Felix Culpa

I have been so delinquent in posting to this blog. It isn't that I'm not producing art; it's that most of what I'm doing now is in my journal, and feels too personal to post online. There are some pages that feel safe enough, though. Below is a random page from my homemade travelers notebook.

I drew this back in June, right after we went to hear Audrey Assad in concert. I became intrigued by her album, Fortunate Fall. All the songs circle around the theme of felix culpa: felix meaning happy or fortunate and culpa meaning fall or fault. I love the incongruity. Who is happy when they fail? Who feels fortunate when they fall? The idea is not original with Audrey, of course. It comes from the Easter liturgy, and it would be familiar to her because she is Catholic.

I love it! "Oh happy fault that gained for us so great a Redeemer." Here's to all our happy failures and our so great Redeemer!

This page has lots of shiny highlights from Sakura gel pens, but they don't really come through in the picture. Add the shine in your mind!

Fine black pen and opaque white pen on the most ordinary paper!

I'm going to try to post more so that my blog doesn't look so sad and neglected. There never seems to be enough hours in the day....

Snow Day Fun

Life has been so busy that it took a snow day, compliments of Blizzard Jonas, to get me back to drawing and painting. There's so much white everywhere that I just want to paint with COLOR!

Love in the Service of Creativity

I have a mild addiction affliction, but it could be worse. I could be merely hoarding all these markers, which, of course, would be sick. Instead, I am using them and caring for them and just generally giving them a nice place to live out their days. It's kind of marker foster care, really.

I have been afflicted with a love of markers since I was very young. I really did used to hoard them and not use them. I was afraid of using them up on something frivolous. Eventually they would dry up from neglect, and I'd throw them away. Very sad! I've come to understand that fear does not serve creativity. I'm over the fear of wasting my supplies. I'm using them happily. Every day. And, when I go to a store that sells markers I don't already have, I feel that other affliction: marker envy. Sigh!

Marker Love

Homage to Long Weekends

This is just an excerpt from one of my private journal pages. I was obsessed with threes, because it was the beginning of a three-day weekend. I love how the bees turned out--the three bees, each with three stripes and three dots on each wing. It was out of hand!

Homage to Three; patterned paper embellished with marker in Moleskine Cahier

Well Done!

I love getting to draw on the table at Bonefish Grill, and it's craft paper! I'm tempted to take all my markers sometime and show them what it COULD be! :)

This was a celebration dinner for my husband's last day at what was a very challenging and stressful job before he headed on to the job he has now. If only I'd had more time to make this great, but the bread came to the table, and it was on to the business of...you know...the good stuff.

Drawing on the Table "Cloth" at Bonefish Grill

Another Acrylic Face

Still learning faces with acrylics from Jane Davenport's book. I'm sure I could work on it more, but I'm moving on. I still can't say that I love acrylics. They dry too quickly!

Face in Acrylic; acrylic & watercolor

iPhone Photo Filter Fun

Once your phone can do this, there really is no going back. I got this effect with my iPhone 6 and with the app called Snapseed. It's not exactly Photoshop, but for a phone app, it's pretty cool!

iPhone Photo Filter Fun; photograph edited with Snapseed

Computer "Doodling"

I've finally learned Adobe Illustrator this year at work after years of only dabbling with it. It is an amazing program, making seemingly impossible things actually very simple. This took about 10 minutes to create.

Computer Doodling; computer generated mandala

Three Little Peaces

These three little "peaces" are the work of a quiet evening.

Three Little Peaces; watercolor on cold press

Today, I Imagine

I didn't imaginate enough as a child. I'm making up for lost time. This was just fun!

I Imagine; marker on sketch paper

Kyrie Eleison

This took a long time, but I'm very happy with the outcome.

Lord Have Mercy; marker in Moleskine journal

Hope in the Lord

I collected the cardboard drink coasters at a restaurant and did this to one of them. Gesso is a wonderful thing!

Hope in the Lord; marker on gessoed cardboard drink coaster

Me, the Coloring Queen for a Day

I've loved to color for as long as I could grip a crayon. Now that it's becoming very cool for adults to color, I just want to say, "I told you so!" I entered a little coloring contest at Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine, and I actually won. Aw, shucks! They provided the black line drawing, and it was up to contestants to be creative. Here's what I came up with.

Earth, Wind & Fire; marker on paper

Dip Pen Doodling

Doodle on! This started as a simple, monochromatic watercolor of pale blue grass or seaweed and bubbles. The brown and blue bottled ink and a dip pen turned it into a doodling exercise. I love the simplicity of low-tech pen and ink.

Dip Pen Doodling; watercolor & Noodlers ink on watercolor paper

EDM 271 - Free Choice

Drawn from memory, which isn't a good enough excuse for messing up the stripes on the lower left. Sorry, Betsy! This is done with water-based markers with a little help from some gesso, when I lost the whites and had to paint them back in.

EDM 271 - Free Choice; 3x3" markers on mixed media paper

EDM 270 - Something Preservable

Use it or lose it.

EDM 270 - Something Preservable; 3x3" watercolor

EDM 269 - Something Annoying

An increasingly noisy society, even nice music playing in EVERY business, store, and restaurant, is a little annoying to me. Trying to find absolute silence is almost impossible. I guess I am officially old.

EDM 269 - Something Annoying; 3x3" watercolor & marker

EDM 268 - Something I Need

Ask any artist, "How many more colors do you need," and the predictable answer will always be, "Just one more." I need to remember how hard it was to finish this piece the next time I'm tempted to start another completely uninspired piece. This took parts of four days to finish. And, waiting for the Glossy Accents to dry was excruciating. I'm a very impatient waiter.

EDM 268 - Something I Need; watercolor & Glossy Accents

EDM 267 - Something Flexible

I could have been a ballerina, if I had been lean, long-necked, graceful, coordinated, and flexible. But I wasn't. I can spell "prima." I'm settling for that.

EDM 267 - Something Flexible; 3x3" marker on mixed media paper

Golden Strands

The first of hopefully many golden girls because I have a huge tube of gold acrylic paint to use up. I hope I can make myself make the next one even golder.

Golden Strands; collage, acrylic & marker in art journal