My Creative Weekend So Far: FYV and Passport to Art

It's a long weekend here in the United States, and I'm taking the opportunity to get some creative play time. On Friday, I prepared an art journal for Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday class by applying gesso to its 25 pages! I also started planning the pages to finish my Passport to Art altered book which I started in July in the free class offered by Bernice. To help me along the way, I checked in with the Find Your Voice Graduation Party hosted by Kristin.  The Graduation Party is full of challenges and inspiration, and I'm happy to report that I finished my altered book!  The final page is above. The journaling reads:
 "'People don't take trips.  Trips take people.' John Steinbeck. 
My life - my identity- who I am has been shaped by travel . . . the trips I took as a child, the ones in high school, trips with Paul, trips with family all have become a part of me and how I approach life. I hope to never stop traveling and making art."
Tonight I want to share three of the pages I made in conjunction with challenges at the Graduation Party. I'll be sure to share the rest of my pages sometime on my blog, and I'm hoping to find a way to show the book as a whole.

This page was made in conjunction with Challenge #5 to use story outline cards. The card was really helpful because there was a lot that I wanted to communicate in this page which was about the trip I took to Portmeirion, a village in Wales which had been on my wish list since I saw the PBS show The Prisoner, back in high school. I wanted to communicate a little about the village, a bit about its connection to the TV show and also tell the story of the ordeal the journey turned into when Clara and I took a train that we thought was going to the town but ended up over ten miles away.  The bicycle and #9 are from the TV show; the flowers and butterfly (and background picture) represent Portmeirion china and the village; the journaling and quote ("Even with the best of maps and instruments we can never fully chart our journeys.") capture the flavor of our trip (which included the train, a very local bus, and a long hike).

This page as made in conjunction with the color challenge (challenge #4). I was going to do a lot more journaling, but I think by focusing on the colors, I ended up with a stronger page which communicates what I wanted to about our love of water-y vacations.

And, finally, a page I was really struggling with about the attitude we take toward traveling.  My creative block was solved when I turned to challenge #1 (the quote challenge) and decided to tell my story mainly through quotes (with a little journaling thrown in). The quotes do a better job of explaining than I could, I think.  Here are my four quotes:
"A journey is like a marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you can control it." John Steinbeck
"Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God." Kurt Vonnegut
"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." Martin Buber
"He who would travel happily must travel light." Antoine de St. Expery.
My journaling reads "We travel light by being patient, keeping our expectations in check and being nimble and light on our feet, as plans inevitably change. You can't control things - so just relax and go with the flow."
Tonight I plan to finish reading the Find Your Voice lessons (I stopped about half-way through), work on the other challenges for the Graduation Party, and check in on all the wonderful links in the Scavenger Hunt Link-Up from yesterday.  The link will be open until the end of September, so feel free to stop by if you haven't already.
Tomorrow, I'm going to work on some backgrounds for my LSNE art journal and start drawing faces in it. Thank you everyone who's linked up with the scavenger hunt, to Bernice for the Passport to Art class and to Kristin for the Find Your Voice class! Let me leave you all with one more quote from the layout at the top of today's post:
"I haven't been everywhere but it is on my list." Susan Sontag

PPF: My Life Long Journey (Passport to Art altered book)

This weekend is a long weekend here in the United States, and I'm committing to grabbing some creative time. First up: finish the Passport to Art altered book I've been working on. The spread up top commemorates a kayak/camping trip to Baja California.   The entire trip was fantastic, but the highlight was the night we got up and discovered bioluminescence in the water. We splashed and kicked and watched the water come to life with twinkling lights. To recreate the feeling, I painted black gesso onto a seascape page and then flicked gold and silver metallic paint on top. I added a piece of map from the region and a little sea nymph.

