Pilgrim Progress

As March zips along, the pages of Pilgrim are filling up. I don't really consider any page to be finished--there always seems to be room for improvement.

Sometimes what I journal relates to the photography on the page and the story that goes with it, and other times it's completely unrelated.

This page is sparse compared to most.

Here is how a page looks before I have fun with color and paint.

I love reading about Peace Pilgrim. Her story is so inspiring. I seem to have a peace theme going on these few pages.

I Miss Mail Art!

I recently had the opportunity to look through my rather sizable collection of mail art, in search of a few pieces to use in a current project. It's been a while since I was an active participant in the mail art community and seeing all that postal goodness again really made me miss the good old days.

The days when the most fabulous, fun, creative, odd, and intriguing items would randomly show up from parts unknown.

The days when the simple act of opening the mailbox was the highlight of my day. Nowadays--not so much.
 

This piece made me smile. I created a series of postcards called "operation lost and found" and asked artists to send me items that they found wherever they happened to be. I guess it's not surprising that years later I would name my blog Lost and Found.

So what prompted this little trip down memory lane?  The new class that I'm taking called "Thinking Inside the Box." We are examining the box as an art form and building our own boxes from the ground up as part of the process! I've never built anything before in my life, so this has been a totally new experience for me. Our first project is a box with a hinged lid.

I'm not sure if I should feel extreme pride or embarrassment posting this photo of my little pine box in progress. I have a whole new appreciation for woodworkers and I'm beginning to understand why people feel so attached to the pitiful birdhouses, shelves, and benches they made in high school wood shop.

I'm planning to fashion my box after the fluxus fluxkits of George Maciunas and fill it inside and out with mail art from my collection. This week we're going to start building our second box which will be a glass-fronted shadow box similar to those of Joseph Cornell. For the next few weeks I'll probably be working on both projects simultaneously. Maybe after that I can find the time to work on a little mail art.

Featured Artist of the Month

I'd like to give a big thank you to Billie, the creative force over at Billie's Craft Room for inviting me to be the Featured Artist of the Month for March. Head on over to Billie's blog and plan to stay awhile--it's chock full of information and inspiration covering a wide range of topics and includes loads of tutorials, links, and reviews.

Happy reading and happy March! Thanks Billie!

The Sketchbook Challenge - Two Done and Ten to Go

The Sketchbook Challenge has now completed its second month and I've been working in my altered book, Pilgrim, pretty steadily. This page was inspired by the paint we used to paint a hallway. The color was called serenity and prompted some thought on the topic.

Spring must be in the air--my color palette is shifting in anticipation of warmer, brighter days. This spread was done over several weeks and the hearts refer to valentine's day which fell in there somewhere. The paper collage in the middle was sent to me by my friend, Deborah. The colors went perfectly with the rest of the page and I want to include items in the journal that help chronicle the year and having meaning to me.

I've been playing around with gouache more and totally loving it!

This was the last page I did with the February theme of opposites in mind--circles and squares, horizontal and vertical lines, and complimentary (opposite) colors on the color wheel. I might go back and do a bit of journaling in some of the squares.

As you can see on the right, I figured out how to link to my Flickr Photostream.  Now I can post to the group site and be eligible for the awesome monthly prize drawing. The theme for March is "spilling over" and I'm really looking forward to exploring that one. I've remained dedicated to Pilgrim for two months now and am really having fun with this year-long challenge and the sharing taking place on The Sketchbook Challenge blog and Flickr group. Take a peak and join in if you feel inclined. There's still a full ten months left to the year.