Rae Missingham taught this week’s Life Book lesson. I’ve admired her work for a couple of years now. I’ve always been in awe of her mark making and seeming ease with abstracts, so I was stoked to find out she was the featured artist this week.
Rae’s Noteworthy Style
Rae has a very distinct style which I was first exposed to in Documented Life Project last year. If you aren’t familiar with her work, here’s one of her journal pages I pinned on Pinterest that I consider typical of her style. She works with vibrant colors, includes a lot of mark making, typically features flowers, and always has a sketchy scallop edge somewhere.
Additionally, Rae often includes a lot of sewing into her projects. This sample doesn’t showcase that, but if you visit her blog, you can see she teaches courses on the subject. Although I have a sewing machine, I rarely turn it on. I was very daunted by the portion of the lesson that included sewing even though it is intended to be very free form and imperfect. I even texted my sister, “I’m kind of nervous about the sewing part, but I can’t really screw it up.” Despite that self-assurance, I still haven’t been brave enough to give it a go. Hopefully I’ll update this post with a finished piece that includes some thread after I feel ready. Silly, but that’s the way it is 🙂
My Process
As I consider mark making to be a weakness in my art, I was very excited to add some of Rae’s art journaling techniques to my bag of art tricks. Here’s how the process unfolded for me starting with the base layer and then building up with color and stencils. Don’t be fooled by the stamp that looks like sewn thread.
My Takeaway
And in the end, I was so very pleased with the depth and mark making that her lesson pulled from me. I even decided to use the phrase “Make Your Mark” as the message of the piece. I feel like I made some real progress on learning to make my mark; however, I clearly need to work on my courage when it comes to the sewing part. **Update: I finally braved the sewing machine! I love what it added — one question though, what do you guys do with the threads after you cut the paper loose from the sewing machine?
About Life Book
I have been enjoying Life Book so much this year. I’m really glad that I signed up and even more glad that I’ve remained committed. If you’ve been thinking about signing up for Life Book, but wondering if it’s worth the money — it is. It’s an amazing amount of information with exposure to so many different artists, styles, and media.
