A Sneak Peek into my Visual Journaling...

If you have been following me, you would know I have been working with Lynda Barry's "Making Comics" book, over the last year

Pushing myself beyond my comfort zone
This was the first time I tried the above exercise and though I did the best I could, it was a bit difficult to pull together all the disparate pieces. I am doing this exercise and other exercises from her book in order to challenge my creativity, to do something that pushes me beyond my comfort zone. Truly I am a colorist. I love color and texture-hence the doll-making. So to work primarily in black and white and with simple lines isn't something I am particularly comfortable with.

Above is one of the exercises from the book...
... to create a comic strip from a set of prompts collected in different bags. For this one, I chose:
angle-aerial shot
situation-awards ceremony
scene-climactic scene, and scene a few days after climactic scene
setting-on a cloud
characters-carpenter and (a man I saw on the street a few months ago) a big man wearing an unlikely T shirt and walking a little dog
words-blood, tongue, jewelry, bully (didn't use get to use bully)

I'm still doing intuitive painting...
I do another method of journaling-intuitive painting-that is much more in my wheelhouse. You may have seen examples of these where I create a background of color and texture and then find imagery in it. I am still doing this technique but have added Lynda Barry's method as a way to challenge myself.

These scary, brawny and aggressive looking guys showed up recently on consecutive days. ​

And then these showed up. Almost as an antidote or balance to the fierceness of the first two. These have a more feminine and inward turning energy. ​

Above are a couple more Lynda Barry-inspired images. The first is a visual diary method. Four things that I did that day. The second is another visual diary, this one an image with a description. In this second image, I recorded how wonderful it was to see Patti Smith recently at the Lincoln Theater with my daughter and a friend. My daughter had seen her years ago (when my daughter was 15-now she is 26) at the List Center at GW University. Both times were wonderful but this time I loved getting to hear her sing much more. And also to see her daughter accompany her on piano. 

And of course, I am still making dolls...
Below is progress on another angel doll that I didn't finish in time for the recent Open Studios at the Jackson Art Center, where I have my studio. ​