Achy Hearts Make Weird Art Zines

Eek! I've been meaning to write this post for two months! Back in the spring I made some new zines and I'm just now getting around to writing a post about it! This series is one that I'm calling Achy Hearts Make Weird Art. Last year I carried around index cards and any time I had a feeling that needed to be processed I made a little doodle. After awhile I had accumulated a bunch of drawings and grouped ones together that seemed to fit. I ended up with two different themes. The first one is all the drawings I made when I was trying to figure out my anxiety. Lots of tears, medication tests and ultimately acceptance that this is me and thats pretty cool. This one is full of mixed media goodness!

The second ended up being all the little nostalgic doodles I made when my old childhood home was being sold. It was a lot more to process than I ever thought it would be. I got to have a lot of little nostalgic feelings in the middle of being disappointed and questioning relationships. Overall just a huge ball of emotional mess. BUT I think the zine turned out kinda nice! My favorite part about this zine is people sharing their own childhood home stories! Its lovely how we all grew up somewhere and have this common thread. I adore connections that remind us we're all human. 

If you'd like a copy of either of these lil' emotional zines hit me up at remikeahi@gmail.com!

Lino Cut Prints!

Last month when Zoei and I were exploring the art store I picked up a 4X6 linoleum block! I haven't done one of these carvings in YEARS! Print making is one of my all time favorite mediums. I'm hoping to do a whole block printed zine, but figured I should start simple since its been so long. The photo above you can see my process prints! The first one is always rough and then I know where I need to clean up from there. I could probably still clean it up a bit but I like a bit of messy spots left behind. Block printing always has such a distinct choppy, splotchy feel to it and I prefer to leave some of that in. Plus you kinda get to a point where you want to be done! Or at least I do.

I made some collage backgrounds to lay my block print on top of in my normal mixed media fashion.

Why keep it simple when you can mush all the things together! I love the textures of these backgrounds and I'm going though a hardcore ocher yellow summer phase. My plan is to do a few more of these and send out at postcards. I'm mostly curious as to how well a print will survive in the post. I have a varnish spray I use to set it but who knows what happens in the postal process!

The last time I did a lino cut I was in college! I kept having these swelling feelings of nostalgia. I have so many insecure feelings about dropping out of art school. During this carving process made me think about my past self a lot. I've changed a lot and not at all in some ways. Getting to process some of those feelings though being creative was really refreshing if not a little bit sad. (not like sad sad but good sad) I wish I knew where my life is going. Seems like once I have a direction everything changes and I know nothing all over again. Maybe one day I'll figure it out. Until then I suppose I'll keep creating! 

New Blog Layout!

I updated my blog layout! I mostly did out of necessity. The original hosting site I was using left watermarks all over my images. So it seemed about time that I update it all! I was looking up all the old saved images and realized that I made my other layout in 2015! That seems like ages ago! This layout is much more simple than my last one. I didn't do any extra fancy bits and got rid of stuff that seemed unnecessary. The ipad made making all these new illustrations super easy! I ended up making two headers but opted for the sidebar image instead of the banner style. BUT I really enjoyed how the banner turned out and wanted to share it!

Year after year I blog less and less. I continually put less pressure on myself which ultimately wanes my motivation. With this new update I feel refreshed and excited to get posting some more. This summer has been good to my creativity and leaves me with lots to share! I just need to get more organized.

June Art Journal

I've had the notification on my to do list to write this post all week. I suppose now it the time to clear that notification! Seems like time has been slipping through my hands, but more importantly I've been letting it. Normally this makes me feel supremely guilty but lately I've decided to not beat myself up about it. Within these moment of contentment in my choices I've accomplished a little bit of art journaling. I didn't have too much to journal about in the month of June (or July so far) which is mostly because I'm letting myself be a hermit crab. I pleased with the way last months journal turned out. I did a bunch of little (and big) illustrations which was a nice change of pace! I think July's journal is going to be more inky and messy! I love a bit of mess.