Across the nightmare
You guided my boy and yours
Gently back to dreams

Last night my mom called, past midnight. That is never good. Sam is with her in California, he has been attending golf camp near her house, and has perfected the chip. He is treating everyone around him with gentile grace. Then last night, he woke up sobbing over a nightmare, and could not be settled. Mom called me, and between us, my voice, her hands, we got the little man back into dreamland.

I am tired this morning, and grateful for my mom. Grandma Jo. sweet Grandma, sweet Mom.

It is Haiku Friday, and Rebecca, I am thinking of you.

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

There once was a dog named Teebo

Who when swimming would wear a Speedo

“It makes him look funky”

Said a passing by monkey

Teebo’s tears fell right on to his feeto.

By Sydney Erin Berry, poet, child, dreamer.

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

This year I am teaching two classes in working on black. One is coming up in a few weeks, and that is what I am working on right now. Three Letter Words is a class I am teaching at Artfest this month in Port Townsend, Washington. In this case, we paint our canvas black, and work with the negative spaces. Ironically the positive space in this case is black. Below you will see some exercises that show you how this works. This is a page of a small booklet I am making for the class.

We will use some of these same techniques on paper in Magical Midnight Stories, a class in May at Art & Soul in Virginia. You get a lot of bang for your buck, a lot of flash for your cash, excellence for your effort, and astonishment at your achievement with these simple techniques. Seriously.

I am making instruction booklets for each class. These are the books for Spontaneous Deconstructed Journals, another class at Artfest.

After Artfest I am going to sleep for a week, a mini-hibernation. I wish. What I am actually going to do is dive headfirst into my first book, Personal Geographies: Mapping Your Stories in Mixed Media. Just got the contract back from North Light Books and I am crazy happy about it. Look for it in 11/2011.

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

This one was inspired by the work of Joan Miró. I did this in a workshop that I was not enjoying very much, and I had to get inventive to keep myself happy there. I made a book I called “Faded Lust” about falling out of love. In this case, I was trying to divorce the two artists inside me that fight.

Of course there is a story behind this. Years ago I attended graduate school in Florence, Italy. My art teachers’ name was Guiseppe Gattuso, and we worked in his studio. At the beginning of the year he said to me “Lei è due artisti lottando” (or something like that) which translates to “You are two artist fighting”. I had the graphic designer (Chwast) and the painter (Monet) who could not reconcile their style. At the end of the year Senior Gattuso said to me, “Ora lei è tre” or, in English, “Now you are three”. Three artists inside me who just can’t bond.

So, when two of the three showed up at this workshop, I decided to divorce them (their friends never supported their union to begin with), and I made this book. It sold in Chicago the first night of a show, and I was so not expecting that to happen. I had not photographed it, but for this one page.

Have to say it worked, in a funny way. Ah, the magic of art making!

We will be some inventing in the Journal texting class I am teaching at both Artunraveled and Art & Soul Portland. Portland only has one spot left!!!

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Some of this you can learn at Magical Midnight Stories at Art and Soul in Virginia in May. Some of it would be included in Journal Texting at Art and Soul in Portland in October. Or, you can just get out the Butterfly Pen (made by Jim Chin), Sumi Ink and watercolors and sit on the floor for some wild fun.

Here is the poem.

Poppies

Mary Oliver

The poppies send up their
orange flares; swaying
in the wind, their congregations
are a levitation

of bright dust, of thin
and lacy leaves.
There isn’t a place
in this world that doesn’t

sooner or later drown
in the indigos of darkness,
but now, for a while,
the roughage

shines like a miracle
as it floats above everything
with its yellow hair.
Of course nothing stops the cold,

black, curved blade
from hooking forward—
of course
loss is the great lesson.

But I also say this: that light
is an invitation
to happiness,
and that happiness,

when it’s done right,
is a kind of holiness,
palpable and redemptive.
Inside the bright fields,

touched by their rough and spongy gold,
I am washed and washed
in the river
of earthly delight—

and what are you going to do—
what can you do
about it—
deep, blue night?

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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 a crock pot cookbook from Deedee, just as I entered the door with a brisket that I did not know how to cook. I just love love love my girlfriends.

