What to do now and next

Hi! Sorry for not being around for a long while. I don't have any good excuse of how/why it happened like this other than to just note that I really really needed a break from this blog.

I have been blogging on and off (but mostly on) for over a decade now and (if you've never tried to before) it can be quite a lot of work getting in the habit, staying in the habit, and delivering fresh content. This is especially true for content specific or niche blogging (which is what I do here). After I finished my masters degree (about October/November time) I found that I really and truly needed a mental break from writing papers and doing research and trying to get back on the metaphorical horse after doing such an amazing amount of blogging last year was only harder because of the break that I needed. So? I took the break and that's why it's been so radio silent here.

So I'm back here today to post this but honestly? I don't know when I will be back again and I am still trying to pray about what to keep doing beyond me just feeling like I need to be still and focus on other things (than this blog). I find that by not blogging here, I am much more connected and present with my 5.5 year old daughter and husband and students. I am thinking a lot less about how to churn the life and art teaching on my everyday into blog content and more about just being fully present and focused. This year for the One Little Word campaign I decided on the word "treasure" and I think it's going to work much better than last year's word of "joy" because it's been a focus of mine most recently in what I do, how I do things, and how I regard things before me. I've become so much more aware of the need for me to have less of a life virtually and more of a life actually.

I have loved this blog so much but I really and truly feel like I will probably not return to the posting schedule I had last year because it made it really difficult for me to have the time and energy I now know I want to have for my family and my students and to serve my school community. Blogging so much also makes it difficult for me to create artwork for my own professional development. I haven't painted in months and having realized this I decided that I needed to change that by trying to do something of my own art creation because I was starting to feel stagnant.

I have never kept up with a sketchbook OR done watercolor painting in all of my life but I recently started to do both in an effort to get beyond my own prejudices and learn something new that I had previously been so staunchly against. I got a visual sketchbook for both myself and my daughter and we have been trying to do a page a night in our books with either ink and watercolor or just plain watercolor. We both have less than a half dozen finished pages but it's been amazing so far and I am amazed that I was ever so against daily art creation (like in a sketchbook or visual journaling) OR watercolor. I have been "doing it wrong" the whole time. Thankfully, I have seen the light.

A page I finished last evening in my journal after everyone in the house was sound asleep.

I know I don't want to abandon this blog but I also know that how I have done it in the past is not a way that I can keep doing it in the present or in the future. I have a lot of content on here and I am regularly getting unique hits because of people finding things I have archived in the way of art lesson project ideas. (I'm so glad that what I have shared continues to be so useful to others!) Still, well... maybe it's time for me to deliver less that ends up being much more because it has greater substance at least as it applies to what I originally create - either in my painted sketchbook or with my own explorations of the creative process, creative callings, or what I am learning about the art of teaching art.

In any case, I hope you all are doing well in your classrooms and with your own artwork. I have previously "preached" the importance of being an artist as being actively creating art pushing yourself to do better design and stretching your creativity. I think perhaps it's time for me to do that sort of thing rather than giving myself endlessly to the efforts of others, the development and understandings of their creative processes, and enabling them to create beautiful works of art. That's what I do every day and when I leave work, I need to do a better job of allowing myself the same sort of gift.

So, I'm not quitting this blog or even taking it offline in any way. It'll keep being here. I just might be here less often but perhaps at the same time with a more worthwhile presence.

The unPlugged version of Art-at-home

Without even realizing or trying to, I realized that I have recently been spending more of my time "unplugged" than ever before. I have put down and away my phone and other electronic devices more than ever and I have spent less time trolling the web. This has allowed for more time to paint, invest myself in creative processing (of all sorts), and spending time with my husband and almost 5 yo daughter. One of the highlights of all of this happened this past weekend when I got the notion to finally put together a fairy garden for my daughter...

This is why I paint and why I should be painting a lot more often

This weekend provided the first opportunities in months for me to really invest some time and paint in my home studio. Here are the fruits of my labor...

Both were done in Gamblin oils on stretched canvases that are 36x36 in size. Both are completely original works for me and this is a huge first for me. Both were also done - start to finish - within less than 48 hours of time. I have no titles for them yet but I am working on that. The inspiration for the subject matter should be obvious enough but largely it is informed by my Christian beliefs and experiences so far in my life.

iHeart this iPhone app :: Toca Tailor app review

One of my daughter's favorite apps on my phone these days is one by a company called Toca Boca called Toca Tailor. Toca Boca makes a bunch of really cool apps - Birthday party is a close runner up for us but Toca Tailor is the hands-down favorite so far. It is a paid app but it's only 99 cents and since that hardly breaks the bank I have felt like it's more than worse the money. 

(I know this is a departure from the norm here on the blog but as an art educator who is also a parent, I am always interested in apps that have a little more intrinsic value than just temporary amusement. I also appreciate apps with decent illustrations.  I feel like Toca Tailor provides both of those things. Also, I am not being compensated by them in any way. I am reviewing this strictly because I am a fan of it.)

