Check it Out!

Some very creative women artists in bloglandia have gotten my attention... (some even now have my money!) . Here are a two of my latest fixes...

For a long time working with stencils in my art journal has been something I keep meaning to try but never get around to actually trying. Lucky for me one of my FAVORITE visual journallers, Mary Ann Moss of Dispatch from LA, decided to share her secret ways and is hosting an online "stencillry" class! HCIT!! And it is offered at a very fair price that even I could afford! SO I signed me up ;) *does a happy dance* If you haven't heard about it, visit her blog now and check it out. It's not too late to join!

Just a few days ago I discovered the blog of an artist whose style I just fell in love with. Take a look at Geninne's Art blog. She does the most fabulous watercolor drawings, illustrations, painted rocks and hand carved stamps. I could browse through her blog for hours. I am drawn there like a super-strong magnet which doesn't happen that often.

Jamie Ridler's most recent "Next Chapter" series has come to a close. It was a three month long group that worked through The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women. While I didn't make it through all 12 weeks, I did participate about halfway through and then life got busy. More specifically work got busy and business travel wrecked havoc with my momentum. I still enjoyed what I did and I plan to finish off the book on my own. It's a great group to join and I am seriously thinking about participating in the next round based on the book Wreck This Journal one I've eyed up on my own. This will be less reading & writing intensive and more focused on artful play. Perhaps I'll be up and running with stencilry by then!

And that reminds me... Michelle Ward of Green Pepper Press fame (another favorite visual journaler) has also discovered a similar type of "wreckable" book. It is called the Walls Notebook... its a book with a ton of spreads that are images of blank NYC walls that you can put your own personal graffiti on! Talk about visual journalling heaven... no blank white pages staring out at you! Check out her post on this and then check out the book itself. Pretty cool, huh?

So much to see and do. Gotta run... still have some responsibilities to take care of (like finishing my taxes UGH) so I can get back to making art!

Imperfectly Perfect

This is a very quick late night sketch I did last night when I decided I wasn't quite ready to sleep for the night.

Imperfectly perfect... that's what comes to mind when I think of the tarnished pitted silver plated water pitcher I picked up several years ago at a garage sale (photo below). I just love it's shape though and while I tried polishing it when I first got it, I decided that I like it tarnished just fine and I like using it to hold some of my paint brushes because I get to look at it more often.

Sometimes life is perfectly imperfect. And if we could all stop trying to make life so perfect we would enjoy more of it.

Valentine Tulips

I am a sucker for tulips. I might even love them more than roses, but asking me to choose would be like asking a mother to choose between her children. There's nothing like having a vase full of fresh cut cheery, happy tulips at home, especially in the winter! It was the perfect mid-winter Valentine's gift from my Mommy (thanks Mom!). I sketched them, I photographed them, I enjoyed every moment of them even after they lost their fresh perkiness, wilting and shrivelling into darkened skeletons of their former selves. Here are two shots of these beauties in different stages of their glory. I played around with actions again plus did some other adjustments in PS.

Fresh & Perky


(SOOC)... I actually like this as it is, before the post processing I did which seemed to blow out the left white tulip detail. Not all post processing works the way you hope it would... definitely lots to learn here...

50mm lens

1/400

f 4.0

ISO 200

Actions used:

1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)

2 - Slice Like A Ninja (free from Totally Rad Actions)

3 - Lux hard (free from Totally Rad Actions)

4 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

Skeletal Remains


(SOOC) Again - pretty good on it's own, maybe I shouldn't have messed with it?

50mm lens
1/125
f 2.5
ISO 200

Actions used:
1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)
2 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

Winter Trees

As I push winter out the door with both hands, here's a shot of some bare wintry trees after a warm spell melted a lot of the snow we had. Actually it had just started to snow which made the original shot kind of white and cloudy looking.

For post-processing in Photoshop, first I boosted up the color and contrast, then I applied "Boutwell's Magic Glasses" to sharpen it up. That was followed by applying the "Super Fun Happy" action to give it that dreamy otherworldy look, then I added a hint of a vignette edging. I love the way these few easy steps transformed this photo. The original SOOC (straight out of camera) shot is just below. Big difference, right? I always like looking at other photographer's before & after photos because they helped me realized that I could really get my photos to look even better. I hope this helps you realize that too!

