be a Xmas present, but I made it extra wide, used small needles, and chose a pattern that required close attention, so it took me about a month of a couple hours a day to finish. I love the feel of it; it's really springy and soft wool.





My next scarf was a lot quicker to make. I used recycled silk and larger needles, and just did a diagonal pattern, so it only took about a week. I just love the colors, and I had fun adding beads to the fringe.





Since I'm running low on yarn, I started another freeform bag using bits and pieces of leftovers in purples and aquas. At the rate I'm going, that will be done within the week. I'm already stressing about making sure I have enough yarn to start something else when that's done.

Sorry if I'm scaring you. Just imagine living with me right now!

What Kids Can Do

I spent last Sunday in my studio with my 10-year-old nephew Ryan. He has an amazing attention-span when it comes to art, and it struck me how natural it is for kids to create, without all the self-doubt and striving for perfection we somehow pick up along the way to adulthood.

I had him choose a cigar box, and he chose one with a beautiful orange finish, and was determined to leave some part of the orange showing. I showed him how to glue old book pages all over the box, and that's the only part of the project where I actually touched the box, as he got a little tired of that labor-intensive effort. I worked on a tissue box while he was working on his box, and demonstrated how to paint over the glued pages with a transparent wash, then add depth and interest with a darker color and drybrushing. His natural eye for color made that part easy for him.

Then he chose all kinds of animal images, both printed and rubber stamps, and added them to the box. I showed him how to add more paint to integrate the images into a whole, which he took to like he'd been doing it all his life. As a last step, I handed him a box of 3D embellishments, and he went to town with those.

Here is his finished box. The photos don't do it justice. Amazing.







And here's the tissue box I made at the same time. Of course, I had to spend another couple of hours tweaking it after he left. Damned perfectionism! This is a "commissioned" project for my daughter and her boyfriend, who requested it after seeing the ones I made my parents for Xmas. They wanted blue and a sea/beach theme.