What Art to Do?

 I must still be in trip recovery mode because outside of beginning a group of Artist Trading Cards, I've accomplished almost nothing in my studio in nearly two weeks. I have projected some projects but have made little progress. One of my objectives it to keep an Artist's Journal of flora and this week decided how to approach it. 

In summer 2009 I took many pictures of the plants in our yard, plants Jim had taken care of; I got to enjoy them. I kept a photographic record but an unkempt record. This year I will make a purposeful photographic record and will draw the same plants over and over at different stages of their development. 

You get the picture, so to speak, from several photos of the ostrich ferns that always make the yard look good. Before long I'll show my drawings and mixed media pieces that I will be making in my Flora Art Journal 2016.

Denver, 2016

And of course there are always attendant birds in the garden

Art Journal Complete

Art Journal by Phillip Hoyle 2016

I finished my art journal last week and am pleased with the work in it and its completion. I show here a few more photos of the pages from the journal.

As I worked in it, I realized I wanted to combine artwork with a personal narrative yet without words. I’ll not now write a book about the ideas but simply enjoy the less specific content of visual images rather than word pictures. That’s a push for me.

A personal addition to the journal.
Art Journal by Phillip Hoyle 2016

I feel satisfied with this book without words. It tells a story of my long-time fascination with Native American experience generally and with petroglyphs specifically. Such images have informed much of my artwork for almost forty years.

A word of thanks here for the encouragement of my artist friend Sue. She challenged me to do the project and has cheered me on during my weeks of work. Also, THANKS to my blog readers who have commented. Say more if you will!

The final journal entry of nearly forty images.
Art Journal by Phillip Hoyle 2016

Art Journal with No Words

Art Journal by Phillip Hoyle, 2016. A mixed media experiment and
a personal experiment to see if I can produce a book in which I write
no words. So far, so good!

I am pleased that the project to produce an art journal this year is underway. I've made good progress both in making pages and in coming to understand what I am doing. So without words I arrange my pages paying some attention to what appears next to each other. Someone may wonder just how I made my decisions. I'm not sure I can even explain.

Art Journal by Phillip Hoyle 2016. Of course there are words on the old
map I've used, but they're very hard to read and only indicate the part
of the world from which the petroglyph designs have come.

I am making some personal references through the use of a few photographs, for example including one of a snapshot I took when I was a young teen at a powwow, another one of a family member many years ago.


I hope you as a reader of this blog will get as much kick out of my efforts as I am in doing the project.

Art Journal by Phillip Hoyle 2016. I am having a great time with mixed media
interpretations using prints, monoprints, stamps, and a variety of pens. Each
page measures 5x8". 

New Year Art Plans

An art journal is underway already! these pieces are not complete but just
barely started. I'll show the work throughout 2016. I really hope to learn
new things about my art, about mixed media, about the treatment of
traditional designs as I work with this kind of book making.

I’m busy making a list! I’ll check it endlessly during the coming year (if I can find it). Perhaps these are ART RESOLUTIONS. 

Fill my frames. I have lots of completed and almost-completed artwork and many, many frames. Perhaps they can become gifts? I can hang some.

Each time I have an Artist trading Cards theme, complete two sheets of designs. That means 18 cards to trade. That’s a bunch of cards since I go to two monthly trades.

Keep working of flora designs toward a goal of making floral relief prints as well as continuing my mixed-media pieces.

Make monoprints galore in order to develop my own style of gel plate printing.

Draw, draw, draw.

As you can see, the page on the left is only an idea. No glue has
made its way there. On the right is a collage of a relief print on top of a
monoprint. Who knows were these ideas will lead me. I'm looking forward
to the journey in this art journal. The difference between these new books
is that I will write nothing in them, no words, simply artwork without
explanation. Guess you'll suffer some of the explanations if you follow
this blog!

Keep up art journals related to Native American petroglyphs, journals that combine art with writing.

Continue my regular daily journal entries—3 pages each day—general topics.

Write weekly stories for the storytelling group.

Write monthly chapters for longer works, chapters to read at the writers group I attend.

Make a flora drawing trip to Mid-MO. Also to see family there.

Do local plein air drawing outings with artist friends Sue and Jan.

Make watercolor ATCs.

That’s way too many, but one of the things I do effectively is make lists!

Happy New Year to you.