EF 50mm lens
f 4.0
1/400 sec
ISO 200

Actions Used:
1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)
2 - Super Fun Happy (also free from Totally Rad Actions)
3 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

Jellyfish

My little guy favors aquariums over zoos, and I must admit that I am starting to feel the same way. Jellyfish have become one of my favorite aquarium attractions (just don't let me see one when I am in the ocean!). At this aquarium there was a jellyfish "touch" tank which was really cool, although these babies in the photo were NOT what we touched! Aquariums are generally dark and using flash (which I typically avoid at all costs) doesn't work well either so I had to boost the ISO waaaay up to 1600 (YIKES!). Yes, there is grain in my pics for sure, but I was able to get some good shots for the memory books, including the shot above. Anyway, many post-processing actions end up adding grain on purpose so I figure I can "embrace the grain" in these kinds of situations. Jellyfish = uber-relaxing liquid motion... I could watch them all day long. *sigh*

EF 50mm lens
f 2.2
1/125 sec
ISO 1600

Actions Used:
1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)

Bear with me...

Lately I have been busy playing with my camera and photoshop. I finally decided that I should fold my photo blog in with this main blog since I do not seem to have time enough to keep both updated on a regular basis. Besides, I realized that I myself enjoy seeing other artist's photography and interests, and photography qualifies as a creative outlet, right? So if my blog is temporarily acting wonky, it's because I have just imported all the posts from my photo blog into this blog. I do have some new photos to post as well because (like I said) I've been busy playing around with my camera. :)

Surfacing

No I haven't been sick, nor have I been taking care of anyone sick. I have just been absent for reasons I am not clear on myself. Work has been a bit busy (two business trips this week alone), but mostly I think it is the tail end of winter weighing on me along with a few other responsibilities and day to day difficulties I'd rather not have right now. They are all tolerable, but when I got to a point of bursting with thoughts on a hundred totally unrelated creative projects I want to pursue, my brain went into TILT mode and focusing on anything has been extremely difficult. But I do see a light at the end of this underground tunnel... I must be close to surfacing. I hope to have some piece of visual art done and posted within the week. Bear with me... I'll be back soon!

Tulip Watercolor Sketch

Took another 15 minutes earlier this morning. I think I might be doing more of these quick watercolor sketches to keep me actively creating.

Tulip Sketch

I've been in a dead zone of sorts, creatively. My schedule has been a bit busy as I was away all last week on a business trip that had very little downtime. I am just starting to get myself back in the rhythm of things. My mind has been all over the place. Today I took a 15 min break and sketched this vase of tulips my Mom gave me for Valentines Day. I never do pen and ink drawings but I was inspired after reading this blog post. (I'm in love with all her work.) Anyhow, I hope to take a few minutes tonight or tomorrow to put some watercolor to it. A 15 minute sketch is better than nothing, right? Happy creating!

Swan Song

I almost didn't think I would actually settle down and make any art today. Sundays are my dedicated "me" time and usually when I play around in my studio. Last Sunday I spent the day taking care of bills and such that really needed tending. And today, because I couldn't settle on a project, I almost avoided creating again by blog surfing and such. I had to really force myself to sit down and START! And I am glad I did. :) I used one of my recent photos as inspiration.

acrylics on 5 x 7 canvas board

This is my first "successful" painting attempt using acrylics. There was a nice starter acrylic set on sale yesterday at AC Moore (36 tubes for $19.99) so I grabbed it with hopes of one day conquering my difficulties with acrylics (my first love is oil paint). Yippee...I like what I did!!! I hope you do too. Happy creating! ;)

Secret #5 - Committing to Self Focus

OK, I am FINALLY caught up with the current chapter of 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, the book I am reading with a large group of creative bloggers over at the Next Chapter. I know all I've been doing is reading and writing, but (read more)

this weekend I do hope to work on some visual art that I can post for your viewing pleasure. ;) Wish me luck! (now here is my take on Secret #5)

This week’s secret really focuses on getting selfish. Doesn’t sound like a way to improve one’s self, does it? Being “selfish” has a very negative connotation. As women in our society we have been taught to be caretakers for others and to put ourselves last. Becoming “selfish” sounds a bit extreme, don’t you think? The exact dictionary definition listed in the book is not quite the same as in my dictionary, where is still has a negative connotation (yes, I looked it up). And most of us cannot ignore caring for those around us, and we shouldn’t. BUT, instead of neglecting ourselves we also need to nurture ourselves in the same way that we tend to others, with no less priority, which means… DON’T PUT YOUR NEEDS LAST. Don’t be a slave to society’s expectations. You are the one person who loves “you” the most… and the one person who has control of knowing your own heart and fueling it with your desires.

