Monday + DST

I'm tired today.  So far daylight savings time just seems to mean that I'm getting less sleep. I didn't even get the extra hour I was looking forward to on Saturday night.  I went to bed an hour later that night, thinking I'd take advantage of the time change to make it up, only to wake up at my regular internal clock time, 6 a.m.  Except now, after "spring forward, fall back", it was 5 a.m.! By the time my brain processed that little bit of info, I was wide awake and couldn't get back to sleep.  So by 9 p.m. on Sunday night (which was really 10 pm, my normal get the jammies on time), I was really tired but still had a few things to do before going to bed so again stayed up another hour, only to wake up at 5 a.m. this morning too.  Geez.

Planning on an early night tonight, hoping to get in a full eight hours, but in the meantime, I'm looking back at my photos of the beach at Port Townsend. 

I find beachcombing to be a very satisfying activity.  I like to see what I can find, like this piece of driftwood that looks like a horse or a dinosaur skull:

or this feather, lying all by itself in the sand:

Sometimes I find faces, like this one:

and sometimes it's other things, like this pretzel-shaped piece of seaweed - did nature form it that way or did some other beach walker do it?

I took this picture of my friend Irene:

and she took this photo of me:

As you can see from our attire, it was a bit chilly down by the water but it was a very enjoyable walk.  And I slept very well that night!

Journalfest 2011 - Day 4

I spent the third and final day of JF taking a class with Lisa Engelbrecht called "Letterista Style Lettering".  We learned several different calligraphy-style lettering techniques.  We tried out all sorts of different pens and markers early in the day and then moved on to nib pens and either inks or acrylic paints.

Here's a few examples of my lettering (I practised by writing the names of my friends for them to put in their journals):

It was a lot to take in, and after an intense few days, my brain was already feeling crammed full of new information and techniques, so I was glad that I had purchased a copy of the Lisa's book, Modern Mark Making, to bring home with me so I can do more of this at my own pace later on.

Photo courtesy Lisa Engelbrecht's website

That night, we all gathered in the Commons to work on our journals and laugh and talk while listening to the Seattle band Surrealized.  I heard these guys perform for the first time last year and I love their music.

They don't usually perform in costume but given that it was so close to Hallowe'en, they did.  As did some of my fellow journalers, including this merry bank of pirates:

and my new friend Heidi:

Here's how it looked:

and what the average table top looked like:

I spent most of the evening taking photos and getting people to write in my journal.  It was kind of like the last day of school, you want to make sure everyone signs your yearbook!

Journalfest 2011 - Day 3

I spent last Friday at JF taking a class with Traci Bunkers called "The Maiden Voyage".  We first spent some time preparing several blank journal pages with layers of gesso and paint and then Traci gave us some prompts to help us create our finished pages.  In this photo, she is showing us how to spread paint quickly with a brayer, while my friend Laurie looks on:

Here's a photo of our classroom, which was upstairs in the School building at Fort Worden.  I especially loved the old glass lamps hanging overhead:

The first prompt was for us to put the words, "Create", "Imagine" and "Dream" on our page and then go from there.  I found this amazing photo in a magazine of a dog surfing and you can see how my finished page turned out in this picture of me and my table mate, Kathy:

Me and Kathy with finished pages

Traci also had us do an exercise where we made ourselves a legend at something.  I decided to do my journal page like a newspaper article (featuring another picture of a dog surfing! I don't know what magazine I got these photos from but I love them!), here's how it looked when it was finished:

After class, I had a 15 minute massage given by a woman named Arianne who had set up her massage chair in the lobby of the Commons building. She was busy for several hours each evening and what a great idea, after spending all day hunched over a table! It was bliss.

That night was Vendor Night.  Several of the teachers and a few others were invited to sell their wares to the Journalfest attendees.  What a fabulous collection of artwork and supplies there was to be had!

