Artist Sam Jowers

I gotta put a craft in the mix.  My student painted this eye for my eye collection.  She is a wonderful painter and this is her eye.  It will go above my computer in my classroom.  The frame started out as a red and white polka dot surface….I just couldn't do it.  So I pasted Ferrara Rocher chocolate foils on the surface.  I love the result.  It is still wet so I'm hoping that the gold will blend.

For this journal52.com prompt we got to learn a somewhat new technique; make your own spray paint.  Of course, it was quite simple.  You just get a spray bottle and fill it with paint and water.  You then mist it onto the surface of your paper.  I did mine in layers, drying in between the colors so that my runs were distinctly different and didn't blend together.   I then searched for dogs and cats on the internet doing dog and cat tricks.  I love the expressions on their faces!  Not sure where a phrase like "it's raining cats and dogs" came from.  The actuality of it would be quite dangerous!! lol

I have never been a fan of using solid black in my back ground.  I don't purchase black paint for my students, making them learn how to make their own from primary colors instead.  I feel that it soaks in the light and looks dull and dead.  Making your own adds all kinds of possibilities for complimentary color excitement.  I used store bought black for this one...lol.  The trick to making colors stand out on a black back ground is to always add a touch of white to each color, giving it a  neon effect against the black.

Sometimes we find ourselves at the end of the day and we wonder what we have accomplished.  This may be due to having done so much that you simply ran out of time or you may be a time waster!  I knew I wanted the image of a clock but I did not know how I was going to get all the information onto the page.  I decided to get a post it note stack and set it at my desk and carry it with me as I went about my day.  As I changed activity, I would jot down the time and then write what I was doing.  This helped me later to organize where everything went on the clock (which started as a painted circle.  The wedges are separate pieces of paper that I just glued on after writing on them.)  I still had to write in the margins to get my whole day in.  It is a really great exercise to do even if you don't plan to make a piece of art out of it.  Life isn't all about getting stuff done.  Sometimes we need to just spend time in the moment.

My students ask me every year how to paint outer space.  This technique is so much fun and quite easy to accomplish!  I tell my students to make a puddle of blue, red, yellow and white.  they need a flat scrubby brush.  you want to apply the paint in a circular scrubbing motion and try to do it in horizontal path ways.  start with putting your brush into blue and then red.  this will make a purple.  the purple is the space between the gasses so you will probably have more of this color...or not!  I never clean out my brush for this process.  I will start with purple then scrub that onto my canvas or paper, add yellow scrub, add white scrub, add red, scrub, add blue scrub ...until the entire surface is scrubbed in.  don't over blend the colors because those are the gasses and the lights from local stars reflecting inside of them.  After the entire surface is covered, I wash out my brush.  I will mix blue and white and splatte...

For this journal52.com challenge, we had to pick three colors and do a page.  I chose to do a collage using orange and blue because they are complimentary colors and I added purple.  I love going into the various paint departments and collecting their samples and their adds because they have images that are in the great colors you want to work with.  I also found the inside of a gum box had some great designs in blue.  I markered over a playing card with purple.  I got lucky and had a blue stamp. I can draw but sometimes I get lazy and I just want to get the work done, so for this piece, I found an image and printed it in black and white.  I then traced around each tone change and that became a shape in her face to create the different colors of orange.  divide your images into three tones; light, medium, and dark. put the dark tones in the shadows, middle tones everywhere and light tones for high lights.

Making brain maps are important.  Here, I have two different kinds.  The one with the young lady's head is about finding out what you want to be when you grow up.  Honestly, you can do this map at any point in your life.  It doesn't just have to be about career, it can be about what makes you happy and finding or remembering what you found joy in when you were a child and reconnecting with it.  I'm long overdue for creating this kind of brain map, especially since my divorce and empty nest! The Tree map is more about a specific goal you might have.  The trunk of the tree is your goal.  The roots represent what it will take to get that goal and the branches are what you will accomplish because of the goal.  I'm a visual person and seeing this map on the wall or fridge helps me remember to stay focused on the little details that it takes to get this goal.  I need to put one on my fridge for loosing weight! I used color pencil for ...

This journal52.com prompt had a couple of techniques going on.  The first was taking an old brown paper bag, wadding it up into a tiny ball, un wadding it and then brushing paint across the surface.  (in this case it was gold paint).  I took a paper towel and dipped it into the paint and then lightly brushed it across the surface of the wrinkles.  I then cut the paper to the size of my journal.  if I had cut it before wadding it up, it would have been smaller than the needed size due to shrinkage.  I really like the look of the back ground.   The next technique involved writing on decorative papers with various pens, pencils and markers.  I wrote random quotes and feelings about love.  I then ripped them up.  (The papers you see here are ones that I created using watercolor, acrylic paint...left overs from demos that I do in my class.)  I then took a large needle and punched holes around all of the edges of the papers. Next I g...

