Mixed Media Arts

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

As some of you know, I’ve been waiting for my office and studio space to come together . . . and have walls. That will be so nice, but that’s not the point of this blog post. I’m going to dream about how this room will be decorated.

I have a wall with a small window, and a wall with the door leading in (and out, of course) that is centered. On the door wall, I’m going to create what looks like a gigantic art journal page.

This wall is the one I’ll be facing when I sit down to work at my desk each day. I’m envisioning it covered with quotations, randomness, and other ephemera typically found on an art journal page. I’m going to use bold colors, blended colors, and black.

Because I have no idea when this idea will come to fruition, I’m going to create pages similar to my thoughts in my real art journal. I’m going to include my children, and if they’re interested in playing, my fiancé and his nephew.

Later on, this wall space will most likely have some sort of shelving or storage because I want the entire room to be functional and usable space. This wall will be the perfect backdrop for what this room contains. It’s really exciting to think about!

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

Though we’ve been living in our home since 2006, the bedrooms still don’t have a lot of personality in them. We had to wait one year before painting the walls and, sadly I must admit, the walls are still primer white.

This hasn’t stopped the mixed media artist in me from dreaming, though.

My boys share a room (they’re six, and eight) and there’s a LOT of wall space. Rather than throwing up a bunch of miscellaneous posters and pictures they don’t really care about, we’re going to do something a bit different. We’re going to art journal on canvases.

How? It’s so much fun – we’re going to take large pieces of canvas board, paint, sharpies, collage items, and embellishments. We’re going to throw, mix, glue, doodle, and write. We’re going to use bold yellow’s, oranges, and reds and then contrast them with dark blue and black.

When they grow tired of them, I’ll simply prime over them and we’ll do it all over again!

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

Today is going to be a busy day of painting. I have to finish priming my (soon to be) nephew’s bedroom, and then hopefully get the room completely painted. We’d like to move him in either tonight or sometime tomorrow. I’ll be thinking of other things as the roller is going, though….

I have plans to create more mixed media paintings using the pressed leaves I collected some time ago. I created two for one part of my living room, and the other side of my living room is begging for the same attention.

This is very new for me. I don’t know if you recall me mentioning this, but it’s rare for me to display my own artwork in “plain” view. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever included my artwork in my home’s décor. I’m not really sure why this has been the reality of the situation, but it has.

I have all the materials to create this project, so I may work on it in conjunction with working on the room. I have to embrace these moments of inspiration because, as some of you already know, they can be fleeting.

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

Tomorrow, after I finish my “outside of the house job,” I’ll have some free time to work on art projects! I didn’t expect this to happen because, typically, I pick my kids up from their grandmother’s and switch from work-mode into mommy-mode in a matter of minutes.

The kids will be staying with their grandmother until Monday evening!

Don’t get me wrong. I won’t let go of my responsibilities. I’ll just be able to work through them faster because it’ll be tasks completed without interruption. I’ll still work on my book, and my freelance assignments . . . I’ll still do the housework, and cook . . . and I’LL CREATE ART!

For those of you who have been following this blog for any length of time, you know that these moments are rare and well embraced. Last time something like this happened, I found myself making mixed media paintings for my living room using paint chip samples, painter’s tape, pennies, leaves, stickers, and acrylic paint. It was a blast!

I wonder what I’ll make this time?

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

Here are some reader requests from my inbox:

“I see that the Suite101 website gives really useful information on art and craft fayres. We have created a public interest website at www.startanartbusiness.co.uk/home.htm focused on how to start up and run an art business, which I thought may be of interest to your visitors.” -- Vikki Clarke

“Its true that Mixed media art tends to connect more with paints, papers, found objects and ephemera. As far as Mixed Media Arts goes, I know it is art made with the help of two different medium or more. (Do correct me if I am wrong). Ecards are a juxtaposition of music, photo, art, painting and words which in a way turn to be a Mixed media Art. Music is a medium of art and so is Photo and so is words and others - all combine to give birth to ecards. I think people never thought so in this way, but this could be an innovative alternative mixed media art. What do you think about it, Jenn?

And our website, http://www.123greetings.com, will soon allow artists to upload their own cards with their own images that they have scanned or photographed, so I think you might get the connection now.” -- Steve Anderson

Remember readers; I can’t place links directly in my topic as a form of link exchange as with other blogs and websites. I don’t mind posting your requests, though. I posted them as I received them, but from this point on they will be edited for grammar and clarity.

