The Blank Canvas Blog Hop: How I Deal with a Blank Book Page...

Hi, It's Monday, September 15th, and it's Day 8 of the BLANK CANVAS BLOG HOP! I'm Virginia Simpson-Magruder and I am a jewelry, collage, and altered book artist and I'm here to share with you my tips for conquering the BLANK CANVAS! 

Up until a couple of seconds ago (this part was written Sunday morning) --- this post was my BLANK CANVAS. I've been sitting and staring at this screen for 15 minutes, and cleaning out my inbox for 20 minutes! All the while thinking about what I'm going to write about, letting all my thoughts mull around in the back of my mind, including my anxiety about possibly failing. 

So spelled out, this is usually how it goes before I get enough "juice", "umpfff", "spark", "mojo" to start a creative project: 

1. I think about the general subject matter or get an inkling of desire (to paint, to draw, to start and altered book, to write)....
2. I do something else (clean dishes, do laundry, call my mother, lay on a blanket under the tree, make some coffee)...
3. I berate myself and think I'm going to fail...
4. I pray for the divine energy to intervene...
5. I finally sit down (or stand up) in front of the "intended" project or art piece and...JUMP IN!

Can you relate???I bet some of you can!

Here are a few things I try to remember:

1. Don't punish or berate myself, or be critical of my procrastination: It's part of the creative process!
2. Give myself permission to wander around, go for a walk, put things away in my studio: It's part of the creative process!
3. Don't be afraid of making "bad" art, "ugly" art, "not good enough" art: It's part of the creative process!
4. Keep my intention to create in the back of my mind as I participate in my "non-making art" activities: It's part of the creative process!

The most important thing in approaching your BLANK CANVAS is to get into your right brain mode of thinking. The right brain is where creativity lives (versus the left brain which is where our analytical thought processes live) -- and one of the ways to get into that mode is to play with color, images, textures, words.  

MY TWO FAVORITE TECHNIQUES FOR OVERCOMING BLANK CANVAS PARALYSIS

I do one of two things to get warmed up and get the juices flowing. I start working in a SMALL or TINY book or journal. In the flip through below I show one of my altered journals, "Tiny Green Book". It is filled to the brim with images, color, and ephemera. I didn't think hard about what this book would contain except to select images, paper, ribbons, and text that have to do with the color green. Working in a small book or journal gives you the opportunity to complete a page easily without much thought. Focusing on a color and all its different shades and tones also stimulates the right brain. And as i am working in my studio -- if I come across an image or papers that i think will fit in it -- I'll stuff them in between the pages to glue in later. After working in a journal like this for 10 for 15 minutes I'm often ready to jump into a BLANK CANVAS.

To see my Tiny Green Journal Flip through Video go here.

Another technique I use and suggest to my altered book students is to have one altered book that is devoted solely to Playing or Experimenting with color, media, and techniques. Play with color, play with magazine images, play with art media, play with ribbons, play with glitter. Again, try not to think about what the end product is going to be. These play books often end up being my favorite altered books and journals. The more you fall into the color, shapes, textures -- the more you'll be accessing your right brain and you can follow that flow right into your BLANK CANVAS.

GIVEAWAY: Before you go -- be sure to participate in my Blank Canvas Blog Hop giveaway. If you go to my Wild Spirit Pendants' Facebook Fan Page and "Like Us", and then join my Kentucky Girl Designs e-newsletter list (click on the blue button in column to the right), you will have a chance to win my Wild Spirit Jaguar Pendant:

 

This hand-soldered collage pendant celebrates the Wild Spirit of Jaguar. Wear this pendant to reinforce the creative passion within you!

Have fun with these BLANK CANVAS tips and come visit me at Kentucky Girl Designs for more and a list of my workshops and upcoming e-courses.