The other spread that I have completed talks about my life-long journey. The journaling reads "During my lifetime, I have traveled all over the world, but for "home," I traveled only 400 miles from Southern to Northern California. I lived in the same house in La Habra for 16 years and have been in our current home for almost 23 years." I was lucky to find a page in my book which actually had the small town where I grew up (La Habra) on one page and the San Francisco bay area on the facing page. I gesso'd and painted out the other areas, added some art dolls and other embellishments. I'm really happy to include this aspect of "travel" in my Passport to Art book. I think it's interesting that, although I am a world traveler, my tendency has been to find a Home and stay put.  It makes me wonder how far you have traveled geographically on your life-long journey? And do you move house often or tend to stay in one house for the majority of your life?
This weekend, besides finishing up my Passport to Art book, I will prepare a Faces Art Journal to use for Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday class in September. 
Here on the blog, I'll  be hosting a linky for the 2013 Summertime Scavenger Hunt, so please stop by if you are participating.
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Linking up with Paint Party Friday! Click on this link to see other painterly goodness.

PPF: More Travel Pages

Today, for Paint Party Friday sponsored by Kristin and and Eva, I'm sharing a few more pages in my Passport to Art altered book.  This first one is about traveling by myself as an adult and the journaling conveys my belief that the advantages (quiet time to reflect, read and make art) are outweighed by my desire to share the experience with others. It's based loosely on prompt #25 which asks "who are you/ what makes you  who you are?" I painted the background pink and added a stamped ballerina who I painted with watercolors. In my book, the facing page discusses our philosophy of travel:

It was inspired by prompt #24  in the Passport to Art class about your beliefs. I gesso'd and painted over half the page for the journaling and put a post card and twinchie from my stash on the graphics on the other half.  Our philosophy of travel is basically to stay in one city for a longer time (rather than try to see lots of different cities),  rent an apartment (rather than a hotel room), to shop for food and cook at "home," visit lots of museums and try to get to know some local people. We will occasionally splurge on a special hotel or meal, but we prefer to spend our money traveling more often. We would rather really experience and get to know one city, rather than check off a lot of different sights.  The two pages together look like this:

My final recent page answered prompt #30: "Where to next?"

This one came together fairly easily.  The next place that I really want to visit is Australia. The jouranling reads "I want to see her natural wonders, cosmopolitan cities, ethnic heritage and my friend Amy." We don't have any plans to visit anytime soon, but a girl can dream, can't she? The design was determined by my desire to have it match the facing page about a trip I took to El Salvador.  The two together look like this:

You can see that my book  is really starting to come together with some repeating elements: art dolls; maps; and photographs from my collage sheets. I think I have about nine pages left to do in my book (currently in various stages of completion); I have 22 pages completed, so my total page count will end up at about 30 (just as Bernice envisioned!).
What are your thougts about travel? Do you have a philosophy? Do you like to travel alone? Where would you most like to travel next?

Passport to Art: High School Travel

I have two more double-page spreads in my altered book, Passport to Art, to share today. The book, created via Bernice's online class, has allowed me to reflect on all the different types of travels and the various trips I have taken in my life.  This page, based on Prompt 23 about becoming an adult, covers the various trips I took in high school. I used black gesso to cover most everything on the page (except for the map and the legend), journaled in white sharpie and added lots of cut-out images from my stash.  The journaling reads "I had a lot of freedom to travel when I was in high school, and it helped me develop into an adult. I traveled with the debate team to tournaments all over the state and to several other states.  I became friends with Sara, who lived in Berkeley, and I often flew up to visit her. It's hard to imagine my parents allowed to to do this so often on my own but I'm glad they did." 
Reflecting back on this period in my life, I now realize how mature I must have been as a high school kid. I earned money babysitting and whenever I saved up $48 (the roundtrip cost for the one hour trip from southern California to northern California), I would book a flight to spend the weekend 350 miles from home! 

