navylane :: musings

And the last of my Artfest saga… On Friday, I was Lost and Found with the talented, delightful and down to earth Lisa Engelbrecht.

In class, we experimented with adding washes of color to canvas and cotton muslin using a variety of inks, including liquid acrylics, gouache and walnut ink. Then we practiced lettering on paper before making the jump to lettering on fabric.

The most important lesson learned in this class: I am not a calligrapher, nor do I possess the patience, drive and self-displicine needed to be a calligrapher. However, I love typography and lettering, and I will definitely make use of more informal, alternative lettering in my projects. I like the process of lettering on fabric, possibly more than on paper, and Lisa’s class gave me an opportunity to explore this technique and try a range of different inks and tools.

I have opted to forego finishing the piece I worked on during class (shown left). I was definitely having an off day, and I wasn’t really thrilled with a single thing on this piece. I misspelled the word daring, I am not crazy about the lettering or colors, and I lost a few of the elements I had planned on embellishing it with on the way home. So it’s now in the scrap pile.

Instead, I turned my attention to one of the washes I did during class. I added a quote with some very impromptu lettering, then I finished the piece with the addition of stitching, a rusty metal star charm and some fibers for a hanger.

Voila, but there is one thing I am questioning: I know that when you use a quote it is best etiquette to include the name of the person it is attributed to, but what if the source is unknown, such as this quote? Should I add unknown under the quote??

Blue Ice
mixed media art quilt, approx. 8.5×11
created by Judy Lackovic of Navylane Studio
 
· click here for more information ·

On Thursday I was Journaling The Journey with Anahata Katkin. Not only is her work truly divine and inspiring, her approach and theory on creativity is encouraging and thought provoking as well. I am so into the idea of each of us having our own individual symbolic alphabet, and I am truly enthralled by the powerful concept that our creative focus can nurture our goals and help bring about change.

Momentum, art journal, 30 March 2006.

The pages above are meant to be a catalyst of sorts for the change I want in my life. On the back of the yellow panel (which fits in the envelope on the left side of the page) I have written thoughts about the change I seek and the steps I need to take to provoke such a change.

The next pages, shown below, are representative of how I am now and how I see myself in the future. I had trouble with these pages, especially the part of the me to come as I was feeling a bit restricted in the materials I had before me, but it was a great challenge and forced me to work with what I had on hand.

Now and Then, art journal, 30 March 2006.

mixed media wall hanging,
8.5″ x 26.5″ including hanger

I made this wall hanging on Saturday in Traci Bautista’s The Artful Wall class. It was a fast paced class with lots of demos and techniques using surprisingly cheap supplies. Traci is a great teacher with lots of cool tips that I would like to try and incorporate into my own work. Some of her great advice included: work really fast… re-use your art in new ways by scanning, copying and printing previous collage or journal pages… and cut up and crop something you’ve created and use it in several projects.

I owe a big thank you to the sweet and talented Bridgette Guerzon Mills — I could not have accomplished much in class if it weren’t for her generosity in lending me her sewing machine and eyelet setting tools and paper towels. She has a really great style, too, and I was much more into the colors she was working with for her project than the wonky ones that seemed to be dominating mine.