About a week ago I discovered Andrea Joseph who blew my mind. She’s absolutely amazing and she inspired me to sketch. And right before that I had watched this amazing video and I had already decided to sketch daily after that. So when I found Andrea, that was it. I just started to sit and do it.
I did this ball using the tutorials here.
then I made a bottle.
the buttons were inspired by this.
and the pens are also inspired by her:
I did one while waiting for David’s bus and then added another later.
and then I tried the shoes.
I made one yesterday and one today.
Going slowly. Just trying to give it 30mins a day and see if I can progress. I love being inspired.
Catalyst One Hundred and Thirty is: Tell us about a Favorite/special piece of clothing.
Journaling Reads:
I have saved this pair of jeans for 21 years. They traveled with me from Turkey to Pittsburgh to New York to San Diego and to the Bay Area. People told me to throw them out several times. “You can never fit the jeans you wore at 17.” I heard again and again. But I couldn’t bear to give up. And now that I am finally losing all this weight, I can finally fit into them once again (they don’t close just yet but still.) miracles do happen.
Details:
And here’s another one of my weeklong pages. This one was inspired by Ailsa Burke’s Sketchbooks Workshop. The first thing I did in this page was to draw the two flowers:
here they are closer up:
And here’s the filled page:
Here’s the left page:
As you can see, not much extra this week. It was a super-stressful week so I didn’t spend as much time each day, but I still love how it turned out. This process feels really natural and fun to me.
Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here. And you can find out more about the weeklong daily journaling here.
So, I have been sketching. I’m not sure it counts since it’s the same sketch over and over again. But here we are.
Remember this angel from last week (the page that inspired that will come in a few weeks, it’s in my weeklong journal):
I did that with the brown pencil and wanted to see how it would look with the black one:
then I did it again with graphite:
and here they are next to each other:
and then I made another one inside an old book:
then I went and bought a larger sized moleskine book cause I decided I liked large. So I bought a plain one (not watercolor) and made another angel in pencil:
then in the black marks all pencil:
and then made another one today:
and colored it lightly:
And there we are. Angels everywhere.
I signed up for Christy Tomlinson’s She Art Workshop a few weeks ago and I cannot tell you how much I love the class. I love watching Christy create these beautiful canvases and make it look so easy and so meaningful.
So today I wanted to share with you a few of the She Art pieces I made. All are inspired by Christy. The first one was in my art journal and you saw it last week:
and then I made one in my art journal just for fun:
and finally, here’s the one I made for the Pink Paislee blog:
All three of these pieces use a combination of Pink Paislee papers, paint, sequin waste, rubons, and stamps.
There’s something magical about combining scrapbooking paper, rubons, paint and stamps that just makes it so much fun to work. Mixing all my words together. Truly mixed media. I’ve really really enjoyed Christy’s class and have actually completed one more piece inspired by her. It’s not a girl but it’s almost a direct lift of a piece of art by Christy and I will show it in soon since it’s in my daily journal.
Thank you, Christy, for this beautiful class. I’ve enjoyed every moment of it.
Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
Since March is going to be over tonight and since I’d “planned” to sketch every day in March and since that went out the window pretty quickly, I wanted to share with you the few sketches I did make that I hadn’t shared so far.
If you’ve seen Alisa’s sketches, you can see these first two are really trying to be like her. (Unsuccessfully, I might add.)
I love the color but the shape doesn’t speak to me in these. I can tell you they didn’t turn out like the way I saw them in my mind/imagination.
And here’s something totally different. I made this angel for my weeklong art journal last weekend and I couldn’t stop thinking about her so I made another one last night. There’s something about her I love.
more of those to come I am pretty sure.
And that was it for March. Quite sad but that’s where we are. I do have plans for April. I really really want to work on this still. I am not ready to give up.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately again and like before I originally thought these would end up as individual posts but I can’t seem to find the time (or more like motivation) to sit and write it all out so I am going to try this quicker version instead.