I bought a small (3.5 x 4 inch) journal with a metal cover made by David Steele, who makes amazing items with a steampunk flavour, as you can see from this picture of him at his booth:

The delightful Cindy Petska had a booth set up with all sorts of journal kits available featuring vintage items. Her company is called "Kick Start" and the idea is that the materials in her kits are enough to give someone a head start in finishing a journal.  Her goodies were very popular, I think she sold practically everything she had brought with her!  Here she is holding a beatiful binder she had made, just before it went to live in its new home:

I met Dawn who runs Mother Rubber Art Stamps but alas, did not take any photos.  I enjoyed chatting with her though, after things slowed down later in the evening.

I think my favourite purchase of the evening was this small painting called "For better, for worse" that I bought from Lisa Cheney Jorgensen.  It's a rainbow bee eater, a bird I had never heard of before, perhaps because it is native to Australia. 

I am very happy with all my purchases, which I am enjoying even more as I finally unpack today. :)

Journalfest 2011 - Day 2

The first class I took at JF last week was called "It Is Written" by Juliana Coles.  I had taken a class with Juliana last year, so I had an idea of what to expect but there were still surprises.  I knew she would arrive in costume but I didn't know her boyfriend John would also be in the class (he sat at my table):

I knew the class would be fast paced and that I might not like some of my pages at first but that I would like them much better by the end of the day.  I knew it would be intense but at least this year, no one cried! (last year, we had such moving introductions around our table, we all ended up in tears.  And that was just the first five minutes of class!)

The first exercise she had us do involved writing our name on our journal page in various ways. Here's how my page first turned out:

which I didn't like very much (too mauve), but then John let me use some of his red paint and I liked it much better.

Here is another page I did in Juliana's class.  "Trust yourself" was the message written on the back of the door of the bathroom stall I had used on the way to class, I figured it was a good message to record!

In spite of the weather forecast, it turned out to be a bright, sunny day and after spending all day indoors, I suggested we take a walk on the beach to take advantage of the perfect weather.  Carrie and Irene quickly agreed.  I took this great photo of them laughing, I love it!

Carrie and Irene

It was such a clear day, we could see Mount Baker in the distance (this is the same mountain you can see from Vancouver if the conditions are right).

That evening was bonfire night.  We all gathered at the Kitchen Shelter, a wooden building on the beach filled with picnic tables and a woodburning stove for warmth. Outside, a huge bonfire was blazing.  Ingredients for S'mores were on hand - marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers - yum!

Tracy, Steve, Laurie and Sue cooking marshmallows
while a fellow journaler eats a s'more

We all sat around and worked on our journals while chattering away.  But first we all had to put on our glow-in-the-dark bracelets.

Kimber, Laurie and Irene

I spent more time bopping around, talking to people and taking photos, than I did doing any actual journalling that night but that's okay, I was having too much fun to sit still!

Journalfest 2011 - Day 1

One week ago yesterday, I headed off to Journalfest 2011, held in the small town of Port Townsend in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula west of Seattle.  I flew from Toronto to Chicago and then on to Seattle, leaving home at 4 in the morning for a 6 a.m. flight, arriving in Seattle at 11 a.m. their time.  The four hour flight from Chicago on American was disappointing, since there was no food and no movie ("oops! someone forgot to load it before we took off" - say what???)  I read my book (the delightful "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith), napped a little and doodled things like this:

I met up with my friends Laurie and Irene in the airport and we picked up some lunch at a restaurant called "Dish Delish" (as recommended by Ms. Teesha Moore, generous portions, tasty food) and we found ourselves a table and settled down to chat and do a little show and tell.  Orly Avineri, her friends Pnina and Christina, and Brian Kasstle were seated at the table next to us, so already we were in good company.

