August Journal Pages

I suppose it won't be a surprise to you

gentle reader that 

August

pages are all about

my family

and my visit to 

Traverse City

and our reunion...

Ingredients: paper ephemera, gesso, acrylic paint, pencil, colored pencils, glimmer mist, art graf pencils, tissue papers 

My journal above is creaking under the weight of 

two years of mixed media pages

I will end this journal in December and finish

the end pages and the covers...

it is always an emotional process for me..

ending and beginning..

made more interesting by making decisions about a new journal 

since I have been using antique and vintage journals for many years now...

and 

I think I am ready for a new format...  

not sure about what that will be

but you will be the first to know...

grin...

I hope your summer was as wonderful as mine

and our autumn will be 
gorgeous...



xo

Art Journaling, Valentines and Self Love

2009

was an awful year...

my personal life was pretty miserable...

my brother had just shot himself in the heart..

and I felt a powerful inner struggle

that was exacerbated by the things going on around me..

It was also the year I began to 

blog and named my blog

La Dolce Vita..

gentle reader

I literally took

 heart 

in

my spiritual practice

and my art work

My art journal stack, my 2009 journal is on top..

I took refuge in art..

escaping to my studio, I created shrines, nichos and art

that reflected my personal spiritual work  

knowing that 

I am the attraction for all that comes to me

I decided then,

 that I needed to love myself..

more than I did then..

and it was a promise that I made to myself

that I would consciously make the effort..

2015 Journal Detail, February journal pages, Caterina Giglio.. Antique bible pages gifted from Lisa DiNunzio

Part of my practice was to write myself 

a Valentine letter..

a love letter to myself...

at the time

I was not in a, "hearts and flowers" kind of place...

in fact I never used hearts in my work at all...

my brother's death changed that..

February 2015 Art Journal Pages, on my desk..

using a heart in my work

became a symbol 

of life and death and love...

transformation

Closeup of February 2015 Love Letter to Myself

It all began in this journal, below

I started by facilitating

an art journal group...

Art Journal 2009, Caterina Giglio

and this was my first spread...

2009 Art Journal spread Love Letter To Myself, Caterina Giglio

not being in a 

"hearts and flowers" kind of place emotionally

I decided to create just that in my pages

because I firmly believe that 

what we visualize we 

create

and the French couple

stood in as 

a model for myself

a person who was balanced both

by a strong feminine and masculine side..

2010 Art Journal, Caterina Giglio

I finished that journal and moved on

to #5

the number of transition and transformation

2010 was certainly that...

I decided that I loved the large format of the 

antique record books..

and #5 had the most beautiful marbled front...

2010 Art Journal Spread, Love Letter To Myself, Caterina Giglio

In 2010

I collaged over much of my writing... using my own image in my work

and an image of a young girl, to represent my

inner child...

time was ticking...

2011/2012 Art Journal, Fern Caterina Giglio

I found another record book

in better shape for my 

2011 and 2012 art journal

my life began to transform

in amazing ways

lots of things were

changing...

myself included...

2011 Art Journal spread, Love Letter To Myself, Caterina Giglio

in 2011, I wrote...

Yes I have loved you well...

for you are the secret of all my secrets..

and I will love you

long after

the body is dust...

and our being-ness

is

feather 

light

my stitched spread for 

2012

was simple enough 

a heart stitched 

back together

the bottom

of my page reads...

life is good...

2013-2015, Untitled Current Art Journal

In 2013 I found

a perfect antique record book

that is not only substantial

it was in fabulous shape...

2013 Art Journal spread, Love Letter To Myself, Caterina Giglio

In 2013

my cold heart was 

thawed out

2014, Art Journal spread, Love Letter To Myself, Caterina Giglio

2014

brought

a return of 

my heritage

my lily life and love..

I used antique imagery to represent

my 

profound love of life 

and transformation...

La Dolce Vita

Detail of 2014 Art Journal spread, Love Letter To Myself, Caterina Giglio

My current pages below..

2015 Art Journal spread, Love Letter To Myself, Caterina Giglio

Where I celebrate

not only myself 

and my love for me,

but my ability to create...

not just with my hands...

but with my love and my thought..

A celebration of life, 4 journals, representing one month on two pages for 6 years.. Caterina Giglio

You don't have to be an artist

to write yourself a love letter...

