FAMILY IS FOREVER

I love family.  I love my real family. I love my way-extended real family that I rarely get to see. I love my online family. I love my art family.  We form bonds with our real families as children and those bonds last a lifetime.  Bonds are formed through the years with friends and acquaintences, and some of these last a lifetime as well.  And believe it or not, you can form these kind of lasting relationships with people you meet and get to know online. I can only hope that those relationships last a lifetime as well.  We adopt some folks into the family as the years go along through close friendships and relationships.   These interpersonal relationships help to form who we are are adults and provide so much emotional support, and always when we need it.  And of course, you can't have those close relationships without a few waves once in a while, but over the course of time, little wounds are healed and that unconditional love always prevails.

How wonderful it is to know aunts, uncles, cousins, distant cousins and way-distant cousins.  There's that connection that binds us all together through common ancestors and relationships.  My familial roots run long and deep in the United States, and of those roots I am very proud.  And of course, being a 5th generation Texan, I know there is no better place than this place I call home.

So the last couple of days I have been thinking a lot about family.  My maternal side of the family is having their 96th annual reunion this summer and it is something I always look forward to.  I think I have only missed 1-2 in my 60 + (cough) years on this planet.  I was fortunate enough to know my maternal great grandmother for 18 years of my life.  She and my gr. grandfather came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon, and I learned a lot about life from her and all of her children.  Sadly, I never knew my gr. grandfather. He passed long before I was born, but all 6 of their children lived long and very productive and successful lives.  Seeing all my great aunts and uncles and cousins from all over the country was always a thrill and those times hold a very special place in my heart. This side of the family heralded fantastic longevity so we all benefited from the wisdom they tried so hard to teach us. We weren't always listening, but those stories, legends and antics remain with me today, and for that I am grateful.

So to honor family of all genres, I created this journal page.  The background is a fantastic napkin I received in happy mail from my friend Andie Mayr in Bischberg, Germany.  It was huge and reminded me of a patchwork quilt, so I knew I had to use it.  And this whole spread just kind of evolved around that napkin.  The napkin was cut to size and adhered to the page with Dina Wakely's Soft Gel Medium.


Years ago, my sister made a wonderful gift to me of this same poem that she hand lettered in beautiful calligraphy and adorned it with fun embellishments. It hangs in my bedroom all the time and is treasured by me on so many levels.  So I thought immediately of this poem and got busy creating my page.

The lettering was placed on 1/2" strips of watercolor paper and colored with Copic Marker in Maize. Lettering was done with a black Signo Uniball pen.

I hand painted the tree with Diane Reaveley's Blendable Acrylics in Black Marble, Cut Grass, Lime and Melted Chocolate, with just a touch of Lemon Zest.  I used some craft acrylic in medium grey and nutmeg brown for the highlights.

I used all these colors in the top of the trees to signify all the family, new, aging and in-between.  The fallen leaves obviously represent those that have crossed over but still guide us from the heavens.


I hope you like what I created.  Document your family memories in a creative or expressive way. It will warm your heart.


Ciao familia!

I'm keeping it artful!
~~ Betty

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #12 "SPRING"

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT:  Represent "Spring" without using any flowers. This one is designed to make you think outside the box. 

Spring has officially arrived and for many of you still covered in snow and ice, we know it cannot come soon enough!  Here in north Texas, early signs of spring are popping out all over. A brief drive around my neighborhood and around the lake finds Jonquils, Daffodils and Lilacs in bloom. The Bradford Pears and Wild Sand Plums are showing a profusion of wispy white blooms.  The song birds are arriving and delighting me with each flutter of the wing and hop in the lawn, searching for those little creepy crawlies they love so much.  I love spring.  Spring rains (that we need so desperately), the emergence of the leaves, the flowers, the awakening of the earth, shaking off the last vestige of old man winter.  The world seems to come alive again after cold, dark and dreary days.  Spring in north Texas can be wild, too. It is not uncommon for us to have heavy storms, tornadoes and hail stones as big as soft balls.  But we're not going to think about that now.  Now, we are just grateful for the rain and the emergence of soft, natural beauty back to the land.

Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal and this was my inspiration for my spread this week.

Supplies Used:

Canson 9"x12" mixed media journal
DIY Texture paste, tinted green
Dylusions Blendable Acrylic in Lime Green & Cut Grass
Apple Barrel craft acrylics in Crisp Green and Parakeet
Plaid fern stencil
Magazine images from vintage Texas Highways Magazines
Black china marker

My background actually started as a page where I was using up paint that was on the stencil from creating a mail art project.  I certainly didn't want to waste it!   I really rather like this fern stencil so decided to tint up some DIY Texture paste I made with paint and added some more leaves here and there.

I went through about 15 old Texas Highways Magazines and found images that represented spring to me and cut out the letters S*P*R*I*N*G from those images.  And each of these images is from a specific geographical area of the great Lone Star state:

S- is a beautiful spring vista in the Pecos region of southwest Texas
P -is a recently emerged Mayfly from Athens, Texas, about an hour east of my home
R- is a bicyclist taking a leisurely evening ride through the beautiful Barton Springs area near Austin
I- is one of the mighty oak trees from the Austin, Texas area
N- is a creek in deep east Texas near Toledo Bend with gorgeous cypress trees
G-is a beautiful sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico just out of Galveston Bay

The "dot" over the "I" is a bird from a wildlife management sanctuary near Athens, Texas
and the butterfly is one emerged from the gorgeous Butterfly Gardens at Fair Park in Dallas.

I love being a Texan, and spring in Texas is always filled with a profusion of colorful plants, trees and flowers.  When we have a good rainy spring, the fields and highways will be filled with beautiful red clover, our famous Bluebonnets, and fiery Indian Paintbrushes.  As we heat up, the Johnny Jump Ups and wild sunflowers will appear and everyone's gardens will be awash in a sea of color.  From the dusty hills and cliffs down in the Big Bend Country to the lush gardens of deep east Texas.  We have a wild, wonderful and colorful state, and spring is glorious here.

C'mon down and visit us sometime.  You'll love it.

Thanks for stopping by for a little visit.  I hope I have inspired you with my take on our prompt this week and I will anxiously wait to see what beautiful spread you put in your journal this week to signal the arrival of spring.

Hugs,
Betty aka Arty Auntie

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #9

I am writing this today, after somewhat of an emotional day spent remembering my Mother. She would have been 90 years old today. I dug out a bunch of old pictures of her from when I was a child, and when she was a young woman.  My mother was a kind, caring woman who always had a ready and contagious laugh, and was willing to always jump in to anything to have some fun.  Mother was a registered nurse and I fondly remember her starched "whites", with her hair up in that french twist she was famous for, and her cap starched and always adjusted "just so."  By the time I got to junior high school, Mother was into the craft industry in a big way and was both an Artex and Tri-Chem dealer. She was always creative, and could make a party for us kids on the spur of the moment, make costumes, teach us how to make decorations out of nothing, and she always, always was doing something for someone else.  Mother traveled with me on many, many trips all over the country, and I flew her to whereever I was on so many occasions I can't remember them all. We always had fun together. She was "game" for nearly anything. We loved our late night "pretty coffee" times out of my special Nippon teacup collection cups, taking care to select just that one special cup for the night. I miss her very much, but her spirit is with me each and every day, guiding me still with her firm, but gentle hand.  Thank you, Mother.  Keep smiling down on me and being my guardian angel.

Our prompt this week is to use your favorite quote.  I have a whole book of favorite quotes and sayings, and the one I used in tonight's spread is one of those.  This entire spread is dedicated to the memory of my mother.

Prepared in my large Dylusions journal, I spread Turquoise Dylusions Blendable Acrylic on with a cosmetic sponge, and it took surprisingly very little paint.  I then added the edge in London Blue, just making a sort-of wavy edge all the way around.  I used a circle stencil and put a little water on both sponges and placed here and there.  There was enough paint left in both the Turquoise & London Blue sponges (even using the paint quite sparingly) that I was able to create 3 other backgrounds with what was "left over" in both sponges .... and a bunch of paint on some mop up paper as well.