Here are part 1, part 2 and part 3.
14. Looking for the Quick Fix. This, too, has been on my mind a lot lately. We seem to have grown into a society of people looking for the quick fix. Learn Japanese in 24 hours. Become a master programmer in a week. Blah blah. These are not possible goals. Things take time. Dedication. Work. Becoming a master takes time. To me it’s a contradiction in terms. Trust me, I’d love to wake up tomorrow morning and be a master artist. Someone who can draw beautifully. But it’s not going to happen. Most of the people you see as “overnight” successes are people who are obsessively putting time and effort into their passion. Painting night and day. Writing for hours on end. Drawing again and again. When I study a new language I study for about 4-5 hours a day for months! Months. Gladwell famously mentions in his Outliers book that you need to dedicate 10,000 hours to something to master it. Break that down. An hour a day would get you 365 hours (ok 366 on leap years.) at that rate, you’d reach 10,000 in 27 years. If you do two hours a day, it’s still going to take 13.5 years. And when was the last time you put in two hours a day, every single day, into anything? I am a big proponent of “what you pay attention to blossoms.” And attention = time in our society. There are many things that are faster today. Like finding the meaning of a word or the original book a movie is based on, etc. You can google just about anything. But you still can’t shortcut life. If you want to be a good artist, writer, sports player, musician, programmer, physicist, you name it, you need to put in the time and the effort. Not just empty time either. Meaningful, purposeful time. Studying it, observing, growing, learning. I truly believe that. When I get frustrated with my sketches and how elementary they look, I remind myself I’ve put in maybe 10-20 hours so far. That’s 0.2% of 10,000. I’ve got a long way to go. Sometimes I need more perspective to bring me back to reality. It’s always about perspective. It also reminds me that where I spend my time matters. Very much.
15. Internet and blogs have brought real value into my life. I know it’s fashionable to bash blogs as a waste of time People who’ve inspired me despite not knowing them or ever having met them in person. There are people out there who share and I read and I get inspired to try things in my own life. Sometimes I succeed and discover something I never knew before or find a new passion. Sometimes it doesn’t work out but I am still thankful for having tried. But there are people who’ve tangibly changed my life. Heather is the reason I bought my first digital SLR. It prompted Jake to teach me more about photography. The camera led me to my first business. It brought on a passion I didn’t even know I had. I’d liked taking photos before but nothing like this. I learned so much about photography. Discovered a true love. I might or might not scrapbook my whole life but I will always take photos. It’s my passion and I put the hours into it, but Heather was the person who opened that world to me. She triggered it. Just by being herself. I am so grateful. Ali has inspired me in many ways but the most significant one is December Daily. Because of that album, I now always plan a million activities for my family during December. It’s become a tradition and something we all cherish so much. We owe so many of our adventures to this. So many amazing memories we will now have forever. December Daily is what triggered that for me. Ali’s pages and point of view also helped me look more closely at the everyday moments in my life. Tell our ordinary stories. This, too, has changed my life. It’s like getting to look back up on the “good old days” while they are still happening. It increases awareness, gratitude, and joy. Cathy, too, has changed my life. She is the one who triggered my “getting healthy” goal this year. Yes I am doing all the work but the trigger matters. The Nike+ made a tangible difference for me and I read about that in Cathy’s blog. Seeing her transform gave me hope. And now I have lost over 24 lbs in six months and I am the smallest size I’ve ever been in my life. More significantly I exercise every single day. With the exception of a brief hour with Heather, I’ve never met these people. We don’t regularly email or chat. But they have tangibly changed my life. If that’s not real value, I don’t know what is.