About two years ago I recognized that I continuously put my interests last. Last meant, if there is time left at the end of the day after I worked (often late going above and beyond for my job), cooked dinner, cleaned up, fed and bathed my child, did laundry, vacuumed, paid bills, brought the car in for service or any other daily chore that I felt was my duty to do first, even though it wasn’t always necessary. By the time I did all that there was no time left and I was ready for bed, too tired to have a desire to anything for me. Nowadays my house isn’t always perfectly free of clutter. There may be dusting that needs to be done, or the floor could stand to have a vacuum run. But now I make sure I schedule time in for myself first more often than not. A perfectly organized and spotless life will still be an empty life. I’d rather my life be full of meaning or accomplishment than be perfectly neat if, I was given a choice between the two (and we do have that choice). I can’t be a good role model for my child or a good mother to my child if I do not allow time for myself to grow as a person. It’s the old quality vs. quantity concept. The quality of time spent with my son will be 100 times greater if I give myself time to tend to myself, then if I devote every single spare moment of my day to him. To all you Mom’s out there DON’T FEEL GUILTY. I know it is nearly impossible, but just remember… quality Mom vs. quantity Mom. This also applies to marriages and relationships. If you and your spouse do nothing for yourselves as individuals, then you will lose yourself and your spouse will lose the person they fell in love with. This same premise that leads to demise of your creativity leads to demise of relationships. It is all intertwined.

Now this being said, the only advantage to being a divorced single mom is that I get forced time off of “mommy duty.” When my son spends the night with his father, two times a week, I have an evening or a weekend day all to myself. I challenged myself to use the majority of that “found” time for creative projects… it kind of makes lemonade out of lemons if you can get my drift. Sometimes I won’t even answer the phone if I am involved in something – though I still do I feel guilty about it. But setting my boundaries, saying “no” to counter-productive activity, and not allowing myself to “take care of stuff” during this time has been helpful and gets easier with practice. I allow myself this gift of solitude and time to indulge, and it makes the rest of the week easier to get through. My spirit is happier and therefore my day to day responsibilities do not weigh so heavily upon me. And the best part is a happier “me” makes for a happier family environment.

Secret #4 – Surrendering to Creative Cycles

My favorite line in this chapter:
“To be creative means becoming more familiar with being a little lost.”

This week’s secret really focuses on how voids in your creativity are absolutely normal and (read more)

not something to be fearful or frustrated about. Creativity, like many things in the natural world, is made up of waves or cycles where there are lows that emerge in the form of inactivity. These are necessary periods in the grand scheme. These are periods when your mind is subconsciously communing with your environment, collecting information around you and forming the next creative outburst. Just like a pregnancy is forming a child, or a dormant period of a flower bulb is busy forming the flower, our creativity also is recharging and forming under the surface. It is important during these periods to relax and trust in the process; to take this time to follow your interests and inspirations and surround yourself with material that your subconscious can soak up like a sponge. Take yourself on artist dates, refill your creative well and feed your soul with whatever it is craving. When it is time, creativity will emerge. It cannot be forced or rushed.

I find this to also apply to life in general. I know that right now I am in one of these dormant rebuilding periods both creatively and in life. I have survived the onset of a void by making it through some recent major life changes that were beyond my control. As is said in this chapter, courage is indeed mandatory. I have learned to let go of the past and of things I cannot control and instead to be true to myself and move forward, embracing the change, using its momentum to push me forward. I have only just recently begun to relax and trust in the process and know that I need to learn a bit more about myself and experience more in life and in art before a clear path or undertaking will reveal itself to me. I know it is coming – like something you can hear in the distance but is too foggy to see clearly. Because I don’t have a clear and specific goal I am always looking for those directional clues while I navigate this darkness, glimmers of the light at the end of the tunnel.

