Lydia's Entry into Mary 'Journey' book

Mary's book is complete!

There were several pages left in this book, so I felt compelled to fill it up before finally sending it on to Mary.  The previous entry (Angela's tree) and the end cover (a map of the Barnstaple area in the south west of England) inspired my entry.  Before I knew that Angela had taken the shape of her tree from Jeane's horse, I thought she must have used the shape of the river in the map, it seemed so similar.  I was instantly attracted to the cover of this book, I loved the movement of the river and the different qualities of line depicting the roads, streams, railway, footpaths etc.  I wondered what might 'journey' up that river.  It turns out trout travel the River Taw every year to return to their spawning site. This triggered the image of fish flowing along the path of the river. Angela's tree extends nicely into this flow which joins the map at the end.  I have also added a trail of sheep winding their way around a hillside and a string of cars making the journey to Barnstaple. I enjoyed adding other motifs found in the map to represent footpaths, forests and swamps.  A little campsite had to be in there too as this area of England was a place of summer camping holidays for me as a child.

Mary's Journey book - Angela entry

I extended the collaged waves from the previous entry onto the top of this piece with the hanging streamer-like things. The tree trunk form is traced from Jeane's horse on the other side.  I don't do it enough, but love using images and ideas from the other entries. It's what makes this collaboration a unique experience. 

Eric's Fairy Tale entry in Angela's book

This is my entry into Angela's Fairy Tale accordion book.

Firstly, I am looking for your professional feedback: do I have an addiction to glitter and shiny things?

Answer: YES, but am I hurting anyone? No, I didn't think so. I will keep going with it.

I found some cool silver adhesive and the resulting composition plays on the theme, positive/negative shapes, and some kind of play on surface. It was a fun entry, and I must say, I took the liberty to fill more than just 2-3 pages, since the book is due back to Angela soon, with only 2 more people contributing before then.

Lisa, Jemina: go crazy, fill the book, for Angela's sake.

Ok, yes, I do admit that the first thing that came to mind when I got Petr's book, with the theme "In Between" was to photocopy my son's butt and have some kind of pop-up coming from in between his butt crack. And that's a mini ziplock bag of paper tears popping from between Elliot's crack...




Am I a bad father, or do you all now think less of me? I hope the answers to both of those questions in NO....

In any case, as I was the last entry in Petr's book, I was excited to complete some blank space (forgive me, I don't recall whose entry it was with the woman emerging from between curtains?). I got back from Morocco last month with some really awesome leather-working punches, which yielded the tears I put in the baggie.

Thus, in full embrace of Petr's theme, "In Between", everyones' works are indeed in between my entries. 

Jemina's Book / Petr's Entry

It depends on how you look at it - and so eyes are a dominant feature in my entry - cat eyes in specific - and a cat - as cats are already featured in Jeane's entry - some collaging, some ink drawing, mostly fairly free flow of associations ...

And Jemina's book is flying home!

Annika's last entries

It has been nine(!) months since my last post. Gosh, this sounds like in the church... Yes, I have sinned. It's not that I haven't been sketching, I just haven't uploaded anything. Please accept my apologies.

Journey book

This entry started out as a continuum to the landscape and flying motive with my intention of tying it to traveling. As often happens, ideas develop while working with them. So too this sketch, which ended up reflecting my own personal journey of becoming a mom.

Folklore book

I am a fan of handicrafts – knitting, crocheting, sewing... Every now and then I make my small contribution to keeping alive some of the Estonian handicraft traditions. These patterns are some of the many hundreds used in woolen gloves and socks. The swallow (a bird, again?) is the national bird of Estonia.

In Between

Living in a different country than where I was born, and traveling often because of work, I cannot help but be in between flights or trains or some other way in between of departure and arrival. One way for me to get home to Estonia is to take a one stop flight through Prague. I always check the CSA's tickets when deciding which company to fly with. As it was Petr's book, I could not resist the temptation.

Fairy tales

This last entry of mine is not exactly a fairy tale, but indeed a story. A story of my childhood, a favorite book and a cartoon, and a conflict. You all know this story, it's Winnie the Pooh. Yes, it's that jolly yellow bear who wanders around the forrest of a 100 acres and eats unimaginable quantities of honey. He wears a red T-shirt on his dynamic body and no one feels like he should also need a pair of pants to be considered dressed. His paws have no claws, and therefore no one should be afraid to hug him. 'Cause that's what you should do with such a happy and cute teddy bear.

I know Winnie the Pooh very well. But the bear I know is not yellow or jolly or dynamic. His paws have claws and no one has ever been able to buy him. He is clumsy and confused, even melancholic. He speaks Estonian, obviously.

As I got older and images of the “free world” reached me, I couldn't help but be disappointed of the way Winnie the Pooh was drawn out for the rest of the world. It did not resemble at all to my own imagination or to the way I had learned about his appearance on TV.

A couple of months ago I went through my children's books at home. I was looking for a story or a character to introduce to my own son. I picked up “Winnie the Pooh”.

P.S. My "Illusion" book is happily home. Thank you all for your lovely contributions!!! 

Eric's entry in Lisa's book: goin' home!!!

I battled with this entry for a few days, but in the end, I think I rectified the situation.... I dunno, you tell me! The theme was folklore and the first start of a piece I put in the book, I had to paint over because it was soooooo lame! I thought back to some of the other artists' entries with pattern, color, and of course Petr's Macho Man Randy Savage, paying homage to the American legends of baseball and the tall tales that surround Sport. In any case, this sketchbook is homeward bound to Lisa in Stockholm. 

Is this the first book of this rotation to reach it's origin?

Holla!

Jemina's book, Eric's entry!

It depends on how you look at it.... still, this blog-post is a loooong time overdue. Lisa's just had a baby, but I shipped this book off for her contribution. The entry after mine is totally awesome, 3-d collage explosion, but I really wanted to try something understated with some cool Tipex-rolls, weaving a drawing, deleting and adding parts as I went. It was a fun experiment, perhaps a bit tricky to discern from this images, especially difficult to scan with the relief of the collage next door :) 

Mary's Book / Petr's Entry

I was so excited to find Mary's gorgeous book in the mailbox! 

Journey. 

Stamps from Sweden (thanks Lisa) once again stunned me and I instantaneously realized that the stamp featuring a couple feet in colourful socks as well as the envelope itself (thus journey) will be a starting point to my addition. 

The rest was fun without much thinking except for the choice of colours to resonate with some previous entries and an attempt to maintain the great flow of this very beautiful book.  

Lydia's entry into the 'SEA' book

The Sea - calm, tranquil, beautiful?  Full of monsters or a monster itself?  A powerful and uncontrollable force of nature.

Lydia's entry into Jeane's pattern book.

I noticed a recurring theme of nature in Jeane's book.  The combination of plants and animals sparked an image of red squirrels scampering through the undergrowth at the bottom of my garden.  I love the way their bodies seem to flow in a repetitive wavy movement.  After playing with the sequence of various frozen body shapes, I chose to repeat one particular pose I thought represents this flow that squirrels seem to have.  I have always been attracted to images in multiples, so have simply repeated this single pose to create a surface pattern.

Mary's recent entries

First Impressions sketchbook. I find I am increasingly playing with word and image combinations.

Illusion book. 

Color(ing) Book.  olio urging books seem to plunge me back to childhood so I took my drawing back there too!

Jeane's entry in Mary's Journey Book

Ahhh,  galloping to Le Grand Rocher.  What a journey!!!  And a fantastic ECIS conference.  Those  who were there might recognize the lone tree in my entry.