Right Now

This is in response to Catherine's tag...she posted a fun prompt on her blog and asked us to respond. The question is: What are you all about right now? Here is my free flow, starting...NOW:

being a mom

online art classes
facebook (gotta stay connected and share)
youtube (artsy videos, art technique tutorials)
finding 5 minutes a day for art (sometimes less!)
day trips
intense dreams
wanting to DECLUTTER my house, my life
wishing for a new space to live in
expanding family
connecting with other artists

yearning for sleep!

baby steps
bold, bright colors
travel
outdoors
sunshine
love
joy
peace
the ocean
the sky

half done projects

art journaling
collage
finding my own unique style, voice
being ok with mess
good food
pearl tea
girlfriends
family
home

Thanks, Catherine, for the chance to play. ;) I'm blogging and arting a lot less these days...got a sleeping baby on my lap as I type this. It's all about balance and baby steps. ;) I'm fighting the urge to want to do art when she sleeps, cuz I know I need sleep, too! I scribble and glue a little in my art journal here and there (feels good!) and I'm still trying to find time to write a little. That will come with time. Having a baby actually helps with that whole "spontaneous" art and life thing. I don't have time to ponder and second guess my art, if I have time at all! It's just scribble and play and paste...bzzz! Time's up! So that is good. I'm also lucky she is a good traveling baby. Been out of the house a LOT this week. Half Moon Bay (relaxing day on the beach!), water park yesterday (Maya ran through the sprinklers and played on the playground while we chilled in the shade), visits with girlfriends...Life is good! Slightly sleep deprived, but feeling good. ;)

She's Here!

Welcome to the world, Sureya!
Born on Mother's Day, May 10
7 lbs 5 oz, 19 3/4" long
Sweet little Angel!

Sureya cuddles with big sister Maya
(few days old)

Taking a little nap
(1 week old)

Convenzione 2009!

I took some amazing classes this week at Convenzione in Pleasanton, CA! The first was a beeswax collage class with Anna Corba. I had a great time rummaging through my stash of paper and ephemera to come up with the collage above. Anna was also very generous and shared a whole heaping pile of vintage music sheets, books, reciepts, handwritten notes, photos, postcards, Cavalini papers...all kinds of artsy goodness!

She also showed us a fun technique of applying a colorful wash over antique paper with fluid acrylics (or watered down acrylics) and then stamping over it to create our own unique paper.

The next day I took an amazing class with Brandie Butcher Isley. She taught us how to give an indoor/outdoor appearance to our backgrounds when working with vintage photos. Collecting vintage photos of my family was half the fun. This project was very personal to me because I felt a connection to the people in the photo.


The first is an example using a collage image from Paper Whimsy. If you click on the photo, you can see the great crackle texture she showed us how to do. The "hardwood floor" was painted with walnut crystyls and the "planks" were scrached in with a straight pin.

Below is the "outdoor" piece we made. I used paint and paper to create the bark and branches and Brandie showed us another amazing technique for painting in the smaller, whispy branches with a straight pin (my new favorite painting tool!) Brandie showed us so many amazing techniques and was very generous with her vintage supplies!


The photo is of my great grandma, Tami Kato, and the little baby with the bowl cut (cutie!) is my grandma Linda (born Kinue Osabe).


Today was the Art, Paperie & Pleasantries Fair. There was an amazing assortment of vendors selling vintage supplies, stamps, ephemera, jewelry, and orignial art. There were make-and-takes throughout the day. Today I did a make-and-take with Pam Carriker.


She showed us some great techniques like adding texture with stamps, shading with charcoal and how to do a transfer using hand sanitizer! Very fun.

And today, Julee Herrmann showed us how to make cute ATC shrines!

This was just the dose of creativity I needed before the baby arrives...which could be any day now! I am now 38 weeks. I'm hoping (selfishly)! to make it past my due date so I can attend Teesha and Tracy Moore's journaling workshop at A Work of Heart. I told the baby if she wants to come early, she can arrive on the 5th or 6th. Otherwise, she'll have to wait until the 17th! ;) Either way, we are very excited and can't wait to add another little cutie to our growing brood!

Playing Catch-up

Artfest came and went with the blink of an eye this year! I had a blast and this time around, I had my Bay Area Art Sisters to pal around with (we ended up in a lot of classes together!). I met some new friends and some new sisters joined our lil' group, too! I took three amazing classes from three wonderful, talented teachers...

Day one, I took a class with Nina Bagley. We learned all kinds of fun and funky ways to make a keepsake book (mine is still in-the-making...but here's a shot of the cover):


Misty Mawn's class, "A White Out" taught me all about how to distress backgrounds and make my canvas look old, worn and grungy (very fun and addictive!), and to paint all in ghostly, peaceful shades of white.


Day three was with LK Ludwig and we learned all about metal mesh and how to make resists with patina and commonly found objects (feathers, leaves, alphabet stickers, magazine cut-outs, stamps, etc):


This weekend we spent with Raul's family up in Modesto. We had a great time lounging in the sun at Lola's and today we went over to his brother's house to partake in an Easter gathering with family and friends.