For the past two years, my own little personal mantra has been, “If you build it, they will come.” (Thank you, Field of Dreams!) I can’t tell you how many times I repeated this to myself when things felt like they were taking too long and not happening fast enough. I still use it quite frequently. I have to remind myself that anything worth building is not going to be built overnight. And if I build myself into the person I want to be, the truest form of myself, then the right people, circumstances, and projects will be drawn into my life. They won’t come if there is nothing there to attract them. Isn’t that what the law of attraction is all about?

Secret #3 – Following Your Fascinations

Risk taking is, of course, not an easy step for most of us. I’ve always been mostly (read more)

conservative in my life. I’ve always had a stable job with decent pay and opportunity; a job that afforded me good health insurance and retirement savings benefits. I’ve always managed my credit so that I was able to get a mortgage when the time came. And now as a single parent all those conservative actions have put me in a position where I am able to manage pretty well on my own. Most of my choices were based on what I should do to have a secure start in life, rather than on what I truly wanted to do if I followed my heart. I’m not even sure I would have even known where my heart would have wanted to go, but I took the grown-up path of responsible life actions and let it override and drive my direction in life.

There were two concepts within this chapter that fascinated me and have peaked my interest to the point where I want to do further reading on them. The first was the “Inner Patriarch” in which even very liberated and empowered women do things based on how a man thinks they should be done. It is probably the inner Patriarch that is telling me that women don't take risks. The other was the concept of “the Saturn return” in astrology which is a time in one's life that is marked with challenges and hardship. While I am not exactly a “follower” of astrology and definitely do not live my life by it, I am open to there being something to it and I like to read up on anything that intrigues me.

This year is a year where I will be pushing myself to take more planned risk. My goal is to somehow put myself out there and attempt to make a bit of side money by selling my art someway, somehow. I know it is a good thing because I feel a bit out of my comfort zone, and that means I am growing. I don’t have the luxury at this point in my life to drop my job and venture off in a new direction. And besides I don’t even have a clear direction even identified. But I am following those intuitive messages and using my free personal time more wisely in terms of following my artistic inspirations and that is where I am going to begin. I feel I am at a point that if I commit to something my staying power will be fairly strong. I don’t have unrealistic expectations of myself and know how to break my goals into smaller pieces so I am more likely to stick with them. That being said, I am sure there will be times when I will need to push myself. I am trying to stay in the moment and follow where my heart wants to go next without setting up any long term goals or expectations. I have a feeling I will be surprised at where I do end up several years from now, that perhaps it will be somewhere I could never have dreamed of without the experiences of placing one foot in front of the other, making my path as I go. Some people are blessed with knowing where their path will lead them. But most of us need to clear our own path.

Shape Up! (GPP Crusade No. 27)

It's been a few months since I've done one of Michelle Ward's fabulous challenges over at the Green Pepper Press Street Team. She really knows how to get you thinking and experimenting. This month's crusade is to pick a shape and obsess over it in your art. I'll admit, it took me a few weeks to actually pick a shape. And although the month of January is over, I think I'll be obsessing a bit over this shape well into February now that the juices are starting to flow. I figured I should post what I've done now in case I don't get more in before the month ends. (It's been that kind of month - phew!)

I chose the HEXAGON as my shape for experimentation.

Now that I've settled in with my shape, I see it everywhere. In honeycombs, in chicken wire, in nuts & bolts, in tile work.

I've been itching to do some collage work involving clipping and pasting from magazine images so I thought that I'd use a tiled hexagon pattern to play with this shape. When I was part way into it I was pretty unhappy with what I was doing, but somewhere along the way it just seemed to come together in a way that I feel very good about it. Other than that temporary frustration the process itself was just so relaxing. I look forward to seeing what else I can do with my hex fixation.

Art Journal - Shine

It's been a crazy few weeks around here. I had two close family members end up in the hospital at different times but luckily both are doing well and on the mend. It took extra effort to juggle the visits and the stress of worry, so not much free time was left for art. Things are returning to normal around here and I am almost caught up.

I did a few art journal pages. Here is one I finished that I like enough to share with you all. I just hate to post the really crappy ones so I've decided not to - how 'bout that! :) I still haven't gotten around to posting about my word for the year, but in case you were wondering, it is not "shine" but in a way it does relate.

