Easy Journal Book Spine Dangles!

My Handmade Journal

Finishing up Art Work #abstractart #expressiveart #collage

What Arty Things Have I Done This Week?

What's Inside the Button Box?

Showing My Old Artwork Featuring Grumpy Girl!

Chinese Farmers Folk Art

Abstract Composition in the Dark!

Painted Paper Collage Elephant

The 7 Classical Liberal Arts Explained

Glue Books | What Are They For?

Pumpkin, Halloween, Traditions

I didn't do a YouTube video on this pumpkin picture.  I had started it a few weeks ago and kept redoing it.  The photo isn't great as I took it in artificial evening light at the dining room table.  As it is a seasonal subject I'm putting it here on the blog.  

I don't really celebrate Halloween (in the commercial sense) but I do make a pumpkin pie each year - it has become a family tradition.  I no longer make it with fresh pumpkin but use a reliable tin of pumpkin puree.

Star Sign Collage | Mixed Media | Taurus

Star Sign Collage | Series One | Aries

Local Gargoyles

Walking locally, I looked up instead of ahead or on the ground.  There is an interesting looking old coach house that is fenced off.  The top windows and above are visible.  Up on the roof tops I could see figures strategically placed around the building.  The figures are gargoyles.

These photos are not very clear because they have been enlarged with my camera phone.  In my original photos you could hardly make out what they are!

Weird as they are - I love them!  They're not just pretty faces you know but served a practical purpose.  They act as rain water spouts to divert water away from the building and prevent the mortar from degrading upon prolonged exposure to water.  Do you have any gargoyles on building near you?  If so I would love to see them.

Printing on Gel Plate Demo | Copy Paper and Tracing Paper

Mixed Media Painted Paper Collage | How Do I Start?

Do You Like Your Name?

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently.  Thinking and planning and sorting and gardening.  I found this huge mushroom under the leaf/compost pile that I have been adding to all year.  We no longer pay for the council green waste collection - why pay to give away our own plant waste when we can put it back to the earth?

The weeks roll over one week into the next and yet I feel stuck with this cycle of trying to get rid of things I have accumulated over the years.  It is taking longer than I envisaged.

In a reflective mood I started to think about my name - Simone.  It is pronounced Sim-on and yet for most of my life people refer to me as Sim-own.  Even when I have corrected people they have continued to call me Sim-own.  My family refer to me as Simbo, Simmy, Sim-on-ee,  my husband calls me Sir- mon and my Great Nan used to call me Sommy!!!

I wonder if my life would have been any different if I had been given another name.  I think my name is ugly and it means snub-nosed and I do have a snub nose!  I don't even have a middle name that I can use instead.

Do you like your name?  Do you think your name has had a negative or positive impact on your life or not made any difference at all?

Twilight Zone

I've been feeling deep and dark recently.  It is though I am in a twilight zone.  This mood is being reflected in my current artwork.  I am not depressed but I am pensive.  

I keep thinking about all the people and creatures in the world  that will never know me or me them.  As William Butler Yeats was to have said 'There are no strangers here, just friends you haven't met yet.'  I feel sad when I think of all the potential friendships and connections I could have made and yet haven't been able to do so.  

Even when I am with people I feel isolated.  I feel a bit like the hollow eyed creature sitting up there on a tree branch in my collage above.  Always on the periphery.  Always on the outside looking in.

Thankfully I enjoy my own company but am occasionally curious to know what it would be like to be with people who truly 'get me'. 

Cliff Richard The Next Time