Maya played with snails (making them race, makign the big ones give the little ones "snail back" rides...odd girl!) ;) And she made friends with the sweetest neighborhood cat. We wanted to take him home!

And I even got some art done! Worked on some more pages for the 1001 Journals project. It's ready to be sent to the next person (sorry for being a journal hog and taking so long!)



And that's all for now! We start the final count-down for our baby girl...next Thursday I hit the 36 week mark and I think that means that the baby could technically arrive any time now... yikes!

1001 Journals and more...

Finally completed some pages in the journal I got a few weeks ago from the 1001 journals project. I think I'll play around with it a little more over the weekend and then send it off to the next person in line...I've been a bit of a journal hog, keeping it way longer than 2 weeks! But I wanted to complete at least several pages before sending it off. I love this project! I love the idea of a journal changing hands across the country or the world, from stranger to stranger. Awesome.

Below is the start of the third series...I'll add some collage and then scribbles and finally journal some random thoughts.

Been working on more trades for Artfest, too! Below is one of a series of tags I've made...not sure how into mermaids I am, but since the theme is sea monsters this year, I'm just going with the whole ocean/sea/sea creature thing.

I've also made envelopes and stuffed them full of octopus and sea creature images and stickers. And I still want to put together packs of 3-D goodies like shells, starfish and a message-in-a-teeny-tiny-bottle charm. That is in addition to the 25+ charms I have yet to complete! I can't stop, it's too much fun!


Yesterday Maya and I played hooky and I took her to the Children's Discovery Museum and then we had pizza for lunch. It was nice spending the day together just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Most of the time we spend together is in the same room but we're doing different things (she's playing, I'm on the computer) or the car running errands. It's still fun, but it's not that kind of Quality Time with the capital Q. I was so emotional the other night just thinking about where in the heck did the last 6 years go??? She's not my little baby anymore!

It makes me happy to see her grow and change, but I miss that little baby I used to hold or the little 2 year old that used to poke around in the garden and bring me snails. Ok, she still does that, and probably still will for a few more years. But I often wonder/worry if I've spent enough time with her, if she feels loved enough, if we did enough captial Q quality kinds of things together. It's just what a mother worries about, I guess. I know the answer is YES, I'm doing fine and she feels loved. But when in doubt, call your kid in sick and take them out to frolic in the park or just draw on the sidewalk with chalk or collect bugs in the backyard.

Today we made sun prints in the front yard with special sun print paper and things from nature (and a few bath toys!). Maya climbed the plum tree and then we went for a walk around the block, picking flowers from neighbors' gardens (shhh!). We stumbled across this little guy along they way (Maya said, "oh, look mom! it totally goes with your theme this week!" she knows I'm preparing for Artfest!):


I think it's a good sign. ;)

Artfest is in the Air!

These are some of the trades for Artfest I've been working on...little shrink plastic charms mixed with beads and funky fiber in an array of ocean colors. (I was originally inspired by an article on shrink plastic charms in Somerset Workshop by Lisa Guerin). The theme this year is sea monsters! I've adapted it slightly to include mermaids and the faces I think look a lot like jelly fish with long tendrils flowing down.

This little one has a curly seahorse tail and butterfly wings. A sweet little monster!

This is a closeup of the face that reminds me of a jellyfish...you gotta see the flowy tendrils for the full effect. ;)

Only 23 more days until ARTFEST!!! :)

Moss

Entry #2 for the Paper Whimsy quotes challenge. The prompts are poems by poet Hilda Conkling (when she was a child). They are very whimsical and dreamy and sweet little poems. I plan to make a book out of all of the collages and give it to Maya. We'll see what next week's challenge brings!

Rain drops, Blue Girl and Middle of the Night Musings...

Not much to say today...just listening the the pitter patter of rain rolling off my roof and crackle splattering onto the ground below. Something about falling rain that also kind of sounds like bacon frying. Every notice? Ok, maybe it's just me. ;) Just wanted to share a little blue girl I collaged for a challenge on the Paper Whimsy forum. I like to join in on swaps and challenges every so often just to keep those creative sparks going.

I know I need to do more free-flow "no expectations or goals" kind of creating. I know then and only then will I find my true art voice. But in the meantime, it is still fun to be prompted and given homework to jump start my art. (Oh, bad 80s song is coming to mind...be gone!)

I cannot believe that Artfest is only a month away. And then Convenzione. And then Teesha and Tracy Moore's journaling weekend (on my due date!! I'm totally tempting fate here...I envision going into labor just as the last stitch is made in my journal and the last little bits have been collage onto the pages!) And then the little one will be here. (!) Anxiety and denial has officially turned into joy and anticipation! I'm ready (or as ready as I can be). It will be different, for sure. How will I make art and breastfeed and change diapers and get Maya to school on time and...? It will all come together.