A Fantastic Gelli Afternoon.

Even my brayer kept getting prettier and prettier.

Gelli print:

Drying on the floor.  I just kept grabbing a dry (ish) one and putting another layer on it.  They keep getting better and better.

Gelli printing is so much fun.  Seriously, we could have gellied for hours and hours and hours.

My gelli print plate is homemade.  It works beautifully.

Piles of drying prints.

Gelli bliss.

The Six Phases of Art-Making.

The finished painting.  I took so many pictures along the way.  Photos of all the many many many stages...  You know what they say:  The painting leads the painter.  Well, this one lead me around the world several times.

Stage one, gesso, maps, vintage book pages, paint.

A figure started to emerge.  She seemed to be a mermaid.

This was the first of the six phases of artmaking.  The "this is awesome" phase.

For those of you who are not familiar with the six phases of artmaking, they are as follows:
     1.  This is awesome
     2.  This is tricky
     3.  This is sh#*
     4.  I am sh#*
     5.  This might be ok
     6.  This is awesome


  I learned all this on google. 

I was still having fun here.

I got stuck at stage 2. the "This is tricky" stage.  So I gave it to JAH to work some of her magic.  We like to call this a "cameo appearance", you know, like in the movies. Another artist friend does a "walk on".   It was so lovely after she got a hold of it.  But, it was still tricky.

Then I did this and it led me straight to stage 3.  Ut oh, that's no fun at all.  We all know the stage 3 phase where it is sh#* leads straight to the awful phase 4 stage...

and I stayed in the awful stage 4 phase for waaay too long.  I sat and I stared and I stared and I sat and I sipped tea and stared some more.  But still,  I. WAS. SH#*.  I  stared at the photos too, my heavy artillery for figuring out what to do next.

And then, this happened.  This was the magic moment for me, the moment where it showed me what it was.

From there on out it was just a matter of defining the goat/pony.  My husband and I play this game,  its called "Three People Had A Baby".  Its a variation on the thing people do where they see somebody and guess who their celebrity parents are.  Well let me tell you what, its waaay more fun when you do three parents.  You can hone in with ruthless accuracy.  This animal, for instance, is the child of a goat, a calf, and a My Little Pony.  Someday I will dedicate an entire blog post to it because I'll admit, this was a terrible example of of wonderfully silly and very addictive game that once you play, you can never really stop.  Ever.  Yes, more on this later...

I was now at the "this might be ok" stage.  It needed some areas covered up.  Collage papers to the rescue.

It still needed even more definition...

Almost there...

Darker darks, more ear definition, more mane definition.  I made it full circle, back to the "this is awesome" phase.   It's just too big and drippy for me to take it home and hug it and kiss it and sleep with it cradled in my bosom, but I would if I could.

My Pretty Little Goat/Pony.

I spruced up the eye...

and this happened.  So I left it.

What an eventful day in the Dreamery.  I was mentally exhausted from the struggle.  Painting is hard.  Some days it just kills you dead.  In fact, I turned.  (this is a Walking Dead reference).  I turned, and then kept going so far I turned back.  So I'm good.

details...

Happiness Is Expensive.

I've painted a lot of flowers lately.  Hey, whatever keeps you off the streets...

Happiness Is Expensive, 12x12 mixed media painting by tereSager.

Acrylics, Spray Paints, Ink, Vintage Papers, Wrapping Paper and stencils are some of the materials used.

detail, Happiness Is Expensive.

Detail, Happiness Is Expensive.

Detail, Happiness Is Expensive.

Detail, Happiness Is Expensive.

When I came out of the studio this evening this sky greeted me.  I wish my photo would have done it justice. 

I saw this gal on the drive home. 

Another beautiful day goes by.

Time/Space Continunum Dilemna Solved.

Keep adding a little something everyday.  Somehow I always have the perfect amount of space on these pages.  Its funny how a seemingly-unimportant sentence from your own mind will jog your memory of the entire day.  I mean, I do realize how goofy and unimportant these little sentences must seem to you out there in cyberspace, but to me they're worth a million dollars- later.  Now, they're too fresh to be important memories.  Now its just play.  I choose a colour that is it for me for that month.  My pretend sister gave me that packet of EmergenC and I've never had that flavor before so it made my day people -and to celebrate it I'm going to incorporate the packet into the scheme.  Its a bonus that it matches so splendidly.  And once I blink my eyes and the time/space vortex that we all seem to be in does its thing and July is magically o.v.e.r. done and gone, well, I'll still have this.  Precious.

Its dawning on me that I've figured it out...this time/space continunum dilemna that we're all experiencing.  You know, the one where time flies by and we can't stop it.  Yeah, that one.  Well, somehow having art that I can hold in my hot little hands and kiss and hug and love is making it all ok, this waaay-too-fast passage of time thing.  See, the time is gone, but I've got this.  So the answer, for me, is obvious.  Stay busy, be productive, make things, fix things, spruce up things, do whatever it takes to have something concrete to show for the passage of that precious time.  It will make you feel allright about it.  It will make you know that it wasn't wasted.

Oh my gosh its NOON, I've got to hurry!....   




           and so it goes.

Daily Squares, the Process.

I've been documenting the process of my July pages.  This started out on black pages, a vintage Photo album like the kind you see at flea markets.  I gesso'd the pages leaving a black border.  Then I put my new favorite thing-Absorbent Ground- over the gesso (so watercolour would absorb.)  Then I had at it with watercolours.

These squares are loose.  Tight squares are waaaay too harsh.

Does anybody remember what I did last Thursday.  Boy oh boy don't skip a day or else you'll pay trying to remember.  Actually I do remember.

detail of Daily Squares July 2015

Its just too embarrassingly silly to document.  I think we played with the kitten all day long and I'm kind of serious.  As soon as I accept this reality I will document its idiocy for future generations to remember me by.

detail of the Daily Squares July 2015 page progress.

Drink 'n Draw.

Tuesday afternoons are for drinkin' and drawin'.  Its just a few ladies, we bring something to doodle on and order fancy cocktails.  There's so many yummy choices at the Cider House, but I almost always get the same one, a Dry Ginger Spritzer.  Its perfection in a glass.


This is a sweet vintage book I draw in sometimes.   I love the feel of the pages.  These pages are watercolour and ink.  All of these spreads are works in progress...

Watercolour and Inks...

Watercolour and Pencil...

Watercolour, Ink...

Watercolour, Ink...

This is Absorbent Ground over the page then I painted with watercolours on top of that, plus ink...

Same here, I put Absorbent Ground down first.  It makes the watercolours flow totally different than just putting it right onto the book page.

This page has watercolour and collage papers.

Watercolours and imaginary flowers...

This is the spread I worked on today... So far its going nowhere.  That will change, hopefully, in the morning.  I don't get much done at the bar really.

Stepping Stones to Literature.  A Second Reader.  Its all happening here.  I will post this again in the future... it should all come together by then.  (don't you just love the word "should")

This, well this is the bouquet at the bar.  I believe the bartender said the ladies at the Hyacinth Bean supply their bouquets.  It was too pretty not to snap a pic.

The trip over the river and through the woods to the bar today was a party of green.  I'm liking my tunnel this time of year.

It really is like being in a whole other world.  Its peaceful in there.  Quiet, peaceful, and cool.  Love it.