In the middle of all of this Journal52.com adventure, there was a news story that caught my attention.  There was a rock group known as "pussy riot" that got arrested for protesting in Russia. They were a group of women who wore rainbow colored ski mask and protested.  (I remember that one did not wear underpants and would raise her legs to show her "yohoo".)  It struck me that these women were using what was at their disposal to tell their government that they wanted something different in their lives.  I used Russian nesting dolls to represent the girls in the band.  I had a sticker page that the stickers were circles so I used the outlines as a stencil so I could represent the masses of faceless people they were trying to speak for.  I then painted the onion domes of Saint Basils Cathedral (at least I believe that is the name of that building) to represent Russia.  The band had a song titled "voices can break concrete" so  I painted the lett...

For me, doing abstract is a challenge.  My mind wants to see something that I can recognize.  I never know when to stop putting in more detail until my work is no longer abstract, but representational.  Here is a little exercise that Journal52.com presented that was fun and I felt successful for me in an abstracted way.  We were told to put three colors of paint on the plate.  We then got an old used gift card and started scraping the paint across our paper.  I made about five sheets of these colors on paper.  When they were dry, we took a sharpie and outlined every color shape we could find.  Of course, I found a butterfly in mine.  I did augmented the colors a bit to create the words in the picture. This one became sort of a meditation for me.  I didn't get to choose what came out of the abstraction and I just kept drawing around the various shapes.  It was quite a fun process!

Sometimes, while looking for a "background" I find an old drawing or a paper that I liked but its not really big enough to make the entire back ground.  I will cut it into strips, find another paper to pair with it and will weave the papers together to create interest behind what ever my page will become.  For this one, I used some old homework I found around the classroom.  (I stained it with blue water before I used it.)  You can do this with magazine paper, old love letters or book pages...anything will work.  My "character" word was "dreamer".  If  I plan to leave letters white, I will highlight with yellow and shadow with blue.  it makes them "glow".  As far as the banner; I do this technique on the school mural.  I simply draw a series of parallel lines and then cap the ends.  this creates the "ribbon" effect.  I will then draw the back of the ribbon in.  you can fit any phrase in because the letters can be squeeze...

One of the techniques presented on Journal52.com was a texture technique. I wasn't thrilled with my page but I do like the process.  You brush on gesso...there are different thicknesses of gesso.  this one was the everyday thickness used to prime canvases.  You then press different objects into the gesso while it was wet.  I used different sized lids to create the circular patterns in the gesso.  I then let it dry.  I took a paper towel and wadded it up and brushed the blue paint over the surface.  I do like that the book page bleeds thru.  I used stamps of hot air balloons.  The prompt was "up up and away".  It was my first page...I learned the technique.

Several Years ago, I started following a group called Journal52.com.  The first year was run by a woman named Chelly or Shelly.  I guess it was too much to maintain and she passed it on to two other people.  When she was running it, she gave some very wonderful prompts along with some awesome new techniques.  I use these prompts in my classroom to teach mixed media processes.  I'm going to start by showing you one of her prompts called Art for a Cause.  It was just after my house fire and weirdly enough, I found a piece of charred siding that was in the shape of a house.  I used candy wrappers to create the flames and then painted a little fireman putting out the fire. . I then downloaded the logo for the fire department and put it under my page. Just a little note about candy wrappers.  I only use foils.  Most often the foils come from Gum and Chocolate.  Some colors are easier to find than others.  "Five Gum" always has blues...

I've always had an active imagination.  I loved making fairies out of twigs and leaves when I played outside.  Every acorn was a pixie hat and...still is!!  It wasn't a stretch to see tea bags as ball gowns for Tea Fairies.  I made this piece at the same time that I helped my church by decorating a ladies Tea Party.  If you have never been to a ladies tea party...You need to find a way to attend one!  so elegant.  We had a speaker and the food was so wonderful!!  plus you get to sit around wearing hats and talking to other ladies who share their wisdom and become potential mentors to the younger  ladies in the group.  I think moments like this need to be revisited.  It shows us how polite we can actually be to each other.  I remember leaving feeling like I could accomplish anything and knowing there were people who would help me do it!

I love mermaids!  I love anything to do with the ocean and I collect any images that remind me of it.  This piece has netting and jewels attached to it. The ocean holds so many secrets and so many treasures.  It is the last frontier.  It needs to be kept clean and pristine.  It is the life of the planet!

