Game on!

I managed to finish a complex project. My game board was created as an art journal page, inspired by an assignment presented by mixed media artist Kelly Hoernig. Kelly is one of an array of instructors who are teaching as part of Life Book 2013 - a yearlong odyssey of mixed media goodness guided by Tamara Laporte.

I really wanted to do this assignment earlier in the year when it was first posted. But I could not seem to gather the energy to create anything. The course was just not gelling for me in January. Now that I find myself back in my groove, the ideas flowed easily. Kelly laid out the step-by-step procedures and I modified them just a bit to suit my style. The assignment was to create an art journal page with the theme of Let the Games Begin, which was Kelly's take on "Celebration and Journey" (the monthly Life Book theme).
I drew my own streamlined 1930s style roadster for my vehicle. Kelly invited us to choose a word to set the tone for the journey you are on, and mine is "practice". She recommended a map background, and you might be able to make out the highway map of my region under the layers of gesso and paint. My background colors are watercolors.
The pocket at the bottom left holds five altered playing cards which match some of the important ideas of encouragement that I hope will influence my art in the next year. There is also a card with the definition of "practice" written out on the back.

It took me two weeks on and off other projects to make this game, mostly because I spent a lot of time layering with paint, gesso, and collage bits.  I am happy with the results, even though not everything I tried worked. (For example, my attempts to practice Kelly's method of color wash spray to outline the game board did not meet with satisfactory results, so I used Distress Ink instead.) In sum, I learned a lot and gained some confidence with several mixed media techniques. That is what counts.