Earlier Participants!
1. Sept 8   Karen Friedland 
2. Tuesday Sept 9   Lezette Markham
3. Wednesday Sept 10 Cynthia Patton
4. Thursday Sept 11 Jennyann Carthern
5. Friday "Frenzy" Sept 12  Kiala Givehand
6. Saturday Sept 13 Jan Blount
7. Sunday Sept 14 Effy Wild
8. Monday Sept 15 Virginia Simpson-Magruder
9. Tuesday Sept 16 Dariana Cruz
10. Wednesday Sept 17 Susan Miller
11. Thursday Sept 18 Grace Howes go here
12. Friday Sept 19 Tori Deaux
13. Saturday Sept 20 Kiala Givehand go here
14. Sunday Sept 21 Martin Arkenstone go here!
15. Monday Sept 22 Nicole Piar

Cities I Love: London Oriel Pendants

 Here's a group of Itsy Bitsy Oriel Pendants that I made as a custom. I enjoyed doing them so much that I plan to do a foreign city/country series. London is so cosmopolitan -- where else other than NYC can you here 12-20 different languages being spoken on the street? It is a curious mix of history, mod-sixties, hip youth, and pop idols.

These are all icons of London -- I'd say my it's my favorite city in the world (English as the primary language). These tiny snapshots (1"-square) will fondly remind me of another place, another time, distant memories....they can also serve as a visualization of a place where I want to go back to visit!

Wanderings: Through the Hoops

"Through the Hoops" mixed media assemblage

I took a class over the past month at the Novato Arts Center. It was called "Rethinking 2-D" and was taught by Suzanne Stroebe. Suzanne has an investigative and experimental view of art. She firmly believes in the value of re-purposing materials and incorporating found items -- sometimes sustainable -- into your artistic endeavors. I would have never thought of using eucalyptus or lavender oil to make transfers from xerox/toner image copies. It smells so good and doesn't destroy your brain cells like xylene, turpentine, and even Citrasolve! I had fun returning to childhood crafts -- and adding them into a canvas or box assemblages.

I created the above little diorama from a shoe box, a discarded bristle brush rabbit, 3 gold hoops, and some junk photos. I wrote this text around the window: "She longed for green grass and a world where bunnies ran free..."  I enjoyed creating this assemblage -- it was made from miscellaneous items I had thrown into a paper bag and stuck in my barn.

Altered Art: Me Jane Scrabble Board

Me Jane, You Tarzen
(collage piece work-in-progress)

I never know what I'm going to create during my Collage Cafe while my students are busy working on their books. I definitely am inspired by their juice and excitement. During Sunday's Collage Cafe, I was cleaning up around one of the work stations in my art studio and grabbed one of several vintage Scrabble boards I had bought a few years ago. I had just taught the background technique of spreading acrylics with a credit card, so I used that on the board after gessoing it. Flowers printed on vellum paper, magazine images, cut out butterflies, and a Tarzan oblivious to Jane right behind him. It's still a work in progress -- I may add some text to it. Or not!

Collage Cafe on November 13th

Barry's Show and Tell

Playing workshop catch up! The photos here are from the Collage Cafe workshop I held at Stage Dor on November 13th (my apologies for there poor quality). One of my altered book students brought her husband to participate. In spite of Barry's initial misgivings ("I'm not creative", "I'm a klutz when it comes to art"...etc.), he soon got into the swing of things and later told me he had a surprisingly fun time. After Barry completed his spread and looked it over, he realized what the images were referring to a pivotal moment in his life, and shared this with us at the session's closing show and tell.

Judy's Pocket Spread

I always find it interesting the variations on my exercises that people come up with. Such is the creative process! I showed people in this workshop a simple pocket construction. Passing by Barry's wife, Judy, I saw that she had placed a beautiful woman in an evening gown under her pocket. She hadn't glued it down yet and I said wouldn't it be great if you could bring her train around the front of the pocket. She figured out how to do this and her spread became a striking creation.