These pages are based on prompt 19 which asked "What things had to come to an end so that something new could begin?" After some thought, I wrote about the trips we took within in the U.S. when Henry was playing all-star baseball. I covered over the entire page with cream colored acrylic paint, added maps of the relevant areas, three photos from my collage sheets, some lettering and a little doodling to complete the page.
 The journaling reads "Good-bye Europe . . . Hello Cooperstown!"  The family agreed to give up European travel for a few summers when Henry was aged 10-12, so the he could play All Star baseball. When he was 12, the team also traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y. The whole family went along, and we added visits to New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C.  A few summers later, Henry and I traveled to Sacramento, California when the All-Stars made the state tournament." 
One of the interesting parallels between these two spreads is that the latter spread is a bit about Henry's high school travel experiences, but these were trips he took with the family in tow.  As I think about it, he has taken a few trips on his own in high school without us (to soccer and baseball tournaments in the greater Bay Area with his team; to Dallas, Texas with his soccer team; and, recently, to Costa Rica with some fellow students and a couple of teachers). It makes me wonder how much travel people did on their own as high school students and how much you let (or would let) your kids travel at this age without you?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!
I've got a few more completed pages to share tomorrow and some new photography challenge posts for the weekend, so come on back to check those out.

GIT: Passport to Art (Childhood Travels)

I've been working on an altered book about travel called "Passport to Art."  The prompt for Day #22 was about childhood memories.  I did two pages, featuring the two main places I traveled as a child.  The one above is about my childhood trips to Houston, Texas.

And the second page is about the trips we would take to a rented beach house in Huntington Beach. It wasn't very far from home, but it was so much fun and a great place to vacation.

In between the two spreads lies the page about my mother's funeral. It felt right to sandwich it between happy memories of my childhood.
I'm linking up to Glue it Tuesday, and I'm curious about what type of travel you experienced as a child?

PPF: Passport to Art (Traveling Unencumbered)

I've been working on an altered book in conjunction with the Passport to Art online class run by Bernice Hopper. The class offered one prompt every day during the month of July. I haven't kept up completely, but I have really enjoyed making my book, and I will continue until I finish.  The prompt for Day 14 asked about the responsibilities which prevent you from enjoying your travels and also had a quote about walking side by side with your best friend. This led me to create a multipage spread entitled "Traveling unencumbered by children or teaching." It covers a trip my husband and I took in 1988 to Spain and Paris.  This was back in the days before we had kids and before we started planning our trips abroad around teaching opportunities. The first page (above) features photographs of Paris from a collage sheet I made, as well as a few quotes and pictures from other collage sheets. When you open the page, you see journaling about the week we spent in Paris as part of our trip:

There's an art doll and another picture of the Eiffel Tower. I feature a funny story about our arrival in Paris; a description of the wonderful food we ate; and a list of the museums we enjoyed visiting. It talks about how we fell in love with Paris and waited almost 20 years before we returned with the kids but hope to get back there sooner next time. 
If you flip the page, you come to the pages for the Spain part of our trip:

You can click on each picture to see the pages in more detail (and maybe even read the journaling, which focuses upon what we enjoyed most in each of the cities we visited during our three week trek through Andalusia). It was fun to reminisce about those carefree traveling days.  Traveling with our kids has been a fantastic experience, but these pages make me remember how much fun we had when it was just the two of us as well.  
Do you prefer traveling with your kids (if you have them) or with just your significant other? I'm working on a page about solo travel as well, which also has advantages and disadvantages (but it is definitely not my favorite way to travel).
I'm linking up to Paint Party Friday because I used paint here and there to cover up the background in my altered book!
Edited to Add: Bernice just posted her completed altered book (click here to see it), and it is really wonderful. It's very different than mine and well worth checking out.

GIT: Passport to Art (Passing on Wisdom)

The last few days I've been making really good progress on my Passport to Art altered book. Today, I'm sharing a page I did in response to the prompt for Day #7, which contained a quote that I really liked: "The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it." My page records the fact that we invited each of our Goddaughters to join our family on a summer trip to Europe (and some fun facts about the trips) . Gina went with us to Paris, Budapest and Venice; Maddie went with us to Ireland and London. Taking them along on these trips really forged a stronger bond between us and their presence definitely defined each of these trips. They were terrific additions. Have you ever invited a friend to join your family on a vacation? 