The pre-arranged shuttle bus left the airport at 2 p.m. and it was a 2 hour drive to our destination.  Lots of talking and laughing by the 24 people on board, the time just flew by.  We arrived at the fort and were greeted by Teesha and the previously mentioned rainbow - here's another picture of it:

We went inside the building known as The Commons (pictured above, on the left) and picked up our welcome package, which included a key to the room in which we would each be staying for the next four nights.

We had our choice of accommodations, either sharing an officer's house (which sleep 8 people) or bunking down in the dormitory. I chose the latter and ended up with a single, corner room on the ground floor. Nothing fancy and the room was sometimes a wee bit chilly but it was clean and comfortable and really, that's all that matters when you're barely in the room for any length of time other than to sleep.  The shared washroom was just down the hall.

When I started to unpack, I discovered that previous guests in this room had left messages behind inside the chest of drawers.  It was fun to read these messages from the 80's and 90's and wonder what those kids are doing now, if they ever come back to see if their name is still there.

Some of the messages were more poignant than others:

Dinner was next, followed by a kick off session in the theatre on site (which is very much like an older movie theatre) led by Teesha and Tracy Moore, which included an introduction of each of the teachers. 

They were each asked to give their name, tell us what class(es) they were teaching and to answer a random question, such as, "what trip has inspired you most and why?" and "if you could only make art about one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

After the welcome meeting, a very few of us journalled for a bit in the Commons and then it was time to head to my room for an early night.  At least, it was early by west coast standards.  By east coast time, it was already past midnight and I'd been on the go since 3 a.m.!

Exploring Fort Worden

This was my second year visiting Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington for Journalfest and just like last year, there just wasn't enough time to have a proper look about the place.  The more I see, the more I want to see.  However, I did get a chance to do a bit of exploring in an area I hadn't visited before, the gun batteries.

According to this Wikipedia article, the Fort was an active army base from 1902 to 1953.  These days, it's a conference centre and state park but if you walk around the grounds, evidence of its army past is not hard to find.

I went for a walk one morning before breakfast and came across the former gun batteries. As you can see from this 1915 photo (courtesy of this website), the guns used to sit in the middle of the cemented area:

Nowadays, the guns are long gone but the cement on which they stood remains, covered in moss and in some cases, graffiti. 

There are lots of rusty metal locks and rivets, and cement stairways leading up to panoramic views of the harbour.

It's a beautiful spot but somehow there's an aura of mystery about the place.  There were several open doors leading into unknown locations that I would have liked to explore but dared not enter on my own.  It was as if I could hear the sound of a heavy metal door slamming shut behind me...

Then again, if you believe in pirates, you know that "X" usually marks the spot.  Who knows what might be found behind this door?!

Journalfest Magic

There were so many magical moments last week at Journalfest, it's hard to narrow it down to just a few to share here but I'll try.

It started with being reunited with my friends Irene and Laurie at the airport as we waited for the shuttle bus.  Irene and Laurie hadn't met before but immediately got along.  For me, it was like I hadn't spent any time apart from either of them, we just picked up where we had left off, laughing and talking about life in general and art in particular.

Me and Irene (taken by Laurie)

There were encouraging messages written on the doors of the bathroom stalls in the main building:

(that someone conscientiously removed on the last day).

There was finding the gun battery area of the fort one morning as I went for a walk one day before breakfast, just as the sun was coming up.  Overgrown and rusty, it was quite a beautiful spot - I could literally feel the history of the Fort surrounding me as I walked around that area (more on that in a later post).

I didn't find any heart-shaped stones on the beach this year but I did find this piece of seaweed arranged just so:

Then there was the buck who came by one day at breakfast.  I looked up just as his antlers went strolling past one set of windows.  I literally snatched my camera out of Irene's hands (she forgave me when she realized what was happening) and rushed to the next set of windows to take his picture:

Probably the most magical moment was the rainbow that appeared literally the moment we stepped off the bus at Fort Worden after a sometimes rainy ride from Seattle. What a greeting! How special of Teesha and Tracy to arrange that, they think of everything! :)