The way Toca Tailor works is it takes the idea of virtual paper dolls and it stretches it so far that you you can use patterns to actually create clothing for the little doll! It's really pretty neat and I feel like when my daughter is using it, she isn't just mindlessly passing the time and is even sometimes thinking critically about what she wants to do next and how she is going to do it. Here is a youtube video about the app (from the developers, of course)

And here are some amusing examples of what my almost 5 year old daughter did on my phone while on the bus on the way back from a field trip to the zoo last week. She is an obvious fan of mixing patterns and wearing as many accessories as possible. And the backgrounds that she chose for the pictures were ones she imported by taking them with my camera phone!

I love how grumpy this girl looks. 

The funny thing about this app is my daughter creates and dresses ensembles much like what I support her to wear in real-life. At any given time she is a visual conglomerate of clashing shapes, colors, and patterns and she will wear as many accessories as she can get away with. (I limit the accessories only because I don't want them to get lost since they do so easily and many of them mean a lot to her.)

New and sale products too good not to tell you about

I don't order supplies until summer (about July - it's just how it goes around here) but it's my understanding that a lot of you all submitting your supply orders now. I've noticed a spike in my blog stats/readership that specifically hits pages and sections of my blogsite looking at lesson ideas as well as the materials page - both links to page can always be found across the top header of my site.

That being said, I am getting bombarded with sale catalogs and emails from supply companies and thought I would alert you all to some of the neat things that I will either be ordering in small amounts (to try out for the classroom) OR ordering in order to replenish because it's such an amazing deal and I know that it will used well.

Note: I am not being compensated in any wayby any of these suppliers OR product makers and I am plugging all of this purely of my own volition. That being said? If you are  interested in me reviewing your product/service that is visual art related, I might be open to such an opportunity and please don't hesitate to contact me directly for me to consider it. Thank you!

SKETCHBOX TABLE EASEL - originally $150, NOW => $35

image snagged from Dick Blick's product listing

Right now Dick Blick has dropped the supply on this amazing tabletop sketchbox easel (see left) that we use in the advanced studio classes at my school year after year. We have 18 of them and they are so great for the students to use because they are solidly built of wood AND they have built in storage. They can also accommodate canvas sized of up to 32"!!!!

The are originally priced at around $150 but they are on sale right now for about $35 (and they have limited quantities on hand, of course). Can you believe that price?!!! That is SUCH A DEAL!!!!! And if you want a class set or even just want one for yourself? I can vouch for the fact that one would have been a real deal even at $50 per piece. Don't delay and pick up one of these before they sell out. Seriously. I can't imagine they will last and I don't understand why they are getting rid of them OR how they are lasting this long at that price anyway. Buy it from Blick HERE.

Playcolor brand Water-Soluble Solid Tempera Sticks - on sale!

Are you a fan of Tempera paints? I am very much so. I use the tempera cakes at home with my

daughter and I use jugs of tempera at school for projects that I know cannot risk sun bleached color work - sadly, something that frequently happens in the student art gallery. The only thing I don't like about it is how it can be so dry and flaky after it dries. I like it so much though that I just ignore that part.

Anyway, I have just stumbled upon some tempera paint that is in solid state form! It is by a brand called Playcolor and it is reminiscent of oil pastels a little in that you can blend it, layer it, and it stays highly saturated in color presentation. Something else though? Unlike painted tempera it apparently doesn't crack!!! I LOVE THAT. I mean, I don't know if it actually works like that but it appears that it does. Here is a promo video for it that (of course) presents it in the most positive way possible but I feel like it's at least worth a trial run for me at home with my almost kindergartener daughter...

I have never used this brand and/or product before but right now School Specialty has it on sale in their print catalog that I just received. For whatever reason it's not on the website but Dick Blick does have a listing for it but they aren't on sale like they are in the Sax Arts printed catalog. Sax's sale price is a little less than $2 off the listed price on Blick and regularly in the printed catalog. My plan is to get a 12 count of the standard palette and I will (of course) let you know how it goes once I get them and put them through some trials. 

Maybe I will take a nap instead

Merely taking up space for the past 6+ weeks

I suppose I could have pulled myself out of bed at a reasonable time this morning in order to get things accomplished but I didn't. And this is the third morning that this sort of thing happened.

I would use the excuse that I am on Spring Break and that's why this sort of thing is happening but I don't know. To me that's hardly a reasonable excuse or justification or whatever you want to call it in order to explain that my serious lack of anything creative in the direction of personal works.

I mean... I don't know. I don't have any very good excuse other than the fact that when I am sleeping I am even dreaming about being able to take a nap so I'm just going to say that I am tired. I am REALLY tired and worn out.

I have one more day (tomorrow) of this Spring Break where I could possibly get in some really good uninterrupted painting time without having either a husband and/or a child wanting for my attention in some way, shape, or form so tomorrow I gotta get back to the easel and make SOMEthing happen.

Today, I really do think that I will take a nap instead. It just goes like that sometimes.

Social Media for GOOD :: Turning Emoji into ART

I am a fan of Emoji. (There I said it!) Do you know what Emoji is? It's a Japanese term for a keyboarded language (think texting and online communications) that used picture icons and characters in order to communicate messages. Basically, it's modern day pictographs and while it's not something that all smartphone users have/can do, it's something that is a bit of a fun bonus if you are an Apple/iOS user because it's the Emoji keyboard is one that you can enable on your Apple device (iPhone or iPad) in order to create little scenes in the screenshots below that I created in text exchanges with a friend of mine...

