Brave Girls Club, The Walk: Lesson One

Today I finished up the art portion of Lesson One. Without tormenting you with too much detail, this lesson sets the stage for the rest of the course. We did some work on what we want in our lives versus what we don't want in our lives. I think it was an important lesson, but I'm glad to have it "in the books" because it really had me thinking about a lot of different parts of my life. There are so many people that we interact with in life, isn't it interesting how many different "types" of relationships we all have?  Well, anyhow, here's my work from today. It isn't in the actual class journal yet, we're doing that in the next lesson, I think!

a work of heart and art

There comes a point in every artist's explorations where you want to try a new technique or you want to spend time uninterrupted, in an environment that isn't your home, with people, instead of in the vacuum of your own space. Really There does.

Well for me, there does.

I have a friend, Andrea Chebeleau, who owns "A Work of Heart." A Work of Heart is a fabulous, amazing little art studio in Willow Glen.  You can go there and rent space by the hour, and work on anything! You can take classes there to learn new techniques, and you can even get one-on-one mentoring from Andrea on techniques. It is the best place. 

Last summer, I had a well known artist friend come to spend the day with me. After arranging time in the studio with Andrea, I surprised my friend with the studio time. I kid you not when I say that she stood in the middle and said "Whoa. Wow. Really? All for me? I can... I can create just for me? Not for someone else? I can play?" My heart sang when I heard this, because, clearly, I had given my friend a precious gift. She had unfettered creating time, with no boundaries or deadlines. Imagine how excited she must have been!  We only stayed a few hours but it was peaceful, quiet, relaxing and centering time, with two artists, in a studio, surrounded by every art supply you could imagine, creating. These words were "leftovers" from a projec that Andrea teaches, and I just was struck at how gorgeous they were, just sitting there. This is the LEFTOVERS! You should see the actual project! (no, I didn't take a photo, I feel weird taking photos of art in someone's business!)

I'm telling you this because I am starting to realize that places like A Work of Heart need us. We need to go to them on a regular basis, find time, make time, and create there. I learn new things every time I go there, and I see new projects that I want to make and new techniques that I want to try. It is so cool! Besides that, it's always awesome to support local businesses and other crafters! It makes me feel good to go there and support Andrea. I don't get there enough, to be honest, because I'm too busy, but I'm going to make it a priority to get there more this year! If you want to join me, drop me a note, or let Andrea know and she'll get us hooked up on a day! 

Do you have a studio in your neighborhood or town? If not, do you need to even allocate time to spend in your own studio? How about inviting a friend over to try something new? Hmmm? Give it a try. You might love what happens.

terrific tuesday-"The Walk" begins!

Today is a special day, unlike any other Tuesday. Today is the start of a class I have feel like I have waited years to take! 

Yes, that's right, it's a new Brave Girls Club class. It's called The Walk. Here's a link to the description and a short video at the Brave Girls Club website. Be sure to watch the video!

http://bravegirlsclub.com/walk

What I find with Melody's classes is that, whether you are an artist, a crafter, or just want to improve yourself, these classes provide the right level of tools to make you a success. Melody teaches some basic painting and collaging skills, using simple tools like Mod Podge, credit cards, and 3 for $1 craft paint. 

Anyone can use these tools, and make beautiful "art" that will support the class work. I remember the first time I signed up for a class, I thought "wow, what's with all the art? I'm either working on me or working on art" but you know what? When you create something, be it complicated or simple, you use a different part of your brain. This frees up the cognitive side of your brain to analyze the class content, while you are simply performing the task of gluing down phrases or painting a quick background. It always amazes me the depth of learning that I get from this simple process. I wish someone would use this in ordinary school environments, I'd love to know if it works! 

This particular class will also incorporate a lot of hand journaling. I don't do a lot of written journals, typically, (and when I do they are often in my art journal and covered over so no one can see them!) so this will be a real exercise for me. I'm actually looking forward to it! I think the last time I rigorously journaled was at Brave Girls Camp, so it will be good to get back into my words and explore what's in my heart right now. 

