Rodney
6x6 inches.
Pastels, graphite, and white Signo gel pen on black scrapbooking paper.
Day One 60 Days of Birds Mixed Media Challenge
60 Days of Birds
The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge
Join me starting April 1st!
The challenge takes place in my FaceBook Group, I will post a PDF filled with 60 days of Challenge Prompts.
If you participated in past challenges I sent a daily newsletter. There will be no newsletter for this years challenge. I will be posting daily to the FaceBook Group instead.
Day 1 of the 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge!
See the red circle in the lower left hand corner? It's highlighting an old enamel dish pan filled with organic corn for the birds and the fat squirrel that's made it's home in our attic, I named the squirrel Trouble.
Since it's mid afternoon as I post this there are no birds out and about, I expect to be seeing some closer to evening time. For now they are holed up in those arborvitae's to the north of our dog run, I could hear a few peeps over the sound of the traffic.
I'm still working on my poem for Day 1 and will post later this evening, other activities are pressing at the moment, like the making of black-eyed peas with greens for our New Years Dinner. At the moment hubs is grinding organic corn for the corn bread he'll make to go with our meal.
60 Bird Challenge Journal No. 1
The cover is a reclaimed manila envelope I monoprinted.
I filled with a variety of toned artist drawing papers, composition papers, mixed media paper, and the like.
Some more toned artists papers, Canson and Stratford, I also added a healthy dose of old maps, scrapbooking papers, to add additional variety.
Projects
A pear and a pomegranate still life.
There's been a lot of drama in my life recently, surrounding Angel (and her impending crossing of the bridge) and an issue a neighbor has with Oliver, to the point that I've become completely blocked.
So today I started mindlessly drawing pears again, and after a few hours I became unblocked and started working on The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge again. A few more hours in and I'm feeling much better now.
This evening I started refining the journal prompts and began constructing the journals I will be using during the challenge period.
A sneak peak of the papers to be used in the soon to be revealed journals.
Paring Down & New Beginnings!!!
Paring down, starting with my websites and blogs, and soon to be my wet studio, and have new goals and an actionable plan for future art and designs. I'd do handsprings from the excitement, but my allergies are preventing me from doing so today, lol.
The next goal after that is the Month of November which is National Writing Month and the goal is to get my last Natural Dye Book finished, and hopefully the app (by the end of December) and then it's on to other activities. I'm culling the Natural Surface Academy, etc., too many things on my plate which prevents me from creating and doing what I really love! Also no more teaching!!!
I have two immediate goal dates, September 6th to get my new designs/collections for licensing up onto my blog (group accountability is great for this!!!) and October 4th for the Open Studio Tour. I need to deep clean for the tour, which means an opportunity to get rid of stuff I haven't used in years and probably won't be using again anytime here in the near future, and get prints made of newly created works of art for the tour!
The 60 Day Crow (Bird) Challenge has been a wonderful experience, I will do the big reveal here in a few days. I now have plans to run this challenge again, as it was quite popular!
60 Day Crow Challenge
It was suggested that I should start a 60 day challenge since I couldn't find one that was theme specific (thank you Jody Lund) I will be drawing Crows and Ravens (Corvus sp.).
How many of you would like to participate with me in a 60 day bird/crow challenge, this means one bird/crow a day for 60 days.
The birds/crows can be drawn, painted, stitched, sculpted (if you are so inclined), digitally manipulated OR you can write about birds/crows everyday for 60 days. Interested?
If I get 10 or more peeps interested I will start a facebook group for the challenge. I will be starting tomorrow as I am getting ready for an Open Studio Tour, October 4th, and want to have some fresh birds to offer up for the tour.
Upcoming Challenges at the Academy!!!
Upcoming Challenges at the Academy
Marigold 30-Day Cold Dye Challenge Begins January 1st
Extreme Embroidery Extreme Hearts Challenge Begins January 11th
Join us at the Natural Surface Academy for Extreme Hearts Challenge for Valentines Day!!! In this challenge we will be using our Natural and eco Dyed fibers, threads, ribbons, and fabrics to create constructed cloth for a one-of-a-kind heart for that special someone!
Constructed Cuff Challenge Begins January 18th
Join us at the Natural Surface Academy for Constructed Cloth Cuff Challenge for Valentines Day!!! In this challenge we will be using our Natural and eco Dyed fibers, threads, ribbons, and fabrics to create constructed cloth for a one-of-a-kind wearable art for that special occassion!
To learn more about the Natural Surface Academy and how to join, click here.
30 Day Challenge Samples
Samples from 1998 from previous 30 Day Cold water trials. These will be used for the 30 Day Challenge I'm holding at the Natural Surface Academy this winter. I will put my notes into an eBook for Academy members, along with scans of the samples.
Weekly Challenge
First Piece
Of the new year! I've been wanting to make something bright and cheerful - it's been dreadfully dull here this winter - so I made this little post card. It's inspired by my Soul Hole Challenge piece I made way back when, it's pictured at the bottom. I took the pic with my cell phone as my digital camera bit the dust, so the image isn't so great