To put credit where credit is due, the above Emoji art scenes were not originally designed by me and I searched through #Emojiart on Instagram in order to be able to find ideas and then I created them and sent them to my friend through texting bubbles. Still, they are fun right? And Emoji keyboards have TONS of options that include food items, animals, people, transportation vehicles, and buildings! And after I did the above, I really got to thinking that Emoji art could really work for art education and would be a great way to interact with my art students electronically if I wanted to. I mean, it seems like it could really lend itself to an Emoji Art contest or something and I think that could be kind of cool. Also, even though you sort of need to have an Apple mobile device to be able to do it, it's becoming a standard enough that kids could do it as teams and submit their Emoji Art jointly from one person's phone.

Anyway, Emoji Art is pretty fun as it goes and if you haven't tried it before? Try your hand at it. It's pretty fun and can lend itself to a unique outlet for creativity.

Social Media for GOOD :: That time Gamblin sent me FREE paint!!!

Last month, in the midst of all of the craziness that was the production of the musical, my birthday happened!! And despite the fact that my birthday has been known to bring about things that are not worth celebrating - like one year my grandmother died and my other grandmother was diagnosed with cancer - I usually let it go by unnoticed if I can help it.

Times they are a-changin' though and this year? Well this year's birthday was STELLAR compared to what every other birthday before has proved to NOT be. Why? Because I came home to a package from none other than Gamblin Oil Colors that included F-R-E-E tubes of paint from them!!!!!!

Did you get that? I said FREE tubes of GAMBLIN brand Oil Paint!!!!!!! The stuff is NOT cheap even if you get a deal on it through Utrecht. And they sent me (3) tubes of it along with a ton of literature about pigments and color palettes and all sorts of other useful stuff as well. My artist heart could not have been so blessed if anything else would have showed up in my mailbox and what a thing to come home to on my birthday!!!

My three tubes of paint! Alizarin Permanent, Torrit Grey, and Cote d'Azure (limited edition)

A terrific selection of reference materials for me that will be so helpful in my painting endeavors.

So, are you wondering how I went about getting such a lovely package delivered? Let me just tell you!

Now, I am NOT being compensated to review or hype up this brand in any way shape of form. I am a loyal user of Gamblin brand simply because they so awesome that I can't not use them. My painting professor from last year got me started on using the brand and I have used some store brands before but there is just nothing that compares to Gamblin and I stick with it for that reason. And because I am a real "talker" about things I love, I am all about shouting it via every conduit I might have access to about how much I love Gamblin brand. I regularly post pictures on Instagram of paintings I might be working on and I almost always tag them with either hashtags or the Gamblin username in order to let them know that I am using AND loving their oil colors.


About a month after I took my vocal love about Gamblin brand to the social media avenues, I was contacted directly by one of their marketing folks who asked me if I might be interested in trying out a new version of Alizarin that they were now producing. *WHAAAAAAAAA?!!!! YES!!!!!!!* I, of course, graciously accepted the offer and then I just waited and waited. A little more than a month passed and I started thinking that maybe they had changed their mind because they started to dislike some of the work that I was still posting on Instagram. I sort of lost of painting "mojo" and some more time passed and then my birthday showed up and with it came the long awaited package from Gamblin!!!! I was BLOWN AWAY. And I (of course) took it back to Instagram and thanked them very publicly for supporting me and my art with the free "swag."

From my own doings and understandings of Gamblin's activity on Instagram, there were a handful of other people who they sent paint to as well so I wasn't the only artist who they hooked up so nicely. I don't really care about that though and I just feel like it was such a blessing not only because it was free paint and REALLY amazing paint at that but also because I feel like them recognizing me by sending me some of their products to use really legitimizes me that much more as a visual artist and I (honestly) doubt myself and the talent I do or don't have on any given day. Seriously. I won't say that I am super terrible at painting but I know I have a lot to learn and there are a ton of artists/painters who are "better" than me and I am not every kidding myself about any of it.

Still, I wanted to be considered and respected as an artist who is serious about creating and being a working artist. I mean, I don't aim to be in a gallery necessarily but I also don't want to be one of those folks who people look at and just kind of gets lumped together with anyone else who might also be holding a paintbrush and painting for the fun of it. Painting and creating and artwork means so much more to me than just it being for the fun of it, y'know?

So, yeah. I am here to tell you that Gamblin Oil Colors seriously sent me FREE tubes of paints and I know it happened by and large because I was willing to talk about how much of a fan I am of theirs on Instagram. See how awesome social media is? It's not so bad really.

Where is my head lately?

Hello! Remember me? Sorry I've been kind of... not here. It's not for lack of interest but rather for need of a much needed break!

I have had a crazy CRAZY time of things this month so far and because of this I am so glad to see January out of here very soon!!! 

1. I have been transitioning from 1st to 2nd semester and working with a whole new gang of student artists for 2D, 3D, Art History, and Digital Studio (Illustrator)

Some 3D works in progress. Fun with paper sculpting! Subject matter: EMOTIONS

 2. I have been prepping for an upcoming professional development workshop day that my school hosts every year for local-area schools

The first slide of a keynote presentation I must finish within the next two weeks!

3. I have been battling the cold and flu bugs in my house as all of my family members have had it twice now including me

[I will spare you the visual seeing as how it would probably be pretty gross]

[Seriously... you didn't actually want to see it, right?]

