Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!

I hope you had a lovely day! I enjoyed every minute of it. We went for a walk, cooked, listened to music, read books, played art. It was sooooo good.
Hana is in a phase where she analyzes and scrutinizes every single little thing about her appearance. She takes numerous self-portraits and dislikes most of them. On the other hand - I love them all.. This one inspired me to create today's journal page.
I sketched a face and I knew how I wanted to use pieces of wrapping paper, but I couldn't draw the hand at all. I had no idea where or how to put the fingers. Most of the time I have to have a reference to draw... Luckily, the real artist of the family (Hana) doesn't have the same problem. She drew the hand in a minute (and wasn't happy with it, while I stood in awe). I asked her to play a little more with the pencil... she changed the hair style, lips, nose... We both concluded that I should leave it in pencil and play with the background. So there it is - a mother-daughter collaboration in my journal. Something for me to treasure forever. I love moments like that!
I want to share another page with you. Thirteen days ago I grabbed my camera and sketch book and went for a quick walk in the park and on the beach. I returned refreshed and started a journal page with the photos and sketches from the walk. I quickly got frustrated because it looked horrible, so I closed the journal and went to work. Fast forward two weeks... and I love it! What I thought was an unfinished mess looks exactly how I wanted it to look.
Journals are magical.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Hello! I miss you!

Hello!!! How are you? I miss you all so much! I don't remember being this busy in years. I was working long hours and weekends and days and nights would pass without me noticing them. I'm sorry to say that I didn't have time to visit blogs, check my email, or even regular mail. I'm not complaining. It feels great to work the old brain and challenge it to learn new things quickly... (and it feels great to be paid for it too). It wasn't all work... there was a doctor visit for a really bad cold (Hana), the boy turned 21, the girl became a teenager...











I have 2 1/2 days off and I plan to use them wisely. The tree needs to be decorated, presents wrapped, cookies baked... I want to visit blogs, see how you're doing, open my mail (thank you for sending the Christmas cards even after I said that I wouldn't be able to reciprocate), answer emails. I also want to take long walks... and maybe even pick up a brush to see if I can still paint (I've been painting in my dreams... isn't that funny? I dreamed that I bought red ink and dripped it on a top of a journal page).

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Journal spread

I should be working on Christmas cards... but I can't. Please don't send me any because I'll feel bad for not reciprocating... It seems that my journal is the only place where I can make honest art right now. This is what surfaced today.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.
Walter Anderson.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Wish day

This is the fastest journal spread I ever made. I was in a big hurry to create, dry, scan and post it before I go to work. Why? Because while I was blog-hopping this morning and following links, I read that today is wish day - a perfect day when everything is aligned in the universe for wishes to come true. Doesn't that sound great? I wanted to post it during the day so that if you read it you have time to make a really good, strong, happy wish....
I may add or change things on this page later... Now I have to run. Happy wishing!