Oh this poor blog has really been neglected! Well, I am back and have a couple of articles on journaling and art journaling that I have in my head. Now just to find the time to do them! Thank you for sticking by while I figure this time management stuff with my artwork, children, and journal making.

But for now, I just wanted to post that I have some new mixed media journals available for sale right now at amanobooks.

The Thread that Binds
7×5 inches, handbound blank journal
mixed media covers with exposed stitch binding

If you are local to Tubac, Arizona, I actually have three of my handbound mixed media blank journals in the Holiday Artisan Show at the Tubac Center of the Arts.

The Life of Trees
8×6 inches handbound blank journal
mixed media covers with exposed stitch binding

How I wish I could be there to see the journals in this juried exhibit. The exhibit will take place November 18th-January 2nd, so if you’re in the area, stop by!

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Summer is in full swing and life has been spent playing in the sun and cooling off in the air conditioned indoors. I have been busy this summer teaching at EncaustiCamp a 4 day retreat in Oregon and showing paintings in two shows here in Chicago. And yet, I am still dedicated to making mixed media blank journals for amanobooks! Really, I am! A little late, but better late than not at all, I always say.

Visit amanobooks to see the three new journals that I have just added.

Here is one of them:

Of Early Morning
6×6 inch blank journal

This journal showcases my current obsession with really working in different media onto one panel. The cover includes an image printed on tissue paper, beeswax, plaster, and acrylic paint.

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It may not seem like it, but I am still working away over here with creating new mixed media journals for the amanobooks.com shop! I keep pretty busy with creating paintings, teaching encaustic workshops here and there, and chasing after my two little monkeys these days. But I always return to my roots, which are handmade mixed media journals. Whenever I go back to these small canvas panels, it’s like putting on a pair of old comfortable shoes. I am happy to be able to add these two new journals to the shop.

Quiet Spirit
6×6 inch blank handbound journal

Imprinted
6×6 inch blank handbound journal

Please visit amanobooks.com shop to read more about the cover art for these two journals.

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Two new mixed media journals have finally been bound up and added to amanobooks shop. Both of these journals are handbound with bright white paper, #65 cover weight. The covers are original mixed media paintings created on canvas panels. The books are bound using the coptic stitch.

Intentions
5×7 inches

To read more about the art of these two journals please visit my art blog, Contemplating the Moon.

Refuge and Sanctuary
6×8 inches

Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary. ~Peter Minard

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Speaking of the energy of intentions…

Back in January 2009 one of my intentions that I listed was this:

10. Ponder some more about teaching small workshops. Ponder for a little bit, but then decide! Research.

I put it out there, I pondered for sure, but at the time it wasn’t a good fit. But I put the idea out there for myself. Planted a seed of “what if..” and I am excited to share that things have a way of working out that can’t be explained, in which paths that have crossed become paths joined and that an intention, an idea, has become a reality.

Several years ago in Seattle I attended a demo at Daniel Smith Art Supply to learn more about a medium that I had been experimenting with in my studio. The artist who was teaching the demo was Patricia Seggebruch. I won’t go into the long story about how our relationship developed, but just share that she is a very generous person- in spirit and talent. Patricia is not only a woman of grand vision, but she is also blessed with the gumption to follow through with her visions. Her latest dreamchild is something she is calling EncaustiCamp which will take place July 13-17, 2011 on the outskirts of Salem, Oregon. And Patricia has invited me to come and teach a workshop on encaustic and mixed media.

Click on the link above to go to the official site to read about the retreat and find out about the workshops. The idea behind Patricia’s desire to create this retreat is this:

Encausticamp is about everyone; encaustic artists, mixed media afficionados, experimenters extraordinaire and all form of crafts persons alike! This retreat is about going beyond the borders of encaustic art and opening welcome arms to the art and craft world at large so as to expose the beauty, versitility, accessibility and intense pleasure of this multi-media friend to all walks of artist, crafter, experimenter.

There will be six instructors, myself, Patricia, Crystal Neubauer, Michelle Belto, Jan Harris, and Judy Wise. We are sharing what we do in our own studios and hoping to bring our love of the wax medium to people who are curious about the medium and have never tried it before,to people who have experience and who may want to learn new ways to combine encaustic with different media. There will also be six assistants for each workshop-Mary Beth Shaw, Megan Anderson, Christine Webb, Sue Simpson, Deryn Mentock, and Tonia Davenport who will be assisting me with my workshop.

