Grounded Muse

This is an incredibly busy time of year as June is filled with end of school activities, events, programs, concerts and, this year, a graduation and subsequent party. So as I prepare for, and attend, many a special occasion, I find that my art studio is doing little more than gathering dust.

However, my muse is relentless and I feel a constant yearning to create. It can be so frustrating to have the creative urge but know that there is a laundry list of other obligations. To satisfy my longing, I made time on Sunday evening to play in my journal. It wasn't a great investment of time, and I can't say that my muse is now completely content, but at least it was something and felt really good.

On this journal page I played around with my Derwent Inktense Blocks, applying color at the top of the page and activating with water to create drips. I also used a wet paintbrush against the block to make flicks and splatters of color. That's fun!

Another new "technique" used on this page was to color a rubber stamp with a Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush marker only on the portion of the stamp I wanted to print. That worked well and I can see how you could color a stamp in a number of different shades at once. I'm sure I'm a little late to this party...rubber stampers have been doing it for years...but it was an aha moment just the same.

© Nancy Lefko