lisamitchell

What? Almost the end of August?!?

Hey there! Wow, I can't believe we're almost at the end of August. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe it was July and now look, almost two months have flown by!

How's your summer been? We've had a really pleasant one...No ocean-crossing trips for us to Canada this year unfortunately, and it's been the regular muggy hot blazing-down-on-your-sweaty-forehead-all-day sunshine...but we've enjoyed our days together, trying to keep cool and trying not to have too much going on around home...
But not to say I haven't been keeping myself busy, as there's been lots going on in terms of projects and workshops. (The easiest thing is to refer you back to my Spanish blog, where most of the photos are already posted).
The end of June I helped organize the 4th "Byron Katie's The Work" workshops in Barcelona, with our wonderful Certified Facilitator, Brianda Domecq (who has recently started sharing her writing on her own blog, "Everything Begins at 60", a most enjoyable read!) and the workshop went very well...More are planned for 2011! 

Then came July, which was busy with family projects, pool and beach time and all that sort of thing until the end of the month, when it came time for workshops in my studio with guest artist and Art Journalist extraordinaire, Dina Wakley. It was the third time I have had the honour (she's such a great person to work with, it's been a pleasure each time) of organizing workshops with her, here in my studio, and the participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves, experiementing with "Altered Portraits" and "Hardware Art Journaling".
If you'd fancy seeing some photos, I'll link you over to my Spanish blog here, where I've posted photos from both days' workshops.

Then we had some family R&R time along with some friends, up in a more mountainous area of Girona, about 90min from where we live, where we set up camp for a few days. It was fantastic--flowers, bugs and butterflies galore, a river to hike down to and splash around in, lots of space for laying about on blankets, chatting, drawing and reading, and even a 1-night downpour just for some added excitement!

Oh, almost forgot--the end of July I participated in a 3-day "Cajón Workshop", where we made--from scratch--our own cajón (first 2 sessions) and then the last day, had a percussion class on a couple Flamenco rhythms with it (Tango Flamenco and Rumba). It was totally fun. Had never used a power sander before! ;) I've yet to stain it--picked up some nice blue wax-based stain at IKEA, and I'm thinking I might stencil something on it too. Anyways, the sound it gives is great! ..and makes me feel all the more proud that I made it myself!!

Ever since I saw these 3 talented women, "Pacific Curls", perform in my home-town in Saskatchewan last summer, I've wanted to get a cajón:

My next artistic play-date was with a fanTAStic stencil and street artist named Andrea Michaelsson, from Barcelona who goes by the name BTOY. She has had exhibitions in Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Warsaw, as well as live shows and features in numerous publications in the genre.
I love her work for numerous reasons--because she's a woman in a male-dominant genre, because her art style rocks, and because I think there is something unique about the images she chooses and the way she juxtaposes them, whether on canvas or in whatever street location she selects for them. And of course the whole thing of painting in the street, clandestinely, intrigues me. And makes me think about things like, who do the streets in fact belong to...? Is art only valued when it's on a gallery wall, in a "proper" location? Does street art not transform what is only a banal cement urbanlandia into the platform for something beautiful for all to see (not just those who visit art galleries)?

I was thrilled to have the opportunity for my baptism into full-blown stencil artmaking with BTOY, and I hope to continue to experiment with it, whether in small format, or perhaps even venture into something bigger, like a studio wall! ;)
Check out this link for some step-by-step pics!

Here's what I produced after several hours of what I have dubbed "practising the zen of the exacto-knife" to create my finished piece:

So that's about the size of it, it's been hot and muggy summer, as is usual for around here, however it hasn't been wanton for creative stimulation, which I am very grateful for. The next couple weeks I'll be rolling into that "back to school" mode, getting new workshops and projects ready in the studio. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep mulling on what would be a worthy grosso modo stencil to create for the wall of my studio....! And of course, keep practising on my cajón!
My goal is to sound a tiny bit closer to this cajón maestro, percussionist David Kuckhermann ;))  Holy timpani--check it out, it's like an entire drum kit in a box...Amazing!

