how many sounds can a sad puppy make and for how long

It's raining still this morning. I've written a poem for the rain, worked on some Art Journal pages and gathered the quilts to show the second grade tomorrow. They do a quilt unit for math, reading, and art. Each one makes a soft cover for a journal. I'll incorporate some work with textures in art class.
I don't mind saying goodbye to March and the new, bright green of the daylilies tells me spring will be more than rain, rain, rain...

March 31, 2009
The day began with a beautiful sunrise as I walked our 20lb puppy though the woods. He followed me closely. He had no name when we went to the vet's. They liked Deezel best, so Deezel it is.. I wrote the verse in pencil on the card.I used strips of the puppy paw print tissue and added some color for the sunrise and some tale bare trees are done with Flair pen.
Sleepless night number
two - walk through
the woods
along
path of many days

March 30, 2009

Again, the puppy paw print tissue is the focal point of this entry. The verse says it all
Sleepless night - puppy
crying, barking, howling, alone
learning new spaces
Sadly, we had no choice but to kennel him and leave him downstairs alone. ALL wrong for a puppy. "Leave them for short periods of time and as a reward in the crate at first" is what all the trainers say. We took him out several times a night for a couple weeks.

new puppy comes home

It's a cold, dreary, rainy day and lots of rain is predicted. I'll get to some chores soon. Art first, vacuuming second and art again in the afternoon.I'll be working on the Art Journal, most likely with the same photo of Deezel that I'm posting here.

March 29, 2009
It's a Sunday and we're on the road to Albion Maine to get our puppy. We pack the car with a small crate, blankets, toys and set off with coffee from Dunkin' Donuts for the ride. I'm worried about the length of the return trip -
would he make it with a little puppy's bladder and no safe place to stop on the Maine Turnpike. He did have an accident on one of the blankets, but we got home safely. He trotted around the yard with me, following closely. The entries to follow are all about our new addition.

relaxing and anticipating

It's an overcast day. We have rain coming tonight. I meet with Dawn & Paula for our "art share" this afternoon. I have several pages in my art journal and the idea I had in a dream. Looks like another day for a walk. Also, I need to get batting squares cut for the stitching with second graders. I'm going to share the quilts that are related to my journals with them.

Saturday March 28, 2009 We get afternoon sun in one corner of the field and that's where we sit this time of year to enjoy the sun.
This entry is an abstraction of the layers of brown grass in the field. The first layer is a Japanese paper with characters on it. The paper has grassy look and the softest of browns. The crooked writing looks okay with this entry, and the lines are broken differently:
sit in the warm field
with the glowing sun of spring
drying the
moist
earth
To get the writing straight and even across the collage papers, I would have had to write it on tracing paper. Writing it on tracing paper didn't go with the brightness of the sun, since whatever is under the tracing paper is faded. The gold paper is a gift bag which gets soft edges when torn.

It's a cold morning, I'm waiting to walk the dog so it will be a little warmer. A year ago, I had no dog to walk, but that was to change soon...

March 27, 2009
What a day - my school friends surprised me with a "puppy shower". They knew we planned to pick up our new baby over the weekend, so they had gifts and people treats in the library at lunch time. It was sooo fun.
After school we went to the Holy Grail in Epping. I saved a label from one of my favorites to add to Daily Haiku. But I've used only small sections here to avoid any copyright issues.
This shows the text on tissue over part of the label. The second detail also shows a piece of the tissue that JoAnne wrapped a gift in with dog paws on it. As the year progressed,I used this to denote time spent with the pup.
March 26,2009 For this abstract, I used scraps from a magazine for color and a silver paper torn for those soft, irregular edges. I stamped with a corner of an stamp pad for the pattern around the edges. It's an Encore, Ultimate metallic.

It's a sunny morning after two days of rain/overcast conditions. Deezel and I took a walk this morning. The tree workers & equipment scared him. I'm leaving shortly for a memorial service at the Newfields School for my long time friend, Barbara Tebo. Years ago, she did a lot of work to improve their meager school library. Then to the ENT doctors to try and figure out what's going on in my sinuses....
Yesterday, I was with the first grades. We made Model Magic ducklings. Some had a difficult time with getting the aluminum foil armature just right. But then they saw that the MM would help greatly. The second group even made some nests and eggs. I love a project that takes those who are interested off in their own directions.