It's been much too cold lately and I am SO looking forward to spring. I did get out and about though and took a few photos. If you get a chance, hop on over to my photo blog to check out the latest posts.

Secret #2 - Honoring Your Inspirations

“Creative inspirations seduce us with the power of a magnet.”
(I LOVE this statement from the first paragraph of this chapter.)

This week’s secret was about tuning into what inspires you using all your senses, granting yourself the freedom to be (read more)

open like a child to play and experiment, and taking time to capture and honor those inspired ideas of yours. Establishing your own creative space and creative rituals are build a foundation for integrating and elevating these activities as priorities in our lives.

As I came into the realization a few years back that I needed to acknowledge and rebuild my creative self, I also realized that I was completely out of touch with that part of me, that I felt like I had lost my identity. I needed to figure out what I liked. If someone had asked me what I liked, I would have truly been at a loss for an answer. I could say I liked art, but that broad statement wasn’t very clear, although it was an arrow pointing in a direction. It was then, that I began taking steps to get to know myself.

I engaged in lots of journalling (thank you Julia Cameron for the concept of morning pages as well as artist dates!), I went on artist dates with myself, I found myself drawn to flowers and herbs and so started gardening, I repainted my office a bright color and made a huge effort to make it into a working studio/office with all my art supplies fully accessible. I surrounded myself with inspiring images and items, and I finally began a family genealogy project that I had been thinking about for years. I took my a class in oil painting, one on watercolor painting, and a short 4-day basic course on digital photography. Since I spent all my time chasing around after a toddler, I used digital photography and scrapbooking as my main creative outlets. That led me to digital art journal pages which then led me to discover creative communities online. From there I surfed the net discovering that there is an entire world of women out there who were just like me. I also discovered there were many more who were well ahead of me, inspiring me to push myself, showing me that these dreams are achievable. Eventually I started this art blog. It took a long time to actually become active and then even longer to interact with the rest of the blogging community.

After two years of introspection I can say today that I am fairly tuned into what inspires me. As a matter of fact, sometimes I feel overwhelmed at the amount of diverse things that I am drawn to and struggle with focus and direction. Without a doubt my creative sanctuary has been a godsend. Within the last 6 months I have actually used it as the space where I paint and make art. Before that I found I would never paint at home… there was always some excuse why I couldn’t, like laundry, cleaning, or bills. I’d have to take a class and get out of the house to force myself to do something.

My rituals keep me centered. I write in my journal every day, meditate on occasion (need to do that more even if just 5 minutes), taking outdoor walks are very important as is playing in the garden (part of why I can’t wait for this winter freeze to be thaw.) Reading and listening to music have once again become daily staples in life. I’ve also been rediscovering my love for cooking/baking (hence a need for more walking) and I’ve recently find myself toting my camera along to capture images I encounter during many of these activities.
I call all this “self immersion.” And it will not happen overnight. Take a step and then another. Before you know it these “baby steps” will take you quite a distance.open like a child to play and experiment, and taking time to capture and honor those inspired ideas of yours. Establishing your own creative space and creative rituals are build a foundation for integrating and elevating these activities as priorities in our lives.

As I came into the realization a few years back that I needed to acknowledge and rebuild my creative self, I also realized that I was completely out of touch with that part of me, that I felt like I had lost my identity. I needed to figure out what I liked. If someone had asked me what I liked, I would have truly been at a loss for an answer. I could say I liked art, but that broad statement wasn’t very clear, although it was an arrow pointing in a direction. It was then, that I began taking steps to get to know myself.

I engaged in lots of journalling (thank you Julia Cameron for the concept of morning pages as well as artist dates!), I went on artist dates with myself, I found myself drawn to flowers and herbs and so started gardening, I repainted my office a bright color and made a huge effort to make it into a working studio/office with all my art supplies fully accessible. I surrounded myself with inspiring images and items, and I finally began a family genealogy project that I had been thinking about for years. I took my a class in oil painting, one on watercolor painting, and a short 4-day basic course on digital photography. Since I spent all my time chasing around after a toddler, I used digital photography and scrapbooking as my main creative outlets. That led me to digital art journal pages which then led me to discover creative communities online. From there I surfed the net discovering that there is an entire world of women out there who were just like me. I also discovered there were many more who were well ahead of me, inspiring me to push myself, showing me that these dreams are achievable. Eventually I started this art blog. It took a long time to actually become active and then even longer to interact with the rest of the blogging community.