Judy's Completed Spread

The Collage Cafe October 17th Workshop

My next Collage Cafe workshop will be held Sunday, October 17th, 11:00am-1:00pm at Stage Dor in Sausalito (CA). Come explore your creativity through the medium of collage and altered books -- you'll be surprised at what comes out of you! If you are a "newbie", just bring any personal paper ephemera you have lying around the house. If you've been to one of my workshops, bring the altered book you are working on. Otherwise everything else will be supplied.

Oh, wine (mimosas?) and snacks will be served! $35.

Photos from the September Collage Cafe can be seen here.

Studio Time Challenge -- Day 4

Jen's Garden of Soul Board Book

I had an unexpected visitor to my studio today. Actually I knew she was coming -- it was my friend Jen. She came up to work on my cat Angelina. Afterwards I invited her to come do art with me in my studio. I set her up with a children's board book and gave her some ideas on doing a collage spread in it and she just buzzed along. I like how her spread has a very light, organic feel to it. She picked one image of a young girl. I asked her who this was to her -- she said "me, me waiting to bring out the garden in me...". Well, I think she did!

Studio Time Challenge -- Day 4: Earth in Balance Altered Book

While Jen was working on her spread, I picked up another partially altered book from years back) and started to work on it. This was a book by Al Gore -- Earth in Balance. I had never gotten any further than gluing most of the pages together, cutting out a niche and making a drawer out of an Altoids tin. I did the front cover, which shows John Muir, an Indian woman making an offering, and one of my red-haired "ladies" (yes, one of my alternate selves), peeking out through the branches. I am certain Muir felt the feminine in nature. He definitely felt its sacredness. I have already spent my prerequisite 2 hours studio time for today, but am going back for more!

Street Fair Prep: Trial Booth Set Up

Trial Run Set Up

In my prep for my participation in the upcoming Caledonia Spring Street Faire in Sausalito, I decided to do a pre-booth set up to get a hold on what I still needed to do within my 2-week deadline. I asked my girlfriend Shara (queen of space design, decoration and tchotchke placement) to help me. Prior to our meeting I picked up my EZ-Tent from the local hardware store. Meeting back at the house we "easily" (with a few minor comedic errors) set up the tent under our old oak in the front yard and opened the tables. Next was bringing out "stuff" from my art studio: altered journals and books, oriel pendants, necklaces, ribbons, chains, assemblages, framed collages, more jewelry, notecards, vintage boxes and mannequins for display....Kentucky Girl Magical Stuff

It all fell together very easily, and within about 3 hours, had things arranged, categorized, and knew what holes needed to be filled and where. I also took photos to refer to when we set up Sunday morning (May 30th), everything will be grouped in boxes, and set up should go pretty quickly. Now back into my studio to make more oriels! To tell you the truth it felt good to see it all out there in the daylight.

Inspector Numero Uno (Angelina Beautyquina)

Inspector Number 2 (Zeus the Magnificat)

P.S. I should not fail to mention that Shara and I had two very important, nay essential, helpers that did their share of overseeing, inspecting, and channeling good vibes.

Backyard Art

I just love my sister and I love her art studio. You wander out to this green box surrounded by gardens and tall, tall trees -- and as you sit in front of the table, you can smell the outdoors and hear the birds, and feel and hear the wind move through the trees. It is painted a lovely green to blend into the surroundings and my sister placed beautiful hammered tin mermaids on the sliding doors. There are sliding screens to keep out summer bugs, and the building is insulated so the space heater makes it cozy inside during the cold months. But mostly it is a haven to create art -- no phone calls, no TV, no neighbors knocking on the doors (usually), just you and the art supplies and maybe the dogs Tippit or Charlie to keep you company. And we just get down to it. We talk, or we are silent for hours, or we make sounds, or we laugh or we cry -- all while making art.

I love creating in the outdoors, and think about how I could replicate something like this out here in California. Maybe I could set up a soldering studio in the barn. Maybe I could add French doors into one wall of my studio in the house. Somehow, I am determined to do this. Angelina would be my companion I think -- and all I would need to make it perfect would be my sister's company from time to time!