As a reminder, on Wednesday, July 31, I'll be hosting a linky for people to check in about the 2013 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt! You can link up an old or a new post and can be anything related to the Hunt. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Driving Cross Country (Passport to Art altered book)

Here's my most recent spread for the altered book I'm making in the Passport to Art altered book class sponsored by Bernice Hopper. This page is in response to the Day 17 Prompt which talks about striking out on new paths. It documents the cross-country car trip that Paul and I took in 1982. We drove a 1963 Volkswagen bug from Los Angeles to Ithaca, New York (and then I went on to Cambridge, Massachusetts). It was a wildly unreliable car, and it stranded us in a ghost town in the southwest (which looks like the the one in the picture) and on the Chicago expressway on a Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m.! The map at the top of the layout shows the route we took. The journaling along the bottom relates a couple of interesting facts about our trip: we traveled with bikes on the back which we rode to a hotel in Chicago when we broke down; we camped in the southwest until we got tired of the red rock; in Iowa, a mechanic named Fuzzy was unable to fix the VW - in fact he didn't even know where the engine was; we got stopped for speeding in Colorado; and we stayed with Paul's uncle on his farm in Omaha, Nebraska. You can click on the photo to see the layout in more detail. 
I really like how this altered book project is making me recall all kinds of trips and travel that I have done in my life. I'm glad that I drove across county - ONCE. I don't feel the need to ever do it again, but it is an experience that I am glad I didn't miss out on. We traveled approximately 3,000 miles on our trip!  What about you? What's the longest driving trip you've ever taken? 

FYV/PTA: Telling Difficult Stories

One of the goals I set in taking the Find Your Voice workshop was to find a way to tell difficult stories - the stories of times where I felt like crying or where I felt like my world was falling apart. Once I decided that I would use the workshop to explore the possibility of writing a memoir of my life during the last year, it became even more imperative to try to find both the courage and a style for telling difficult stories. It's hard (kindof like poking at a painful wound and then sharing the experience), and I'm not sure I will get there by the end of the eight week workshop.
Last week, though, I decided to try poetry as a first step in getting something on paper about a difficult time. And it worked. I'll post the poem I wrote later this summer. I promise. Once I work up the courage for that.
In the meantime, I was contemplating the prompt for Day 13 of Passport to Art which is about confronting hardships, and I decided to write a poem about what happened when my mom passed away during my summer travels. This week in Find Your Voice, the lesson is about trying different design styles. I decided to emulate the design style of Sian Fair of From High in the Sky (here's a sample of her work) and Julie Kirk of Notes on Paper (for example, this art journal page). Both tend to use printed text and a lot more white space than I do - they're also masters of clustered embellishments.
I wrote a poem and designed my page, with lots of white space and printed text (not a handwritten item in sight!).  I like how it came out and even though I haven't been able to write a full prose version of either this difficult time or the one I worked on last week, I feel like these poems are stepping stones to being able to tell the stories I want to.
Here's my poem:

When mom passed away
I wasn't there
I was
in Dublin.
Weeks before 
I had said my good-byes
I knew it wouldn't be long
But still
I left.
I returned home for the funeral
to say more good-byes
And then 
I left
for London
when mom passed away.

I welcome any input you have on telling difficult stories.

GIT/PTA: Detroit Altered Book Page

For Glue it Tuesday (sponsored by Artsyville) today, I'm sharing the latest spread in my Passport to Art altered book. This page was inspired by the prompt for Day 6, which encouraged me to think about the types of things which are speeding past in my life, as well as the changing technology of our age. 
As I reflected on the prompt, as well as the various travels of my life, I decided to journal about the trips I take to Detroit to work as a member of the Public Review Board for the United Auto Workers. I feel like I have really seen history pass before my eyes during my tenure on the Board. I have had the honor and privilege of working with some of the giants in the field of labor relations. On the other hand, I sometimes feel like I have a front row seat to the decline of the American auto industry and the effect this has had on U.S. cities and their workers. To see my page in more detail, just click on the picture.
I started with a page in my book which was had some photos of San Francisco after the devastating 1908 Earthquake and some pictures of workers rebuilding. I glued on some map paper (I was lucky enough to find pieces which featured Detroit, as well as other cities which used to have thriving auto plants, like Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo); some pictures from the Diego Rivera Ford mural in the Detroit Museum of Art (I bought a calendar and cut pictures up from there and put them in my stash several years ago); and some Club Scrap borders and backgrounds images of cars and letters to spell Detroit. I added a quote from my stash ("The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see." G.K. Chesterton); and some journaling blocks. The page has lots of layers, and I like that it documents some of my business travel.
The Passport to Art class is up to prompt #22, and I am way behind. But, everyday, I jot down notes from the class hand out, and I have lots of ideas for pages to fill my book. I'm hoping to create a lot of pages this week. The altered book is starting to take shape as one containing memories and insights I've learned from travel. Some pages relate to specific trips. Some to general concepts. I'm really enjoying the project and am so glad that I joined in!