After two years of introspection I can say today that I am fairly tuned into what inspires me. As a matter of fact, sometimes I feel overwhelmed at the amount of diverse things that I am drawn to and struggle with focus and direction. Without a doubt my creative sanctuary has been a godsend. Within the last 6 months I have actually used it as the space where I paint and make art. Before that I found I would never paint at home… there was always some excuse why I couldn’t, like laundry, cleaning, or bills. I’d have to take a class and get out of the house to force myself to do something.

My rituals keep me centered. I write in my journal every day, meditate on occasion (need to do that more even if just 5 minutes), taking outdoor walks are very important as is playing in the garden (part of why I can’t wait for this winter freeze to be thaw.) Reading and listening to music have once again become daily staples in life. I’ve also been rediscovering my love for cooking/baking (hence a need for more walking) and I’ve recently find myself toting my camera along to capture images I encounter during many of these activities.
I call all this “self immersion.” And it will not happen overnight. Take a step and then another. Before you know it these “baby steps” will take you quite a distance.

Wintry Marsh Grasses

The sun was on its way down and beautifully illuminated the clouds and the grasses.

Lens used: EF 75-300mm zoom

Actions used:
1 - Slice Like a Ninja for sharpening (free from Totally Rad Actions)
2 - Lomo/Cross Processing (free from SB Photography Stock)

3 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

Country Cattails

This shot was just on the other side of the road from the lone swan that same cold day.

Lens used: EF 75-300mm zoom

Actions used:
- Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)
- MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

Lone Swan on Icy Pond

It was a very cold day, about 14 degrees and I was mostly driving the country roads & taking shots from my car. I had to crop this shot even though I used full zoom. I loved how peaceful this swan looked swimming alone on an unfrozen portion of the deserted pond.

Lens used: EF 75-300mm zoom

Actions used:
1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses, Troy & Lux (free from Totally Rad Actions)
2 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

Secret #1 - Acknowledging Your Creative Self

It's finally started!! I signed up to participate in the latest "Next Chapter" group blog series which will work through the book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women by Gail McMeekin. Every week (read more)

the host, Jamie Ridler, will post an audio interview with a creative woman. This week begins with the chapter on the first secret... "Acknowledging Your Creative Self," along with an interview with Jennifer Lee, an inspiring artist whose blog I've frequented through the Creative Everyday Group. If you get a chance, go listen before the week is up because then it will be replaced with next week's interview.

Excited to Begin !!!

I have spent the last two years propelling myself to a point where I am creating on a regular basis. I still haven't found my niche but I am beginning to see paths emerge in the woods... paths that I am excited to follow. This year I hope to keep the momentum going and to start to build a vision of how to incorporate creativity into my daily life alongside my regular fulltime job and my role as a single parent. I know it won't be easy but it is the road I am meant to travel.

The Realization of What Needed to be Done

I feel like this first step of acknowledgment and reclaiming is one I've successfully navigated starting approximately 2 years ago. The author talks about a physical wake-up call where she came down with actual symptoms that couldn't be traced to any particular ailment and so was categorized as chronic fatigue syndrome. Then she realized it was her stressful lifestyle that left little time for her true self to thrive that was causing the physical imbalance. I am a firm believer that if we do not consciously follow our true paths, then our bodies will start doing whatever it takes to wake you up to that fact in hopes that you will figure it out and make a change. I experienced something similar that manifested as anxiety and it wasn't until I refocused my priorities for self development and self-nurturing that I returned to feeling physically healthy.

My Creative History

When I was younger I always loved art. My Mom is very artistic as were her parents and her grandfather as well. I looked forward to the once a week art class during my elementary years. I don’t recall having any art class in my junior high years at a Catholic school. If we had them, they weren’t memorable. My first two years in high school had a heavy academic schedule that had no room for art thanks to my guidance counselor. Luckily in my third year my Mom put her foot down and insisted that my schedule had art class. I had a great high school art teacher who pushed me to take a Saturday program for high-school kids at FIT (Fashion Institute) in NYC. I fell in love with design and after igh-school I attended FIT where I got a degree in Leather Accessory Design to design handbags, shoes & belts.

