It's fun to get published.

I entered a piece in a reader challenge for Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and was chosen for the November issue. It's really a blast to open a magazine and see something created by my own two hands published in a national magazine. Made me smile.

Visually recreate fall in your journal

Fall is so visually delicious because of the contrast of wide open intensely blue sky and the layers of colored leaves littering the ground. The intricate twining of branches against the open sky, and the smooth reflections in a pond. All are contrasts of wide areas and intricate detailed spaces.

Think of your journal page this way. Balance open areas and detailed areas. Try repeating shapes surrounding areas of color.

Is your life also a contrast of smooth times and tightly orchestrated moments? Calm and chaos? Peaceful afternoons and rushed mornings? How would you represent these times on your pages?

Take a deep breath of cool, clean fall air. Spend some time looking, really looking at the rich tapestry of fall. Contrast the big panorama to the small window of a forest path. Breath the air.

Fall is definitely here

This weekend we made cider. It was a group activity and we all got a chance to stuff apples in a hundred and fifty year old apple press, turn the wheel and stick our cup under the downspout! That fresh apple juice was heady and gave a blast of the turning seasons to my life. The setting for all this fun was an off the grid farm in Maine with a wonderful group of people.

My eye was constantly caught by the colors, the browns, the tans and the splashes of red and orange, yellow and gold. I wanted to run to my studio and make things with leaves and earth tones. I've gathered leaves to press as I always do and they will find their way into my journal pages...probably when the snow is swirling down.

So celebrate fall, the turning and the nesting. Enjoy the fresh air, the apples and pumpkins and reflect on, well, just about everything.

Check out the new link on the right to PixelScrapper. This is a great source for fantastic patterns and designs for scrapbooking, journaling or just plain fun.

I am an artist!

I just spent a week at a women's music festival enjoying friends, singing, drawing and of course great music. New friends would ask what I did and I always answered with my job. But that is not who I am. I am an artist. As I age I identify more and more as an artist.

Why is it so hard to say those words....even to a stranger? Art is what feeds me, keeps me happy, keeps me engaged. I love having a project to mull over in my head as I drive or fall asleep at night. I love the inspiration, the planning and the creation and of course the satisfaction of the finished item.

So what do I do? I am an artist. What do you do?

Small journal for small, quick thoughts

I wanted a small fun journal for our upcoming trip. Something that would fit in a backpack, be light, and be ready to jot down thoughts and small sketches. I love to start with some kind of background and used paperbag drop cloths are wonderfully painted on, stained and make perfect starting points.

I take a small set of colored pencils and a fine point black marker pen. I like the R@ Rollerball .07mm pens by INC? Hard to find. Might be a Pentel brand as well. I also made pages with pockets for stashing ephemera. It is about 5 1/4 x 3 3/4. Spine has bead, paper bead and floss embellishments. See the foil off of a wine bottle on the back?

Summer bench sitting

I just spent a week and a half on a jury doing my civic duty. Tough case, tough decisions. But the bright part of the day was lunch in beautiful summer weather downtown Hartford, CT. I live about 10-15 minutes from downtown Hartford and in 10 years in Connecticut have not spent much time getting to know the city. Now, a bench in a green space near several courthouses is maybe not a typical city setting, but the mix of people is interesting.
I joined a grandmother and her 4 year old grandson on a bench in the shade. We talked a bit with the little boy as a great conversation opener. He was very interested in my lunch especially the fruit cup of fresh melon. He started angling for some strawberries..there were none, but there was watermelon and that was just as good. I let him work his way around letting me know he would really love to share some of that watermelon. I finally relented, asked his grandmother if it was alright and he got his treat.
How wonderful to be able to talk a bit with strangers, exchange a bit of news, laugh at the antics of a child and then go our separate ways. I did leave an abandoned art piece behind! #abandonedartct or Twitter @abandonedartct
Thank you strangers on a bench for a pleasant lunch break.

Sunny day in Hartford, perfect for abandoned art

Dropped a few more in Hartford last week. I have a few more days of being downtown so I need to find some more drops. It's fun to wander around and scope out drops. It is easy to drop a bird here and there, but photographing them draws attention. Hope they found a good home, there were lots of children on the sidewalks. #abandonedartct. On Twitter @abandonedartct