Red Chicken

I have been wanting to do an art journal like the ones Judy Wise does. I have been pouring over her website for years, looking wondering how she does all those things. I've taken a couple classes from her here in Phoenix, at Art Unraveled. I've been inspired by her photography, her love of good food, her willingness to try new things, her choice to live a joy filled and fearless life.

I so wanted to do a mermaid or a waifish girl who looked like she was a little bit good and a little bit bad (ala JW)... but when I tried I felt all stiff and so I thought about the thing that I can't seem to get out of my head lately...chickens.

I am in the process of making a red chicken journal. I doesn't feel soulful or insightful... but it is fun, and I have loved, loved, loved working on it.

The chicken took form easily. Sturdy legged and proud.

The back cover a nest with an egg... guess here the chicken comes first... but the egg is a promise too, of new life. And I keep thinking that is the reason we've been put on this planet, to create new life every day.

She (he?) took on more texture, more details.

And the back cover was finished up... I've torn and folded my signatures and spent some part of the early morning hours trying to think about how I'd put it all together. I've painted too close to the edges to put a spine on... I've flipped through a number of alternatives in my head... and I think I've come up with a solution. A combination Coptic stitch and a couple caterpillar stitches. It will be beautiful. It will be sturdy. And for me, it will be perfect.

I think the interior will be a series of paintings of still more chickens... I've got to work this out of my system.