Hope you had a wonderful summer (or winter, if you're Down Under!) and everything is groovy in your orbit!
Keep walking with your own rhythm...whatever it may be! Cheers until next time! 

and some more Circle Journal!

Hello, SPortsfans!
Well, I finished up the other half of the circle journal pages. Whewh! That was a marathon run of rubbing paper, spreading gel medium, spraying and stamping ink and messing with the paints. But it was fun. I really enjoyed working with each of the themes and coming up with the compositions.
I hope that each one of the recipients likes her designated page!
(if you don't let me know and you can send it back ;)))

Here's a couple photos:


The remainder of the pages are here:

On another note, today just before getting in the car to come home from "school", Annie (who was running around barefoot in the plaza, so in other words, on cement) stubbed her toe on a small rock and split the nail--I didn't see it happen, but I think she must have flipped it up, by the looks of it.
Poor bug. She was in so much pain...and of course it was bleeding, so that made it worse. She screamed in the car all the way home.
And to top it all off, she's soooooo particular about when she's got something wrong with her: she won't let me see or put anything on it or do anything with it.
She just wants to hide it from me. Which makes First Aid rather tricky.
So there we were tonight, after she was sound asleep, me and her dad, trying to wash it and put on some iodine to clean it up with only the light of the night table...And her stirring in her sleep, whining softly.
Oh well. These things happen. It's just so tough to witness little ones when they are hurt, eh?
So I let her come home and lay on the couch and watch Barbie Island Princess 3 times...in a row.

I think she needed something light to lift her spirits :)
Barbie is about as light as it gets, methinks ;)

Cheers and have a good rest of your day (or night, depending! ;)

Circle Journal

Howdey! Wow, almost in the middle of the week already! Hope all is well in your orbit. Things are pretty groovy around here.

So among other things, I've been finishing up a Circle Journal project that was started way back last year. We are quite an international group, so it's taken awhile for everyone to share our work with one another, given that the mailing time is so long for some of the participants.
I've been finishing up the pages this week, and hope to get them mailed out by the end of the week (thanks for being so patient, everyone!)

In terms of techniques, the majority have a least one image transfer of some sort (some have two), whether it be gel medium or packing tape, and then there's some transparencies...acrylic paint, embossing, stamping (of course!) and accents.

The themes have been quite varied, so it's been quite fun to create each of them according to specifications and theme.

Here are a couple:

The rest can be found here.

I've got ONE more to finish up tomorrow, and then take a few photos and I can get them packaged up and sent off (finally!)

More soon! ...wishing you a happy week, whereever you may be :) Cheers!

Whoop, whoop, whoop!

Wow! I don't know about you, but my week has just blasted by!
Busy as bees around here. Which is a good thing, I guess, cuz it doesn't leave you with much time left for complaining!! ;)
I'm looking forward to the weekend, hoping to conclude a couple of projects (the Circle Journal pages, for one! and get those suckers mailed off to all their international destinations)...as well as have a bit of fun with the two other most important people in my life (besides myself ;)
Here's a few photos I took last weekend in the park near where we live. It's a great space, with lots of tall trees. Great for finding a spot of grass to run around on (which, surprising to some of you out there, is a luxury in this country). And picnics with extended family, which is what we happened to be doing.

Hope you have a good one, whereever you may be! And like the last one says, take some time out for the little things in your life.

Cheers!

ps. EDIT:

I had a commission to do an altered wooden gift box this week.

I think it turned out quite nicely :)

(click here to see more photos)

TGIF.

Good DAY! And what a fabulous day it has been. I've been busy in the studio for pretty much most of the day. And you know what? I even ordered in some SUSHI for lunch...Can you imagine? That pretty much tops it off as Perfect with a capital P.
So I'm on a bit of a break to update things over here on the blog.
I've added a few new photos to my albums around here--you can see what's new in my latest post on the Spanish blog here. Just scroll past all the blah bla-blah. And if you want, you can click on the word "aquí" underneath each photo to link to more photos of the same.
So how's the weather where you are? Around here it's been summerish in full swing. Pretty impressive to wake up to the sunshine, blue sky, birds singing...every day this week. Very energising. Inspiring. Prompting me to contemplate feelings of gratitude for everything in my life. (Like sushi lunch with myself in my studio ;)

So I'm working on Circle Journal pages this weekend, to see if I can get them all completed and mailed out to all their international destination points by early next week. I think they are looking pretty nifty, if I don't say so myself. Lots of image transfers and packing tape transfers and transparecies with paint...and stamps and embossing powder...lots of G-INSPIRED GOODNESS! :)

I'd better get going here and get back to the studio, otherwise tick-tock tick-tock it will be time for more mortal activites, like making supper (groan.)

