YAY CANADA POST!!

SO glad the mail strike is over.  I know they don't have all their differences with the union settled yet, but I'm just (selfishly) glad that postal service will resume today.  Now I can mail some of these babies out:

I discovered a place in town called Arts Junktion last week.  It's in a semi-sketchy area but I went in the afternoon (ie. broad daylight) and everything was fine.  If you don't mind following directions that go something like this:  "Go behind the building, down the alley along the fence, past the loading doors, then up three steps into a small discreet wooden door" then this is the place for you. 

What they do is accept donations of "junk" that artists may be able to use - all kinds of stuff, from legit art supplies, to used binders and other office supplies, fabric and leather scraps, buttons... really anything that COULD be used for art.  Then?  And this is the part that floored me - you can come in and pick whatever you think you might use.  FOR FREE.  Yes!  Really!!

I was very careful not to go all crazy and grab up everything in sight, I took a few select things that I knew I would use.  For example, the three wee paintings at the top there are done with gouache and paint marker on old 5.5" floppy diskettes. 

While I was waiting for layers of paint to dry on those, I took a few minutes to put down a background in one of my art journals.  I had done half a page in here several years ago (it's horrible, I'll probably never show it to you - or I might paint over it) so I drew a black line with a sharpie and decided the bottom half of the page will be something entirely different.  Here it is so far:

I have no idea what it will be when it's finished but at least the colours are fun!

See you soon - go check your mail!!

Love Shelley!

The Daily Doodle

Do you ever notice that sometimes your random mindless doodling turns out better than any actual art you attempted on purpose in a given day?

Oh.  Uh, me either.

Because everyone likes a nice octopus, right?

I was busy writing a long-overdue letter to a sweet friend of mine and I suddenly started to worry that I was going to run out of interesting things to talk about.  The problem was that I had already taken apart several empty envelopes and trimmed them all to the same size and stapled them back together into a booklet, so I was really feeling the (self-imposed) pressure to fill every single page.

Of course this was before my son engaged in a dance-off with a carnie at a rural festival; before my daughter announced she was mad at God for letting her nana's cat get run over on the road; before my husband came home with a recipe for making mini bombs out of stray blobs of mercury; before I played 'make-up bag' with my sister, and before we met the dumbest waitress on the planet (when four people arrive at a restaurant for dinner, and the waitress asks you how many of you would like cutlery... seriously?!)  So it turns out I would have had LOTS to talk about, but that's fine, because who doesn't like a nice orange octopus? 

*sorry about the facing page still being there - I scanned this one instead of taking a picture, and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the extra stuff.  I COULD tell you what it says, but isn't it more fun to imagine what I wrote? 

And that's it for now.  I have more but I really have to figure out the technology part before I post this stuff. 

Love Shelley!

Some recent journal pages

I've been busy working on all kinds of journal pages, having fun with stuff as the inspiration hits me.  In some cases, I haven't even been waiting for the inspiration, I have just jumped right in, and actually that's how that chicken coop page started.  I added the fold-out page before I had any idea what I was planning, but luckily for me it all turned out all right.  I always feel a certain sense of relief when an experiment ends up looking like I meant to do that all along. 

A friend of a friend very gullibly trustingly sent me a couple of her journals to work in.  MOOOO HOO HAHAHAHA!  She didn't even set any guidelines, just told me to have at 'er.  Honestly, some people will trust ANYBODY!

The top page is done in a regular composition journal, and the bottom three are in a small notebook that's around 4x6".  I'll be popping them back in the mail to her tomorrow. 

Until then, keep your stick on the ice.

Love Shelley!

Hungry?

Last week I had to attend a meeting for Cameron's soccer team, and since I work in the city and the meeting was in the city, I decided to stay in the city rather than driving home and back in again.  So during the downtime, I treated myself to a burger at A&W... this isn't the actual burger though.  It didn't last long enough to pose for a portrait.  HA!  No, I was way too hungry for that.  While I ate, though, I drew the burger off of the coupons they gave me.  I just used a red verithin Prisma pencil crayon that I found in my desk at work.  Originally I was planning on going over it afterwards with a Sharpie and colouring it in with watercolours, but then I decided to leave well enough alone.

Although.... if I would have painted it, then it would probably be easier to tell what each layer is. 

Bon appetit!
Love Shelley

Road trip, anyone?

I've got my eye on you.

There are layers of journaling around the outside edge of these pages.  I didn't want anybody to be able to read it - I just wanted to unload into my journal and get this stuff out of my head.  I always find it helps to do a brain dump now and then!!  Anyway, I was feeling as intense as this eagle looks when I did the writing.  Afterward I was able to relax a little.  More like a ... flamingo?  Are flamingos more relaxed than eagles?  They look more cheery and pink at least.

Are you still listening to me?  I wouldn't if I were you.  I'm not making much sense.    : )

Love Shelley!