Patricia is all about inclusion and I am honored to have been invited to teach and share what I know. Together we came up with the idea to combine my two passions- book making and encaustic. I will be teaching a 1 day workshop, that I will teach each of the three days, entitled A Book of Images and Wax

encaustic and mixed media accordian book

The past few months I have been obsessed with combining encaustic and paper as well as creating different book forms with encaustic as a main player. It has been so fun. Experimentation. Discovery. Those beloved Aha! moments.

a little photo montage of some book art that I was working on back in November. The top two images are from a coptic bound book filled with encaustic and mixed media pages. The covers are encaustic as well. The bottom image is of a triptych book in which the covers open up to be the two side panels.

I also worked on a book of plaster, encaustic and paper that is hanging from the rafters in my studio right now. Working on another one right now.

I am so excited to be part of Patricia’s dream and to be sharing what I know and have learned through the years of working with encaustic. Registration is now officially open. Come join us!

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handbound mixed media journal

Sepulcher
6×8 inches
available for purchase at amanobooks.com

A journal is a place to be present, to bring your entire self to. A place to bring your thoughts and feelings and to fully explore what is going on in your life and in your head. It can be a place to give voice to what may be silenced in our day to day doings. A place where we unearth our desires, our fears…and then let it be. Sometimes things just need to be released, in order to let go and move on. A burial, followed by a resurrection.

sep·ul·cher   /ˈsɛpəlkər/ Show Spelled[sep-uhl-ker]
–noun
1. a tomb, grave, or burial place.
–verb (used with object)
3. to place in a sepulcher; bury.

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Believe it or not, but new mixed media collage journals have just been added to the collage section of amanobooks.com! There are a few more in the works that will be added as soon as they are bound up. Thank you for your patience, especially to those who have been inquiring about new journals this year. I hope they don’t disappoint.

handbound blank mixed media journal

purchase xxxvi

The cover art for this journal was created using an altered photo of a winter tree. The image is encased in a thin layer of beeswax which adds to the glow of this ethereal image. Strips of white fabric frame the journal cover at the top. One strip has a flower design sewn on with gray thread. The left side of this collage includes ledger paper and strips of other torn paper. At the bottom, I included a polaroid transfer of a group of ferns.

This journal is handbound and signed by the artist.

Stay tuned….more to come!

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rootless
5×7 blank journal
original mixed media art cover

Rootless is a coptic bound journal containing 72 handbound white pages (144 pages both sides). #70 paper. The cover for this unique journal combines a new interest of mine in working metal. Most of the panel is made up of a metal sheet on which I created prints using real grass reeds found outside in a park. Above the metal piece, I attached one of my photos to the top of the panel and then encased it in a thin layer of beeswax. I really like the juxtaposition of two totally different surfaces next to each other. One, smooth and buttery, and the other cool and rough. The edges of the panel are wrapped with linen bookcloth.

The words on the metal part read:

birthed from the earth yet
without roots:
rootless
no grasp
my past

The cover of this journal is signed by the artist.

To purchase this journal, please visit the Collage Section of amanobooks.com

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Autumn Tree handbound blank journal
4 1/2 x 7 inches

I am excited to announce that the Tyra Banks show chose one of my handbound journals that I offer over at amanobooks.com as one of the items included in their Luxe Living event! Here is a link to the event and the other products that are going to be included too. The Luxe Living event happens once a year in which 8 lucky women win a gift bag of the industries top products. This year they are incorporating fabulous luxury chocolates, teas, handmade soaps, candles, and apparantly handmade journals!

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Towards Wholeness
6×6 inch blank journal

I have been busy adding more blank journals to amanobooks.com. This blank journal, Towards Wholeness is now available for purchase in the collage journals section.

The cover of this journal was created on a canvas panel. The art on the cover is an original mixed media painting signed by the artist. This piece is about a journey towards wholeness. In the fragile beauty of the petals I hope to capture the beautiful impermanence in this world and the loving acceptance of our limitations.

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