It Feels So Good!





I have waited so many years to finally be able to focus on my art. It feels so good! There were years spent soley on the raising of my children, or simply saving pennies for the 'necessities' of life. There were years where I focused on my ebay business, and at least another year exploring collage and altered art. There was always something that precluded me from taking the steps. Including self doubt, and the feeling of guilt in spending time to myself.

In Monica's class I feel free to expose myself and let it flow. It is a little scary, and very exciting. I have always enjoyed sketching, and now I finally have a class that is helping me to refine my skills so I can improve. I am loving it. There is still much practise ahead for me, but it is not so hard when you like what you are doing, and when you are seeing results.




This is my art book. I found some wonderful links on youtube.com that can teach you how to put one of your own together. This one is made using a re-purposed composition book. Inside each of the pages are made from manilla folders. I can't show you what I am making inside yet, because I am not finished with my first pair of pages. But, I can tell you that it is a great book for practise and for experimenting. Hence, my title, "Transformation." There is something to doing the art you feel inside that somehow transforms the way you look at everything. Try it for yourself. It feels so good!!!!

You gotta check it out!

Well, I have to share a special artist with you whom I have recently become acquianted with. She is Monica Zuniga. She is a professional artist, and I have had the good fortune to stumble upon her work and discover that she has some amazing classes that she is offering through ning. If you love to paint and draw, love to have a social network and support group, love to learn and share tips and techniques...then you gotta stop by and visit.

Monica is not only beautiful on the outside, yes, she is gorgeous and talented, but she has such a lovely soul, and her classes and her demonstrations are very clear and easy to follow.

I hope you will join me in one of the most exciting art journeys I've taken in a while!

Just click on the link below, and follow your heart....
ooooxxxx


Visit Hands and Heart

What a FUN hot mess!

Oh...you have no idea how much fun this is if you haven't tried it.




I pulled out my art stuff this morning and just decided to play with a pile of Kraft paper I've had for ages. It's sort of like paper bag sheets. You could also do this with paper bags from the store too, I'm sure.





I really didn't have a whole lot of intentional plans with this, except to get full of paint, which I did very successfully! My fingers are a mess, my work table is a mess, but I had so much fun creating these backgrounds!




There is a very anal side to my personality, and that means that I have to have my journal backgrounds ready to go for when I feel like playing in my art journal, otherwise the plain, glaring, blank page scares the poop out of me.




Today I decided to prepare these pages first, work on them when I feel like playing and then I'll sew them together to make a book out of them. Maybe I'll just do a journal of backgrounds! Who knows. But, you gotta try this if you haven't played this way before! It's like getting into the sandbox with a bucket of water and swishing into the mud before you've thought of all the cool things you can make with that mud...okay...gotta clean up and get on with the mundane stuff of life. Play time for me is over for now... Ciao!

"Tears of Joy"

This work in progress represents the comfort of having our tears shared with others. Tears of joy, sadness, frustration, and excitement.




Oh My Goodness! I've jumped into the pool of on-line workshops, classes, and social networks. There is a sea of opportunities out there to grow and share as an artist. Just as I was about to leap out of the water, overwhelmed by the expanse, I decided to take a slow deep breath, and step out so that I could remind myself of what I am trying to achieve. The biggest goal for me is the journey. I've wanted to expand as the artist I am, not the artist I want to change myself into.


This first painting above is one I started about a week ago. I was just playing on my own, just thinking about what came naturally, and I got some momentum. I started guiding myself, reassuring myself that all I needed to do was go with it. The original sketch came from my moleskine journal, which I practise in daily. It really helps if you have started a sketch book of your own. It works because you can relax when you draw, at least that's what I do, and the creative flow is more fluid when your relaxed. Plus it's fun because you can erase!

Here are my Moley sketches:












I have the really soft paged moleskine that I use for my sketches. Today I bought another moleskine that was smaller and had heavier pages so that I can paint in them. While I am starting two on-line art classes (one in June and one in July), I haven't yet found out what learning on-line will be like, I will have to post the artists' names from whom I'm taking the classes from. Of course I can't post what I learn there, because that wouldn't be fair to them. But, the point is that I am excited to try out this new avenue of class taking. I pretty certain though, that to enjoy art, you have to be honest with yourself and be yourself, reveal yourself. You really have to find your voice and it will mean a lot to you when it happens. You kind of get an "a-ha" moment, and it feels awesome.

The above sketches are all fun. I hoped that I could I just fly free, and I plan to work on more details in the cominig weeks. It's like opening a door, this process of creativity. You get over the threshold, and then the next step opens up and you just want to keep right on flying.

Happy Creating! oooxxx

Playtime again!





How many of us are creating for the pleasure and joy of it, and how many of us are creating as a means of income? For many, it's both. A lot of us have to support or suppliment our income in order to contine doing our craft. Since times are tough now, I know that change is inevitable. Some of it might be good, but it isn't that good if we have to give up doing what we love most to do...and that is to create. I think tough economic times are going to be with us for a while. Yes, I said it out loud. That's why we have to keep our eye on the ball.