4. I have been getting back into graduate classes after a lovely month long break from it. Also, I have been doing with the most ridiculous work schedule (at school) because of inclement weather. Two abbreviated days last week and one today!!!

Scene from my house late at night when I have to stay up and do grad work while everyone else gets to sleep

5. I have been focusing on painting with much greater purpose and more meaningful brushwork

Painting over the painting I previously painted and called DONE.

6. I have been spending a ton more time with my cute as a button kid including finally soft sculpting/crocheting her annual character hat. This year it was a pink panda!

My sweet daughter in her panda hat! I got lazy and used felt to applique the eye patches and nose instead of crocheting them.

 7. Preparing for the school's Spring musical of "Hairspray" and this includes lots of meetings, lots of creative budget solving, lots of "figuring things out," and lots of feeling like I am going to lose my mind!!!!

Not from Hairspray but how it is making me feel. This is the Josefina AG doll that I am "refurbishing" from ebay for my daughter as AG dolls are her new favorite thing to play. I save money on them by buying used and fixing them up!

*sigh*

So, to answer the question posed by the title of this posting, my head is pretty much all over the place these days which is why I have been not here. My plan (and hope!) is that January helps me to sweep most of this craziness out and February - my favorite month of the year!!! - ushers in something new, fresh, and much more manageable. And with all of that? The possibility of me doing some of what used to be "regularly scheduled" blog postings the way I did last semester.

Until then, bear with me and hang tight! Only a couple of days left for January and then my plan is to bring the love with the blog postings! ;)

This is what two weeks of painting looks like

Two weeks ago the canvas looked like this...

Underpainting

And then it went to this...

 

And I have revisited it so it currently it looks like this...

 

I am guessing that I have at least another week but more than likely two more weeks ahead of me to actual finish this painting. It's been a tremendous amount of work and very challenging but I have learned just as much too and I am in no major rush to complete this. I just want to be able to paint this well and CORRECTLY. I want the colors to be right, the marks to have integrity, the lines to have obvious speed, and I am not willing to skimp on anything that will diminish how it speaks to glorify creation and the creative process.

There is so much JOY in this journey

It has been almost three months since I entered full-throttle into this new chapter of my life that requires me to devote myself more whole-heartedly to more personal art and creative endeavors. (Right now it's just fine art oil painting but it will also include sculpting and creating artisan jewelry). Though it's been incredibly challenging, I can't say I am doing anything less than feeling like I am living a dream of some kind.

I have always ALWAYS wanted to be a painter and more than any other kind of artist in the world. And I have always ALWAYS felt like I couldn't be that because what I was painting was merely rendering things and wasn't ever truly creating anything worth the paint and time I was using up in order to paint in the fist place. And while it's debatable that I am any good at all, well... I am not very hung up on that. This is because for the first time in my life I feel much more like a legitimate painter (and in turn serious visual artist) than I ever have before. I feel like I actually have a specific direction for the artwork that I am seeking to create and I am not just making the same thing over and over again or swiping other peoples' work by simply remaking what they very uniquely created to begin with leaving me with only a poor imitation of their truly phenomenal work.

I mean... like I said before - I am not trying to say that I am some acclaimed artist or anything worth my salts (or rather my paints) but I finally don't feel so hung up on the whole business of whether I am good or not. And even if someone thinks I am not good? Eh... I am not hung up on that either because I feel like by painting and sharing it, I am doing what I have been called to do which is really what is validating me more than any priceless masterpiece I might ever create or not.

The beginnings (in sequential order) of a piece I am currently working on.

 I have been painting since early 2000s but I always knew I was never quite that good while I was doing it. People would see what I did and they would appreciate it but I always knew that they agreed with me that what I was doing wasn't all that noteworthy. Looking back I can evaluate what I was doing and say outright that my work lacked confidence and direction and also what I was painting? It was obviously indicative of the fact that I was trying to paint for the sake of painting and I wasn't saying much with what I was painting but I also didn't know what to say. I was just sort of painting for the purpose of hoping that I would turn out something decent and worthy of praise at some point but I had no idea how I could be a little more intentional.

None of the aforementioned applied anymore though. Why? Because I have made a more concerted effort to do something more than be simply self-taught and an enthusiast of the art of (and from) the act of painting. Now, don't take this like me bashing self-taught artists. That's not what this is at all. I mean, for as much as I struggled during my self-taught years but still continued to paint despite it, well... being self-taught (and thus a little bit unknowing about the importance of being something more than simply self-taught) helped me to explore a territory and offered me plenty of mistakes to experience so I would be able to understand the importance of more formal training - that which I now have at this point in my life!

Some more sequential images via my instagram feed. It's a work in progress but I feel like it's working out enough to show progress better than most any kind of artwork I have ever done before!!!

Definitely, I learned plenty during my time of being self-taught painter but I have to say that what I learned in that time can be summed up mostly by saying this: I definitely didn't know very much or at least what I knew didn't help me to do and (visually) say what I really wanted to. I mean, I still have plenty to learn about and to prove that I know a thing or two about (as evidenced by the most recent image of the state of my painting as seen below) but I can't help but feel like I have already come so far even though I know I still have many miles to go.

Added lighter values and warm colors back in after darkening almost the entire canvas in an effort to correct value issues.

