pam my crafty gangster friend came over yesterday to play our favorite game: one flew over the cuckoo's nest visual journal edition.
she brought her watercolors to tempt me with.
i don't think i've been surrounded by so many pretty palettes before! naturally i wanted to try them all. so i did!
i always insist upon gifts at our playdates. in fact if pam doesn't bring stuff for me, i make her drive all the way home and get something. who wants to do that in LA traffic? no one that's who. so she planned ahead and brought lots of good stuff, starting with these rose chintz and currier & ives plates.
"how can i possibly accept these generous thoughtful gifts?" i said as i shoved them into my cabinet and stood in front of it with my arms crossed to indicate that a change of mind on her part would not be an option.
pam also brought me some gorgeous fabric scraps which i added to my fabric drawer in my art storage cabinet. sweet ingrid from sweden sent me some beautiful scandinavian-looking scraps in march. and now my drawer, which was very anemic looking, is full to the gills of bright graphic prints and pretty trims. i sort of feel like i won the lottery. i locked the drawer and hid the key after the fabric was safely inside. one can't be too careful with one's lottery winnings!
i always love going through pam's giant journals, running my hands over the pages, and staring at all the intricate patterns. i casually remarked that i should make a BIG journal for a change. but i rarely work in 2 visual journals at the same time. pam leaped out of her chair, charged over to my bookcases, and grabbed this huge old postcard scrapbook i got at a flea market in paris a few years ago (for 10 euros!)
"MAKE ONE NOW!! this can be the cover!" she screamed at me in her best one-flew-over-the-cookoo's-nest voice.
"but i don't have a back cover," i whined.
then she rummaged around somemore and pulled out a gigantic piece of chipboard i had forgotten about. "YOU'LL USE THIS!!!"
"but you know i can't start a new journal until i finish the old one," i whined some more.
"SHADDUP AND DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!"
i do not understand how such a little person can have such a big loud bossy-pants voice. in fact i was just about to say, 'you are not the boss of me!' when i realized it was a good idea. so i shaddup.
and today i went to work making my enormous journal.
i didn't have enough paper the right size so i just copied what pam did in her journal and sewed together enough strips to make the pages long enough.
now i'm getting ready to stitch the whole thing together.
and that's a true story. um except i left the part out about the contour drawings we did of each other. insert laughter track.
more on the GIANT journal tomorrow!
as someone who has watched you both from a far for longer than i care to remember, it is a visual dream come true to see the two journalers i admire both working together. there are no accidents my friend. and what a treasure for all of us and for you two as well.
hugs,
molly q
houston
You and Pam Garrison. In a room together. For a whole day. I think my head would explode from too much journaling wonderful-ness!!!
Just wonderful in every way. Sending hugs.
Is it the Pam I’m a in a workshop with in Italy next summer? Glad you liked my scraps!
Wow! Just looking at you two together and these journals makes me think wow a class with these two would be great. Hint!
This looks like too much fun she is your anti-inner critic we all need a friend like that
It was so much fun to read this and look at her post on the same event and the photos she took of your wonderful succulents – another matter I am quite clueless about – as usual with my plants, it’s a case of survival of the fittest!
What a fun! Love it. Would like to have a friend like this!
Mary Ann just love your post. It makes me laugh and inspires me. Thanks for making my day.
Oh so you know I found the two of you separately, then just squealed with delight from reading both of your blogs that you two were friends! These get togethers are a scream! I live vicariously through the two of you, as most all my ‘creaty’ (creative +artsy) friends live far away. (& I don’t have any sisters) It sucks. So when I see you guys get together & just play with all that wonderful paintjournalwatercolor goodness it makes my heart feel good-really! I’ld love to come next time-if you’ll just let me know when, I’ll be there. It will be a hell of a drive from KY, so I’ll need a few days notice, but so worth it. BTW-my friends tell me I’m the best gift giver. I’ll bring lovelies for both of you-jut sayin! Thanks for sharing-as usual with that delightful wit! I love it!
I only know Dr. Pam through your blog but I like her. The rehab seems to be going well, as does the Moss School of
Sketching and Design. Your progress is very good. I give you an A+.
I would guard those rose chintz plates, too. How lovely for tea on the back patio.
You really know how to have fun!
loved the commentary! 🙂 I made a “big ass pink and black journal” one yr for artfest-loved the bigness of it. lots of room to play and add pictures/ephemera
Hilarious! You should be writing comedy, seriously. Don’t go back to school.
I especially love the bit about how you graciously accepted Pam’s gifts.
so nice of you to say colleen, and a good idea theoretically, but as of this year or next definitely not happening.
