hello 2010!

After the euphoria of welcoming the new year, the lovely dinner with friends, the fun times with friends and family in snowy cold Boston.. the reality sets in. Back home cleaning up after the festivities, getting ready for more (Russian Christmas), doing loads and loads of laundry...one can really hit the winter doldrums...

My antidote? To see what I accomplished in 2009 and plan for 2010! So while I cannot possibly come up with a list as extensive as Lisa's (my head can't handle that much, but she always inspires me to do more), I have come up with a small list of my own:

~ I created 26 new artworks.
~ I made 30 4"x4" pieces for an art exchange with a group of artists that I belong to.
~ among those 26 new pieces are three that are part of the figure series that I am really excited about.
~ and also among those new pieces are three larger new artworks for the St. Pete series that I am still passionate about
~ I reworked nine old okoshechki/little windows pieces that I wasn't happy with.
~ I had work accepted into 10 juried exhibitions
~ one of those exhibitions is Art Quilt Elements (which still makes me want to pinch myself!)
~ I sold two pieces of art!
~ I taped a DVD for Cloth Paper Scissors Workshop!!!
~ I wrote two online tutorials for Quilting Daily
~ I answered interview questions for Embellishments Newsletter from Quilting Arts Magazine
~ I taped a segment for Quilting Arts TV Series 500
~ I designed and made costumes for Russian school Christmas play
~ I designed and am still working on costumes for the new Russian school Christmas play
~ I attended a workshop with Jane Davila
~ I spent five weeks in St. Petersburg, Russia with my children
~ I spent a week on Hawai'i for our second honeymoon
~ I shepherded a second grader and kindergartener (my most important job!)
~ I took figure drawing classes for a semester
~ and I kept a sketch journal everyday....

OK so not too shabby... I feel better now! Thanks for indulging me.

Now I am ready to dive into 2010 with enthusiasm! I have chosen my word for the year, well, two actually ~ CLARITY and PURPOSE. Those are two things that I want to achieve in 2010 for my art. Which path do I want to pursue? Why do I want to pursue it? To get myself going on this I sighed up for a Blast Off class with Alyson Stanfield which starts tomorrow (aack!!)

Now you are probably wondering what that old journal sketch from last January is doing up there at the top of the post? I'll tell ya. I will not be doing a daily sketch journal this year or a weekly journal quilt. I decided to do monthly journal art quilts. I plan to choose a journal sketch from the corresponding month of 2009 and use it as inspiration for a monthly diptych in 2010. So that red sketch up there is the inspiration for January 2010 journal diptych. How will I translate it? What size will it be? Those are all good questions that I will find an answer to this month. And whatever parameters I choose, I will keep for the rest of the year.

There. That's the plan. What's your plan?

2009 a year in review...

Let's start with the easy part.. the sketch journal review! I took the time after finishing the last journal sketch today to put together this collage of all my journal sketches for the year..(it was a good way to pass the time while waiting for a plane to land..ahem..) Of course going through them one by one made me want to make different arrangements of them: abstract, pattern, shoes, leaves, doodles... maybe one day when I am delusional or have lots of time to waste I'll do that. Doubtful!
Anyhow, I am glad to have this project completed, it feels like a good accomplishment. And at the same time I wish I was a bit more relaxed about it and skipped a few days.. When I try this again (in a few years) I'll try to remember that!
Wishing you all again a wonderful Happy New Year full of health, happiness and creativity!!! Thank you for reading this blog!
Now off to celebrate!!!

december journal sketches...

.... so far...
I've been rather abstract. Mostly doodling, mostly due to lack of time. Had an up and down phase, in geometric and watery swooshes. Had a pink, yellow and purple phase with delicate little doodles. And a bright yellow, red, orange phase from simple to more complex. Stay tuned to what the rest of December brings. I'd like to know too...

collage obsessed?

Maybe just maybe a teensy bit obsessed... so there you go - three more magazine paper collages from my journal...

journal sketches.. or collages?

I have been in the mood to collage with magazine pages in my journal lately. Here are three that I am happy with. Last week I also doodled with water-soluble crayons, fast and fun. Something prompted me to count the remaining pages in my journal ~ the looming end of the year? I was surprised to find out that I was quite a few short. I knew that I wouldn't have enough pages, but somehow I thought it would be just a few days. Turns out it will be a few weeks! What a mathematician I am...... now I have to figure out a way of adding pages to my already burgeoning book. But I shall procrastinate on that until the end of the month because I can! so there...

naptime can be useful in many ways...

Like when a sick child takes a two hour nap! I had an artful burst of energy and finished up the collages I have been working on in my journal this week. Something told me not to throw out that Vogue issue last weekend, I just loved the colors on their pages. And now those colors are mine...

creative everyday

I have joined scores of artists for Creative Everyday Month of November. As some of you know I have been creative (almost) everyday so far in 2009 by keeping my sketch journal going, but this is an incentive for me to post everyday from my journal or about other art that I have been working on.
So happy November 1st! It's my favorite time of the year, and as you can see in my journal pages I have been hugely influenced by the glorious colors of autumn... do you think I am fond of yellow? don't answer that.....

journal sketches

Once again it's been quite sometime since I have posted my journal sketches. The good news is that I have been keeping up with them pretty well. The bad news is that as I am nearing toward the end of the year (can you believe it!!!) I am feeling a bit tired of the self imposed sketch orders. I am already thinking of what I should and should not do next year...
Here the round up of some of my favorites..

I did geometric abstractions...waves and swirls....
figure sketches...Hawai'i was well represented..and of course autumn is here now... So here's what I am thinking about for next year... Plenty of ideas have already been tossed aside and here are a few I am still contemplating.
~First is to take the year off from journaling of any kind. Gasp!
~Second is to do monthly journal quilts and just sketch casually but regularly.
~ and third..weeeelllll....I just don't know....I am open to suggestions, anyone have any good ideas out there?? I would welcome them...