March 25, 2009
I started a stitching project with second grade, reminded me how much I love to sew, even though, collage is my art form these days.
I use portions of a stamp for the quilt look and "stitched" with a Flair pen. Why did I not really stitch? I love the way stitching looks on papers.

In my date book I wrote, "Had a wonderful time sewing with 2B this afternoon".

needles, threads, fabrics
fun stitching around muslin
with second graders
I'll be starting with this year's second grade next week.

circles, raindrops, art

It's raining heavily this morning - no walk with the dog. I'll be off to school shortly. I'll be sharing Kandinsky, Delauney and Miro circles (dots) with 3rd and 4th graders. I'll also share the dots I did in my Art Journal when I got inspired by the kids' work last week. Also, I have a quilt with a spiral on it to take today.We are having a good time with this school-wide theme to celebrate our differences.
These were made by cutting a circle in a piece of cardstock. Then I stamped around the circle (left) and inside the circle on the right. As I cut the hole bigger I got some more circles and adhered these to both sides. This morning I added lines close to the larger circles and small circles drawn with a felt tip marker. The Kandinsky style side stands alone. I did these on a scrap from the journal, very smooth paper, with colored pencils. I used Derwent coloursoft pencils which are rich colors.
Allowing time to immerse oneself in a motif allows it to mature.

Where do I get ideas? Well, last night,I had a vivid dream about making art. I was constructing a scene from transparencies on heavy paper. One transparency had tall grasses/weeds. The other had words inside brick shapes for a stonewall. These were piled up, tall and thick. I'm going to try to create it. Somehow, a former student was in the dream. She was hit by a car last week and is in stable but serious condition. Her role in the dream is unclear; I think she was suggesting words for the wall.

March 24, 2009
This abstract was done with scraps left from other pages. I hoped to capture the feeling around school. The online report card program was unavailable and teachers
were trying to get done. The unfocussed atmosphere was from spring fever, I'm sure. Today's text also merely lists the day's qualities.

March 23, 2009

This entry marks the annual exhibit of student in Exeter, NH. I submitted the Joseph Cornell boxes by the 4th grade. We took both classes to see the exhibit. I was interested in some of the line work done by other students.
Art on exhibit
fourth grade class in Exeter
sweet creativity.

pet and art journal updates

I found the kitty - she was tucked into a closet in our "junk room". When I was digging her out, I sorted through some of the collection in the closet and found some nice paper.... it has great potential.

Here are the photos of Art Journal pages from our trip to Boston to see the Lion King in early March. I camouflaged the Disney image considerably to avoid copyright issues....
Maggiano's was the BEST lunch ever. They gave us containers and bags to bring home the leftovers. Part of the bag is making a pocket. I used Gel Medium over the pieces of ephemera to hold them in place and protect them.

After spending much of the evening outside looking for Zoey (she came in around 10:00), this morning, I've been looking in every corner, box and crevice to find our new kitty, Zeek. She was sleeping comfortably on the couch when I went to bed. I should have confined her to that room. Great idea, after the fact, of course. She might come out when I vacuum, but will probably go deeper.
Last night,I did hear a few peepers teased out with the warm weather, will probably go back to sleep through the next week. Likewise the turtles I saw sunbathing beside a neighbor's pond on Thursday.
I'll post photos of the work I did in my art journal for "The Lion King" later today, after I get a good photo.

March 22, 2009
I used scraps from a postcard to mark this rather ordinary day. Before I glued them to the card, I wrote about the non-eventful-ness in pencil over the card.
The colors remind me of this time of year.
March 21,2009
My sister, Anne and I took a class in watercolors at the NH Institute for Art. We made grey with blue and red. I did the mini version of the final product I worked on for the class. The verse tells this.