I have taken all of your online classes, as well as a live one with Pam, and I think it’s time the two of you collaborate on one. Online would be great, but a live one would be fabulous! Oh, all of that fun and laughter and creativity in one place! I’d be the first to enroll and book my flights!
Such energy and verve from both patients at the Moss Rehab Facility! ….well it’s enough to make your entire readership experiment with spontaneous explosive coolness. Look at THAT BOOK!
I’ve said this before, I want you, Pam and your sister to adopt me…I promise I will be good. REALLY GOOD. Your presie’s (plates and fabric) are G O R G E O U S. Of course you won the lottery and when that happens you celebrate by making a big, obnoxious journal to play in for weeks on end!!! YES YES YES. I for one can’t wait to see your pages, and sewing papers together, you are queen of that realm, journal making any size…I’m glad Pam knocked some sense into you…just callin it like I see it, sweet woman. I wish we all had friends like you guys, poppin in with arms loaded, journals and paints and stuff falling out of one’s hands. You didn’t tell us that Pam is actually Santa Claus of Spring. Blooms just like a lilac, here today, disappears tomorrow. I’m smiling and grinning for you both and really, truly happy you share so openly between the two of you. That is the best kind of friend to have, one that knows what rocks your boat and doesn’t mind tossing you over the side from time to time. 🙂 E N J O Y!!!!!
btw, you accept presents the right way – enthusiastically with greedy humility! That cracked me up.
We all need friends like Pam! I used to have one but sadly, for me, she moved to NoCAL and went all 9-5 AND Zen. I wonder if she still does any art. Oh, I do hope so. All this makes me think I need to invite my Artist Way peeps over for a day so I can give away more of my not-really-gonna-use stuff.
That’s the kind of friend we want! A kindred spirit to blow some fresh air through our stuffy rooms! Love, love your wonderful travel journal sketches. You’ve inspired me to get my drawing stuff back out again. P.S. – If you’re still looking for book suggestions, you might like Life After Life by Jill McCorkle (there are 2 books out by that title this season) and The Burgess Boys (Elizabeth Strout)if you’re not into tidy, sew-it-all-up endings. I agree with all the commenters who suggested Major Pettigrew. You could try Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (Beth Hoffman)for a feel-good read. And you might try The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. It’s dense and huge and stunning. I’m tackling his Cloud Atlas now.
We all need bossy pants friends. They get us out of our rut and make us do things we wouldn’t ordinarily do. And that’s good. Shake up the ol’ psyche. Shift out the old, stagnant thoughts. Liven things up a little!
That big journal is going to be awesome. And inspiring!
What fun!
And of all the photos know which one amazes me the most? The one of Pam and all those paints and not a speck of paint on her lovely shirt! How does she do that? LOL (Or is it just me who is a messy painter?)
I love it! Someone telling the teacher what to do!! Yes, we all need friends like Pam to override the ‘maybe”, “not now”, “later…” voices that live in our brains. And how utterly lovely to be able to do this – with no thought to schedules or work. You go girl!
Erin in Morro Bay
Catherine Lucas has a great idea! I vote yes on that and can’t wait to see your enormous journal.
OMG! I love how you write, my friend. I wish I had a arty overseer to come by here and boss me around and bring cool stuffs! Cannot wait to see what you do with your BIG Bossy Pants Journal! YAY!!!!!
Ha ha ha ha I’m sat here chuckling away like a chuckly thing, my sprogs think I have lost the plot and I am at a loss as how to explain why I’m laughing ha ha ha ha ha lots more!! What a fantastic post Mary Ann, you pair sure had a lot of fun and I can’t wait for the giant journal reveal tomorrow now.
Huge hugs x
It has occurred to me MORE THAN ONCE how cool it would be to see an online collaborative workshop with Mary Ann Moss and Pam Garrison….just sayin’. I have taken several MAM workshops, and love you to pieces. Hoping by planting this little seed….something might come of it someday. I would be first in line to sign up!
O my goodness, this post brings me so much laughter. Get that china overhere lady, I want it. And I need it badder then you do… I need a friend like that. Where did you find her. I want to go and look if there is another one available. She might have an identical twin in England.
Ain’t those the best friendships: where you can fiddle and scream together? And make art? A true what I call backdoor friend. Someone who can when you are not at home go round the back, scoop up the key and make herself comfortable. Can’t wait for the big book. You just gave the much needed punch to go make a book aswell for my trip to Paris from 3 weeks ago…
Hahahahahah! Xoxoxo