Finding new paths

I am taking Juliana Coles class Initiation which is a great class. In one of the many assignments I did this image.

Pathfinder image

I found a beautiful picture of a woman (I think) standing looking into the distant in an old National Geographic magazine about some American indians. I decided to re-draw that image on the page and when I did I suddenly realized that "I'm a pathfinder". Not in some serious kind of way, I don't believe I have been an indian in a present life or anything like that, but I enjoy taking long walks in the woods nearby our home. 

I constantly seek out new trails because I'm curious where they might lead and I discover waterfalls, caves and big rocks etc. I never get lost because I have some sort of map in my head and unconsciously notice things in the surroundings that I navigate out of.

So if I had lived among the indians back then I might have been a pathfinder!?! Today obviously such abilities are not useful for the bigger community with GPS and smartphones etc. but to me personally it serves a purpose.

I think I'm a pathfinder in other senses too. I used to be an engineer for 15 years but never really liked it and after going back to the university to study journalism I quit my job to become a freelance journalist. I am a curious person and love to learn new things so that suits me very well. However media is a though business and I constantly try to find new ways to be an entrepreneur. It is sometimes stressful and I use making art and especially in this art journaling form to release some of that and stop all the ideas and thoughts that swirls around in my head.

(I shared another piece I made in the Initiation class here.)

Binding a book with my painted papers

A few weeks ago I found myself being fascinated by a stack of beautiful papers that someone, somewhere here on the internet (don't remember where) shared. I was able to trace the origin of the technique, by which they were made, back to the artist LK Ludwig. Soon I was enrolled in her online class Backlog.

I'm rather late on the ball because the class was introduced in 2010. But I must say it was well worth the money, it is full of information, videos and inspiration.

Take a look at what I have done:

Black and light blue and reductive stamping

Tiger pattern stencil

I used some old sheets of sketching paper and some of the acrylic paint I have lying around.

Stack of painted papers

I folded each sheet in half and used two papers to make one signature. In total I made six signatures which makes 24 pages.

The class teaches a way to bind them toghether using ribbons, and here's how mine ended up.

Stiching the book

I made the covers out of chipboard which was painted the same way as the pages.

With cover

Here is a peek in the book.

Some of the pages

I will use the book for art journaling with my own photos. I have begun to add pictures to it and I also made a page.

Before journaling

And after adding hand writing.

After journaling