My favorite book as a child was Maurice Sendeck's  "Where the wild things are".  I actually stole it from the Methodist church's library when my grandma took me to her church when I was about 4.  It reminded me of Halloween, which of course was all about the candy.  I remember we used to get candied apples and home made popcorn balls and then this huge urban legend started going around when I was about six about someone putting razor blades into apples.  all of the hospitals advertised that they would run your candy bags thru the ex-ray machine the next morning if parents were concerned.  that is when we stopped seeing candy apples and home made treats and everything started being individually wrapped!   I actually hated trick or treating because it meant going up to a stranger's door and hoping they would be home and give you candy.  the after glow of all that candy was that we only got to eat one piece and my mom would take it all and hide it....

My whole life, my dad sat in front of a computer.  He had a commodore 64 and sat in his bathrobe and smoked all day long...trying to change the world with his words.  He had piles of papers, magazines, notebooks stashed everywhere in the living room.  Moving any of these papers would have been a reason for a meltdown.  in this collage, I have a dragon trying to write his memoirs and while he is sitting there in him own home, two boys are "exploring"...breaking and entering his home! I used magazine images of chocolates, an armchair and a few other images.  the boys are from a book cover.  I have shells for stalagtite, netting, and gray butterfly confetti.  The word dragon is in stickers.  there is an actual key, some jewelry and martini swords attached to the surface of the work. I drew the dragon with blue ball point pen.  Notice the bathroom girl...! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

I love collage, but I feel guilty because it's not my artwork or photograph.  Several years ago I created several collages and to make myself feel better I would add one of my drawings to it.  I love these collages because they all have a message in them.  At the time there was an add in all of the magazines for a feminine product that helped you not have to go to the restroom all of the time.  I would cut out the little bathroom girl every time I saw one and each of these has one in it!  I use both images from magazines and real objects like the tea bags, candy wrappers, jewelry, sticks and the scissors.  Anything is acceptable for adding to collage.

For this journal page I "found a poem".  finding a poem requires you to look for words that when all the other words on the page are removed, you can read a new message.  I kind of cheated because I couldn't find anything that made sense to me but I still wanted the title page.  I found the words on other pages, cut the circles out of the front page and glued my words underneath so that they lined up with the page on front. Thankfully, I only had to do this twice.  I'm the first to admit that I am not a poet!  lol.  I still love this page because of the illustration and the way the words leak thru the painting.

You can find drawing material in everyday objects.  In this case, I chose the inside of security envelopes.  Security envelopes are the envelopes you get with your bills.  They are designed so that no one can see inside of your envelope.  I'm always amazed at the design work inside.  Some are very plain and others are quite intricate.  if you see them as a gray scale, you can actually create collage.  I treat them like "benday" dots were used to create comic books back in the 50's and 60's. I often wonder where the little person is that is designing these for the envelope industry!  I have all of my teacher co workers collecting envelopes for me.  I now have so many, I need to cull them down.

I was part of a group called Questscouts.com.  They give you these great quest that you can do to make your life more interesting and you can actually earn badges as an adult.  it is so much fun and enriches your life in so many ways.  On one of the quest, we had to paint with lemon juice. I love how it looks like an old Leonardo da Vinci drawing....(Lol, I can believe what I want to!)  The technique was quite simple.  Use a q-tip of brush to draw with the lemon juice and then use a lighter on the back of the paper and it causes the lemon juice to turn brown.  we also used to pretend it was invisible ink

for some time now, it has been the craze to paint rocks and leave them around the community.  I had my art club paint some and we had a lot of fun.  It wasn't until I actually found a rock on the ledge of a burger shop window that I really understood how wonderful this practice is.  Its thrilling to think that someone took time to create a small token of love and just leave it out there for someone else to find.  I found one that told me to post it onto a group's facebook page so that the artist would know it was found.  I had to join the group but it was completely worth it!  since then, I have started leaving rocks all around their town...yes, they are one town over from mine.  I'm ok with that.  I also plan to start a page for my town!  the rocks that have been "planted" are not always great works of art.  some use stickers and a lot just paint words of encouragement.  I say, do your best and you will always make someone's day ...

I know with modern electronic devices and apps you can do this type of mix and match with no effort.  Sometimes, its just fun to go old school!  I have printed up photos since I was very young.  I have about three boxes of them for the students to work from.  It assures that we don't have copy right issues for competitions and I hate seeing them on their devices trying to paint with the light behind the image.  One day in class, I was looking thru my box of photos and put these together.  OMG!  A donut farmer!  wouldn't that be something to see!? This should become a painting of epic proportions!