The Walk is a class about our journey in life. If it is anything like Melody Ross's other classes that I have taken, it will be spectacular. I am giddy for it to be time for the class links to be posted, which happens at 12 Mountain today!  

Just so you know, there is a LOT of information that gets shared in these classes, but it is released in bi-weekly installments so that you can take your time, digest the information and still have time to do the coursework thoroughly before the next lesson. This works really well for me. My typical approach is to watch videos on Tuesday (release day), then I kind of let them roll around in my head. If they are too tempting to wait, I might start doing something on Wednesday, but usually it's Thursday by the time I decide I'm ready to get painty and inky. I will start and stop and so on until I finally complete the lesson. Sometimes the lessons are really hard-- they make you look at things in your life that might not be the most pleasant, but as the class progresses, you will find that everything gets lighter and you will make huge life progress if you really focus and stick with the class. 

If you are interested in taking this class, you will be able to sign up for a month after the class starts. Please consider it and please join me. Oh and hey, if you are already taking the class, and find, after a lesson or two, that you are lagging, shoot me an email and I'll try to help you get on track! That's what we brave girls do-- we stick together and do difficult things! :) 

Make it a great day!

birthing a vision board

Chances are, you've heard of the term "vision board" in some way, either on  Facebook, in a seminar, or from a friend.
If you haven't, let me take a second to explain. A vision board, quite simply, is a collage of words and images that contain things that you want to attract to your life. For example, if you wanted to travel more, you might select a photo of Hawaii, and collage the word travel onto your board. If you didn't know you wanted to go to Hawaii, you might just put travel. Repeating the theme puts a stronger feel to it. By the laws of attraction, anything you put on the vision board will manifest in your life, so choose carefully. Make it good stuff! Have fun with it.
For me, this year, I'm just starting my vision board. I am not sure yet if I will share it on  my blog, but I will explain how I'm going about preparing it. For the past couple of weeks, I've been going through magazine after magazine, cutting out words and phrases. My boards usually have a lot of words and maybe a couple of pictures, if any. I like the mystery of discovery. I like knowing what I want, but not necessarily knowing exactly what it looks like.
I've done a few of these in the past, but I haven't been religious about it. I'm about to become a whole lot more disciplined. The other day, I came across my first one and realized I had the word travel over and over and over on it. Looking back, I created that vision board the year before I started traveling to Mississippi for a job. That same year, I also traveled to Idaho for Brave Girls Camp, as well as a couple of other places. Until the other day, that vision board was still hanging next to my bed. In the past 3 years, I have traveled to Mississippi, Rhode Island, Idaho and Oregon. My vision board has held true. Some of the other things on it I'm still working on, but I am making forward motion.
If you want to try to make your own vision board, there are lots of classes online, or, like me, you can run with scissors and make your own!

1. Find magazines like O, Self, Woman's World and First work best. I have had a small amount of success with people, and moderate success with Cosmopolitan. (Ok, that one could have had some fun!) 
2. Get scissors and go through the pages, cutting out whatever phrases or words strike my fancy. I put all of the phrases and words into a bin to keep them together.
3. Prepare a canvas, I usually use a 12x12. I paint the background whatever color speaks to me. It doesn't have to be one color, you can just splash some paint on any old way.
4. Using Mod Podge or Matte Medium and whatever brush you have handy, start collaging. For me, I try not to think. I try to let things fall where they will and assume that's wehre they belong. You may want to carefully plan out your vision board, instead. I also put phrases and words on the sides, where I know they are there, but the casual observer might miss them.

Once you finish and your board is dry, I like to hang it someplace where I see it when I wake up in the morning. This way, I have a constant reminder of what I'm reaching for and wanting more of in my life.
What do you say? Want to make a vision board this weekend? Let me know how it goes!

practice....

I had an interesting conversation with a friend a few days ago. It is a photographer friend, and he sent me a link to a very good article about practicing and exploring. In the article, the author spoke about photographing a mailbox for an assignment, and having to take 35 photos of the mailbox, all different in the quest for that perfect perspective. It was a great article that got me to thinking.