It really doesn't matter what might be going on in your life. Do your creative work anyway. You may not be able to find as much time to do it as before , but adjust your reasons for creating and make something, I don't know, maybe for yourself! Art doesn't have to be beautiful, pretty, cute, enchanting, sweet, and adorable...all the time! I think that keeping an art journal is perfect for staying in touch with your creative spirit. It can be raw. It can be nasty, it can be angry too.

I made this little painting for me yesterday. I think it's the first thing I've ever made specifically for myself. And, I started cracking up at this face when I finished it because I thought, well, she looks like I feel today!

So I hope we all stick together and share, and support, uplift, and encourage each other not to lose our creative touch stones. I think that especially for us women folk (no offense to the guys) we need our creative outlet.

Happy creating!!!

What's in a face?




Humm....two eyes, a nose, a mouth, cheeks. But a better question is...what's in the expression? Some faces are blank, and seem to have no soul. Some look dreamy, and others look sad. But, if you draw a face right now, I will bet it will express exactly how you are feeling.

I was so tired last night, working on school projects with the kids, laundry, dishes, errands. I thought I would never get a chance to work in my sketch journal. But, I had just enough time to make this face, and I am so glad I did, because it showed me how I see faces, what I see in them, and how I was feeling when I drew it.

You think sometimes that the things you create don't matter, but they do. Even your mistakes, your experiments, and your do-overs. They are each little lessons, individual experiences. I keep mine now. I value them because I'm learning not to make perfection my goal. I know that the things we love the most are things that are not perfect. Why can't we just accept that in ourselves and not be so critical? I think I know why. I think it's because we are afraid that someone will see our flaws. Ha! Everybody else already does! They just don't remind us every minute about it, like we remind ourselves!

Perfection is not possible. If you strive to be perfect, all you'll achieve is a collection of re-do's, or a big trash pile. If you do altered art, you know that trash is really treasure, it's all in how you look at it. I think we should honor our reject pile!





My pile exists in this basket. I have a lot of old stuff and some new stuff in here, and I recycle it. There is always a use for this stuff!


Oh...and lookie!
My daughter's crane count is up to 16 now! Only 984 to go!

One Step Leads to Another





Don't you feel sometimes that as your trudging along through your life, that it is so easy to lose your feeling of purpose? Well, I do. It might be because, like me, you set your priorities in stone, and as you work, shop, cook, eat, sleep, and clean, you forget about the most important part of your life. The part where you feel, I mean really feel, like your alive! Why do we do that? Why do we forget to let our souls breathe? We make this and that and the other thing so important, and we don't give ourselves the permission to act like fools, and just BE the way we really feel inside. Children should be our teachers sometimes! They know how to live. We forget to celebrate our life, our purpose, our passion, our drive and our imagination. We just sort of lose our way.

(Journal Page)



Well, I don't want to do that! What fun is it to languish in the hum-drum? It isn't like you can't pick up where you left off. You once knew how to finger paint, and then run the paint down your apron, and on your cheeks. You once knew how to lick your fingers, as your ice cream cone melted down your hand. You remember. You can get up right now and do the thing that makes you feel like you can breathe. Whatever it is, you have to do it. You have to do it because nobody will tell you that it is that important. Only you can tell yourself.

(Journal Page)



So, I am making this little painting here, and I didn't know what it was going to be until I started working on it, and then it hit me on the head like a ton of bricks! ONE STEP LEADS TO ANOTHER. There are no leaps! There are steps, and sometimes steps turn into leaps but they start out as a step. We step off of a cliff, we step off of a ledge, we step onto a path, we step because it's a pace that makes us feel safe; from there, who knows? But it all starts with a step. I am thinking, why don't you step along with me? I'm serious. Go right now from your computer and start on something you really want to do. Start!





It's weird. I was thinking these things and putting my own preaching to practise and out of the blue, my daughter shows me what her new "project" is. She is going to make a thousand cranes! Yes, she is. She said her wish will come true after she makes a thousand. And, what do you know...it starts with a single step: Making the first crane. How interesting!!!




Steps. I think they are such special things.

I Got a Moley!!!







Well, I absolutely love my Moley. Many of you know Suziblu and if you don't, you absolutely must visit her and learn about her philosophies on art and life. She is a unique spirit, and I promise you she will inspire you and make you smile! Suzi unwittingly talked me into getting myself a moley.

And so, my adventure begins. I bought my Moleskine book, excited over the prospects of what I might create with it. I purchased it at Barnes and Noble, and it is super cool!






Here are my beginning sketches:

I played with faces and worked on these sketches over the course of two evenings. I just kept working on them, going on to another sketch, and then coming back.




This is my garden page in progress. Working in the moley is like tending to a garden. I can always revisit the pages and develop them over time. No pressure!









More creations that started from my sketches:

Little Pearl Diver




Cheshire Cat