I might never sell a painting in my life and I might never make it into a gallery of any kind. But you know what? That's not my point in being a painter and a visual artist anyway. I am doing what I am doing because I feel truly called to do it and with every mark of my brush, with every canvas that I "dirty" with paint, I feel like I am answering that calling and that gives me greater joy than anything I might ever have for all of the rest of my years on earth.

Amazing grace

Underpainting on a 36x36" piece I am starting for the purposes of creatingartforHim.com

I finally painted something worth painting more of this weekend. I did it Sunday night to be exact. Amazing how it took me all last week and then all this weekend to finally put brush to canvas and paint the way I know I am supposed to. It's a darn good thing that I don't do this full-time seeing as how long it takes me to do something as (seemingly simple) as underpainting.

In all honesty, I really didn't intend to paint this. My plans were actually to paint a picture of an elephant. Yes. You read that right. My goal was to paint an elephant. (Elephants are a bit of a thing for me and my life. I don't know what it is about them but it's just happened that way.) And all weekend long I have known that I needed to get started with painting but I haven't been able to motivate myself to actually do it. Essentially, the whole business of painting became a bit of an elephant in the room for me.

So... I finally got to painting and did the above and it just wasn't working. I mean... it was well and good enough but I just felt unsettled before, during, and after it in a way that I cannot explain and also feels completely foreign and out of the ordinary. I finally stopped the process right after I snapped the photo and then I went about the rest of the evening - putting away Christmas things with my family, getting my daughter into her nightly routine, etc. etc. etc.

And I just kept thinking of elephants the whole time. I kept picturing them in my mind and feeling completely and ridiculously uncomfortable until I put the above canvas aside to dry and got out a new one because I thought, "OK. I will do a stinkin' elephant painting and just get it out over with already!!!"

Thank the good Lord above I did because almost immediately I felt that peace and JOY in my heart that I get from being in my "happy place" that painting almost always brings to me...

I think this one is going to be a mother-daughter joint effort because I invited my little shadow to block it out and underpaint it with me. She did such a good job and it was such a joy to have her alongside me at the easel.

After I completely the blocking of the elephant piece, I realized what my problem was. My whole business of painting needs to be something that my family is in on. It simply cannot be separate.  When I did the "Covenant Revisited" piece (on the front page of my fine art portfolio site) it was accomplished only because my husband was alongside me helping to figure out parts of it. But tonight when I was trying to do underpainting on the first one? Well... my family was here with me but I was really more working around them and they were hardly a part of the process. As it goes, I think they have to be a part of the process rather than being a problem that I have to contend with during the process.

One of my art mentors from long ago used to tell me about how they had such a hard time painting and creating sometimes because it competed with their role of being in and of a family. There was always a husband that they weren't spending time with and three children begging for attention. What ended up happening was that they weren't able to really do great work until after they had found themselves in a different time in their lives when their familial relationships were quite something that they had to choose to focus on. And while I listened to their stories of struggle as an artist, I couldn't help but ask myself over and over again, "Does it have to be that way though? I mean... Can't I have a family AND be an artist? Or... Do I really have to be sentenced to a life alone in order for me to be able to create and paint?"

I have spent a lot of years before now alone. I remember sitting alone in my apartment in between hour 10 and 11 of a 15 hour painting marathon of an over six month stretch of working on one piece that was hardly noteworthy and thinking, "This can't be all there is to this. This can't be it." And you know what? I was right. I was right about that.

I do believe that I finally found my voice as an artist and especially as a painter as a result of me being married and having my little girl. Despite the suggestions long ago from not only my previous art mentor but from many others as well, art doesn't have to be something that can only happen separate from the way I want my life to be. My family doesn't have to be something that I have to contend with and I don't have to take things away from them in order for me to enjoy the joy that is creating and painting. In large part that's why photography (as both a business and an artform) have not worked for me. It was something that created a competition (with my family) and I always ALWAYS let it win and my family lose miserably. But that's not my life anymore and that's definitely not my art. The way I understand it, if my family loses, I will lose and you can best my art will be lost as well. It doesn't have to be that way though.

I am not sure entirely how it works out like this - because logically it makes NO sense - but I think that the way my life will go will not require me to juggle anything. I think so long as I put my family first and remember to preserve and maintain the covenant I have with them because of what the Lord has called me to do (being a wife and a mother) I will end up turning out some of the greatest works of art of all of my life. I mean, I am just barely a week into the new year but... well... something tells me this is how it's going to work out.

From the home studio | a Tour of the "Storeroom"

I think it's been a month since I gave you a pictorial tour of my home studio space (see it HERE, HERE, and HERE). I had previously promised you a peek at the studio storage space but not delivered because it took me a LONG time to get what I now call the "Storeroom" camera-ready. Thankfully, the weekend was semi-productive for me and I have a video tour for you to see of it!

Special delivery from Jerusalem - Pt. 2 of 2

Want to see what was specially delivered from Jerusalem? 

Here it is...

Four hand-stretched canvases with belgian linen over heavy stretcher bars sans priming/gesso.

A little underwhelming? Expected something different? I assure you. There is much more than meets the eye here.

In the midst of my asking and seeking for what the Lord wants of me, creativity, and creation right now, something stirred inside of myself that led me in a few overlapping directions...

