I like to decorate my journal pages and make them colorful. My journal is not a diary. It is a place of expression. Some days I write. Some days I only have visual images. Some days I do both.

There is nothing more boring to me than page after page of handwriting on white paper. I look for emotion and expressiveness when I look at someone's (or my own) journal. That can be expressed in words, true, but as I am a very visual person, I respond more to the visual way the words are placed on the page.

Doodles - doodles - doodles. I love to doodle and do it all the time at work. I have a Rhodia pad at my desk and I keep a micron pen nearby. Anytime the phone rings and the call lasts longer than 2 minutes I automatically pick up the micron and begin doodling. Depending on the length of the phone call determines the complexity of the doodle. If I sit in front of the TV with nothing to do I will usually fall asleep. I usually listen to the TV as I doodle, or play video games on my laptop.

These two doodles were probably done while watching TV. The left one was done using a No. 2 pencil. The right one was done with a Pitt pen, both on moleskine paper.

Nyung-ne. this is a tibetan practice of fast and prayer. I did this "doodle" in a large moleskine with a micron .01 pen.

I often doodle a musical clef. Not sure why. This was a doodle I did about 12 years ago on a piece of old fashioned fax paper with markers. The original is about 2" x 3". I've always liked this picture.

This is a 3" x 3" collage using the glueless technique taught by Jonathan Talbot. I was fortunate enough to take a workshop with Jonathan at Kanuga Watercolor Workshop several years ago. I enjoyed the experience immensely. As I result I went back to Kanuga 2 more times, but with less satisfying results.

I still use the process Jonathan taught as a way to make collage. While it is process oriented it also has a very professional look to the completed picture and infinite possibilities for using it in mixed media pieces.

War Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it, Say it, Say it
(music & lyrics by Edwin Starr)


War. Good God

This is EDM appliance challenge, our TV in the den. F and I spend much time here in the evening, watching shows we enjoy, hanging out with our dogs, and chatting.

A sketch of a shirt for the EDM clothing challenge. Pencil in a moleskine sketchbook, large size. This is a shirt from a catalog. I will do a shirt from my own closet next time.

This is my first EDM Challenge sketch. Pencil in a large moleskine sketchbook. Not very good, but I'm showing it anyway.

Most of the works on this blog page are from my little moleskine. Some are from daily journals and some are from a little moleskine I keep in the den for doodling. I like to doodle with color and with paint.

This is a little picture done in the corner of a page in my journal. I have a dream of one day retiring and going on the road for awhile in an RV. I often have this vision of me in motion.

My morning companion. I drink a full pot of coffee each and every morning. My favorite being New Mexico Pinon coffee, that I first had on our trip to Santa Fe in early April.

3 images from our visit to Ghost Ranch. A pencil rendering of one of O'Keeffe's most enduring images, and 2 watercolor landscape attempts. All 3 on watercolor paper. I had always wanted to see what Georgia O'Keeffe saw and painted. I fell in love with the landscape as she had. I am not a good enough artist to depict what I saw but I loved being there and was inspired by it.

We went to an art store while in Santa Fe (of course, we did!) and I bought 6 half pans of WN watercolor paints that reflected the colors of NM. They didn't fit in my travel paintbox so I made a little paint kit out of a cardboard match box. I used the paints that way for the rest of the trip. When I got home I transferred the half pans to a small mint box.

I bought a small moleskine cover from Renaissance Art. It fits like a glove and I use it every day. If you're thinking about getting a cover for your moleskine check these people out. Great cover, good company, several styles, very affordable.

This grouping of 4 pictures from my journals are watercolor. I like the way the paint went on the paper. I like the organic shapes. The pictures have movement and light and seem to go together to me.

I called this painting ARTtools. It's acrylic on 11" x 14" paper. It's dark but I like it.

Sir Paul McCartney, from an aging Beatlemaniacs memory. Micron pen and watercolor in a small moleskine.

I enjoy collage as a medium. It feels like an old medium, but it is only as old as Picasso, as he is the first to have used it in fine art.

This images has cut outs from Smithsonian magazine. I selected them while watching a program on Africa, and the lack of committed response from the U.S. Lots of pledges and promises, very little follow through.

A pencil abstraction of a mobile home. Bring your world with you as you travel.