I’ve been stuck in a self-depricating spot lately, thinking that I just ‘piddle around’, never actually creating any art…so I decided to take stock of some things. 

I have said that I’ve kept a written journal, since I was 15. Yeah, 33+ years is some time…

This stack of paper actually looks small to me, but that’s probably because I know how much time and life and mojo has been applied to the pages…

Then I thought about the Art Journals & Travel Journals that I’ve finished…

THEN I collected all the journals together that I’m currently working in, and realized, I need to cut myself a serious break….

Yeah…there are 9 (nine) journals here. Most pages have SOMETHING on them, so…

…I’ll just keep putting stuff & things inside these books, and I’m also looking into starting from scratch…making my own books, from paper I choose, then doing my thing, as well as incorporating some new ideas I want to try…

Not nearly as much lace as the junk journal junkies are into, but adding more to my books…

I’ve been artsing my pants off around the way, but haven’t posted a damn thing here.

I finished my mini journal last Tuesday and I finished my Journal 52 from 2015…17 months after 2015…TA-DA! Heh. 

Whatever…

I have actually filled 4 complete journals…

And am nearing the finish line on 2 others (they are larger, though). I’ve committed to 6 (!) other large journals, a mini 8-pager for my trip (in 3 weeks, WOOT!!!), and I’m working out the logistics of filling the Fabriano paper pages of a leather covered, hand bound, mini journal a friend gave me in ’03. Now, this girl introduced me to MOTL*, so I’ll always thank her for that, but she’s really kind of a tool, and we haven’t spoken in years. 

Example: She wrote on the first page of the journal she gave me. About herself. Who does that?!? Honestly! 

In the end, I win…cuz I’m a lefty…so she wrote on the LAST page.  HAH! First time I completed the last page of a journal first…

Oh! It’s spring postcard swap season…I sent my 10 away…have received 4 so far…but I’ll tell you about it when I get ’em all!

*MOTL = My Own True Love. 

I TOLD you this place was giving me cancer…

I’ve been out & about for most of June (17 days in Kansas & Oklahoma, 5 days in San Francisco) and I am JUST getting unpacked, laundry caught up, cat affection overloaded…

I’m going through my photos and I have some to show you…

These are “background” shots of random surfaces in Alcatraz prison and on Alcatraz island. I got to tour the prison on 6/26 with a couple of Librarian friends and it was SO COOL, and not JUST because I got to wear blue jeans in a prison!

Elizabeth and Me.  If you get the chance to go most anywhere with a Librarian (or 7!) DO IT!

This is the spot that got me started on being the weird girl, taking pictures of walls and floors, at Alcatraz.

This is a GLORIOUSLY chipped-paint wall in the chow hall. It’s like cloud pictures, where the more you look at it, the more you “see.”

This is a floor in a “pass through” and the marks are from grenades thrown by the US Marines when the prisoners took over part of Alcatraz in 1946.

This is the floor in the chow hall. If I had not seen this section, I would not have known that the worn “floor” was covered in sealed canvas-like material.

Here you can see the different layers…red canvas on black Paint? Adhesive?, over concrete. I just find it so interesting that cloth was used in an eating area at all, sealed or not.

Part of a wall outside. I am endlessly fascinated by green things that grow, but that is most likely because I currently reside in a barren wasteland of a desert.

I have been working on some art journal pages, but I’ll post them later, once I get caught up on Journal 52 (no worries, only a week behind there) and I’ll share some fun stuff I made on my Midwest adventures…

Oh! And these “background” shots will someday become part of future art I WILL CREATE!

WOOT!

(Happy 4th of July, y’all…be safe and eat MUCH BBQ!)

I’m not a professional blogger, or an Artist, or a Lawyer.
I’m a Librarian, Y’all!

I AM, however, trying to figure out how to make this little endeavor all spiffy and add the badge-y links to my favorite blogs on the side of my page like other folks do.

Meh…maybe I’ll figure it out, maybe I won’t…

Sometimes just coloring pictures is enough to keep me happy.  Deciding what color to put next another is about the extent of my ambition at times.

It’s almost a meditation sometimes…like I say, “Whatever keeps me from stabbing folks in the eye.”

I work in a very drab environment so I am not surprised that my home is increasingly colorful.

So…my Brother is on break from school and my best friend is taking an oil painting class (where he doesn’t need my help to edit anything!) so I’m actually not doing homework for a bit. I seriously don’t know how to act…

Oh! I know! I’ll work on some art journaling! Heh.

Actually, I have been working on some pages for Journal 52 and will post them as soon as they’re dry (!) Trying to catch up is interesting, especially since I HAVE made beginnings on a few weekly themes (Creative Hands[18], Mandala [21], Party Animals [15]) and NOW I have time to finish some things. Oh! that does sound nice…”finishing something”. I don’t know about y’all but I have so many works in progress laying around, I’M not too surprised that the possibilities get a bit overwhelming at times.

Anywho…there’s more to come…in COLOR!