Orange Dream Monkeys Resume

My visual journaling group, the Orange Dream Monkeys, got back together last night after a four-month summer hiatus. It felt so good to be back together laughing, creating, eating, playing, and did I already mention laughing? Got some big laughs at how short I am, funny enough to get a couple of photos with me between Destree and Shelby (and no, I'm not bending my knees, in case you thought the photos were staged). Destree provided our snacks and a wonderful little handmade journal as our gift.

Our theme for this month was earthy turquoise spider, although no one used the theme as a prompt.







I futzed with two spreads I had started earlier in the summer. I felt a bit scattered, so I allowed myself to putter on my pages.



Bobbie played in her France travel journal.



I'm not sure if she's finished, but Dawn whipped together a beautiful and whimsical spread last night:


Shelby worked on a two-page spread during the evening:


Tory's pages in process, just getting started.



And please forgive me Destree, I didn't get any photos of your art last night!

Our theme for next month? Yellow Freedom Shoes. Now that's an interesting theme (in case you don't recall or are new to my blog, we draw words from three jars to establish our theme: a color, a noun, a concept).

Strange Voices From the Abyss: The Opening!

The opening for Strange Voices From the Abyss was held on Saturday night at Venti's Cafe. We had over 60 people attend! (And we have sold five paintings as of this afternoon.) Thank you to our many supporters who turned out to party with us and celebrate the accomplishment of Destree and I creating 19 pieces of art. At first I thought I would try and identify who was who in the photos, but instead, I'm just going to post way too many photographs in a random fashion so you can get a flavor for the evening.





































Post Script:

Destree made a beautiful guest book, which will be left at Venti's for the duration of the show. She had us each write thank yous on the first page, left lots of room for comments, and then at the end we attached some of the notes we wrote to each other back and forth when we were working on the pieces separately.





Sweet Destree handed me a lovely little gift during our show - a card with an image of a Jasper Johns painting (one of our inspirations) and a beautiful necklace that I had coveted earlier in the day at our local Saturday Market!




And finally, thank you to the following:

Howard, Destree, Champ, Olivia, Deven, Derek, Cathy, Paul, Michele, Sam, Stewart, Cindy, Jasmine, Skeeter, Jill, Nayla, Jill, Ron, Kathleen, Kathleen's friend from the coast, Joanne, Susan, Robert, Carol, Bobbie, Stan, Sandra, Sue, Steph, Nicole, Tory, Mike, Amy, Jackson, Emmett, Candace, Candace's husband, Cindy, Cindy's husband, Alicia, Jeremiah, Max, Theresa, Jami, Beth, the two teachers from Bush School, Pat, Pat's wife, Tasha, the cute family of four, the guy in the white sweat shirt, and several of Destree's work mates.

Whew! Not sure if I got everyone, but enough to shout out: THANK YOU FOR COMING!