Spring, paths and new pets

Spring is here and it feels like an early summer day (72) as I write this. We got some clean up done in the back yard. I won't clean my gardens for a while since we still could have some cold weather and , yes, snow does come in April. To celebrate spring's arrival, we adopted an adult cat from the vet's. A woman had to give up four cats because her son is moving home and he's deathly allergic. She's (Zeek is her name) 12 years old and is a ringer for our Sophie who disappeared last fall. She's very frightened and confused, since she's been at the vet's for nearly two weeks.Buck Wheat hisses at her when he sees her, but since she's hiding where I keep my shoes , he doesn't see her directly. She hasn't met Deezel yet !!!
This morning I worked on a postcard sized collage to accompany a poem by Mimi White. For the first layer, I wrote her poem several times on paper. Her language and imagery appeal to every sense.There's a soft power in her words. They are for the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program.

March 20, 2009 includes a ticket from UNH where we went for an day of workshops. As I walked around the campus, I recalled some long ago feelings.The two winding paths represent the paths as I crisscrossed the campus and the many paths that have sprung up for me since I was there as a student.

following sidewalks,
the past, long settled under
dusted memories

I like this verse. It has only an implied subject and verb.

March 19, 2009


This chaotic art work sprung from the fatigue and sometimes frantic days that contibuted to that fatigue. It combines pieces from ads and magazines. I like the character at the left with strange body. I added the wiry legs and other lines with a Flair pen.
The verse summarizes the day:
rush home for pizza
cold drink and a brief nap
curled up with Buck Wheat
This was one of the times that I couldn't get the number of syllables correctly, but was okay with what is there.

Thanks to the warmth,the basement is drying out, as is the backyard. Yesterday there were puddles.Today, the puddles are gone, but the ground remains saturated. Of course, it's only March and anything could happen, but I was thinking of getting out the deck chairs.
I took my book to school to share with students and teachers. I need a little comment book to go with it.
Deezel and I enjoyed a walk and a quick visit to the vet's.
March 18, 2009
I took my quilts to school to share with the second graders as they start their quilt study. We will do some handsewing on journal covers which they paint to go with their pour quois tales.I'm glad for the opportunity to get out my faithful
friends and see them. This is a free hand drawing of three of them: "Celestial Ninepatch", Cattail Rhythms" and "Fantasies Rewound". Here are photos -

Now back to "365 Daily Haiku 2009" for March 17th 2009.

This is done with some woven paper scraps covered with tracing paper.
In between weather,
too warm for winter, too cold
for spring, sun fills me.

March 16,2009 addresses the change in time,we "spring ahead". It's a later sunrise and sunset.
Dark cold mornings, the
sun does not get up until
shortly after six.

This sun was done with my Crayola paint brushes and I stamped the 6 with hand cut stamp.

rain, rain, rain,

We're still dealing with water in the basement. The sump pump works very nicely, but we check on it regularly; Roger did yesterday and last night. I'm on duty today. The back yard looks sloppy, who knows when we'll be able to actually go out there. Deezel hates going out in the rain and the howling winds don't help !

On the cheerier side, in my Art Journal, I'm working on several pages of circle studies. The author Peter Reynolds ("The Dot")is visiting school in May. Each class is making dots to be attached to a larger dot. The work the kids are doing is fabulous - I got inspired by their work to include dots, circles, in my work. We all started using craypas which are so freeing with their color depth and that they are effective in abstract.

What a difference from March 15, 2009 when I celebrated the mild weather by hanging clothes on the line to dry.
It's a simple drawing in keeping with the task using felt tip marker and colored pencils.
Hang laundry outside
to capture Spring's fresh air and
a piece of Spring's sun.


Today's Haiku reads:

Water's blessing feeds
the earth, disregarding the
sated condition.

The dots (circles) in my Art Journal resemble the concentric cicles made by raindrops particularly on the deck and on the puddles.

sadness and fatigue in art

It looks like a partly sunny day. I have several things to do before I go to Manchester with Paula to the Palace Theater for "Rigoletto".
I put the final touches on Art Journal pages for "The Lion King", prepared manuscripts of poems for three competitions and finally got to blog for the day.
March 13, 2009 was a Friday and this entry describes how I was feeling. We sat for a while in the field where the snow and brown field created an irregular patchwork.

