Alcohol ink explosion!

Slowly but surely, I’m remembering play. I’m coaching myself to take a deep breath and just dive in. Today I “dove into” alcohol inks. I’ve rarely used alcohol inks before, just the couple of times been when friends from the NEATC group let me borrow theirs. My aunt gave me two sets of Ranger alcohol inks for Christmas, in Nature Walk and Farmer’s Market. To complete my “starter set” I ordered an applicator from eBay, and bought a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol from the grocery store (rather than using Ranger’s pricey mixative).

I had lots of fun just experimenting with different amounts of ink and rubbing alcohol, and on different surfaces. I found that glossy photo paper is a great place to start when learning to work with alcohol inks, as it’s a nice slick surface that’s fairly cheap and can be cut into backgrounds or elements as you please. I tried my hand at inking brass charms, but I’m not sure how pleased I am with the result so far. The nice thing about alcohol inks is that you can often come back and rework a piece with more inks or mixative. But the real triumph of today’s playtime was definitely the wooden star pictured here. Originally a plain silver star from a value pack of gold and silver stars and moons, I added dots of ink (Eggplant, Wild Plum, and Stream) directly to the glossy painted surface and “smooshed” them around with the applicator. Having really enjoyed the look of the rub-on letters used often in the pages of Visual Chronicles, I decided to dig out the sheet that worked it’s way into my collection at some point. I didn’t have a fancy stylus, so I just used a mechanical pencil with the lead pushed all the way in. I’m not sure yet what to do with this delightful little treasure, but it makes me smile every time I look at it. I’m on my way.

(And yes, “smoosh” is the technical term! Ok, Ranger says to “randomly stamp and twist” but I find “smoosh” to be far more succinct.)

Planting seeds of art and naps

I am slowly planting little seeds of healing within myself. With a little help from Sark’s “Change Your Life Weithout Getting Out of Bed” nap guidebook, I am practicing the fine art of therapeutic napping. As a lifelong insomniac, this is hard work but very important. Healing my relationship with sleep is vital to healing myself. By the same token, I’m reading bits and pieces of everything I can get my hands on to learn how to heal my relationship with art.

I’ve taken two or three micronaps in the past few days, and I think I’m getting better at them. Yesterday I finally did a few little art bits, just embellishing projects I’d started or noodling around with pre-painted ATC backgrounds. I could feel even these baby steps working to nourish me though. When the paint bled through a piece and onto the table I scooped up the puddles of color with a scrap of an envelope, and wrote a little note for myself.

Messages through time

Sometimes the universe gives you all the tools you need, you just have to slow down long enough to realize they’re there. I was browsing Amazon last night, looking through the latest batch of books recommended for me based on wishlisted items and past purchases. I was particularly looking for books related to healing through creating art, and I surfed from one of the recommended books to a similar book, Visual Chronicles. I was looking at some of the preview pages, thinking it looked like just the thing, and was about to splurge on it when… I realized I already had. Several months ago I went on a mini shopping spree when I noticed half a dozen or so mixed media books offered for various very low prices through Amazon Marketplace. Visual Chronicles was among them; and after laughing at myself and scanning my studio bookshelf for it, I noticed there also were two or three other books I’d bought that might help me on my journey towards self-art-therapy.

I curled up with my “new” book and started reading. I couldn’t have been more than a few pages in when the words I was reading reminded me… I’ve already got and altered book in the works. And the word in big, bold, gesso-stenciled letters on the first and so-far-only spread? PLAY!

Um, self? Take a hint…