collaborations

Today, with the snow, rain and ice settling into my body in a most unfriendly fashion, I'm skipping creating and thought I'd share another oldie but goodie!  It was a collaborative project, instigated by my friend and fellow artist Jennifer, over at reminders2bepresent.

We hadn't known each other long before she asked me if I'd like to work on a book collaboration with her.  She'd done several with other artists, and had amazing samples to inspire me into an immediate YES!!!

 

The idea was we each make our own books, with the same amount of pages, and the same dimensions.

She made an accordion book, while I bound mine more traditionally.  She used a black board for her pages, I used book board, which I paper machéd and gessoed.  

Once made, we each worked on three pages in our own book, then we traded,

worked over those three pages that had been started, and started on three new ones...

switched, worked over those three the other had started, started three new ones, etc -

 

back and forth, sometimes going over pages several times, setting no restrictions on when a page was *done*.

The beauty of this process, is the whole letting go - 

letting go of feeling your own work is too precious to be worked over; letting go of it going in a direction that wasn't the one you intended; letting go of something you thought was great being covered up.  

Lessons in impermanence, 

on trusting the process, and just getting to play!

I only have one shot of Jennifer's, seen here...

I'm currently working on my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project, which is more about art and community participation, than collaboration as I've described it above - and on a huge scale, with more than 2,700 signed up to participate.  I plan to share more of that in upcoming days.

Many in the blogging community are active in some fabulous collaborative and interactive projects that demonstrate the beauty of creativity and community.  A few include Seth at The Altered Page, where he has invited fellow bloggers to create and record their own Disintegration process through a sort of nature performance art.  He is also in a round robin collaborative book project, at Inner Works, along with fellow blogger artists Veronica Funk, Roxanne Evans-Stout, Jill Zaheer, Supria Karmakar, and Rita Vindedzis.  Many of you are out there knitting up a storm to warm up light posts, trees, and telephone poles - thanks to grrl + DOG and her Global Guerrilla Knit up Challenge!  I'm inspired by each of these projects - are you involved in any?  

I'm excited to be starting a similar book exchange project with Lynne Hoppe soon.  We'll share our progress as we get going on it!

To see these photos more closely go to my photo album,

for some reason, blogger didn't let them link to show a close up - 

may be too many photos in one post!

January 27

January 26

January 25 - The evolution of a journal

(side view close up - inspired by Seth mentioning side views of an art journal are often his favorites. I have to agree!)

Today marks the six month point

for having started this altered book journal.

Kinda hard to believe six whole months worth of art is in here,

but it is - and there is still some room to go!

Here is what the book started out looking like.  

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a side view at the beginning.   

These two shots are from October, 

at which point I could still keep it under weights, 

in an attempt to stay within the boundaries 

set by the cover and it's binding.   

That lasted, until mid December, when it finally broke through,

and I had to do some damage control, which I wrote about here ...

...and here!

Which brings us to today.  (Tape is for scale☺)

I still have to rebind it, but decided to wait until the pages are complete, 

so I know exactly how much room I need.  

By the way, the exact measurements 

are 5 inches wide, by 7 ¼ inches long - 

and 7 inches thick at it's widest point!

Now for today's pages...

January 24

Give Away!

I've been thinking about how I'm coming up on the 6 month point (this Sunday) of having started my journal, and this blog, and how amazing this experience has been for me. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be sharing my artwork, or myself, with people in Greece, Africa, or even Canada... Nor did I know I would connect in such a meaningful way with people that I have never met face to face. So many new people have entered my life, in such a relatively short amount of time!

Having this blog (thank you Donna and Jennifer, for encouraging me to start this avenue of expression!) has helped me to be very disciplined with my journaling practice. It has helped me with my commitment, knowing that I have a place where I am going to present what I've done each day, and that there are people that care and look forward to seeing what I have created. So, I want to say thank you! from the bottom of my heart...

by making a gift of one of my Heart books ♥

The pages in this book are folded and

glued together to create pockets, which hold more hearts!

Some of them have been stamped with handmade stamps

and hand written messages from me...

and some are left blank, for you to write your own heart's messages.

If this book gets your heart a-flutter, and you'd like to call it your own,

all you have to do is leave a comment here,

and on February 14th, Valentine's day naturally :)

I'll be putting all your names into a hat and drawing one.

I'll announce the winner then, and we'll do that info exchange thing and get it in the mail!!

Good Luck ♥ Karin

January 22

January 21

January 20

A Poem for New Times, from Elizabeth Alexander

     How wonderful was it, that our newly elected President Obama, chose a poet to present a poem, specially written for this occasion, immediately following his inaugural speech today?  May the arts continue to have such a place of honor in this administration.  

     Connie, over at Dirty Footprints, passed on a petition to me, which asks the new president to consider creating a position for Secretary of the Arts.  Great idea, right?!  If you think so, click on this "Secretary of the Arts" link and sign on to help make the arts take a formal place of importance in elevating our society.

     In the mean time, here is Elizabeth Alexander's poem, which I found to be quite moving, and worth sharing:

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

January 19

January 18

Breathin' in, Breathin' out

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't shown any journal pages since Saturday. I'm going through withdrawal, and I don't like it! I've been using my energy on the grunt work of being an artist - the nitty gritty that needs tending to, or it piles up and spills over and, for me, will eventually suck me down if I'm not careful. These things include lots of organizing and documenting, which means extra time at the computer, which means guarding my inner resources and pacing myself. As much as I'd prefer the journal art making to this... but I am doing some art!

I am trying to complete a piece that was started a while back, in time for jurying this weekend. This is a glimpse at the accordion style book - the cover above, and the not quite completed first two pages below. The theme is about how we come into this life these solitary/individual bodies, and nearly immediately begin to form groups, categories, and ways to sort ourselves and separate, to seek differences over similarities - why? when oursimilarities are so much greater! When unifying would be of such larger service to humanity and to our own spirits... As I try to avoid the news, the horrors in Gaza, the numbers of dead and injured from warring in Iraq, and the ongoing 'quagmire' in Afghanistan, these questions loom larger in my heart, and my artist self tries to make some kind of sense of that which can't be made sense of...

insanity

Main Entry:
in·san·i·ty
Pronunciation:
\in-ˈsa-nə-tē\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural in·san·i·ties
Date:
1590
1: a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia)
2: such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility
3 a: extreme folly or unreasonableness b: something utterly foolish or unreasonable