Simple Shapes: bar soap on black gesso with colored pencils

My favorite flower from the years we lived on Cape Cod.

A simple way to capture the essence of a memory is to use the edge of a bar of soap to draw the bold shape onto black paper (or black gesso coated on a journal page) of something symbolic of a person, place, or event. Cover the entire page with colored pencils, and better quality pencils will generate the boldest colors upon completion of the technique. After the page is completely colored over, you will rinse off the soap under running water. If you are using a single piece of black art paper this is easy-peasy. If you are doing this in your art journal on black gessoed pages is it a little trickier because you need to protect the rest of the book. Fold wax paper on the pages immediately before and after and insert a paper towel for good measure. Get the tap running and quickly run the artwork back-and-forth under the running water. DO NOT rub the art or more of the pencil will wash away.

A favorite flowering bush (hydrangea); this has not been rinsed.

 Remove the protective inserts and barely blot the wet page with paper towels. Use a hair drier to completely dry the art.

My mother once said when she visited us that "the only thing you can see is trees." When I visited Cape Cod after having been away for several years I realized that she was exactly right! This simple image captures the view of trees on Route 3 from Logan Airport down to the Cape...tail lights and trees all the way. Nothing else!

Notice the protective pages added before rinsing in tap water.

This needs to be done very quickly to avoid spoiling other pages.

The rinsed page.

Black Gesso and Soap with Colored Pencils

 One of my favorite art techniques combines black gesso, white soap, and colored pencils. Leave a few "exposed words" and coat the rest of the two-page-spread with two coats of black gesso. Once dry, decorate the pages using the corner of a white bar of soap-like the mini bars you get at a hotel. Then completely cover the entire spread with colored pencils. I generally use several layers and colors.

You will see portions of the soap design when you are done with the colored pencils. Put a piece of wax paper topped with a sheet of paper toweling between the pages before and after the black gesso & soap pages. Then, quickly run the completed journal pages under running water to rinse off the soap. Blot gently with paper toweling. Check other pages for possible water damage-blow dry with hair dryer.

Quickly run the completed journal pages under running water to rinse off the soap.

 
The completed (wet) piece (left and below) includes the strong black lines where the soap was with the vibrant colors of the pencils. 

The Power of Preaching

 Cover a journal page with black gesso; allow to dry (or force dry) and write on the gesso using the edge of a white bar of soap (left) and then color over the entire page using colored pencils (Prismacolor work the best). I had taken a workshop on preaching where the professor asked participants to name what we liked about the actual action of preaching. In other words: why preach? I created this reflection piece which names my experience of preaching (below).

 Cover the entire piece with colored pencils-coloring over/across the soap lines. Generally this technique is done on black art paper and NOT in a journal because the final step is to put the paper under running water and rinse off the soap, which, of course, can damage other pages in a bound journal. Because I have damaged pages in journals rinsing the book directly under the tap, I thought it might work to take damp paper towel and gently remove the soap. It became evident that it was NOT the same! It rubbed off the pencil (below). I stopped wiping as soon I realized the damage I had been doing.

 I remarked the soap on the same lines I had previously drawn, reworked with the same color pencils, and put the reworked pages under the kitchen sink so the tap water rinsed off the soap. It takes a lot of paper towels to mop up the pages in front and behind, but it is one of my favorite art techniques and worth the mess/risk.

The Great Divide

"The Great Divide" is my theological reflection in an altered book art journal from my two week vacation to Los Cabos. I spent a day at Mision Alfa y Omega in one of the barrios. As we were leaving I noticed something that I had not realized in previous visits to this same location: it is possible to visually see the resorts areas from the barrios in Los Cabos, Mexico; yet the barrios are a world apart. One of the great barriers is language. English is the dominant langauge for the Cabo tourist areas, but persons born into abject poverty have limited opportunities to learn English as a second language.  It can be spiritually and emotionally draining to flip-flop between the affluence of the tourist district and the poverty of the barrios. I created "The Great Divide" as a way to process the stark contrast between the two worlds.

I chose a few words to leave exposed and then painted black gesso on two pages of my altered book art journal. Then I drew a representation of the barrios on the bottom half and the resort area on the top. They are separated by a wide line that represents the main street in the tourist district.


I used colored pencils to color all but the black "street" and the words.



Quickly and carefully rinse off the soap. Blot with paper towels to dry.

What's Happening Here?

Reflecting theologically involves a back-and-forth movement between listening and questioning. The aim of listening is to truly hear and receive the message, and the goal of questioning is honesty. Adding art to the process of theological reflection provides a visual outlet for listening and questioning. Such a conversation is important on an ongoing basis through life. In addition, whenever one completes a significant project or phase of life, it is particularly helpful to pause and spend extra time thinking theologically to discern the significance of the completion and next steps for what might be ahead. Slowing down and reflecting theologically is particularly helpful following the death of a close family member or friend, after a divorce, when the first or last child moves out of the house, when a spouse is serving overseas in the military, or following any major life transition. After I completed my PhD in theology, I began such a period of thoughtful reflection about the early years of being organizing pastor of a new church. Church planting had occurred simultaneously with working on my PhD so there had been little spare time to pause and reflect on what exactly had been happening during the first four years of the church plant. My PhD graduation was the catalyst to pause and reflect. I created a two-volume journal on the ministry, mission, worship, and community connections of Community Fellowship. The goal was to highlight key moments in the early life of the church plant and to reflect theologically asking, "What is happening here?" We had a series of baptisms during the spring and summer of 2012 which were inspirational to the congregation and the pastor for the affirmation of the movement of the Holy Spirit and the presence of God. The images below right are transfers of B&W photos onto watercolor paper in a spiral journal. I dropped out the grey tones of the B&W photo using a simple photo application in PowerPoint and then partially colored the images using watercolors.  I used homemade and purchased rubber stamps to embellish and tell the story. The image bottom left is black gesso painted on watercolor with the words and image drawn using a bar of soap. The paper was completely covered with colored pencils in varying shades of blue and then the page was lightly washed under running water so the soap disappeared and the black lines emerged. The net feeling experienced during the art of theological reflection was JOY!