there is nothing like taking off your thinking cap and shelving it while you explore lines, marks, and shapes with a brush and a puddle of paint.
although you may beg to differ, i did not exchange my thinking cap for a blindfold.
i didn't!
i went inside my mind and took a picture of the last 4 days.
i wore sunglasses because it was bright in there.
i developed the pics in the pages of my visual journal.
i did all of that.
and now it's monday
and i still have a whole day left.
plus some orange sherbet in the freezer.
plus a clean pink bowl to put it in.
but for now i'm going to go paint some more fruit cocktail colors in my visual journal.
talk amongst yourselves!
p.s. these titles {based on YOUR latest recs} are applying for the job of Next Book:
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
surely one of them will get hired for the job.
AND ALSO… my sister dottie found a cute little cottage in san diego in her price range within walking distance of the beach. she's moving in right now.
you didn’t exchange your thinking cap for a blindfold.
HA!!
too funny
This is my first time to your site and I love all of your pictures! Your journal pages have a loose, free flowing, arty quality that I feel mine lack. I will definitely be taking notes based on your pages! I would love for you to take a look at some of the pages I have posted on my blog, and if you feel an urge to share some of your pages I would LOVE it if you did a guest post for me. Our styles are so different and I think my readers would really benefit from seeing some of your work. Shoot me an e-mail if you are interested I will be back to see more of your creations!
You are on a roll Mary Ann. No doubt about it. I for one am not the least bit surprised at the stuff that lives in your head. That chicken pot pie is no different than an art journal page, a little bit of this and a dash of that and whammo bammo a delectable, edible creation is born. No leash is needed, I say just let ‘er run free, she knows her way home just fine. Huggers.
I’m having a great time looking through all your colorful pages that I have missed these last few weeks, or is it months. I had a heat meltdown and couldn’t get up the energy for anything more than survival! Waiting for a bit of cool rain to wake me up!
Love your pages – and all the colors you use. awesome
So, i missed if you ever said if you liked “Tell the Wolves I’m Home”?
What did you think of it?
Congratulations to sister Dottie on her great new cottage!! Today is “Wednesday at work” and God, does it ever suck!! I am going to have to get off my butt one of these days and come up with an alternate plan. You will be my inspiration–you and my co-worker, Walter, who has made up his mind that next birthday (03/15/13) is his last day of working here. His count down has begun!! Forgive me….
I love reading your posts during work..such a ray of sunshine in an otherwise stressful day. Literally–your sketches and colors are awesome!! And cheery!! Thank you.
Just popped in to tell you you were in my dream early this morning! We had a lovely little painting session together outside on a windy California day and we shared a giant fresh mushroom picked right from the ground. Too neat!
Good to hear Dottie found a neat little cottage close to the beach. Where is it? Near Mission Beach? Pacific Beach, Imperial Beach? Coronado? San Diego is my hometown. A beautiful place, a pretty city, beautiful Balboa Park…great place.
lizzie i eat orange sherbet while the paint dries! or hula dance or hip hop. whichever im in the mood for.
Dottie is soooo lucky! My heart is in California but my husband’s is in the southeast. What the heck???? Apparently, humidity and hair issues don’t rank high on his list of reasons not to move there! Gesh….. Anyway, I will live vicariously through the two of you. I love the flowers you’ve created and the splashes of color. I think vivid is a good thing!
beautiful post, as always. seeing your visual journals makes me want to drop everything and PAINT.
Loving your sherbet colored pages and explorations of line on the page!! Just in case those three titles don’t get the job of next good book…I can recommend The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng and The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillip Senker – both excellent – one set in Malaysia and the other Burma. Just adding to the applicant list. You can never have too many applicants!! xo
Oh -oh -oh- and have you seen Henri 2, Paw de Deau
I didn’t pee my pants, but almost.
If you work in one journal at a time, which you seem to, what do you do while the paint dries because you have SO many layers and they’re not muddy. I have resorted to two journals, but I’d really like to just work in one only i’m TOO IMPATIENT!!
Lady’s Cyclist Guide was really good. I read it based on your sister’s recommendation on her blog.
I am clapping at the fruit cocktail and the long weekend spent in paints. That was my plan but a nefarious man (and several art friends) got me out and about including a trip to Dick Blick. Sigh. I did manage one watercolor, and 4 pages of book.
Yay! for a sister in driving distance! Love San Diego!
Carreer break. That’s what I arranged for myself in 2008, a year of unpaid leave. I never did go back. I’m poor in money but rich in choices!
I love your zingy colours. They pop out of the screen at me and make me run for my paints!
Look after yourself, no one else will!
Xxx
Hurray for Dottie! I am so excited she found a place near the beach. And loving your visual journal. I just found Citrasolv for sale last weekend at Sprouts and have been creating alchemy on my Nat’l Geos. Not so satisfied with the results, so I tore the pages into pieces and collaged them. There has to be a trick with the Citrasolv to get those vibrant colors. Have you ever Citrasolved? Did you like it? Was it good for you? Do tell;)
Yeah for your sister. That is awesome. Love the paint play and good luck with the ‘hiring’ of the just right book to settle in with, can’t wait to hear what you decide upon.
sherbet colored paint, frozen sherbet, and your sister Dottie getting settled in– what a wonderful way to spend a day off!!
My brain is currently a lot less jumbled now that I spent the last several hours clearing off the top of a dresser in my craft area but I really wish I’d spent that time painting in a journal like you did!! Your pages are, as usual, fabulously beautiful. Alas, I don’t have another day off (is it too late to book one?) nor do I have any orange sherbet in my freezer but I hope you’ll have a scoop for me. Lucky Dottie, I’d like a little cottage within walking distance of the beach too!
Such gorgeousness…you just lowered my blood pressure by 10 points.
i just KNOW you are going to like the lady cylists: (1) I recommended it to your sister and she liked it (2) it is about weird and lovable sisters traveling together (3) the cover is to die for (4) i could not get beyond the first couple of socalled chapters…………………and it seems to me that when I find a book too weird for words, it is one of your fav’s. (maybe viceyversey?) So go for it….and keep us posted.
‘Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar’ is also on my books of interest list, along with ‘Chasing Sylvia Beach’ (re: the founder of Shakespeare and Co Books) – I shall be interested to see if these make your final round. When you’re not wanting a long read-read, and you are wanting just a hair of a surrealistic Moroccan chill bump, you might want to look for ‘The Tattooed Map’ by Barbara Hodgson. One of my faves! Keep exploring those pages and developing those pictures in your mind – delicious!
so excited about your sister! and jealous too! enjoy the rest of your day!
Beautiful!!
Love the colors you’re using. So glad your sis found her dream home in S.D. Enjoy the rest of this lovely day! Hugs from far-northern CA.
I’m glad Dottie found the house she wanted. I am inspired by your colourful pages. I hadn’t thought of doing that but it certainly looks like fun for today.
You are just so funny and adorable and make no sense to this old farts brain sometimes but keep it all coming and i won’t miss a post of your’s I promise…..
Love how your mind looks on paper, keep spilling girl!