Yesterday my family and I went skiing. The sky was blue, the snow pretty fabulous and it was just cold enough to wear all the layers and a scarf. I am not a good skier, so I don’t go higher than the blue runs, but even one of those kicked my butt yesterday. It was called “Jolly Jugs” but for me it was not so jolly. I cracked my head on one fall, and have a pain in the neck literally today. That said, I had a helmet and my brain seems to be working. I thought about a lot of  people yesterday that cannot ski, and made a point to myself to enjoy it to the fullest, for me and for them.

My studio is covered with parts of projects. I am making Gypsy houses, vending stuff for Artfest, maps for Artfest, kits for Artfest and notebooks for my Personal Geographies class in two weeks at Denver University. Then of course I have to make a postcard for Carla, and here it is.

These images are inspired by the Aboriginal drawings and fabrics of Australia that my Auntie Ann brought back from her trip there. I get a lot out of copying and rearranging things I see, I always have. When you can’t think of something new to draw, copy something (the Old Masters did it this way, they called it apprenticeship). It keeps you moving, and your hand learns things you might otherwise not learn. Pick an artist and try it out, or maybe you already did that in 2 Dimensional Design in College. That might have been, just saying, a bit of time ago, so try it again.

Happy Day, to all of us who are well, and praying day for those of us who are not. I need healing energy for my friends Nancy, Deandra, Dana, Judy, and Lisa. Blessings to all.

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The last few days have been pitch dark inside me. Not only is it seriously frightening to see what one small moment can do to a vivacious person you know, but next, it could be me. I do not want to continue any of my bad habits in the chance I could avoid this. But then, how do you avoid something that makes no sense at all?

In the meantime, I am filled with gratitude for whatever force granted me the ability to work in out for myself in art. This morning I made a map of Nancy’s head, or perhaps my head, thinking about Nancy. And I found a book I made, that I think needs finishing. In this book I used the black on black painting techniques that I use in my Magical Midnight Stories class. Sometimes it is necessary to paint on black.

Today I am grateful for my drive to create, for the healing that happens through that drive. I am grateful for my health, and my hands. I am grateful.

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I started with Sumi ink on Arches Cover, using an eye-dropper.

I let it tack up, then pushed some of the lines around with a feather.  

Then I got my cosmos generator mojo going, and painted planetary shapes and swirls in layers, carving through some of them.

I only painted the colored layers on half of the sheet, so I could use the other half as a contrast. Then I made this book, influenced by Paul Johnson’s tongue and groove methods for non-adhesive book forms. His are elaborate and wild, this is my baby-step toward that.

Then I made a person inside the book, looking out at the swirling chaos. The person is woven into the window, just by cutting and folding the paper. No glue. Love the no glue.

I am going to try this out on the people in my class next weekend at Whispering Woodlands.

Today I feel lucky to be a visual explorer. It  is impossible to imagine my life without being able to paint my own cosmos. I feel better now, a tiny bit of “me as God” and a whole lot happy about learning this hinging thing with Paul Johnson. Everything around me is still swirling, but it matters far less because I can make things that are new. I am a creator, my kids are healthy, and the swirling things around me can be fixed. Gotta be grateful for that.

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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 to the moment in a heighten way. In the end I have start to finish a record of my time at this grand event.  Since I was a Festal Virgin, this was extra special for me. I have a map of my dorm with my dormie’s names, list of things I am glad I remembered to take, and notes for next year, and daily journaling for the time there.

I am teaching this technique in October at Raevn’s Nest Art Retreat. It is simple, no-excuses and very few supplies kind of journaling, and  are the journals I return to most.

Sometimes I get autographs and doodles (I did that at Art and Soul) and sometimes I make small collages. Usually I add some kind of pop-up to surprise myself and always I make at least one map. In historic places I do rubbings with special wax (we will do that in Cedarburg). I make pages with clear pockets to collect things that aren’t super bulky.

What does not fit in my journal will go in my Souvenir Box. That is almost done. It is a cigar box I am making with small compartments for Moo Cards, ATCs, my journal, and all the trades I made. I love that it slides onto the shelf like a book, and keeps all my treasures in it. One stop shopping.

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Here is my studio table this morning. I have been getting up at 5am each day to work. So much art, so little time!

©2010 Jill Berry Blog. All Rights Reserved.