CranberryCloud Laurel Martin

My art journal is a place where I consciously try to not be conscious.  By that I mean that I don't plan or think about how things are going to look.  I scrape in whatever paint colors are left on my palette and glue in what is left over on my table and write in quotes that appeal to me or words I have cut out of books.  It never ceases to amaze me how it all comes together.  I think our brains are hard-wired to try and make sense of things and when things are random it is fun for us to find the sense, the patterns and the meaning.  We like it better when things aren't too obvious.

Here's my new and improved Red Bird linocut.  Two posts back, I wrote about how dissatisfied I was with this print.  I've lightened the blue and taken out the extraneous branch and the leaves and added flowers.  I also figured out a way to deal with the edges using a method I call "towel edge".  I'm sure others have used towels before me but it's fun to think of it as my own invention.
It is now on display in my Etsy shop and in a white frame on my wall : )

A few nights ago I had a dream that I was on one of these carnival rides that take you up in the air and twirl you around.  The trouble was the ride wouldn't work and we couldn't get off the ground so we were running along the ground as the ride turned slowly.  I won't try and interpret this for you.   I just love the image and it gave me the idea for this little twirling ACEO.
I love dreams.  I get such great ideas from them!

Here's a little peek at the lino print that I'm working on.  It's not done yet.  In fact I'm not happy with the result at all.  I managed to commit my two most common mistakes, so I thought I would blog about in the hopes that I may remember not to  repeat them! One: I need to pay attention to what I'm doing!  I tend to motor away while my mind goes off  on vacation.  This is does not make for good art!  Here the blue is too bright, the gold under the bird didn't work and the edges look crooked.  I also failed to notice that there is not much contrast.    This has got to be my second favourite mistake.  All of this caused me to look at these prints, after I'd make ten, and go UG!  Back to the drawing board!   However, I did create a wonderful new dish! New for me that is.  Caramelized Lotus root.  It is a little sweet because of the brown sugar and crunchy, with the consistency of a water-chestnut.  MMMMM    I have used lotus roots as stamps before, but now I know how to cook them!

As soon as I read the word for Illustration Friday this week, I thought about knolling. I first heard about Knolling from my daughter this Christmas.  She was doing some bookbinding and "knolling" was the best way to "prepare".  What is knolling? Just what this video by Tom Sachs!

I was getting ready to do some lino printing so I carefully knolled my table.  It's now so beautifully organized and a sharp contrast to my other art table which is what you see if you turn around in my tiny studio.

I feel a little guilty that these illustrations are made digitally with my phone of all things!  However, next week I will hopefully have some lovely linocut prints to show.  Made at my knolled table...and I better get knolling the other table!

I'm off to a bit of a slow start this year because updating this blog seems to be causing my computer to freeze.  So a new look for this blog will have to wait.  I think a page from my journal is a good place to start the new year and it works perfectly with the Illustration Friday word this week: "grounded".

My art journal is a place where I use up the last bits of paint from my palette,  glue odds and ends that I like but  can't seem to work into a collage and write quotes and various pieces of advice to myself.  It definitely is what keeps me grounded because it reminds my of what my real voice is and what I am striving to be.  Why is it, that it's so much harder to be myself on a new blank canvas?
One of my New Years resolutions is to blog more and share more journal pages: )
Also to cook more from this marvelous cookbook:

And share it here...and of course, I'll carry on writing about the art that I'm making. I'm hoping for a fun year of creating, blogging and eating! Hope you have a fun year too.

I don't actually send Christmas cards, but I make them for other people.  Here's this years batch all laid out and drying on the bed.  I made 4 different linocut stamps for these and spent a ridiculous amount of time deciding what colour of green the trees should be. I still have to give all the little red elf/gnomes their faces. I was totally absorbed in my little Christmas print world here, when I looked out the window and we were getting our first dusting of snow.  How Christmasy!

Here's the view from my studio and here's one of my finished cards.
Happy Holidays!

I finally got all five colours done! I'm quite happy with the result.  There are lots of imperfections on each print but I'm clinging to the Japanese  wabi-sabi asthetic that the beauty is found in imperfection.  I love that idea.  I do think that the fact that the colours don't line up perfectly creates movement. However,  I will try for better registration next time (that's lining up the plates).  I also did two prints on brown paper.  Which do you like better?

It is true that I haven't been blogging much lately.  This is due to the fact that I haven't done anything.  I suppose I've been suffering from post moving artists block.  Every time I sit down to create something I start thinking about how I should maybe put up another shelf or re-caulk the tub or walk the dog...Being in a different place physically seems to have put me in a different place mentally.  So I'm trying a new direction and I'm quite excited about it.  These are the first of some 5 colour linocut prints.  I've done linocuts before, but never quite like these.  I've been carving away...

It's so much fun to do something new!  However, as soon as I get the ink out, someone is at the door!  He is always on the wrong side of it!

There is lots of time while the ink is drying to let him in and out, but that is just not working with his schedule today. Now I'm off to apply the next color!