16. Self-conversation matters. I recently finished Christy’s amazing she art class and it made me realize something. As I watched her paint and stamp, I heard her say “oh that’s cute” or “i love that” often. I noticed that even if she made a mistake, she wouldn’t beat herself up about it. She’d just work with it, around it, or try to fix it. She was easy on herself. She enjoyed the process and was generally happy. When I create art, that’s not how it goes for me. I generally beat myself up a million times. I feel like I’ve ruined the piece a good ten times. I have to stop myself from stopping and chucking it away. I feel like it’s all just proof that I suck at this. It’s like I am waiting all along to be proven right that I am no good. Isn’t that terrible? Watching her made me realize that I’ve noticed others be positive, too. People enjoy the process. They build themselves up and see possibilities. I need to focus on that. Focus on patting myself in the back, cheering myself on. Being more positive. Feeling like I can do this. And giving myself permission to learn. To explore. I talked a lot about the “little girl” in my Finding Your Way class at BPC. The little one that lives inside each of us and the one who’s full of energy and hope and creativity and ideas. The one where most of the good stuff comes from. I feel like when it comes to art and mixed media I squash mine a lot and often. I am not kind to her. I need to work on this.
and there we are. that’s what’s on my mind lately.
And here’s another one of my weeklong pages. This one was inspired by Christy Tomlinson’s She Art Workshop. The first thing I did in this page was to cover it with a map and then put some really washed out white paint on it.
then I added a bunch of paint to the edges and put my girl on the right side:
Here’s the left page:
and the right page:
And here’s the full page:
Sorry photos are kind of bad. My camera doesn’t like these pages for some reason. But I still love making these pages.
Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here. And you can find out more about the weeklong daily journaling here.
I wanted to show you more of my weeklong-daily art journal. I’ve been focusing more on this lately as opposed to making art journal pages. I enjoy this process a lot and so I am doing what makes me happy for now. I generally start by creating some overall design for the page like this:
this one has one day’s worth writing just cause I didn’t take any photos of it all empty. I cut out those flowers from a fabric. Glued them down and then painted the background with some watercolors.
I used stamps, Souffle pens, watercolor, paper and other fun things to add a small amount every day. No pressure and just fun.
Here’s the left page:
and the right page:
and I even stamped on my fabric cause I wanted to:
And now here it is full:
And there we are.
I love making these pages.
Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here. And you can find out more about the weeklong daily journaling here.
Several people have asked what I thought about the Soul Restoration class and instead of writing the same stuff again and again, I thought I’d post it here. Remember that these are just my personal thoughts.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure I needed to take this class. For the first time in many many years, I feel like my soul is in better shape than it’s ever been, so I wasn’t sure what it would do for me. I mean, I knew I could always use more work but I didn’t feel like I needed it. Not like sketching and painting and drawing, all of which were calling to me with more urgency. But I’ve been reading Melody’s blog for a long time and the way she writes really speaks to me strongly. It moves me and makes me feel empowered and inspired so I knew I was going to miss out if I didn’t try. Since I have little kids, getting away to go to Brave Girl Camp wasn’t an option for me. So when this opportunity presented itself, I had to take the plunge. I was taking 4 other classes at the same time and this was the one I thought I was least likely to learn “new things” in.
I could not have been more wrong.
I would have to say this is easily one of the best classes I have ever taken. Ever. One of the ones I learned the most in and grew the most in. I am the kind of person who pays attention. I would say I am aware. I listen to myself. I watch and observe and try to learn and grow. And, still, I learned so very much about myself in this class, it’s almost impossible to explain how much. I had revelation after revelation.
Here are some basic details about the class: It’s 6 weeks long (though we had a bonus 7th week) and each week is several videos. Each video is 5-15 minutes but there might be 4 to 8 for each lesson. There are downloadables too but you really need to be able to watch the videos, the content is in the videos. So you need reliable and good internet access. Then, each week, there are projects. You can make them as artsy as you want or not at all. There also are journaling prompts each week. Around 15 or so each week. You are strongly encouraged to journal the ones that speak to you. You are also encouraged to make something called truth cards. (I have only made one of these so far but it’s in my list for April or May and I will definitely make them because I know it will be very very powerful.) There are many many many technique videos, too. On art, journaling, etc. There’s also a community where you can share, listen, support, ask questions, etc. That’s the basics.