So, ummm...have yourself a great weekend, alrighty? Have some fun. Play in the sun...dance naked in front of your housepets (or the audience of your choice). Or don't. But be sure to hang out awhile with yourself and enjoy life.

Cuz it's. all. good.

Studio2Mers revisited!

I promised you some photos of my latest creation for the S2M Internation Design Team, and here they are!

If you'd like to know anything specific about the project, simply let me know and I'll post on it next time round. For now I'm off to bed, cuz it's 1:28am and I'm knackered!

Studio2Mers Design Team

Sometime back in October, 2008, I had the great pleasure to be asked to join the French scrapbooking line of products "Studio2 Mers" International Design Team. I have been working on my first contribution as a design team member for quite some time now, and finally this afternoon, I finished the project. Of course as luck would have it, there was no decent daylight left, so the photos of my creation have to wait until tomorrow.
However, I will say that I am quite pleased with how the project turned out. The scrapbooking papers and stamps that Sabine has created are really wonderful, and lend themselves in so many ways to a wide range of styles, and projects--both scrapbooking and mixed media...and more. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see my project, however if you'd like to take a look at the Studio2Mers line, or see some of the other member's contributions, you can click on the button on the right side of my blog, or just click here.

Hope you had a good day. I'm off to bed cuz it's way past midnight over here :) Cheers and sweet dreams!

Finally finished some projects!

Happy Saturday afternoon! Yahoo, I love Saturday afternoons...!! The ones where you don't have anything planned and can just cruise along, doing whatever grabs you. It's been a tidying kind of day today too. Cleaning up all the schrapnel on my work table, in my house in general, and in my head!! I finally FINALLY like I am back to my normal self, after the gross wretched flu-cold thing that had me in its grips over pretty much the entire Christmas holidays. Sheesh!! I almost got depressed. Dragging my sorry butt around the house in my pjs for an entire week without getting out of the house (I just felt too pathetic) blowing my nose off, coughing out lungs...Anyways!! I'm SO glad that's over and done with.
The end of this week saw me on a bit of creating marathon-frenzy: I was asked to create two gift albums just before the holidays, and hadn't had much of a chance to get at them before Christmas (added to the fact it was a photo compliation of a number of people's photos, so I was waiting for all the material to trickle in over the holidays before I could finally get to work...) and what with my getting sick and all, I had to do the entire project in only a few days. On that I'd say: don't try this at home. It was mostly an excerise in running around with a flaming head. Now that I think of it, I must be getting pretty good at running around with a flaming head because I seem to do it quite often when I'm working on a deadline...If anyone out there has this natural tendency when it comes to "completing important projects of a creative nature" and has any advice for me, I'd love to hear it!! :) I dunno...maybe that's just how I work best and should find a way to see it in a positive light. Hmmmm. I'll have to meditate on that one a wee bit and get back to you.
Here's a couple pics of the finished albums:

It might be difficult to see, but the covers, backs and sides of both albums are covered in fabric. They both contain approximately 12 double-page spreads of photos and writing. Oh, and the albums measure about 30 x 22 cms.

Here's what our family's page looked like:

It was a lot of work in a short amount of time, but given the conditions, I'm pleased with the finished result.

Okay, I'm off to fool around with my new sewing machine that the Three Kings brought me. I've been waiting all week to get a chance to get it set up and revv the motor awhile!! ;D Enjoy your Saturday!

I've been published!