• Focus on His creation as it is so beautifully discussed in scripture
• Use materials for supports like what the old master painter used to
• Root my technique from what has previously been done so masterfully by painters from hundreds of years before me
• Use my own efforts and endeavors to support and uphold other currently working artists as much as possible

All of the above led me in the way of finding hand-stretched, unprimed belgian linen canvases from a wonderful fellow artist who lives and works in Jerusalem. Yes, yes. THAT Jerusalem in Israel. Friends, I cannot tell you how much of a "God-moment" it was for me to have been able to be led in such a way as this. If this isn't a signpost from the Lord that this is precisely what He wants me to be doing with my life then I don't know what is.

I am still asking and seeking out what the Lord wants me to paint on these canvases. In the midst of Sunday sermon of just this past weekend while I was running the projector for service, something the pastor said sparked something in me and offered me a bit of a pearl of what comes next. It's still all brewing so I can't quite share it with you yet but I will tell you it is requiring me to really study and meditate the words He gives us in scripture. It was almost like He gave me inspiration this past weekend and then just said to me, "Now sit with this. Be still and wait. I will tell you when and what comes next."

And so I am doing just that! Kind of a good thing for me to do because I continue to feel really overwhelmed with all of this. God-moments are like that, you know? And when I get bombarded with them like how it has been happening recently (it also has happened like this one other time in my life about 6-7 years ago), I truly feel like my heart and soul can barely take it. Why? Because how gracious and forgiving and provident is He that after all I have done in my life apart from Him - even at some points outright refusing Him to be in my life - He is here with me now and giving to me so abundantly and freely. It's truly humbling and I can't help but be totally overwhelmed where it makes me feel like it couldn't possibly be happening like this.

Special delivery from Jerusalem - Pt. 1 of 2

While the title of this posting could definitely suggest something different since we are officially in December since the next major occasion cause for celebration is the birth of Jesus Christ? That's actually not what I meant. Just the same, it's hard to ignore how timely what I actually am talking about is regarding the aforementioned.

That picture up there is of a package of some items that I ordered around the time I announced my (now old news) retirement from being a working visual artist of the photographic sort. I had just finished "The Covenant" painting and I was feeling both uplifted and overwhelmed by the prospects that the Lord had something different for me to do that would still allow me to answer His calling to be an artist for Him. On top of all of that, I was getting to oil paint again - the one medium of art that I love more than anything else - and I was just in all kinds of bliss because of it.

While I was reveling in the things that the Lord was doing, I was careful to try no to forget to give every ounce of it back to Him. I knew that the only reason why I was suddenly able to create the way I was - the new style and technique of painting, the materials to be able to paint, the time to be able to paint, and the newly established peace, love and support in my life to inspire and encourage me - it all came from the Lord above. And because I am a firm believer that whatever He gives is a gift to us and what we do with what He gives us is our gift back to Him, I prayed and waited for direction about how and what He wanted me to do with it all.

Do you know what it's like to have your prayers answered in such a way that there isn't a shadow of a doubt that God has really heard your requests and cries for help? How about when you can really feel His presence in a moment where you are needing Him? How about when you can really feel His presence AND see Him so much that it feels like the time has stopped and the world has stopped moving and you feel like it is so carefully designed and then orchestrated that it couldn't possibly be happening? Do you know any of these moments? I (and some others who are believers) know them to be "God-moments" and while (in the past) they have been rare - I mean, moments so special as that can't just happen constantly because I am convinced that our hearts and souls couldn't take it - they happening to me and it has only affirmed and confirmed the fact that the Lord is here delivering on His promises and then making even more to deliver upon. The special delivery from Jerusalem? It was all of this put together.

To be continued...

How is Social Media affecting your Creative Mojo?

Question for you: 

 Does your creative mojo outpace the fierce fandom and regular (and loyal) usage of social media?

[Social media being: blogging, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Deviant Art, etc.]

My creative mojo used to be much like this plain black canvas largely because of the influence and impact of social media.

I believe I have breached this topic before but I thought I would talk a little more in depth as I have recently stumbled upon some situations that have really made me think more critically about it. 

I don't remember exactly when it happened but in the last few months I started noticing some things both about social media that I really didn't like because of how it was affecting my life. General things I noticed about it were this:

• It made me lazy in my relationships. This includes both people and "things" (like creative endeavors).
• It made me jaded and easily unimpressed which, in turn, made me passive-aggressive and "judgey" in the way I was thinking or reacting to what I was taking in. 
• It made me feel both inspired and inadequate at the same time, which, in turn, made me unnecessarily envious and frustrated with the fact that I couldn't achieve/do/create/design in the same way as someone else.
• It actively contributed to me being inactive - with my body, my mind, and (most importantly) my heart & soul.

Because of all of these things, I made what some folks have called drastic an unnecessary, the decision to cutback on how and what social media I use. The biggest thing of it was I removed myself from Facebook. I took a ton of flack for this and I even still get it from people on a regular basis. I also stopped bothering with Twitter - not that big of a deal because I already wasn't using it a ton. And, I seriously examined my blogging activity - though it might not seem like it because I have managed to keep a pretty regular schedule of Monday-Friday posting since the school year started with some recent exceptions.