I liked this entry so much that the one for March 14 looks similar. I used torn papers for both. The brown paper is the wrapping paper from "All About Paper". She wraps the sheets of paper in it.I use some rice paper - challenging to tear - and tracing paper.
March 14, 2009

the warmth of Spring's sun
melts the snow exposes the leaves
makes way for stones of grief

The stones of grief refers to the beach stones I put in the garden in the fall. One was for Monty and the other was for Linus. Monty was a 7 year old blue great dane, a wonderful companion. Linus was a beautiful black cat we got as a kitten from a litter of my parents' cat the summer my father passed away(1993). With the snow gone, I could see the stones again and thought of these two beloved animals most recently gone from my life. And, of course, I thought fondly and sadly of other losses.

waxwings, lions, tissue and big beads

March 10, 2009
This entry was constructed by covering the card stock with white tissue and adding some torn pieces. I wrote the text on the tissue with a white gel pen and didn't like it. So, I wrote on a scrap of glossy white paper (probably remains from cutting one of those fancy magazines)with a sharpie pen and glued it over the tissue.
The sun glares on new snow.
The trees lose their white burden.
Where does the hawk hunt?

March 11, 2009
Cedar waxwings make their appearance:
Rain falls, dawn to dusk,
cedar waxwings in the tree,
the season changes.

I used my bird stamp in pale yellow several times, inked with the edge of a grey ink pad, added white ink along the lower edge and wrote the text on tracing paper. Finally, I covered the text with another piece of tracing paper to have it be faded looking. I inked the edges of the card with brown walnut to frame it slightly. I used tracing paper for the text so I could get the writing straight by putting the tracing paper over lined paper when I wrote it.



March 12, 2009
A quick walk through the woods behind our house offered the opportunity to see the setting full moon. I made this entry by using a stamp with different sized circles. I only inked one set of concentric circles for the moon and inked with pads for the blue and green of the evergreens. I trimmed the edges with the blue ink pad.
Dark morning skies, lit
by the round orange moon, low
on the western sky.

March 11, 2010
It's a grey day, cold, rain is in the forecast. Will I get in a walk before the rain?

Art Journal pages - I glued the collage items for the day in Boston and seeing "The Lion King" at the Opera House on 3/6/10. I used gel medium. I saved an unused thick tissue type paper towel from the rest room at Maggiano's and collaged that over the images from the playbill, since I need to not use Disney property openly. The lion logo for this play is a striking design of yellow and black. I was certainly entranced by the performance it represents. Details will follow when I post some of it !
Also, I finished with the binding of "365 Daily Haiku 2009" after I found 4 large beads to help hold the satin cord tightly. I'm planning to take it to school to share with everyone there. I'll make a book for comments to accompany it.
I'll photo it it in situ and post it later.

ads, sandpipers, woodpeckers

It's a beautiful spring day, unusually warm. The pileated woodpeckers were busy this morning. The sheets blew dry quickly on the line. The bare ground is drying rapidly with the sun and the wind. We took Deezel to the beach. A small flock of sandpipers performed their synchronized food hunt on the edge of the water.

March 8, 2009
This entry was constructed from an advertising postcard from my sister-in-law's real estate company reminding us to spring ahead. The verse is written on my favored paper, tracing.
Luckily, I wrote the verse in pencil on the back of the card because the first word in the second line is illegible.Looks like "pecans"
Extra light at dusk
means arising without sun's
golden vernal glow.


March 9, 2009
The image was from an advertisement in a craft book; it's a silver tree sculpture.A white postcard with a bar code and the word RUSH is behind the tree and a scrap of tracing paper and snowflake of the same paper make the image less visible.
Snow fell heavily
during daylight. Trees hang low
curving under weight.

March 9, 2010
Happy 39th birthday to my nephew Joseph...

theater, red winged blackbirds

March 5, 2010
Heard the red winged blackbirds for the first time.Need to do some art.

March 6, 2009 I wish the stamp hadn't smudged on the cat's face. This would have been very nice. Should I redo it?

March 6, 2010 What a difference in weather last year we had snow, this year we saw 50 degrees. And I was in Boston with my sister, Anne, for the day. We had an unbelievably delicious lunch at Maggiano's and saw "The Lion King" at the Opera House. I cannot list enough adjectives to describe this production. The day was my birthday gift from her. I saved several tokens to collage with; where do I start?

March 7, 2010 Today will be much like yesterday as far as the weather goes. I'll be walking Deezel this morning and picking up sticks in the yard later.