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

I’ve been up to my ears in research since last week and this is not, by any means, any type of complaint. I absolutely love researching, particularly when it is about a topic that hits so close to home. The book I’m working on now is comprised of many short chapters, each of which contains ideas for activities.

Because arts and crafts are a great opportunity for parents to bond with their children, most of the suggested activities in the book will follow that focus. I’ve also found that a girl, which is the focused gender for this book, tends to like creating “pretty” things to wear, display, and give away. Perfect!

I’ve been photocopying projects from library books, as well as printing projects from websites, that would be of interest to my children, in addition to the research needed to complete the book. It’s been exciting to see their faces light up whenever I add something to their “craft projects” binder. I love their enthusiasm!

I’ll be pulling specific tutorials from my topic here, too, to include in the book. I knew that, someday, I would want to include my suite101.com work in a book. I didn’t know this opportunity would happen so quickly, though! Wish me luck!

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

I don’t know why, but when I think of the library I generally think about books my kids would be interested in reading, research materials for work, and works of fiction. I never really think about books that embrace creativity.

I’ve been finding books for my children’s age group about making handmade books, decoupaging, and other mixed media projects. I knew they existed from searches performed on Amazon.com and Google.com, but I haven’t flipped through any of them until these library trips.

Each week, we’ve been checking out between three and five “art project” books, in addition to books that are inspirational. For example, the Wizardology and Dragonology books have been inspiring the tea stained journal we’re working on considerably.

Do you find inspirational treasures for your artwork at the library?

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

Last weekend, Friday night to be more specific, I came down with this very strange and very horrible eye infection. I’m unsure if it was pink eye, conjunctivitis, or allergies. I do know, though, that Saturday and Sunday I couldn’t see much of anything. My eyes were swollen terribly and I started an allergy medication (over the counter) regiment as directed by my pharmacist. My doctor can’t see me until Monday.

The good news is the swelling went down considerably and, as of today, only the red remains. I was able to drive for the first time last night without worrying everything would “fog” over if I moved my eyes wrong. The bad news is, Saturday was my scheduled day of art. I could barely function, let alone create art.

How did I get around this? Tea staining. There’s not a lot of thought, sight, or intricacy necessary for this project. I got out a 9 inch x 13-inch journal with 180 pages, spiral binding, and a black cover. I chose spiced chai because it creates a wonderful aroma both during and after the staining is complete. All the pages were died between Saturday and yesterday.

I tore random pages out to create envelopes from, as well as secret notes and maps. This journal is going to be a collaborative art project my children and I work on. I love how it came out now that I can clearly see what I’ve done. The pages came out much darker than I would typically create, which is a really nice twist out of my comfort zone – I had no choice!

A tutorial about this project is forthcoming! Stay tuned!

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

August is a new month and, of course, that means new goals for this working writer and artist. Part of my goals is to find more ways to intertwine my writing career with my art career (as small as it is). I have found a solution that I’m very excited about.

I’ve wanted to get back into fiction writing for years. I picked up the fictional pen in 1997, started submitting to markets in 1998, and dropped the ball in late 1998. Several times in the past decade, the NaNoWriMo contest started the inspirational fires, but I never created a complete work I was proud of.

Now, I’m going to be mixing the two together. Through art journal exchanges, creative letter writing, and text journal exchanges I am compiling a work of creative fiction. I’m working with individuals I have been connected to through blogs and social networks. My decision to do this was lead mostly be motivation. If I work with people I talk to on a nearly day-to-day basis, I believe I will finish the work.

I’m not really sure how this will all pan out, but the inspiration and the creative juices running through me are enough to motivate me from start to finish.

Posted by Jennifer Hollowell

This question has been perplexing me ever since I scheduled in my day of art. The ideas are whirling in my mind quicker than I can keep up with them or sketch them out. It’s such an exciting time considering the creative dry spell I have been experiencing.

My worry, though, is that I won’t be able to create unless my studio space is in some semblance or order. This is a very huge undertaking considering totes are still filled from when I moved my studio space from one end of the basement to the other. It’s frustrating because most of the materials I use for even the simplest projects are still packed away.

I have all day today to get what I need unpacked and clear off one of my work surfaces. Will I finish this? I have a head cold; so tackling this task is very low on my list of priorities. It will happen, though, because I will not let this day of art pass by without creating!

I will be making notes through each creative adventure, that way I’ll have plenty of how-to’s and tutorials to share with you within this topic. As I mentioned, the ideas are many and the time is one day. What will I finish? What will remain half-done? What will drop off the list? We’ll have to wait and see.