My 50th year was not my favorite, so I've been working on ways to change things and get back to having a life that makes me happy. One essential part of that was to straighten up my art room and make some daily movement in that area every day. Art is good therapy. Art is good for your soul. All of that art stuff, it's true.
The first step was to get the art space in some kind of working order. I started getting rid of junk and supplies I don't use, while moving my favorite things into places easy to access. I got my desk cleaned off and covered part of it with this endless roll of pink butcher paper my dad gave me decades ago.
I didn't take a photo of my art table when it was all fresh and starting out because I am the worst at before photos. This is pretty close to how it looked though, just minus all the junk.
I found an old mostly empty art notebook. This was one of the few things already in it. It's pretty much representative of what stuff I was doing when I stopped doing anything. I'm interested in doing something totally different now. Much more messy.
I opened it to a pair of blank pages and started making it not blank a little teeny tiny bit at a time. I found a lot of good supplies in my redo, but I had also discovered most of my beloved ink sprays were not spraying. I had to think of an alternative for adding color in the background and I started thinking about stencils. I had a few so I tried them out with ink pads that still worked. I may have also bought a few more stencils on Amazon because they are fun, and look cool.
I went a little crazy trying stuff out, but that's kind of the idea.
I love to stamp words on stuff. I found my best alphabet step set ever. It was part of a kid's set of stamps that probably cost ninety nine cents. They are perfect. In retrospect, I wish I would have stamped 'element' because that's what I called those giant animals when I was a kid. Next time.
Then I found the gesso. It was in a vapor lock tub from 1998 and there was still perfectly good gesso in it. I'm not even kidding you. I know when it was from because there's a sticker on the bottom. I felt like it was a sign from the art gods. The gesso miracle. I started gessoing up all the pages. It made some cool effects on the ones I had already spayed with ink ages ago.
I kept trying supplies out as I found them and really messed that page up. By that I mean I don't like it right now. But it happens. Maybe it'll end up turning out anyway.
After a few days of playing with stuff, I started to make some pages I like.
I like what this one became.
I love a white pen. I love white on top of the intense colors. This is an example of what Hannah diagnosed as Compulsive Outlining Disorder. She's not wrong.
And then this part of a blue page? Oh, I love it. For real. I have to never forget that doing this, even a tiny bit at a time, is necessary for a happy life. I mean for me. Although you would probably enjoy it too.
A lot of days I post various bits of my daily art making on my Instagram stories. Follow me there.
It's fun (and there's no drama).
Recent Comments