I have been in the studio today using potential trash to make art - trash as substrates, trash as tools, and ink that might have easily been discarded. I hope you have fun watching and that there are some ideas here for you. Feel free to comment. The videos below are all part of the same playlist and will run automatically, one after the other if you watch on YouTube. If you watch from this location you'll need to click in to each one..  

I've been having a lot of fun playing with contact paper (of all things) and alcohol inks since discovering Jane Monteith on YouTube! I'm getting the hang of using the properties of the inks and colors in a way that builds distinct layers. What a wonderful challenge! I'm not sure why the hearts edges are rough. The Red Pepper ink I used is an old one that tends toward "sticky" and I'm thinking it grabbed the contact... OR... maybe it had more to do with the wet ink saturating the edges of the adhesive paper.... but guess what? I love the deckled edges look so will chalk it up to "HAPPY ACCIDENT!" 

Contact paper with ink is definitely something I'll be sharing with my Open Studio group on May 4th at the Tifton Museum of Arts and Heritage! Anyone who has taken Following The Ink, my beginner's workshop/studio, can register for Open Studio. As luck would have it, I'm running a beginner's group earlier that same day! Check the museum's website for information. 

My materials: Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks, white ceramic tile, contact paper, applicator sponges, and scissors.

This is meditative art, because sometimes I need to get out of my head and into my heartspace - art is one of my preferred paths to that. So many interesting things when working with ink - in this process I am practicing layering using stencils I have made out of contact paper. It requires me to simultaneously move forward while also not knowing what exactly to do. It requires me to think in layers, backwards. When I break it all down that way it sounds very demanding, perhaps, but I assure you... it is not. It is quite the opposite. It is very freeing. Once I finish I can look back on it and love it or hate it - it doesn't matter. This one I happen to love. I can also compare any expectations I may have had to what actually happened. In this case, I was hoping the heart would show up better - I realized after applying green that if I digressed over to the reds it would get muddy... so I stayed with blues and greens. Maybe it's best that the images are elusive yet there - they are representing the Trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In my faith tradition, this is a central source of hope and strength, promise, and light.

Here I am using alcohol ink on tile along with contact paper to get a layering look - it's something new I'm trying and it's a lot of fun! It's not my best work, but it's my first try layering contact paper and ink, so why should it be? I can't wait to keep learning this layering process - get the old brain thinking backwards and forwards at the same time. The first person I saw using contact paper with alcohol inks was the amazing Jane Monteith. I am in love with her YouTube channel and am learning a ton! Go like her on YouTube! You won't regret it! 

Fun With Puddles was what you might call a 'dress rehearsal' for some demos I did at a nearby elementary school! Of course, with kids in the room it was totally different, and so much more fun that this solitary play! The materials are Dylusions water based inks on watercolor paper, and clean water. That's it. I had to stop at one point when a delivery man knocked on the door... this is why there are two parts.