Now, I don't bring all of this up to say that social media is bad or that anyone who uses it is bad either. I mean, you are reading the blog that I keep right now and that definitely is something of social media, right? (And I'd like to think that this blog isn't bad otherwise it would have gone the way of Facebook months ago which it didn't do.) My point in bringing this up is to perhaps inspire some internal conversation (in myself as much as for you) about the call we all feel to be creative and create but how it ends up existing dormant inside of us because of the noise and activity of so many other things these days and ultimately? It ends up slowly and painfully shriveling up inside until that feeling starts to suck up the rest of us as well. (So, I am talking about this as it relates to creation and creativity.)

I cannot tell you how many folks I come across on a regular basis - my student artists, my colleagues who are incredible artists outside of the non-art/creative content areas they teach, and fellow artists I meet by way of this blog and just general adventures of real-life - who have been impacted in seriously negative ways much like the ways I shared with you above about how it has impacted me.

Just the other day I had a conversation with an incredibly talented student artist who is just a freshman and has had very little formal training in the way of drawing. It has taken her months to finally bring in her personal portfolio for me to just look at (much less critique) and when she finally did it, I literally had to tell her in a very blatant way, "Do not talk while I am looking at it." Why? Because all of the narration and explanation she was giving me was negative and seriously untrue. This is because (I found out) she spends a ton of time trying to be a part of an online community of artists by the name of Deviant Art and rather than it inspiring her to create, it has only made her feel inadequate, unfairly critical, and incapable of designing or creating anything worthy of anything more than hiding away or discarding.

Now, like I said before, I don't begrudge the many conduits of social media or its vast communities of users. That's not my point in saying all of this. I am only trying to offer a perspective based upon my own personal experience and observations about how it is perhaps doing something to our innate capacities and yearnings to be creative and be creators. As a believer in the gospel, I believe it exists because the Lord (the most supreme creator and intelligent designer in all of existence) created man in His image therefore giving each of us seeds of being visionary like Him and the power to create like Him and this goes for people who are believers and not yet believers of the gospel!

I believe every single one us was created to create! This is why people who will openly profess to not be artists doodle in their folio pads during conferences/class instructional time or play with office supplies at their desks when they should otherwise be doing work. Creativity and creation is inside of us and it simply needs to be roused awake and then fed and cared for so it can thrive. But when you introduce social media into the equation? Well, that kind of media ends up pushing out and ultimately eliminating other kinds of media from our otherwise creative and creating selves.  The unfortunate thing is that it happens in such a way that we are far from being keenly aware of it because it convinces us that it's not so bad and then it starts seeping into and all over parts of our life without us until it's everywhere and everything. I mean... I make this sound kind of extreme but it sort of us like that. Harmless at first but can eventually be smothering the way it exists.

Anyway, if you are feeling stifled (or smothered, or wilting, or disintegrating) with your own creative inspirations, efforts, and overall investments, perhaps you are dealing with a similar situation as I was. And if you are? Well... it doesn't have to be that way. It really doesn't have to be that way at all.

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ADDENDUM, 12/4/12 => Found THIS via Hongkiat.com during my morning blogrolling. It is so relevant to this topic! It speaks specifically about how to establish and maintain balance between your Online and Offline social lives rather than letting one dominate and replace the other.

Home studio, sweet home studio

I'm happy to report that since converting my daughter's playroom into a family art studio - where I can paint, my daughter can draw, and my husband can sculpt - it's become what some people call their kitchens: the center of our home where everything else revolves around.

Seriously. If you ever have the notion to convert one of the common rooms of your home to a home art studio - DO IT. It is SO worth it!!! It keeps you from isolating yourself when you are creating, invites others to join with you in creating, and it also allows you to be able to create first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

I recently received an early Christmas present from my parents that is a Daylight lamp (you can find the one I have HERE though I didn't pay such a price for it since it was a gift and I also watched the prices to wait for it to drop down around $120 before I steered the efforts to purchase it). Here it is in action the other night when I was doing some late night painting on a newly inspired series...

I initially was not super impressed with the lamp but after using it late at night and trying out the detachable magnifying glass for detail work in the way of impasto, I am slightly more pleased with it. For my purposes, so I can stand while I work, I have found it helpful to place the tiny canvases I am working on on an overturned Artsphere (Originally purchased for a steal because I thought my husband would enjoy it for charcoal and sketch work. I was wrong though. *shrug*) I cover it with wax paper to try and keep it clean because I have a tendency toward being a real mess of a painter.

One of my favorite things to do is to scrape things down - canvases, my glass painting palette. It is so cathartic for me sometimes and I actually sometimes paint with the intention to scrap what I do to help clear my mind of things that are clouding my view of the inspirations I know I am supposed to be spring boarded by.

Other things I do? I like to watch Netflix instant of old reruns of series like My So-Called Life or Felicity. Recently I discovered that Lionel Richie made a cameo on Felicity and I just about choked on the leftover banh mi I was eating!

 

 One of my new favorite things to do though is to study the works of the old masters. I have pared down my art books to just the ones that are most informative and inspirational to me and one I bought for super clearance at a major bookseller who was going out of business is called ART by Ross King and it is chock full of full-color images AND background information of a huge number of artists and their works of all mediums. I think I got the book for less than $20 and it is one of the best resources for art education and history I have. It's so great that I honestly thing it might be one of those few things I would grab if ever there were a fire and I needed to do so.

