Release

Waaaaaaaayyyy back in September when I finished up my 30 Days project, I had no intention of taking such an extended blog break. Sheesh!

See, I took pictures to share!

And I even made some art. I just never got my butt in the chair to actually share stuff with you.

All is well here. It was a happy, busy fall, full of art and work and football and fun. Much to my surprise, I chose to bring some new friends into my life. I'm still adjusting to the added busy-ness that brings, but on the whole it's been delightful!

The word RELEASE has chosen me for 2012. I already started on the solstice by releasing some emotional junk I'd been holding on to much too tightly. It feels wonderful! RELEASE has so much potential. I think it will be a good word and a good year.

I'm ready to fly into the new year. How about you?

Days 22-25 of 30 days of creativity

I finished up this little piece, which mostly involved gluing things down. This is 8" by 8" collage and paint on a pre-stretched canvas. For the rubber stamps, I stamp them on tissue paper and then glue them down like any other piece of collage. Makes my inner control freak happy.

I've been collecting pretty fabric at yard sales all summer and Sunday I turned some of it into this little tote bag. I donated it to the breast cancer fundraiser we do at work, so some lucky person will win it in our raffle.

I've also been playing around with making these little charms and stringing them on necklaces which will be sold as part of the breast cancer fundraiser. Can I just say how much I love stamping words on washers?

Days 20 and 21: Resolution

It's funny, this creativity thing, some days you do a bunch of work and don't have much to show for it and other days you're sick with a stomach bug and don't do much, but the little bit of fussing you manage looks good. Some of the bits and bobs resolved into reasonable compositions these past two days. Although I'm not so sure about that big flower, I think it's a little overwhelming.

This piece still needs a ton of work, but now I have a direction.

These pieces and some others I've been working on are a little different than my usual style and frankly I've been wondering what the heck I'm doing with them. So it was nice to also get a bit of resolution on that front as I recognized that I sort of have a series going on here, little composition exercises using elements that draw me in.

How did it get to be the 19th?!?

Sheesh, that went really fast! I have been keeping up with my daily creativity even though I haven't kept up with the blogging. Mostly still working at bits and bobs in the background. I also attended a great Fabrications Quilt Artists meeting at Sew Uniquely You. Next month I'll be demonstrating hand embroidery stitches - contact me for more info.

Here's another little encaustic experiment. Better, but still nothing to write home about. But it's the doing that matters!

Here's some more bits and bobs. I'm s-l-o-w-l-y getting a little more organized in the studio. I do a lot of throwing different elements together to see what happens. I'm thinking this process will be facilitated by being able to find all the different elements. Just a theory. ;-)

Back on the wagon: Day 12

Not much to show for days 8 - 11 as my creative time was limited to looking through books and letting ideas marinate. My friend Dianne says sometimes making art is more of an internal process. I'm going with that.

I got back to physical art making last night as I started messing around with these little pieces of wood I had covered with plaster a couple of weeks ago, inspired by this beautiful book.

The madonna piece started with a Holy Toast stamp pressed into the wet joint compound. Yesterday I carved into the dry plaster and added some paint. Needs more work but I'm not sure what.

The flower is a first attempt with encaustics. Clearly I need WAY more practice/instruction if I'm ever going to do much with this medium. I'll probably scrape this off and try again. But I'm posting a picture because it's a great example of another benefit of the 30 days of creativity plan: the crap quotient.

The crap quotient is the idea that making some really crappy art is an important part of learning and growing as an artist. When you're committed to making something every day, it's so much easier to accept the crap quotient. It's just part of the rhythm of daily making, rather than a frustrating "waste" of precious creative time.

Days 6 and 7: in the background

Days 6 and 7 of my 30 days of creativity have been rather unglamorous, but very satisfying. This is the background of a small mixed media quilt I designed several months ago. I hadn't finished the quilt because it felt kinda bland and impersonal. I finally figured out that I could add both visual interest and my personality by adding the hand stitching that I love so much.

These little unglamorous "background" tasks are the reason I took on the 30 day challenge. It's the designing that's exciting. The followthrough is more challenging for me. Sitting still to do all the little unglamorous tasks is easy to let go by the wayside, especially when I'm tired after a busy work day. But the added incentive of the 30 day challenge has me turning in relief each day to these simple tasks, all these little things that happen in the background of making art.

Days 3, 4 and 5

Wow, Pistol and I are loving this Monday off after my trip to Seattle!

Days 3 and 4 were busy with driving and football but I managed to get some stitching done in the car. Today I finished up the necklace I've been working on. I loved the wire work I did on this and have lots more similar ideas to play with.

I didn't forget day 2

I was just too tired to post after working and pigging out in the park.

I just love the sweet little samplers that Charlotte Lyons cooks up and I when I saw the cat and the rolling hills in her latest design I couldn't resist. I'll be working on this more today in the car.