Have you ever read The Artist's Way? I have started the journey so many times, and stalled... But, even with not really finishing, I have learned a great deal.

For instance, a few years ago, I set out to learn to draw faces. I just wanted to. No particular reason, it just sounded interesting. I took a few online courses, did some reading, bought a nice mechanical pencil, and started. Tamara LaPorte's classes have influenced me the most I think. When i draw a face, I usually go back to her ways, and even, sometimes,hear her sweet voice in my head.... Ah, anyhow, I quickly became addicted to drawing faces, and found myself drawing every evening. Guess what? The faces got better and better.

As I keep mentioning, I am doing DDP yoga. It is a program that requires practice in order to build flexibility and balance. Six months in, I am still falling over. But it is fun, and my health has improved exponentially.

Why bring up yoga in the middle of this? Because, after the conversation this morning, I realized that pretty much everything requires regular practice to build skill. Everyone else in the world probably knew this already, but, for me, I think it just clunked into place. It is all coming together!

change is hard and inevitable

Right now, as I type this, I have a lot of change swirling around me. A lot of it is hard change.Hard change that I can't seem to wrap my head around most of the time, but change that has to happen.

I have a lot of good change, no, not good, great change that is starting to blossom. I don't know that it will immediately outweigh the hard change, but with a bit of perseverance, nurturing, love, and a whole lot of creativity, I am hopeful of a fabulously breathtaking outcome.

While I can't really talk much about all of this change, and don't really want to share details, I will say that I think it is important to embrace change. Change is a constant. It never stops. Sometimes, we stop, and that makes change seem even bigger. I think we have to learn to swirl with the changes and move with them and morph with them and learn anew.

So, speaking of change, I am making changes to my blog. As part of my overall growth plan, I will be displaying more of my art, sharing things I'm making, and many more topics. I was discussing this forward motion with a mentor at lunch. She asked "so what will you call your blog? My next 50 years seems to be not quite a business name. I didn't even pause. "Painted Lady Designs."  If you don't know, there is a very pretty butterfly called a Painted Lady. Here's a photo of one. Isn't she lovely?

As I emerge and bravely step forward into this next chapter, it seems perfect that a butterfly be the inspiration for my journey, don't you think? 

I will be changing the name of my blog over the next weeks. Not sure how to do that, without losing all of you, my readers, but we'll figure it out together.

While we're discussing change, my friend Melody Ross is teaching a new class, starting next week. You might want to check it out. It's called The Walk, here's where you can learn more. 

Thanks for joining me and have a wonderful day!

down time

Every year, between Christmas and New Year's, my family has down time. We don't make a lot of plans, we don't do a lot, we just ARE. We eat together, we hug as we pass each other in the hall, and we just generally chill. I forget how much I love this time until it comes around again and I experience it. Then, I languish in it and enjoy every second.

For the past few years, I have been making art during this time, and this year has been no exception. I have started 2 new classes already!

The first class, is called Book of Days, and is taught by the wonderful Effy Wild. In order to prepare, I made a journal. I took water color paper, linen book binding thread, a big needle, an awl, and a hunk of raw canvas and I built a journal! This is about the 5th journal I've made this way, and I am addicted to them! Effy taught me how to make them in a workshop a couple of years ago and they are all I use!  On New Year's Day, my art tradition is to decorate the journal.
Here are my hands during the creation. I LOVE how they look! Happy hands, happy heart!

Here is the latest journal cover.

It is yummy turquoise and electric blue and white and more blue. I used all kinds of things to make it. The base were torn up pages from a book I bought years ago on the bargain table at Barnes and Noble for $1.98 called "Just like you, only prettier" I never read it. I bought it because I thought it would be the perfect thing to cover up by using for art journaling. I was right! :)  It makes me smile knowing that it's there. I didn't set out with a plan this year. I just picked up things and used them. I have no idea where the butterflies came from or why there is chicken wire mixed with butterflies, but I'm not going to worry about it. The cover is done and it is delightful! I'm ecstatic with it.