But that's where my artistic path stopped. I never actually worked in the industry. I made choices that led me away from a career in art and instead became involved in the business world. While there were some decent opportunities for creative outlet during parts of my business career, it wasn't the fulfilling kinds of creativity. Not the kind that involves much personal expression. Even though I learned a lot during these years, I spent a lot of time trying to meet expectations of other people and getting farther and farther from my true self. Then getting married, building a house, having a child (and later a divorce) put so many more demands on my time that I pretty much had zero creative output and fully neglected my creative self. That part of me had all but vanished into thin air.

Yet all the while I would still regularly buy art supplies that went unopened and were stored away. I would dream about different creative outlets and bought many artistic reference books which I would pour over but never attempt to actually do anything. My heart longed to do these things but for some reason I could never act on those impulses. I’d do maybe one sketch per year and get frustrated because it wasn’t a work of art. Instead of acknowledging my creative self, I beat her down with ridiculously high expectations and made myself so frenzied and busy with “life chores” that I had no choice but to stifle any creative thoughts.

Looking back it was truly avoidance behavior. I finally realized that by stifling myself, I had lost myself. And no one wants to be an empty shell going through the motions of life according to the cookie cutter template dictated by society. I want to write my own unique script on life and put my own personal stamp on it. It is time to open up to the promise and possibilities of who I truly am right now and who I may become if I follow my heart. This is the role model I want to be and the example I want to set for my own little boy.

All I can say is take it one step at a time. Believe in yourself... with that first step you have just acknowledged your creative self. Most importantly, enjoy the process and be in the moment. I'm wishing everyone in the group much success on your individual journeys!

Winter Sunset

I took this through a second floor window the other evening as the sun was setting. I wish I used a better focal point but it relaxes me just to look at it.

Lens Used: EF 50mm f1.4

Actions Used:
1 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

Dream

This is "Dream." He is the main horse that I take riding lessons on. He is mature and quite docile... classified as a smooth ride. And it takes a bit of leg to keep him moving which is perfect for a thirty-something novice rider like myself. He is a sweetie pie.

Camera used: Casio Exilim Z-3 point & shoot

Actions used:
1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)
2 - Slice Like A Ninja (free from Totally Rad Actions)
3 - Super Fun Happy (free from Totally Rad Actions)
4 - Lux (free from Totally Rad Actions)
3 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free)

His & Hers

We went to a car show this summer with my good friend, Cyndi, and her husband. They both have old cars but we just parked in the regular parking lot and were not part of the show so I grabbed these two "head on" shots... his is the Ford pick up and hers is the red Chevelle.

Lens Used: EF 50mm f1.4

Actions Used:
1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)
2 - Troy (free from Totally Rad Actions)
3 - MCP Burnt Edges Action (free) ... used only on the Chevelle

Preschooler Feet

These are my favorite feet in the world... I just love the blur of movement indicated by the foot in motion in this shot. He never stops and keeps me on my toes! (pun intended :)

Lens Used: EF 50mm f1.4

Actions Used:
1 - Boutwell Magic Glasses (free from Totally Rad Actions)
2 - Lomo/Cross Processing (free from SB Photography Stock)

Sketching Kids

Here is something I've not ventured into before... trying to sketch children, especially children I know. I avoid it because I know it will be very hard to get a true likeness in the face. This is my cousin's one year old and I drew her from a photo I took on Christmas Day. She was wearing the most adorable red dress, red tights and red shoes. As predicted, it doesn't really look like her face, but that's something I'll need to work at if I ever want to resolve it. I've contemplated painting this image but until I can get faces the way I want them, I may opt instead to paint a photo I took of her totally adorable red shoes.

On another creative note, last night before I sketched I also made a 12 page journal out of paper and some heavy weight thread. I used Bristol board paper so it is fairly stiff. Perhaps I'll enjoy working a visual journal on this paper because I'm not loving using the sketch pad paper I've been using... I've been craving a stiffer foundation. Mary Ann Moss from Dispatch from LA has been inspiring me with her recent posts that are actual videos of the pages from her early journals. I love her current visual journals and it is interesting to see how her visual journalling evolved. Go on over and take a take a look!

So have you decided on your word for the year for 2009? I have. More on that later. :)