Coffee Table Book.... Who Knew??

Hello!

In a previous episode (May 23rd) we found Jacey claiming she was going to make an old cookbook into an art play journal. It was lightly odd to think of (destroying) enhancing an old book this way. BUT.... being the rebel that she is, she is doing it anyway.

ha ha ...I thought about writing this post all in third person. I wondered if that would be fun, but then, I let it only be the first paragraph. It reminds me of the majority of artist's descriptions throughout the net and artworld, where it sounds like someone has written it about them, yet we know 99% of them wrote it themselves. Surely you are not going to let your first impression be left in someone else's hands... .right? You know you want to tell what YOU want to tell. Hmmmfffff.... 😉 PU-Leezzz

So... I grabbed some very quick photos of my Cook Book / Play Book and it's progress so far. One day far into the future, I expect to decorate the cover appropriately after the inside is completed. Till then, I don't mind frequently seeing this lovely photo of a happily creative cake. I love stars, I love cake.... Yum!

One day after there were several entries, I decided I was doing the book a favor and it's next life would be a very artsy Coffee Table Book! A rare, one-and-only copy. One day, it will be worth millions!! Some reclusive art collector will have it displayed in their collection where it will only be touched by white-gloved hands.

I'll be famous! Dead... but famous! 😄

When I showed the book idea before, I also showed the below photo as it was the only thing I had painted in it at the time. I put it here again to keep them it all together. After this first page, all the others (so far) when I decide to play in it, I start two pages at a time.

I put gesso or some medium on the pages first. I'm not sure I need to do that and I may play with a page or two outside of the book soon to see if it will be fine without, but for now, I am still doing that.

When I start to paint/collage a double page so far I have started out with similar colored backgrounds and sometimes some similar collage papers, but that is not a forever rule, it is just what I am doing now.

This one was something WAY different when I started it and I didn't love it. Much later, after several other pages were done, I came back one night and destroyed it's previous version under some abstract circles in colors I love together. Even though it is a bit crude, I liked it better than what it was.

If you click to expand them out, you can see there are many layers and marks in and beneath the paint.

I haven't dated any of them and just as I was about to type something here, I thought maybe I should, but I will think on that more later. Maybe just recording the year/month I started it in the front would be enough.

Since it is for playing, there is no rule that any of it has to look like a finished piece of art when I stop playing on it, but some of them do anyway.

The angel on the left below did not start out to be anything, but once I put the burned-hole paper on and the (wing) piece of a clock, that is what it reminded me of so I decided to play into it. I rather like it with it's Amazon packaging head, arms and feet.

It's sister page has some similar type elements, but stayed abstract. As you can see, it also has some burned-hole paper included and bits of packaging. They also both include an old stamp.

The burned-hole papers I made by taking a soldering iron and burning various sized holes in some music sheets. It was fun and makes interesting paper.

Weeks later I burned a place in my vinyl floor with it. NOT fun or interesting... .and can't be used in collages. 🤣 😇 😶

I'm not sure I'm going to be allowed to play with that iron anymore.

Yikes! ha ha ...now this is a bright mess. It includes some happy bits of paper and... it was fun.

My art does that you know, makes sure I have some fun in each day.

I really like these.

When I first started, I took the background paint out to the edges of the page and had to be careful to not let it get on prior pages or ... everywhere. Now I don't do that, now I swish it almost to the edge, but not quite and it has jagged paint borders and I found I am ok with that too. Easier & faster.

Sometimes I get to a point that I don't think I am done, but at that moment I am not sure what else it wants. I still stop if I want and later when I am looking through, I decide what goes next. These are kind of waiting, but I am not holding myself to going back. I will if the whim hits me and if not, that's ok too.

If there is any pressure, it ruins the fun.

These are not finished and I will go back one day. I love little houses and other people's art that has little houses in them or parts of houses. There will likely be more of some type of houses in the future too.

On the one on the left, I had used some brown paper, like Amazon packing paper to clean my rollers off on while I created something else and at the end of that night, there were dabs of wet paint still on the pallet. I didn't want to let them just dry up, so I swished them onto the roll-off paper and the colors were very pretty together. Sometime later, I used some of it in my Play book.

I played with another type of holey paper on the left side here. I did asemic writing on a half of a piece of music sheet and much later, cut out the odd holes in it with some scissors. I'm sure I will use this design type element in the future again, inside and outside this book.

As I was partway though these pages, I found that some of them wanted to lightly stick together even a long time after they dried. Oh no!... but then happily one day as I was watching another artist on YT make a collage book out of an old children's board-book, He shared that when you were done and your pages were dried, you could rub a wax candle over the pages and they would no longer try to stick together. Yay! Perfect timing, so now, once I tell myself I am truly not coming back to a double page and it has been dry for a long time, I will run an old white candle over the page on the right (no need to do them both) and take a shop towel and lightly rub circles around on the page to smooth it and make it even'ish .... and Vwa-LA!.... no more sticking. Genius idea really.

So finally ... these are the ones I worked on last night. I had already put yellow paint on the pages and some happy collage papers a few nights before. I added some flowers on the left that I made with some acrylic paint markers and those alien flower'ish things on the right. Fun... fun is what that was.

I knew you were wondering how my book was coming along, so now you know.

Hope you are all doing well and life is treating you kindly.

Love you!

Jacey

OOPS!! I missed a page!