I purposely waited to create my cover to my altered book journal.  I really just didn't know where the pages would lead me.  I pick books by the title and where it might lead me.  This book was called "The Cryptos Conundrum".  It could literally be about anything!  I decided that I wanted to make my book look like it had a life of its own.  I found different fonts of letters that were 3d and glued them onto the cover in layers.  I then made an eye with polyurethane and a bottle cap.  the key hole is made out of cardboard that I painted to look like an antique.  I wanted the letters to look like they were oozing out of the book...like the book was trying to get out.

Someone sent me a tag that read "Trust not in Sprites nor the motivations of a Gnome". by Jefferson Smith.  I asked myself...What would motivate a Gnome?  Why would he need motivation?  I know nothing about Gnomes! lol!  So...I again, looked at my students.  what motivates them?  what is the interaction between the groups.  why do boys do stupid things to impress girls?  At the time, someone had donated about 30 boxes of new gelli pens.  I really wanted to see what they could do.  I usually don't enjoy black pages...they look so dead to me.  In this case, I had some gnome buttons, a mushroom cut out and some leaves that I cut from a painting in a magazine.  someone else had sent me a couple of polka doted feathers.  I decided to do this page on bullying.  there is a pocket that holds the tag.  just a note about the speech bubbles.  I know that they are usually left white but if you will highlight them with l...

My son turned 16 and it was all about girls!  lol.  He talked about a different one each week!  I couldn't keep track of them.  He happened to go to the high school I teach at and my Principal used to call him "lover boy", "Romeo" and several other names.  My hope was to get him thru puberty with out too many issues.  Of course my parental nightmare would have been pregnancy.  We talked to him about being responsible in his choices.  That he knows he will get married someday, why cheat on his gorgeous wife before he ever meets her?  looking back, I can breath a sigh of relief!  The imagery on this page includes rabbits...which are known for their proclivity to reproduce.  Its a race of youth to see how many times they can reproduce!  I've included carrot seeds (sewing his seeds) and a jack rabbit spade card.  I made a drunken rabbit tag.  All I can say is Thank you, Lord! we made it thru puberty!!! My paperclip is...

I used to hate zombie movies.  I hate scary movies.  I think the real world is scary enough.  That changed about 7 years ago when I saw this amazing Can Festival entry called "cargo" on you tube.  The short film was so good I started showing it to my students as "an art film"...I don't show it any more.   Then one of my students decided to showcase "the walking dead" as his subject for his semester project zig zag book.  I asked him questions and told him about my dislike of zombies.  He challenged me to watch just one episode of the "walking dead".  In my ever attempt to connect with my kiddos, I sat down and watched the first two episodes and.....I was hooked.  It was well written, not as gory as I thought it would be (actually, it was pretty gory).  I had to know what happened to Rick Grimes!  Now, I have a page in my journal dedicated to "the walking dead".  Here are some choices I made.  I used red paint, of course....

Being a painting teacher, it would be correct to assume that I love color.  For one of the altered book envelope swaps on swap-bot.com, my envelope was full of nothing but black and white things.  I wasn't terribly thrilled but was determined that I would play the game and make a page using only what came in the envelope. (I even used the inside of the envelope to create the circles.  security envelopes have great designs in them.) I did cheat by using my own black markers and paint.  I drew the guy with the glass jar containing the heart.  I mean, the girl is walking away toward her castle leaving him with the sheep...I'm sure she has her reasons and that is why there is more to the story.  Not everything is black and white! The paperclip is a dog.  He must be the one that helps the shepherd tend his sheep while he is pining away for the princess.

I know that my audience is probably going to be my high school students...who else sees me more each day than them?  So I did an altered journal page about gossip .  I asked five of my female students to look in their phones and copy one text message that they thought was gossip.  They wrote them out with their own hand so that you could tell each font was different.  Because it starts when they enter elementary school...First real social environment that they have to navigate themselves, I put in the chalk board and ABC chart. I found a cat shaped paperclip.

I absolutely love sweet shops, candy villages and gingerbread houses.  I thought I would do an altered book joural page with a candy land theme.  the first thing I did was google "gummy bears"...wow! did I get a lot of unexpected images!  the first thing to pop up was a police line up of gummy bears, then I got two bears turning a third one on a fire pit, gummy bears with shanks, lighters, chains and even one hanging himself.  Suddenly, candy land wasn't so sweet anymore.  my page became more about what happens when kids are hyped up on sugar.  I asked "what happens in the back alleys of candy land?"  Who runs the seedy side of town?  I found a "boss bear" sitting in a chair.  His gang of gummies are beating up a teddy graham cracker.  across the street, there are a gang of his bears committing "gumicide".  don't forget to look into the window....This town is not very healthy for you. The paperclip in this one is an ice cream co...