My second class is called The Documented Life and for it, you modify a Moleskine planner. THAT was scary! I've never bought a Moleskine, because they seem so.... professional? I don't know. Just never have. So here I not only saunter into Barnes and Noble and buy one (50% off, YES!), but then I come home, mask off the elastic strap, and dump GESSO all over it! Horrors. My heart was pounding!!!! But, in the end, it all came out beautifully.

Here is the cover.

Here is the side view. I took watercolor paper, some ancient Chatterbox paper, some mixed media paper, and a few other things and made "tip in" pages, which are held in place with strips of washi tape. It took forever, but it's gorgeous and chunky and fun and was SO worth it! 

So, each week, we will get a prompt that we will do a bit of art with and some journaling with. The first prompt was about your front door. I cheated. I put a different front door, because sketching is best kept simple for me. :) (right now!)  Here's what I did. I have not done my journaling yet, but I will! And on the other side of this page I plan to do a drawing about my word for the year (valor).

That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by!

a year in the life of...

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to-day of life that I forget to appreciate the “big picture.” A few days ago, I did one of those “year in review” things on Facebook. I sat there waiting while it churned, thinking “yup, ok. another year, not much happened.” Then, when it finished, I looked and my soul smiled as I realized how much I’ve accomplished this year.

One of the things I really started to work on a few years ago was art. I started to really dig deep and create. This year, in the art area:

- I sold some art.

- I created 2 very large abstract canvases. This is one. It's called "Spring."

- I filled 1 ½ art journals (45 pages double sided in each one)

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- I learned to make art journals from blank watercolor paper and canvas cut from a roll, including stitching the binding and creating a beautiful cover.

- I was brave enough to give away one of the art journals I made to someone very special to me.

- I contributed one of my quilts to an auction that raised money to buy a safe house in the Philippines to help victims of human trafficking.

- I volunteered for a day with Habitat for Humanity and helped build a “Minion” themed playhouse.

- I blended a bottle of Merlot in a wine cave!

- My son turned 20. TWENTY! can you even believe that? I can’t. wow. yes, I know, not really my accomplishment, but still. wow.

- I talked about my career with 15 beautiful teenage ladies in The Gambia, Africa. It was a life changing hour and a half. Really. wow.

- I started doing DDP Yoga. I’m still doing it, after 180 days, and I’m down 33 inches and 28 pounds so far. This is a lifestyle I can do forever.

Not bad for a year where nothing happened, right? Even as I close this post, there’s so much more I could add, but I think it’s all good for now. 2013 has been unpredictable and a bit of a roller coaster ride, but it’s been a very good year! I am grateful.

art checkpoint

Recently, I’ve made a decision to pursue my art more regularly and get back to creating the way I was at the start of the year. Somehow, this year has morphed into less art and more of other things. I’ve been reviewing the year, as I do around now, and trying to see what worked and what didn’t. Clearly, being away from my art did not work. What started out as a year filled with painty hands and exciting ideas has ended up with less accomplished than in previous years. With that in mind, I decided to rekindle by looking at what inspires me. I found my artist statement:

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I create art to share the feelings in my soul and express my heart. I create many different kinds of art, including mixed media canvases, pen and watercolor doodles, acrylic paintings, quilts, and photographic works. I am constantly looking for new ways to express myself, and constantly challenging myself to try new materials and tools. I am inspired by color, in nature, in the world around me, and even in the art aisle. Sometimes I will see a color and know that I need it, just because it makes my heart sing. There’s a hum that goes through me when I find the right color or paint, which is a joyous feeling. I am often influenced by situations around me, quotes that I’ve seen, or comments made by people. I am additionally inspired and influenced by the works of other artists, including Georgia O’Keefe and Melody Ross.

I am often daunted by a blank canvas, so a typical part of my process is to just paint something on the canvas, be it a color or a scene, which is often expendable and covered over with other materials and paints, which may or may not be related to the base in color or topic. I love to repurpose vintage and old materials, using them in unexpected ways that may be different from their original intent.

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Having an artist statement is a big for me and being true to my artist statement is something I’m going to strive toward and support as this year closes and 2014 opens.

With all of this in mind, I am going to move forward, create, share, and nourish my artist self!