 

I have never done a real series/collection of paintings but I am getting ready to embark on one (definitely) and another one might be in the works. I am feeling really uplifted by the Lord right now and encouraged with what I know He wants me to do even though I am quite intimidated by the fact that He sees fit for me to do such things. Just the same, when I fall short I know He will be there for me to see me through it all. That's the point of it all, y'know? It's not my creation to have anyway. It's His. It's all for HIM.

I had no idea painting and creation could be like this.

This 40x40 canvas has been hanging around my house waiting to be marked up for quite some time. I haven't had the time to do anything with it though (when I bought it) I had some inspiration for it and even though it was quite some coin to buy it, I knew I was supposed to do it. (I did manage to save some money though with a 40% discount coupon from Michael's and my teacher's discount.) 

When my students came over to my house to have a painting/art party for my one student's 18th birthday celebration, it seemed like a good idea to finally do something with and to this giant blank canvas. My original goal was to paint this instagram snap of the sunrise taken one morning right outside my house weeks ago...

Amazing, no? Instagram is such a guilty pleasure of mine. 

I was debating between the above and another sort of similar picture but my husband convinced me that the above was a much better inspiration to draw from. (The other one I was considering is pictured HERE in this blog posting.)

Anyway, I blocked out my painting with the Portfolio brand oil pastels I love so much and talk so much about...

  

And then I went in on top of that with an open palette of colors in Gamblin brand oil paints that I bought (also way too long ago and have been sitting waiting for me to open up) paired with Liquin and natural Turpenoid.

I worked on it probably less than three hours when I finally stopped/quit for lunch and I was content enough with it. It wasn't stressing me out at least. I took my students and my daughter to lunch for a VN feast of Pho Tai, Goi Cuon, Ca Kho To, Sung Sa Hat Lua, Banh Mi, and a Vietnamese style birthday cake. We ended up being out and about for most of the day and I didn't get home until right before dinner time. This is where I stopped before the lunch break...

When I came home, I contemplated not working on it but then ended up stepping back into putting more color down because my daughter was happily playing by herself and I wanted to get some more layers of paint built so that I could work wet on wet if I wanted to.  

Then right before my husband arrived home from work, I had a moment where I just thought this to myself...  

"You know what? How about you just let go of your expectations a little bit and do what you are going to do because this is the first time you are back at the easel. The Lord will surely do a mighty work in you and with you and ON THIS PAINTING if you just let yourself loose a little bit. Paint what you feel and how you are inspired and not what you (think) you know. Let both divine inspiration  and the paint itself speak to you and then you do your best to respond with your brush to start a conversation (of sorts) so that your canvas/painting is saying something more than showing something."

And wouldn't you know it as soon as I had the above conversation with myself, I yielded something amazing that you can see a little bit of below. How gracious and provident is God. Man oh man. I had no idea I could or would ever paint like this. I know I am entering an entirely new phase as both a visual artist and a painter. I feel so incredibly blessed.  I have wanted to paint like this for as long as I have known paintings - both just admiring them as much as trying to paint myself.  

Tomorrow, I will share the finished piece with you. Yes. A finished oil painting on a 40x40 canvas was finished in less than a day by me - the painter who (in the past) has taken up to 10 months to finish one piece that is half that size.

At the home studio with my (from work) art students

Yesterday I told you a little bit about how I decided to take my first day off/day of leisure (in I don't know how long) and invited to of my senior art students to my home studio to celebrate one of their birthdays with a day of painting and then a feast of Vietnamese food. I don't have pictures of the trip to get VN food but here are some pictures of what my students painted! I will share pictures of what I worked on in my next posting.

This student painter is the (now) 18 year old birthday girl and she is actually nationally ranked rock climber in her non-student and non-artist time. Her place of grace is definitely in the mountains and scaling ridiculous rocky terrain so she opted to work on a 16x20 canvas knife painting with acrylics to make an inspired piece of some rocky mountain ranges. She blocked out her painting in Portfolio-brand pastels and then she painted over it all.

She is quite accomplished and gifted in painting even though she is not currently an art student because her advanced placement course schedule does not permit any. She does serve as the school's peer-elected visual arts senior prefect. 

This student artist opted to do two smaller canvases and the one below is the second one she did. She was very inspired by the colors of autumn and her previous small one was in the whole rainbow spectrum. Her plan with her pieces was to take both small pieces home and develop them further into mixed-media works of art using tissue paper and ink on top of the painted layers.

This student is also an advanced art student but her gifting is more in drawing so she is in the year-long intensive drawing course. She is especially good with "zen doodling" and anything that is geometric and graphic. 

Because no occasion can pass (by me) without me giving something handmade. I did an inspired Sharpie-ed mug design (and then baked it) of a design I originally saw on either Pinterest or Etsy. (Can't remember where but this is my way of saying this is not an original design idea.)

The birthday girl and I always joke about how to be a TRUE hipster so she is wearing a disco necklace (a silly costume prop from Party City) and holding the mug so you can see Lionel Richie on the front of her (green) tea mug. Below you can see the back of the mug that reads, "Hello. Is it Tea you're looking for?"

This image collage was made with the iPhone app called PicStitch. (I think)

In tomorrow's posting, I will show you what I worked on while my art students were working on their things.