Creative Exercises : Jill Berry Blog

Positively Black and Spontaneous Journaling

Posted on March 5, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, Creative Exercises | 6 Comments

I love working on black paper. In high school I had an aversion to black, and would never wear it or use it in art. Even now the only black paint I have is actually gesso. Black does not, in its absolute form, occur in nature. Dark colors do, but not black. What we call [...]

Lust for Letters

Posted on March 4, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, About me, Creative Exercises | Leave a Comment

I love inventing alphabets. Quirky hobby, I know, but it is fun. This is a page in my journal of Mexico Letters, which were inspired by a book I have on Pre-Hispanic Stamp Designs.
This one was inspired by the work of Joan Miró. I did this in a workshop that I was not enjoying very [...]

Poppies

Posted on February 26, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, Creative Exercises, Written Inspiration | 3 Comments

This is a piece that I did a few years ago. It is a wild on-the-floor journaling exercise that I did when I was working with Mary Oliver’s poem, Poppies. It took me about a half hour. Sometimes you just have to splash things around.
Some of this you can learn at Magical Midnight Stories at [...]

Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 16, 2010 - Filed Under Creative Exercises | 1 Comment

This Valentine was made about 1916, about 45 years after the greeting card for this holiday became popular. Now it is second only to Christmas, billions of cards per year. Yesterday I received three Valentines from arty friends, this is such a huge benefit to being in the art community. Last week I also received [...]

Magical Midnight Stories, real ones

Posted on February 6, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, Creative Exercises, My Work | 3 Comments

My friend Nancy had a stroke last week. She is out of the coma she was in, but it seems to me that she is still not with us. It looks sort of like her, but I think she is on vacation, trying to figure it out. Her hospital room is devoid of flowers, but [...]

Painting the Cosmos

Posted on May 22, 2009 - Filed Under 2009 Workshops, Creative Exercises | 1 Comment

Life here has been hectic. Pipes bursting, loan officers disappearing with our mortgage papers, dental work gone way wrong, it goes on and on. Sometimes I think that elements in our lives get accidentally connected and make agreements, “Let’s all Leap!” Random Chaos, swirling around us. I decided to paint it.
I started with Sumi ink [...]

Artfest In-Site Journal

Posted on May 5, 2009 - Filed Under Creative Exercises | 12 Comments

My Artfest Journal is finally finished. This journal technique involves working on flat pages during a specfic event or trip, and assembling them later. It is the one of the most satisfying things I do. For one, it records everything I did there including notes for the classes I took, and it makes me attend [...]

Cathedral of a Woman’s Day

Posted on March 13, 2009 - Filed Under Creative Exercises | 4 Comments

I painted this scene of a woman’s day, inspired by some Afrikan paintings of Wosene Kosrof, Poet’s Journal (this is the second book I have made in this series, the first one sold at the auction at Artunraveled last year). It is so satisfying to me to work this way, and ironically it makes many [...]

Fortunately, Unfortunately Jill

Posted on March 4, 2009 - Filed Under Creative Exercises | 8 Comments

This weekend I am teaching Painted Pages and am busy getting ready when my little darling, Sydney, comes down with a cold. So, stop everything, heat up the soup, buy apple juice and cough drops, and get to playing Mexican Train. She wants to be right near me, so I am entertaining myself while she [...]