Hello there! How'ya doin'? I hope everything is carrying along well, at cruising speed. I don't know about you, but I am just amazed at how fast this month has gone by. I can't believe there are only 2 days until Christmas. Wow! First I was all geared up for the "looming arrival" of my birthday last week (the big "thirty-ten"!), and then on the morning of said day, I had a friend arrive from Canada as a surprise gift for my birthday. She is an old buddy of mine (I mean that we have mileage, not that she is getting on in years!!!) and I haven't seen her in 5 years. So that was pretty darn cool of her to travel all that way to come in time for my birthday. So we've been caught up in getting caught up, and seeing the sights in Barcelona...seeking out some gastronomic scenery whilst generally trying to avoid the raging masses of CHristmas shoppers. HOly guacamole, it's something fierce.

Plus, while on our way home the other evening from shopping down off the Rambla, and a quick trip to the Boqueria Market at closing time, we found the entire top of the Rambla where it meets Plaza Catalunya completely swamped with police vans, armoured vans, cops on motorcycles, sirens wailing, helicopters circling above...ambulances on site...a row of armoured police officers prepared for something or other...I had no idea what was going on, and even began to think of something awful, even ETA bomb threats, etc. As it turned out, it was "only" a student demonstration. We swerved to avoid the masses and headed up to our train home with no interruptions, thankfully.

So, as to not digress any further!!: Saturday afternoon, I received a phone call from Roser at Scrap House (a LSS) in Barcelona, informing me that one of my albums had been published in the Saturday edition of "La Vanguardia" newspaper in their insert "Estilos de vidas", on page 42. .....And was I tickled! I had no idea they had photographed my work (hmmm. intellectual property!?!)--I knew they had interview her for the article, but didn't know what exactly would be included in terms of visuals, so that was a very nice surprise. Too bad my name was not included!
Here's how it looked in the paper:
 
and a closer look:

I now realize that I have yet to upload the photos of this album to my blog. I hope to get all of these things uploaded over the holidays, but in the meantime, here's a link to the album via Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/2325445116/in/set-72157605185855483/

(UPDATE: I've since completed my blog uploads: this album can be viewed here, on my blog, in it's entirety :)

And on another note, if I don't talk to you before then: Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...!!!May you receive everything you are wishing for...in particular, all those things that money can't buy.
I hope you will find some time to yourself these holidays, to enjoy things you like to do. And laugh some, and hug some, and sing some, and eat some (but not too much! ;) .......and simply, ENJOY YOUR LIFE!! :)
Merry Christmas!!! Talk to you again soon!

Tag!

Cheerio! So, you might have noticed that I have a siamese twin for this blog, in Spanish. The two blogs are not "identical twins", but rather have been created each for a distinct purpose, depending on "what's going on where". But I do, just the same, want to keep things somewhat parallel. Hence, this post. :)
Last night, I gave a presentation at a local association in the city where I live. It wasn't a scrapbooking or paper crafts association, per se, but rather a group of people interested in working with and promoting personal development, alternative therapies, and other nice things like that. They asked me to come and give a talk on what I do, in order to help promote it (paper crafts, scrapbooking, collage, altered art...all that groovy stuff) here locally, as there is not much of a paper crafts tradition in Spain and people generally have never heard of the aformentioned. So, given that it was a crafts talk, it didn't make much sense to me to just stand there and talk about it (don't you agree?) but rather, that in keeping with that Ancient Chinese proverb:
I hear...I forget
I see...and I remember
I do...and I understand
I thought it would be more enjoyable for everyone to stick a toe in the pool, so to speak--just to get a feel for what it's about--and make somethin'....'Cuz as we all know, that's mostly what it's all about. Along with having a good time, hanging out with other like-minded individuals, maybe even eating chocolate in some shape or form (that would be the complete package).

So we made a tag together. A Christmas themed tag (for a change)...and given the intrinsically cool essence of tag creation being: that you can do just about anything to a tag...I was able to show them quite a few little tricks just so they could see how much fun it is to play with "paper and ink and stamps and paint and images and make stuff"!!

The talk went well, and I think the greatest interest was shown when I began to talk about and show examples of art journalling and what that's all about. That was right up their alley, and I would even go as far as to say that there's a good chance we will start up an art journalling group fairly soon. I will keep you up to date on that one!
So, back to the tag: it's quite similar to the tryptic tag project I did last month as a workshop at the annual craft fair in Barcelona. Here's a pic: