Author: Dina

This one's on loose paper (another piece from the weekend class). Symbolic, yes?

These are unfinished…more like "studies" of a process. I love the movement in them.

Happy July 4th! I am grateful for my country, for freedom, for blessings.

This past weekend I had the privilege of taking a class from Katie Kendrick, one of my all-time fave mixed-media artists. The class was at Jenny Doh's Studio CRESCENDoh in Santa Ana, CA.

I can't tell you how much I needed this class. How much I needed to fill my own cup, to paint and just see what happens. Thank you, Katie, for being a gentle soul and for helping me find pieces of myself again.

I painted like a wild-woman…I started EIGHT (yes, eight!) journal pages and did six pieces on loose watercolor paper. Some of what I did, I love. Some of what I did I don't love. BUT, the process is what is important, not the finished product. And the process rocked the casbah. I'll share some of what I did over the next few days, if you don't mind.

This was a quickie, on loose paper. Listening to layers and responding.

Here's a gal with quite the hair-do. Kit stuff: bits of paper and tags, rub ons, exclusive stencil, little letters. Other stuff: china pencil, white paint.

And a quickie scrapbook page with kit goodies:

I used some of the exclusive JBS paper in the kit for this gal's hair. Other materials I used are: china pencil, Neocolor II crayons, stickers from the kit, flair from the kit, acrylic paint, the chevron stencil from the kit.

Guess what the theme is for July JBS kits….travel! I was so thrilled when I saw the kits. I love to see the world, it's a passion of mine.

I made a couple of scrapbook pages and a couple of art journal pages…the kits are so easy to use. Love that! And….can I mention, an EXCLUSVE chevron stencil in the main kit? Swoon. I used it on almost everything.

Sometimes I draw really fast and try not to lift my pencil up from the paper…like a contour drawing.

To draw with, I've been using a LYRA Color-Giants Lacquered Colored Pencil, 6.25 Millimeter Core, Black, 1 Pencil (3940099), or a Sharpie Peel-Off China Markers, 2 Black Markers (2173PP).

Thinking about the threads that tie us all together…

As I was sitting & eating lunch between classes, I grabbed a pencil and doodled on my Dylusions journal cover.

I can't tell you enough how much I love this journal. So easy to work in, so fun to fill up with your soul!

Here's the front:

The back:

Yes, dropped out of sight again. I have been at the tail-end of a whirl-wind few months, and just couldn't keep up the pace.

A huge thanks to all who have come to classes over the last couple of months. I love, love, love being with "my people"–what my hubby calls my "art people." You all truly inspire me and it is a true pleasure to watch you create art. And a big thanks to all of the store owners who invited me to come and took such great care of me: Lori & Linda at Ink About It, Patti at The Queen's Ink, Maura at My Heart's Fancy, Carolyn at The Crafty Scrapper, Deanna at Clipper Street, and Barb at Bizzy B's.

I've been traveling & teaching so much that I haven't spent much personal time in my journals at all. I've missed it. I am looking forward to sitting and expressing and allowing the stresses and the joys of the last few months to spill out.

One thing I have been doing is "100 Faces." I first heard about this from Carla Sonheim, where she recommended drawing a face a day for 100 days. When I teach my face drawing class, I always mention Carla's idea to students and I encourage them to set a personal goal to do it! A couple of Facebook groups have sprouted up from it, and it's so fun to see everyone's growth and excitement.

I have been playing along in Dawn Sokol's book Art Doodle Love: A Journal of Self-Discovery. Her book is a colorful journal with pre-printed backgrounds and lots of prompts to get you doodling and drawing and putting yourself down on paper. It has been so easy to throw it in my purse & just pull it out and draw in it when I have a chance. I'll share some of my faves in the next couple of days.

So…what have you been up to?