The edges were finished off with a black china marker and smudged with my fingers. This was tricky tonight. My hands are so dry from having the heat blaring for the last few days that I had to rub my face to get some kind of oil onto my finger tips. LOL.  I then used a black Staz On ink pad and stamped my Deep Red Water Droplets stamp indiscriminately around the page.

I cut a 4" circle, colored it with Holiday Blue Copic marker and hand lettered the quote with a .05 black Micron pen ... "Mother, you left us beautiful memories. Your love is still our guide. Although we cannot see you, you're always by our side." ~~ author unknown.  

The little rose bouquet was hand drawn with a .05 Micron pen and colored with copic marker and white sakura glaze pen.






The lettering on the adjacent page is my mother's name, her birth and death date.

I really didn't want to put anything else on the page or to clutter it up. Sometimes the most powerful expressions are the simplest.  I'm happy with it, and really, in the end, that's all that matters.  I think mother would have loved it.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Here are some other things I have been working on this week in an artistic vein. Sadly I have had a lot of administrative duties online and grown-up responsibilities to tend to this past week and didn't get much art time.  There's a new week coming, so I am hopeful!

I am trying to develop a little series of "dollies" to use in my journaling, art projects and to send in happy mail and art swaps to my creative friends.  These are still in the development stage, but thought I would share them with you anyway.

And some mail projects going out.......

Leave me some blog love in the comments section below. Go ahead, and make my day!  Go out and make it a great week, and stay artful!
~~ Betty

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #8 "BEAUTIFUL"

Our prompt this week at Artful Journeys is to express something you find beautiful.

Beauty can be interpreted in many ways, with many meanings. There's the outward physical beauty of something, like a spectacular sunset, tinted with the hues of a rainbow; there's the innocent beauty of a child, both physical and emotional.  There are few things more beautiful to me than a field of giant sunflowers blooming in the hot Texas sun, with their bright faces turned toward a windswept sky, standing proud and tall.  Or flowers blooming in profusion along the side of the road.  I find beauty all around me, and in the oddest kind of places.

Today, I noticed a dead, fallen tree along the side of the road, with its branches all askew that formed the most interesting, and beautiful visage.  The beauty of a simple little ladybug, perched ever so-gently on a leaf, or the emerging splendor of a butterfly from its cocoon.  A stack of empty wooden frames causes an immediate vision in my mind of the beauty that exists in the wood, and what could have existed in those frames.  As artists, we see things with a different eye, a different perspective, and we interpret these things in a million different, splendid and captivating ways.

My interpretation today is in the form of inspirational beauty.  I am totally in love with quilts. Old, worn, cherished quilts handed down from one generation to another. Or beautifully crafted new quilts, seen with the artists' eye versus those of our ancestors who created these visions of loveliness out of a sense of need, rather than as decoration or pleasure.

Created in my large Dylusions journal, I wiped on some of Dyan Reavely's new Blendable Acrylic Paint in bright sunshine yellow with an ordinary paper towel.  Nothing fancy or complicated with that.  The paint goes on as smooth as butter, and blends like a dream (I played on some previous pages!).  Next, I gathered up a bunch of quilt images that I had been saving.  I find that I am continually inspired by quilt patterns.  I love the geometric shapes, the tiny stitches, the possibilities that those shapes generate in my brain.  The images were arranged in a fashion that I found pleasing, and I applied them with Liquitex fluid gel matte medium. I got a few wrinkles, but oh well!  I finished off the page with some faux stitching with a black Sharpie marker and added a little poem about quilts and families that is one of my favorites.  I messed up the first line (and had to look it up), but the poem goes.....

A family's like a patchwork quilt, with kindness gently sewn.
Each piece is an original, with beauty of its own.
With threads of warmth and happiness
It's tightly stitched together.
To last in love, throughout the years
A family is forever.

I hope you find some inspiration in the beauty all around us that is life.  Thanks for stopping by to look at my response to our prompt this week!