This page is glued but only just begun!
Art journal by Phillip Hoyle 2016

Denver, 2016

Art Journal

Journal page Missouri Petroglyphs by Phillip Hoyle

Even though I write almost every day and almost always jot down something about art (an idea, a reflection upon seeing an art display, even some kind of analysis or quote related to a book I'm reading), I have a difficult time getting to my art journals to write anything. Some months ago I wrote about an art journal that focuses on images, ideas, experiences, and other matters related to Colorado petroglyphs. Beginning that art journal was meant to keep me working in small art forms and keeping a written record of my feelings and work as well. I've painted petroglyphs as it were a dozen years. I still mess with those designs. I affirm that it's better to keep working them as compared with writing about them. 

Art Journal page by Phillip Hoyle

I started a second art journal about petroglyphs in Missouri. I've been even more neglegent in relation to keeping it up to date. Oh well. I have many plans. Always have! Many, many more than I can ever imagine fulfilling. I'm showing just a few things from the Missouri art journal. My other Missouri art is related to flora, not petroglyphs. 

In the meantime I'm fixing more Artist Trading Cards to trade late next week. Hope I get all of these things done.

Denver, 2015

The Journal

Although I started my art journal last week, I have made only four entries in it. I suppose because I write my Morning Pages every day, I assumed I might do more than three or four entries a week. But who knows? I didn't write everyday although I have written several times a week in my pages for over seventeen years. Perhaps I will develop my own way to do my art journaling.

I don't really feel disappointed, but I do wonder just what all I will make of art journaling. I am struck at how much easier it is for me to write a sentence than to draw a picture. At this point, with four entries made, I find that what I write does two things: it interprets something about the print I have mounted on the page and it tells stories related to the petroglyph I have made the block print from. For example, I have mentioned an artist I drew with in the valley where I first saw these petroglyphs. I have also mentioned my grandson who saw some of these when he was young and asked me a question about one of the figures I had posted on Facebook. 

The first time I heard about keeping an art journal, the friend who told me had spent weeks making mandalas on a daily basis. She explored her thoughts and feelings through the designs and drawings, through colors and shapes, through abstracts that sought to explore things she barely had words to express. I was impressed and recalled a workshop I attended in which I too made mandalas. Of course, these were assignments for the express purpose of the workshop and did not become a regular practice. Perhaps I will add some mandalas to my art journal. So far I have not.

The second time I discussed an art journal with an artist, I was encouraged to draw, draw, draw. It reminded me of Julia Cameron's write, write, write approach to Morning Pages in her Artists Way book. I draw but not incessantly like my son did in his high school years. I doodle but don't feel prone to do so every day. So I'm wondering, now that I have begun my first art journal, what am I going to do?

What I actually did was to mount two more prints and mess around on the pages! The second one with the big bear became a confetti celebration and a few words. The third one with a deer became an explanation of the petroglyph type, its location, some archaeological information I recalled from reading about it, and my feelings from first seeing it on a huge boulder near my in-laws' farm. 

I'm not quite sure what I think about what I am doing, but I'm sure happy to be doing it. I wonder what I will learn. What new ways will I learn to relate to art? What new ways will I learn to express my feelings? I feel hopeful and mildly excited and mostly feel like I'm on the verge of learning something mighty nice about art and myself.

Denver, 2015

Art Journals

I've shown this paintingbefore.
It's the same figure as in the print
I added to my new journal.
I've used it in several paintings but couldn't
find a picture of the one I wanted to show here.
Oh well.

Last evening I began two art journals related to who-knows-what art experiences to come. One is going to focus on or be inspired by Ute Petroglyphs. I'm using drawings as I make entries but haven't begun to consider whether I'll make daily entries. I'm gluing to the pages small prints of Ute rock carvings; at least I did last night.

Beyond what I have done, I have no clear direction, but I have been encouraged to do this by my artist friend Sue.

Years ago, just as I started writing daily, I was challenged to spend some time keeping a drawing journal--an idea I have never pursued. The suggestion intrigued me, so this Ute journal is my beginning in this new direction.

I made an entry in my "Ute" journal, glued in a small print, and wrote my recollection of drawing the design years and years ago. I also wrote of an interaction with one of my grandsons when I posted a painting of the figure a couple of months ago in Facebook.

That was my start. 

But I mentioned two journals. I made a cover for the second journal, a print of an Osage petroglyph after an 1804 drawing by William Clark, a figure he discovered along the Missouri River. I'm not sure what this journal will be at all although I have many years experience from Mid-Missouri. Who knows? I certainly do not. Still I'm looking forward to what I may learn in days, weeks, months to come as I draw, collage, and make my way through these journals.

Denver, 2015