A Balalaika Story told Two Crafty Ways (FYV and PTA)

For Week #4 of the Find Your Voice Workshop, one of the creative challenges was to tell the same story in two different crafty ways. I chose to work on a story about getting lost along the Danube Bend when we took a day trip out of Budapest, Hungary.  I had already created this scrapbook page which has basic journaling: "After touring Visegrad, we took the bus to Szentendre. Unfortunately, we got off five stops too soon and had to walk a long way. Luckily, Szentendre was cute and relaxing when we arrived, and the boat trip to Budapest was lovely." Here's the page in in its two page spread:

For my altered book page (created as part of my book for the Passport to Art class, based on the challenge for Day #9 which was about overcoming difficult things and what was learned in hindsight), I painted over part of a picture in my book, collaged on some map paper and a copy of the same tower photo used above, and then added rock candy crackle paint over the trees and tower:

I tore the facing page, added some paint, map paper and embellishments, then told the sane story in a totally different way:
"Damn it!" We got off the bus too early.
"How early?"
"I have no idea."
"I thought it would be easy to tell when we got to Szentendre."
[It wasn't.]
Now we're wandering through the Hungarian countryside, hoping to stumble upon our destination.
It's hot.
[And muggy.]
"Just keep walking and stop complaining."
Everybody thinks it's my fault.
"If we stay along the road, we won't get lost."
"What's that noise? It sounds like balalaikas."
"Oh my gosh, they're playing balalaikas!"
"What a cute town."
"Yes, boys, you can sit in the shade and play cards."
[And eat ice cream. Or drink beer.]
"Yes, girls, we can go shopping."
Szentendre, Hungary
The moral of the story is written along the side of the page: 
A week later, people only remembered the balalaikas and good times . . .
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I think the second version of the story does a better job of capturing the emotions of the day and the lesson I learned (no one except for me remembered the bad part of the day, so I should let go of the guilt). As such, it works really well in my altered book about travel and the lessons learned. I think for scrapbooking, it would be unusual for me to incorporate anything other than basic journaling. I'm not sure why; it's just the way I do things. Do any of you incorporate unusual journaling in your scrapbooks?

GIT/Passport to Art: Family Travels

A simple post for Glue it Tuesday at artsyville. This is an altered book page about how Paul and I decided early in the kids' lives that we would travel with them internationally (A LOT).  I listed some of our major international trips on map paper and glued it on the right. I used grey acrylic paint along the bottom half of the page to make a smooth transition from the art to the page.  Used some art doll stamps (painted with water colors) to represent the family. Added some quotes from the Passport to Art class: "I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece." from Tom Robbins and "We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment." from Hilaire Bellec.

The page was inspired by the prompt for Day 8 in the Passport to Art class about taking a leap of faith, which these trips truly were. Although the kids (at 15 and 18) don't remember a lot of the details of many of these trips, they do remember that we traveled together as a family and are both totally fearless travelers. They will always remember the importance we placed on family trips and will not be intimidated by new experiences.  Paul and I remember it all and wouldn't trade the experiences for anything.

