Okay, I’m trained as an art teacher – so every now and then this part
of me shimmers through on my blog: I can not help it that I want to
teach you something. And the most important lesson I can give you is:

Pause and look!!!

Don’t go on and on and on working on a layout… pause and look
at what the page has to say… pages talk, you know!
All you have to do is stand still, look and listen.

And then you will see which direction your work is taking.
Just go where the layout leads you.
Don’t try to force it the other way ’cause it won’t work.

I show you.

..

This is what happened while I was working on my page for the “chronicles”

Most of the time, I prepare the pages with a layer of gesso – and that’s what
I did here too. After that, I painted the background in a musterd colour.
I found that too dark, so I took a sponge and wiped some paint off.

The page was still a bit blur, so I took my spray ink and dripped it random
on the page, moving the book to let it flow. This is the result.
(The colours on the photo aren’t very good, it was late in the afternoon
and the light came in low through the window.)

My eye fell on the strange shape that the ink made on the right side.
So I paused and looked.

..

It’s like looking at the clouds
like you did when you were
a kid, seeing all kinds of shapes
and let your imagination go…

…and I saw a pregnant,
singing lady!

I couldn’t get rid of the image,
so I went with it.
I wasn’t planning to,
but the singing lady just
wanted to be on my page.
I couldn’t ignore her.

Here you see the rough sketch
(click on the photo to enlarge)

Once I got used to the idea that a singing lady had entered my page, I saw
trumpets in the shapes on the left side. So I gave my lady a horn section
as backing band… which satisfied both her and me!

There wasn’t much space left for my daily writing, but I told her “don’t push
your luck little lady”, this is my page too – move over a bit and let me in!

She did, and here’s the result!
(The colours in this photo are more accurate by the way)

Another thing I couldn’t ignore this week… the new challenge over at
These Are a Few of my Favorite Things

“What is your favourite quote”

And my-oh-my… did I face a major dilemma here!

My favourite quote is from a Leonard Cohen song… and you all remember
that I didn’t want to make the last page in my Leonard Cohen art journal
with this song because I was afraid that, after I finish, Leonard would die…

So what to do – find another quote?
Naaahhhh…
Don’t start making this page?

Maybe I should not have done this, but I did.
The page was in my head and had to be made…
I didn’t add it to my “Leonard Cohen art journal” though –
that might help.

(How’s Leonard’s health at the moment? Anyone know? Normally, I’m
not superstitious AT ALL but this time I keep my fingers crossed!)

The background contains the songlyrics over and over again. I sprayed tissue
paper with spay ink and used gel medium to glue it to the page which gives it
a nice texture. The dots are stamped with bubble wrap plastic and white paint.

Here’s a detail, which shows my favourite quote.

I end this post with showing you the ATC’s I made for Phinner a while ago.

“Women always worry about the things men forget”
“Men always worry about the things women remember”

It hardly shows, but the next one is a piece of thick, clear plastic.

The next ATC shows part of the top 2000 list that was in the newspaper –
Phinner played along in my top 2000 blog party, and I had that in mind
when I made the cards for her.

And a wooden fertility goddess – just because I liked
the look of it (and Phin does too, as she wrote me!)

Currently, a thunderstorm hangs over the city and I might be forced
to shut the computer down if it gets heavier. I have more to show you,
but I save that for next time. See you then!