I urge you to try it..

just start by writing one thing that you appreciate

about yourself..

it can be simply that you have the eyes

to read this post..

all I can tell you

is that you cannot control what goes on around you

but you can be the person you want to be...

and that alone

can create

La Dolce Vita..

xo

Happy Valentines

may pages

may journal pages are finally finished...

if texture is any indication...

then

it was a very busy month...

a wedding..

a vacation...

a death..

tornado's..

a lot going on this month...

so the writing is underneath it all..

and there was a lot of writing

about transformation

and transformative events...

because that is what the symbol of the butterfly represents to me...

a tiny piece from my journal...

I loved the look of the corrugated cardboard ripped back and collaged...

like a kiosk layered in posters...

with tiny pieces of information and story still intact...

the two page spread below, you can barely read the date...

it seems quite pink, but it is really 

brown...

ingredients: gesso, pumice gel, pencil, pen, paint, walnut ink, colored pencil, cardboard, antique ephemera, original sketch...

I am currently on deadline for two

separate publications...

but I will be back soon with

sneaky peeks and summer shots...

ciao, ciao!

march pages

what a difference  a year makes...

this time last year, I had sprouts in the garden...

cut flowers on my table...

and tulips lining the drive...

and nowhere is it more evident than in my art...

I am certainly affected by my environment...

to see march pages from last year

go here... 

not that I don't love the color brown...

you all know that it is my favorite color...

but I am ready for green

and color, and flowers...

and bird nests...

can it really be easter... ?

soooo...

I guess I don't really have to explain these pages...

do I?

I mean... x marks the garden plot above in my head because the garden is covered in snow...

sigh...

I know it is happening everywhere... so you all understand...

at least in Colorado, we were prepared for wet and snow

since March and April typically are the heaviest snow months...

but we had BIG SUN TOO...

but here...

the deer should not be eating all of my evergreen bushes...

ingredients: gesso, book pages, paper ephemera, acrylic paint, ink, twinkling h20's, molding paste, colored pencil thread, ink resist, pen.

my spring giveaway ends

on 

March 29

so scroll down to the last post

to 

decide which piece of art you want...

hoping everything is in bloom in your world!

C4N!

feb pages

if you have been following my blog

for a while..

then you know that art journaling is

an important part of my life...

I write about what is going on each month..

and then i obscure my writing with

my art...

each feb I write myself a love letter

I concentrate on the good things I am and I do...

I think that most of our issues come

 from our lack of self worth... 

so I use valentines day

to remind myself that it all begins with

self love...

I can't love another

if I don't love myself...

it would not be love... but admiration..

this year my commitment has been even

stronger

I am changing the way I feel about myself completely...

my body, my self, my life, my art...

I chose the winter scenes to mirror the reflection that is happening within me

winter represents an incubation period 

to me, it is a time to cozy up

and think about what I want to create and 

what I choose to manifest for the year...

ingredients: gesso, transfers from my personal photos, paper ephemera, cloth, khadi paper, pencil, pen, acrylic paint, water soluble crayons.

I am working on some larger pieces...

on paper 22 x 30

so don't have much to show right now

but I will be back soon with stitches and marks

to show you...

working with ink..

as always, thanks for stopping by..

grazie!

travel art journal

ciao, gentle readers...

I have finally put the finishing touches on my 

travel journal

Travel the World....

as you can see, I had to put an old leather button through the spine to tie it shut, 

since it began to bulge...

and I am pleased with the way it turned out...

it is a bit rumpled from traveling about and being dragged from beach to beach

and restaurant to bistro, but I like that well worn look...

as you know

"A journey is like a marriage, the certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."

John Steinbeck

This time, my art kit included a snippets packet of bricolage painted papers and ephemera

as well as some fabric bits and some old rub on letters...

the sheets that were missing the all important vowels...

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on deep and permanent in the ideas of living." 

Miriam Beard

my breakfast tea with lemon

a simple pleasure

I added tracing paper pages...

I also took my colored pencils and watercolor paints with my reservoir brushes

I took thread and needle but it just did not call out to me.. 

the beauty of the ocean and the majesty of the blues were just mesmerizing

and I felt incapable of capturing it... 

I tucked little half pages in here and there for notes

and did a lot of reading...

a quick watercolor of the aqua water of St. Maarten...

counting down the days...

time coming to an end...

"One's destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things"

Henry Miller

one of the last pages in the book and the last watercolor..

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

Martin Buber

xo