GIT: Passport to Art Catch-Up

I've been doing a lot of cutting and gluing (plus a little painting and journaling) in the altered book class "Passport to Art" class I've been taking. Glue it Tuesday, hosted by Artsyville seemed like the perfect opportunity to share my recent pages. The page up top is a simple one responding to a prompt to write about a special place with strong memories for you and to use flowers. Since my altered book had a gorgeous picture of Yosemite and it's a magical place for me, I created the very simple page above. I added a few brushes of gesso to allow journaling for three specific memories and a little little journaling  booklet with a flower girl art doll. 

The next two pages are a bit more interactive.  The emphasis in the top photo is on the page and a half on the left. It responds to a prompt about my favorite form of travel, which is train travel.  The journaling talks about train trips we took when Henry was little and the connection this has to my family history because both my grandfathers worked for railroads in Mexico and Texas. I included copies of tickets that my mother used in 1948 to travel on the Mexican Railroad and the Missouri Pacific Line.
The emphasis in the bottom photo is on the page and a half on the right. It responds to a prompt about packing, and it includes some of my tips for packing. I used more map paper and some Gibson girl stamped images. You can click on the images to see them in more detail.

My final page to share today responds to the prompt to create a visa. I cut up copies of my grandmother's travel documents and glued them to my page. I added a little journaling to a photo I added to the right hand page: "My grandmother got a visa and crossed borders to create a new life." These documents were used, in lieu of a passport by my grandmother when she crossed the  border. In the photo on the Identification Certificate, my mom is the little girl on the right. I love having these personal heritage documents and feel they add depth and meaning to my art work.
My altered book is looking very different than Bernice's book (see a sample here), the hostess of the class. But that's okay. I'm really enjoying exploring the meaning of travel in my life and I'm using elements which speak to me. I have been surprised to realize how much traveling I have done and how important it is to my identity.  What about you? Are you a big traveler? Is it important to defining who you are?

My Beijing Adventure (FYV and PTA)

I'm really enjoying two FREE online classes I'm taking this month: Passport to Art and Find Your Voice. The altered book page above combines assignments from both classes. In PTA, the Day 2 prompt was about creating a passport and answering a question about whether you are adventurous when traveling or prefer a scheduled trip. The FYV assignment called for a creative project and story that showed something about who you are. 
This page has a pocket for storing my passport. You can see the inside of my passport which features some basic information about me and a Psalm. One of its lines has been stuck in my head lately: "I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  The left hand page has a picture of a mural in San Francisco and some hand-journaled quotes about adventure. The right hand page lists some of the many places I have traveled and proclaims "I am an Adventurer! I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" On the right hand side, I decided to write about an adventure I had while in Beijing. I could only fit a condensed version of the story, but here's the full version for your enjoyment: 

