shipping.....

woohooo, the first printing of Portals v6 Zine is HERE!! I am so over the moon excited. They are beautiful and will knock your socks off. This issue is full of goodness, 44 pages to be exact!
I will be addressing and mailing off all the pre-orders this week to arrive in time for Christmas (at least in the US). There are still plenty available to order, they'd make great stocking stuffers or a sweet treat for yourself. Imagine kicking back, relaxing with cup of cocoa and diving into 44 full color pages of artsy goodness!!

PRESALE Portals Zine Issue # 6 : Art Journals

The new issue is up for presale! w00t, w00t! :)

Willowing

I came across Tamara Laporte recently on YouTube -she posts some really fun art videos that you can view here. She also keeps a lovely website. We've asked her to share a little about herself in our first artist spotlight. Look for more of her work in the upcoming issue! Enjoy!

5 Things I Can't Live Without...

Well, of course there isn't really anything that I can't live without apart from oxygen, water and food I suppose! ;)

But to name 5 things I really really love in life and could almost not live without:

1. My partner Andy (awww), he's simply one of the most amazing creatures I've ever had the pleasure to meet and be with.
2. My laptop/ an internet connection; I love creating and sharing my creations with the world. I've found the internet a wonderful place for sharing, connection and community.
3. My art supplies and art inspiration! Creating art works are deeply therapeutic to me, I immensely enjoy the creation process and looking at what other people create!
4. The teachings of Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie and Marshall Rosenberg. They help me put everything in perspective. It's the waking up while already being awake.
5. Humour. Laughing is like medicine. I particularly enjoy comedy that makes fun of the supposedly serious things in life.

On My Work Table Today...

On my work table today you can find a big huge incredible mess of stuff! Ha ha. There is a variety of brushes, paints, crayons, sewing materials like felt, cotton, safety eyes, big bags of polyfill, tissues, gouache paints, pens, pencils, sticky tape, the list is endless and oh my god I simply MUST tidy my work table! ;)

Favorite Art Things Today...

I have monster puppet plans, they are brooding … and I have plans for a new large mixed media canvas painting which will involve a scene with a cliff, a little house and two girls on a boat. I was dreaming about it last night actually! Additionally, I'm hoping to create a small stuffed toy tonight, with cute little beady eyes!

Tam loves drawing girls with pink hair, seahorses, giraffes, and swirly, twirly trees. She studied music and art in Holland for a while before running off to London where she developed her photography skills. She spent 10 years in London before moving to Sri Lanka for 2.5 years. It was there where her love for art journaling blossomed. Her art became increasingly more mixed media, messy, complicated and layered which is how she likes it now. At present she is a student of non-violent communication and lives with her partner, the magical Andy, in Brighton, England where she creates mixed media art daily. She likes pink bubblegum, avocados, humour and kindness. Oh, and she recently started making puppets, art dolls and monsters!

"Issue #6..." Art Journals" is filled with the things we love right now. We have included many inspirational journal pages from some of our favorite art journalers along with tutorials and sparks to help you delve into your journal. In addition we have TWO featured artists and the usual favorites... Q/A, Artist's Challenge, book reviews, and more. PLUS all issues of Portals Zine will come with a free font download created JUST for Portals readers!!"

Interested in advertising in this issue? Go here for specifics.

Issue 6 : Art Journals

Just a reminder, today is the last day to get your art journal pages in for the gallery! This is going to be my favorite issue to date and I hope you'll be a part of it! :) Artwork submission guidelines can be found here.

Adventures in Dorkdom

Both Joleen and I thought it had been a little quiet around the Portals camp (email box) the last couple of weeks, especially when we have emailed so many of the artists we admire to submit artwork for he upcoming issue. Regular checking of the mailboxes was yielding nothing and then Joleen realized that we had not received any new mail since mid month. She texted me in a panic that even emails she sent were not arriving. When I got home last night, I started checking out all the aspects of the mailbox. Paid up? yes. active? yes. cache cleared? yes. Then for grins and giggles I clicked on the BULK file and voila! All of our missing emails from the last two weeks. I guess I had set the filters too high and it was weeding everything into Bulk Mail ( even us!) after some laughter and many sighs of relief, we are back to processing the submissions that have come in. So inspiring.

If you haven't sent anything in yet, please do! There is still a bit of time and we can squeeze you in. Cheers!

Art Journal Playshops With Suzi Blu

Hello, hello! You're going to be seeing much more action around here. ;) I'd like to feature interviews with artists, videos, tutorials, favorites, reviews, challenges, swaps, and guest bloggers. Sound fun? I'd love to hear your ideas on what you'd like to see around here or really in the zine itself!

I just found a super fun artist named Suzi Blu. She posts the most inspiring videos and if you have a while.. or an hour or two.. take a look! She keeps a blog, too!

We are still accepting submissions for our current issue of Portals Zine: Art Journals.

Send in your Art...

As always, we are looking for your beautiful and inspiring artwork to fill our gallery section. Please consider sending in photos of your journal pages and art journals for our consideration. You can see our submission guidelines on this page.
Artwork is due by November 1 to be considered. :)