March 7, 2009
I used some scraps from the bookmaking workshop for the background, added some small scraps from the small scrap pile, stamped a red bird on another scrap and wrote the text with a calligraphy pen.
Spring sun casts its warmth,
golden on the season's snow,
The cardinal calls.

Pine Tree Journal Quilt

Today's a grey morning, could be snow coming. I'm planning a walk down the road with the restless puppy. The broken pines are so sad. It looks like people have their power back, but the cleanup hasn't begun. I'm finishing my art journal entry dedicated to the pine in the woods that's still standing. Here's a quilt about the journal I constructed around my diary entries observing that pine one winter.

Each image is of a page from the journal printed on fabric. At that time I had to find a printer who would photo them onto the fabric. I'm thinking of collaging the individual pages onto a page of my 2010 artist's journal. Sometimes I feel it's cheating to use previous art on new art, but trees are definitely part of my personal iconography, so I guess it's acceptable to use it again.

I got permission from the artist (Bernie Rowell) to publish the March 1st entry on-line. You'll see her chickadee inspired my stamp.
I talked to the librarian at school about setting up my book 365 Daily Haiku 2009 in the library with some white gloves to share it with students and staff. I'll leave a little book for comments also.

March 4, 2009
The sun was cut from an ad in a magazine. The verse is written on tracing paper. The sky was stamped with a Color Box stamp pad.
Icy spring morning
reflects warmth. White snowy earth
holds a golden dawn.
The verse comes close to the traditional Haiku aesthetic of a connection to nature.

March 5, 2009
black birds on thin ice
pause to drink from free water
three crows top a pine

This image is one of my favorites. I used ads on nice glossy paper with loads of color from a craft publication - cut and combined beyond recognition.It brings back the scene that inspired it a year ago.The thin ice on the river was open in the middle of the stream where the birds were drinking. This too is another successful Haiku.


Nature is the best inspiration for me.

chickadee, numbers

Well, we actually saw the sun for a brief sunrise today. It's clouding up now. I'm hoping to get a quick walk on the street with Deezel before going to school.

March 2, 2009
I made the bird stamp by carving one of those 1" cube erasers. It stamped perfectly. I added a litle white with a gel pen. The plant is on the inside of the studio windows loving all the sun it gets there.
I painted the simple plant on vellum with the Crayola brush, collaged tissue over the blue sky, wrote the text with the white gel pen on tracing paper and stamped the bird after everything was adhered.
A chickadee waits.
Green plants fill the window view.
Late snow pales colors.

March 3, 2009 "Square Root Day"
I read in the daily announcements at school, from Paula, that it was a special day, mathematically speaking. 3rd month, 3rd day, 09, year So I made another stamp. It has a 3, a 9, a multiplication sign and an equal sign. I stamped equations. The verse is written on tracing paper with a calligraphy pen and glued on.

The next Square Root Day will be April 4th, 2016 !!!!!!!!!!!!

permissions, new month

This card I actually made at the end of March with the month's sticker over the art work.I noticed as I cropped the month's entries that I frequently used art postcards for my art. So to now publish them I know I'm walking a fine line. Most times I cut them into indistinguishable sections and for my book that's acceptable. But, I don't have permission and I didn't note either the art or the photographer.
I'll post them as possible and thank the artists whose work inspired my work and became part of my artistic vocabulary.


March 1,2009 is an example. It is from a renewal card from Fiberarts magazine that for several years in my collection. I did make mention of the artist. The art work is that of Bernie Rowell, "Four Seasons" from the Apr/May 06 issue. I loved it, obviously.
I cut it into several pieces and drew more leaves around it with a marker. I don't feel right posting the photo. I checked her website www.bernierowell.com to see her fabulous work. If you look at the Fiberarts article for that issue, you'll see this piece.

First day of March - in
like a lion, spring is in the air
as is winter.
I'll post this photo of a journal page that I finished yesterday. It commemorates the past few days' storm - winds, rain and loss of electricity. Things are getting back to normal, very slowly for some people.
I cut the spiral from an envelope and used black tissue for the lightless nights.

I'm working on another spread dedicated to a pine that didn't succumb to the winds and rain.