Author: Ingrid Murray

Ingrid is an American self-taught mixed media artist and art journaler living and working in Germany. This website is human-generated.

Buried the Lede

Open mixed media art journal. A layer of collage is covered with frantic marks in pink, black, and white. Most of the background shows through.

From this quarter’s newsletter:

While the beginning of the year felt impossibly long, I’m frankly a bit stunned that we’re already here, mid-March, nearly a quarter of the way through 2024. Spring, though, is my favorite season and I’m working hard to stay present, appreciate the small things (like bees and blossoms and sunbeams), take deep breaths, and make the most of the here and now.

Also — my Etsy shop is open, nearly 10 years after my last sale! I’m offering a few mixed media works on paper and, for the first time, small handbound art journals completely filled with original mixed media.

Published

January Mixed Media Art Showcase

I am currently showing mixed media art in the window of Atelier No. 5 in Cologne, Germany through the end of January. There’s something for everyone: larger pieces on canvas, wood panels, and paper, as well as smaller, more affordable pieces on paper (not shown here).

Square mixed media abstract piece. The primary colors are shades of turquoise, black, and yellow, with accents of white and neon pink.
“Delight Me”
Square mixed media abstract piece. The primary colors are black, orange, white, and blue, with accents of lime green and fuchsia.
“Clown Car”
Square mixed media abstract piece. The primary colors are black, shades of pink, and blue, with accents of white and lime green.
“All the Good Things”
Square mixed media abstract piece. The primary color is black, with accents of pink, blue, white, and lime green in the bottom right and top left quadrants.
“Flowers/Fireworks”
Mixed media abstract piece. A white background is topped with energetic brush strokes and splatter in black, lime green, blue, neon pink, and white.
Hurry I
Mixed media abstract piece. A white background is topped with energetic brush strokes and splatter in black, lime green, blue, neon pink, and white.
Hurry II

Details of the above, in order:

  • “Delight Me”: mixed media on wood, 12×12 in (30.5×30.5 cm), 175€
  • “Clown Car”: mixed media on wood 12×12 in(30.5×30.5 cm), 175€
  • “All the Good Things”: mixed media on canvas, ca. 16×16 in (41×41 cm), 200€
  • “Flowers/Fireworks”: mixed media on canvas, ca. 16x16in (41×41 cm), 200€
  • “Hurry I-II”: Mixed media on paper, 8.3×11.7 in (21×29.7 cm) 90€ each

If you’re in the area, come by! If you’re not in the area, stay tuned—I’m going to a post-show sale for the first time in over a decade. (Eek!)

Published

Things of Note, 2023

A 4x5 grid of photos of nature, art, travel, and a cat.

This year was hard. From my newsletter: “As a whole, [2023] was a one of wild — and often painful — growth. Though I’m happy to have it nearly behind me, I do appreciate the lessons it reinforced: community is everything; joy is everywhere; art is central to my well-being; and I am, unquestionably, loved.”

  • Navigating the complexities of moving to Germany. Celebrating our first anniversary alone and getting a visa in the same week. England and a lawyer. Early mornings on the train and a thick pink folder with all the documents. Receiving, finally, my residency permit. Learning the subway stations by heart.
  • A clean bill of health, again — something I’ll never not be grateful for.
  • Growing my art practice. Hanging a piece at Out of Order. Messy May. Joining a studio and selling my work. The Kindred Collective. Joining the Get Messy teaching team for 2024. Late nights painting and listening to audiobooks.
  • Seeking community. Game days. All the dogs at the Ministry of Brewing. New tattoos. A week with mom in spring. The Social Melting Pot. El Jem. Awkward first friend dates. Drinks and Mexican food and Weihnachtmärkte and the Thermalbad. Düsseldorf and Bonn; cookies in camping chairs. Barbecues. A visit from Kris.
  • A hot, hot summer. Days on the Rhine. Pasta salad. Naps with ice packs. Florence with E. Layers of art and history. Wine and pasta and limoncello with a new Israeli friend.
  • Moving, twice. Purging everything and seeing my things distributed among loved ones. Saying goodbye to a favorite home, sunbeams, and all my routines. Later, months of apartment hunting; a final, slow move just before the end of the year.
  • Practicing self care: the Lewis Museum, a luxurious bath, books, the Santa Clause, puzzles.
  • Surviving. Cat fights and real fights. Missing home and friendly faces. Exhaustion. Gloomy days and gloomy moods. Two trips to Tunisia. Sarcasm and frayed nerves and bed at dinnertime.
  • Going back home: kitties and kombucha and game day and the ER and puzzles and Chipotle. Dutch Blitz. Target and Savers. Texts and calls and The Mysteries. Being reminded, again and again, of how loved I am, and how missed.

Past year reflections.

Published

Hawaii & Iceland Art Journals

While I post my art journal pages regularly on my Instagram, I realized I haven’t shared a dedicated art post here in months. (Can I blame it on all this change?!)

At the end of April, I finished up my Hawaii art journal, named — like those from the past few years — for the atlas page on its cover. In July, I finally filmed a flip through:

Each art journal usually takes about three months to complete. Since joining the studio, though, the process has actually slowed as I figure out the logistics of how to create regularly in a dedicated space that is not in my home.

I’m just a few pages shy of completing my newest journal, Iceland, which will mark about three years of working in this size and style of handmade journal. Take a look at some of my recent art journal pages:

Published

Growing Pains

An art journal lying flat on a white background. The cover is an atlas page of one of the Hawaiian islands; the edges of colorful pages are visible.

From my fall 2023 newsletter:

I’ve been reminded again and again these past few months of how messy life is. How infinitely complex humans are. How none of us truly know what we’re doing, but we’re doing it anyway. (Go us.) And how art and friends and pets and glimmers help us through, one day at a time.

Read the full thing here.

Published