The Art of Happiness Turns Sad

You know how some things conspire to make you feel sad? Can you see the despair in this picture from my altered book The Art of Happiness? That's not exactly how I was feeling, but a brew of meloncholy was created when I ....[Continued on Artful Journey, my new blog.]

Altered Book Technique :: Avoiding Yucky Board Book Gutters

I recently received this question from a fellow altered book artist:

...how do you have such neat gutters? i am doing my first board book using your info to guide me...my gutters are the worst...i thought i read something in your pages about some kind of tape for them, but i am not sure...could you let me know when you have time...

Here are some techniques I use to avoid having yucky gutters in my board books....[Continued on Artful Journey, my new blog.]

Altered Book :: The Art of Happiness

It's been a year, but I finally did some more pages in my altered book The Art of Happiness. The original text is by John Cowper Powys, copyright 1935. I found it at a barn sale in Sacramento over a year ago. The title was perfect; I knew immediately that I wanted to use this book to play with color and create spontaneous art that would make me happy. I wanted to try different color schemes than I would normally use ....[Continued on Artful Journey, my new blog.]

Rejected!

I got my very first official rejection to a juried art show today. Here's a snippet from the letter:

"I am sorry to say that your work was not selected for inclusion. We received over 140 entries from 51 artists from all around the United States, and 50 artworks were juried into the exhibition."

I wrote about the entry process in my blog Paper Art :: Rising to the Occasion. I had every confidence that my altered books would be selected. So when I got my rejection form letter I was surprised and disappointed....[Continued on Artful Journey, my new blog.]

On the Verge of Weeping in the Hallmark Store

My oldest son, CJ, is turning 20 tomorrow. Today I went to the Hallmark store to try to find him a birthday card. Am I the only one who abhores picking out greeting cards? I must have read almost every single card there was. Nothing seemed to fit. I wanted to find something funny and encouraging-- but couldn't find a thing. I originally by-passed the section with the cards that have deep colors and swirly fonts on the front. You know the ones with SON written in huge sweeping letters. Finally, out of desperation, I picked up a few of the sentimental types and almost burst into tears....[Continued on Artful Journey, my new blog.]

Dia de los Muertos Altered Books

I have finally finished my three books for Dia de los Muertos - The Day of the Dead. You can see more pictures of them on my web site at Dia de los Muertos :: Dia de los Muertos Altered Books. I started creating these books because I wanted to enter a juried exhibition for art related to the Day of the Dead, but I found out about it too late. I foolishly thought I could complete the books before the deadline, but I wasn't able to. I'm hoping to enter them in a more local art show. The deadline for that one is August 27, so I might be able to get all the entry stuff done by then....[Continued on Artful Journey, my new blog.]