My Beijing Adventure 

In 1994, my best friend Molly and her family moved to Hong Kong for a year. I went to visit, and during my stay, Molly and I went up to Beijing, China for a short week. At the time, Americans could only go if they booked as part of a tour, although we did have some freedom to wander on our own. We went with our tour group to see Tienanmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Imperial Palace, The Summer Palace and The Great Wall. Midway through our hike along the Great Wall, I stopped and purchased an official certificate boasting "I Climbed the Great Wall." The vendors had a huge round stamp, which they applied to  my certificate and wrote my name in Chinese characters.  Molly didn't want a certificate, instead she convinced the vendors to apply the stamp to her bicep like a tattoo. She refused to wash her arm that day, as she wanted her kids to see the stamp when we got back to Hong Kong.
On our last morning in Beijing, we had some free time to wander on our own. I was determined to go to see one of the museums in Tienanmen Square that I had read about in a guide book. We took the twenty minute cab ride from our hotel to the Square, planning to get back to the hotel in plenty of time to meet our tour group and head to the airport just after lunch time. When we got to the Square, the police were out in force. Many were dressed in riot gear, and there were metal barriers blocking the entrances to many of the buildings.  Undeterred, I insisted to Molly that we go to the museum. We located it on our map and walked towards the building, which had a pair of armed soldiers and and several metal gates in front of it.  Optimistically, I held up my guidebook and pointed to the photograph of the museum.  One of the soldiers raised his hands in front of his face, brought them slowly together and said "Lopen."  
"It's open?" I asked.
"Lopen" he replied, again slowly moving his hands together like doors closing, not opening.  
I was about to ask again if it was "Open," when the other guard started talking excitedly and pointed at Molly's "tattoo."  They grabbed her arm and kept talking. We had the feeling they were asking us questions, but not speaking Mandarin, we really weren't sure. Molly tried explaining it was from the Great Wall, but they didn't seem to understand her. At some point, I said the magic word "Badaling," which is the town where we started our Great Wall tour. 
"Aaaah, Badaling. . . " one of the soldiers said, examining the stamp more closely. 
Then they laughed at us and moved their attention elsewhere. 
Molly looked like she wanted to hit me when I said in all seriousness, "I wonder if any of the museums on the Square are open."  She had clearly had enough of the Chinese police, and we decided to head back to our hotel.
We stood on the side of the road trying to hail a cab for about twenty minutes. Plenty of empty cabs rushed by, but none of them would stop for two American tourists now worrying about whether we would ever get back to the hotel in time to catch our flight.  
Finally, a cab stopped. We jumped in the back seat, showed him the business card for our hotel, and he took off. Just as quickly, he was pulled over by the Beijing police.  Were the police still following us? Had we done something wrong?  The driver and officer got into a long, heated conversation. The driver was pulling papers out of a box and showing them to the officer.
Molly glanced at me, pulled a wad of money out of her purse, put it on the seat and said, "let's go."
We jumped out of the cab and ran across the street. We raised our hands to hail a cab. Immediately, a cab stopped and we hopped in.  We got stuck in traffic on the way back to our hotel and arrived just in time to join the group as it headed to the airport.
On the flight back to Hong Kong, we tried to unravel what happened. The newspaper revealed that it was the fifth anniversary of the Tienanmen Square Uprising, which accounted for the strong show of force. We think the Police may have thought Molly's "tattoo" was a sign of protest. We now believe that we were trying to hail a cab in an unauthorized zone (or going in an unauthorized direction) and that the first cabbie got stopped for violating a traffic law.  We hope we left him enough in the back seat of the cab to cover his fine!

GIT: Passport to Art

For July, I signed up for Bernice's latest FREE online class called Passport to Art. The suggested framework for the class is an altered book. I found a stitch bound book about California to use. I tore out a few pages, glued a few together, folded a few others and then made a little passport to put in one of the pockets I created. For those of you who like to glue (waving hi to my friends in the Glue it Tuesday lounge over at artsyville) and for those who like to journal, you may want to check out the class. I think it will mix well with the Find Your Voice storytelling class I'm taking as well.  
The first prompt was simply to make an introductory page using a favorite technique (click on the photo to see it in more detail; pretend not to notice the coffee stain on the carpet):

I dry brushed some titan buff acrylic paint over the inside cover of my book to tone down the bright colors and then added a tag, an art doll from my stash, a stamped image and a heritage photo. The chipboard embellishments are from Cosmo Cricket's "Art Angel" package. I used Bernice's suggested quote "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it." 

Here's a close-up of the passport I made (using one of the pages I tore out of my book and embellished) and a little journal that I won in a blog give-away. I copy the quotes and prompt ideas from the class into the journal every day, so that I don't have to go back to the blog or print out the PDF's. I also jot down ideas and inspirations in there. It's a very handy supplemental tool that I learned in a Shimelle class. It also tucks in the pocket I made in the back of the book.
Anyone else doing the Passport to Art Class? Bernice is a great teacher and will lead you right through making an art journal or altered book. Although there will be 31 prompts, my book only has about 24 pages, which is fine because I know I won't be able to play everyday and there may be some prompts which don't really call to me. 

Maria Linda's Pressed Mermaid Album (altered book spread)

My local mixed media group has an ongoing altered book round robin, in which each participant creates art work in someone else's book before passing it along to the next person.  This month, I had the good fortune to work in Lisa's Secrets of the Sea book.  Lisa is an amazing artist, who incorporates fabric into her work and loves the ocean. (She also lurks on my blog, so "Hi Lisa! I hope you don't mind this spoiler.")  Inspired by Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Album, which I blogged about here and here, I created this spread entitled "Maria Linda's Pressed Mermaids." The journaling reads "I know I was supposed to use this album to press coastal wildflowers, but I found it so much more fun to sit by the tidepools and wait for mermaids (curious as they are) to alight on my album and then I would SLAM it shut and press the mermaids.  They'd escape and leave these imprints."  The tag (upper left corner) actually goes in an envelope in the back of the book and explains my inspiration.  The background uses a scraped and painted technique, and I covered the whole thing with glass bead gel for extra texture and shine.  I hope Lisa doesn't mind me spoiling her surprise too much.  If you were her, would you have preferred to be surprised? Or do you like getting a little sneak peek?

Lighten Up! (altered book spread)

My mixed media group has an ongoing altered book round robin, and this month I had the pleasure of working in Connie's book.  Here theme is "Poetry of Dreams," and there is a small envelope with "dreams" in the front of the book.  Each artist is instructed to choose a dream or two and use that as the jumping off point for her spread.  I chose two dream poems that remind me to not take myself too seriously and created this artwork to go with it.  I know that I take things too seriously too often, and I've enjoyed being a little "lighter" so far this year. What about you?

The Artists' Daughter (altered book spread)

For the altered book round robin in which I participate, I needed to create a spread for a book called "The Artist's Daughter." I changed it a bit and began with this page and the thought, "If I were the artists' daughter,".  When you flip up the baby portrait (painted by Frida Kahlo), it reveals this two page spread:

The journaling reads: "These two would be my parents, I think. Diego Rivera with his political art for the working class.  Frida Kahlo with her color palette and symbols of Mexico." Diego Rivera painted the pictures of the hands on the right.  Kahlo created the rest.  I kept the background bright and fairly simple.  You turn the page to find this two page spread:

The journaling continues:  "But that could never be, of course.  But I can still honor their work, as if I was the artists' daughter."  The picture of Frida on the left flips down and there's some more journaling: "We have other things in common.  Poor Frida could not bear a child.  Nor could I."  The woman on the right was painted by Diego Rivera.  All other art work was done by Kahlo.  I know the journaling is a bit emotional and personal, but those are two things that I have always admired about the artwork of both Rivera and Kahlo.

If you were "the artist's daughter" or "the artists' daughter," who would the artist(s) be?

Bedroom Secrets (altered book spread)

For the altered book round robin in which I'm participating, I'm working in "The Book of Secrets." I decided to use the Tim Holtz Agate on Grunge technique featured in this week's Studio L3  Compendium of Curiosities Challenge to create my pages about bedroom secrets behind locked doors.  I started by painting the pages black.  For the first page, I used gold, eggplant and rust alcohol inks on the grunge.  For the second page, I used brighter colors to show the wilder side of this couple:

Now that I see this in real life, I think I'll go back and paint the dolls a bit and add a little bling to the black background.  I left a few choice words un-gesso'd that are within the spirit of the page!  I was really surprised by how different the grunge board could appear when different colors were applied.  I hope Cindy likes her page!

The Fantasy World of Michael DeMeng

I've been working on this altered book spread for a while, but I'm very happy with how it came out! The theme for the book was "Fantasy," and I decided to create a spread about the fantasy world of Michael DeMeng.  The background is textured gesso, colored with DeMeng's recipe for Uzzzh, with some added green.  I adhered some grungeboard elements (key, flourish and letters) and a plastic tree.  I cut a niche, filled it with a picture I took of my sister holding a skull at a nature museum and covered it with some mesh.  The picture of the model is from a fashion magazine and the other picture is one I took of the Budapest Opera House. You can see more details if you click on the image to enlarge it. It was a ton of fun to make and it definitely meets the Gingersnap Creations challenge for creating a 3D object with paint.  The themes, color and style are all inspired by Michael DeMeng. I find it inspiring and useful to create in the style of other artists.  Have you ever done that?