Every year, at least one of my painting students will say "Ms. Jowers, how do I paint outer space?" and then every other student has to try it at least once that year because they see how much fun it is.  Its a very easy technique with a satisfying result.  I only let my students have blue, red, yellow and white paint.  They learn to make all the other colors in the world including black.  I will get a quarter size dollop of each color including the white.  I use a quarter inch flat brush (it can be bigger depending on the size of the painting.) and take red and blue to create a dark purple.  I will scrub this color onto the page in small round circular motions.  I will never wash out my brush and I will continue by adding some yellow, scrubbing, add some red, scrub , add some blue, scrub, add some white....so on until the entire surface of my painting is covered with beautiful nebulae gasses.  the white and yellow make lighter areas where stars a...

Well I noticed that the theme of my book was getting really dark so I needed to change to something a little more upbeat.  what could be more upbeat than glitter and a unicorn?  I wanted to make myself "sick" with happiness!  lol.  I collect glitter.  I always grew up believing that glitter should never go into serious works of art, but in the current culture of the art world...anything goes!  I used the gems from fingernail art I found at the dollar store, glitters and rhinestones.  I use E600 to attach my glitter and gems.  I have found that regular glue just doesn't hold up to the constant hands that want to rub across the page.  I spread it on with a recycled gift card.  I also fringed the edge of my page with decorative duct tape.  This page seems to be a favorite among my students.  At that age anything gross and glittery seems to make them happy! I was able to find paperclips that were in the shape of a castle and a ...

I constantly come across great images.  illustrations in old books that the librarian discards, glamor magazines, newspapers and even those local magazines that have adds will have clever images that are great for telling your story.  For this page, I had one of my "sink paintings".  I also had a giant pair of lips from a lipstick ad.  the librarian threw away books on different Victorian era writers that had some great illustrations of Death, cemeteries and ghost.  It was natural to just paint a Dia de los Muertos skull in the middle of it all.  I have a plastic drawer system that I keep images in as I find them.  Most of the time, I will go ahead and fussy cut them so that I can assemble the page beautifully. There is no way to just sit down and create a page by looking in magazines when you want something.  you have to think ahead and collect images and items that speak to you.  Then, the page pretty much creates itself from what you have....

I've always been intrigued by the things that people throw away.  For years, I've stooped over and picked up random colored objects and put them into my art.  For this page, I put a box on the corner of my desk and had my students put all of their gum and candy foils into the box.  After about a month, I had so many beautiful shiny foils.  I tore them so that you could still see some of the page between the pieces and so that they would look more random.  I used tacky glue so that none of the pieces would come off later. ( A little tip; use an old gift card to spread your glue.  The glue cleans off of the card easily when dry and leaves a very thin layer of glue that will make anything stick completely.)  After the page was dry, I used a sharpie to doodle all over the page.  I believe this one is the only page that does not have any words or journaling.

While working on my book, my students get to see my process and can ask why I make the decisions I do when putting together my artwork.  In my art 1 class, I had a ninth grade boy who probably needed some straight talk.  He's that kid that says the inappropriate things and other kids either egg on or look down on.  Of course, in my classroom the rule of thumb is "Vegas".  "What happens in Jowers' room, stays in Jowers' room".  It creates a safe space to explore creative ideas and thoughts.  We will call this student Nick.  Nick saw my book and said "you should do a page on wounds ."  My first thought was..."what the heck does that mean?" and then I told him to bring me 5 images that represent his concept and I would see what I could do.  I really didn't think he would take the effort to follow thru with his comment.  Three days later, he brought me an image of a cadusas, the doctor, the red cross, a bone and the syringe.  He also ...

It seems lately, especially as a teacher, I'm not allowed to voice my opinion on things because it "might hurt someone's feelings".  It doesn't change the fact that I still have those feelings and need to deal with them.  My school has had three suicides in the last year.  These kids were unlikely possible candidates...top of the class, scholarships to college, good families.  People cared for these kids but for what ever reason, these young people made the fatal choice.  I cant even tell you about the five or six who I personally know that were not successful with their attempt.  It makes me seethe with anger at their selfishness...yes, I know how unpopular that opinion is.  I still have to deal with it. for this page, I came across a poem on facebook that really shook me.  the voice of the poem is from the person who committed suicide.  I needed my page to be grungy but not gory.  I scribbled in pencil all over my page. (emulating th...