TEXT-ure :)

texture., originally uploaded by kaliji.

This page also resulted from my "alone time." Last week I bought my first tub of gesso and needless to say it was a momentous occasion. I now feel as though I can use gesso liberally and with abandon!
I love writing in it only to obscure it during the layering and impressing process, painting on the still wet gesso and swirling it around, pressing found textures into it, scribbling, adding masking tape and pools of dirty paint water, and finally dripping gooey wax from the candles I had lit for ambiance.
Is it a work in progress or a finished journal page? I don't know. I do know that I like it just the way it is and that I'm afraid of killing it.

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primary colors.

primary colors., originally uploaded by kaliji.

I had a few precious hours to myself on Sunday and this was one of the resulting pages. Usually my only alone time is in the bathroom and as one who thrives on solitude, the grind of the last few months has not been conducive to creative pursuits. I delight in finding myself going back to hues inspired by the primary colors. I am always reminded of kindergarten and the freedom with which we made marks on the page. I'm still holding out for a (free) kindergarten for adults.
Fun fun fun ♥

Updates.

Since I've been AWOL from the blogosphere for awhile I thought I'd make a list of what I've been up to, mind you its not much besides ze work and school. 
❶ Agent Pineapple and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary November 1st
❷ Agent Pineapple is now employed as a barista and loves it
❸ We have a new friend! She's a talented photographer and is bilingual, double score!
❹ I am now bespectacled in the dorkiest glasses I could find
❺ Went to the Chicago Underground Film Festival for the second year in a row, caught three            features, and ran into an old friend on the train and dragged him along for the ride
❻ I've developed an unhealthy obsession with watching MeTV, very bad I know. Perry Mason,          Roseanne, Green Screen Adventures, Hart to Hart, Police Woman....
❼ Finished up my last Fall semester at community college, unless I stick around to take fun              classes on the cheapo before transfering the next Spring.

Space Helmets or Anti-Satellite Apparatuses?

This what Agent Pineapple and I did over Thanksgiving break. I had been wanting to make space helmets ever since I got this kitschy craft book over a year ago. I was hoping that this exercise in crafty fun will pave the way for more creative adventures as soon as I'm free from the bondage of the fall semester.
If you are finding yourself in need of a space helmet/anti-satellite apparatus then follow my directions below.

Materials:
○ 1 large balloon.
○ 1 roll of tin foil.
○ masking tape.
○ aluminum tape.
○ scissors.
○ bits and bobs.
○ your head.

1. Inflate balloon until it larger than your head, tie.
2. Wrap it with sheets of tin foil a few feet long until it is entirely covered 3-4 times over.
3. Cut small pieces of aluminum tape and crinkle so that it will blend in seamlessly. Place on any trouble areas where the foil is popping up.
4. Insert scissors in the bottom, pow! the balloon pops, and cut a hole large enough for your head to fit through. A lot of trial and error with this one.
5. With your masking tape, cover the interior of your soon to be space helmet. This will strengthen it and preserve its form.
   
6. Cut a hole for your eyes to peek through!
7. Cut longer pieces of aluminum tape, crinkle, and stick around the edges of the hole you just cut. You may want to put more masking tape on the other side so no sharp edges irritate yo face.
8. Trick out with detritus from your junk drawer and make it look spacey.

Our masks:
Agent Pineapple's mask features a small tin hat and contrasting masking tape trim.

My mask features three very important knobs which originated from tires and two antennae from recycled notebook spirals.Alien ancestor?

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flotsom jetsom

flotsom jetsom, originally uploaded by kaliji.

One of those pages I had given up on in frustration and decided to revamp with some found crappola, new and from the stash. Transforming pages such as these is a good exercise when attempting to launch oneself back into the creative milieu. Since you already gave up on those pages in a sense, you don't worry about the results like you would with an entirely new page. I also foundreally like the idea of using old notes from classes I've taken for background fodder and selectively letting words peer through the paint.

The kitty cats (I affectionately call them boobie faces) would like recognition for their contributions, they were "helping out" while I was taking the pictures of my journal by laying in front of the pages and playing musical chairs.

Sensi

Anais/Anna Bear/Slut Muffin

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mandala.

mandala., originally uploaded by kaliji.

"The earth is a living Mandala--a structural matrix through and from which flow a succession of changes, elemental forms, and primal urges, each surpassing the other in an infinite variety of organic structures and impulses, crowned by the supreme attribute of reflective consciousness. It's flow, though working through a relatively well-defined structure, is subject to the infinite processes of growth and transformation by virtue of the ever-changing relationships both internal and external to its basic structure." --Mandala

Contour Party On-The-Go.

contour #1., originally uploaded by kaliji.

okey.

contour #2., originally uploaded by kaliji.

dokey.

contour #3., originally uploaded by kaliji.

artickokey.

Notepad + sharpies + a human (or representations of a human) = portable fun.
I do these at work, in class, between classes, at coffee shops with Agent Pineapple. We are each trying to complete a notepad with contours of each other; we have quite a ways to go but projects make the mundane bearable. Not to mention, the results are often hilarious.

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