I will admit that I didn’t participate a lot in the community. I had limited time and decided early on it would be easy to sink it all into the community and not do any of the work but I wanted to do the work, so I chose that. Other than that, though, I did everything. I watched the videos when they went up (I excitedly awaited each one to be honest.) I did a lot of journaling. I did all the art. I used one journal to do everything in and here’s what it looks like now.
I think the single biggest thing that helped me was the journaling. The art was powerful, too but not as much as the journaling. The journaling made me keep it real. Dig deep. Art was also like that. Just not as deep. But maybe that was because I did the journaling first each time.
Here are all my posts about the class so you can see how much I grew and learned each week:
Week 1 – Soul House
Week 1 – TruthTeller (It looks like I never posted this one. The art is below.
Week 2 – My Timeline
Week 3 – The Two Karens
Week 4 – She Did it Anyway
Week 5 – The Good and the Bad
Week 6 – Where the Peace Is
Week 6 – Promises
Week 6 – No More and Focus On
Week 7 – Daily Soulwork
Here’s the Truthteller page:
I should have written about that one for a long while, too. Apologies.
What made this class great was that if you actually sit and did the work, it was impossible not to learn and grow. It’s genuine, it works. I will admit that I don’t have anything truly horrible that is going on or went on in my life. I cannot speak for how hard it is to handle all this inward looking if you have. If you need real help, you should be seeking it with a professional of course. But if, like me, you like to be inward looking, more aware, and want to free your soul, this is the class for you. You have to commit to doing the work, though. Really really doing it.
I genuinely, deeply, truly recommend it. And I am so thankful that Melody and Kathy decided to finally do it online. I knew it would be truly transformative and, for me, it really was.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, I will be detailed and truthful in my responses as long as you promise to remember these are just my personal opinions and your experience, of course, might end up being different.
Catalyst One Hundred and Twenty-Nine is: Describe a family keepsake you have or hope to have?
Journaling Reads:
I am not one of those people who collects things to leave to my kids. I have the scrap albums which they may or may not want one day. The only thing I hope they will cherish and want to keep are the gratitude journals we’re keeping. I already cherish them deeply. Even keeping the practice of gratitude will be enough for me. I am so thankful we have these to look back upon.
Just when I thought Soul Restoration was over, they gave us a bonus lesson. So, of course, I had to sit and do it. As I knew, this is all continual work. I need to make it my focus each and every single day. Like with everything else, what I don’t pay attention wilts. I know this page is not really even worthy to call an art journal page but alas this is what I did so here it is. Sorry that it’s not so great visually or so super artistic. But, alas, here’s what I promised to do each day on this very simple page.
1. I will take quiet time each day: I find this restores my soul like no other. Time to rest my brain, my soul, my body and my heart.
2. I will get things done: I’ve written about this often. Getting things done is magical for me. It’s what makes me, me and I feel most at home with myself when I am getting things done.
3. I will spend time with my boys: All three of the men in my life are magical. They make me feel special. They bring me joy and happiness and fill me with gratitude. I will focus on them. I will not neglect them. They are truly my biggest priority.
4. I will take the time to journal: Journaling helps me stay centered. It helps me not only pinpoint issues but also find solutions. It works. Again and again. I will prioritize it. Every single day.
5. I will practice gratitude: I’ve already written oodles about it. Gratitude works. More than just about anything else. It keeps you aware of the good in your life. It’s a very important perspective.
6. I will take the time to exercise: I will value my health, my body, and show myself that I can do this. I can reach whatever goal I want. Even the ones that seem challenging and unreachable. Like exercise.
7. I will take photos of my family: photos help me be more in the moment. To focus, to pay attention. To look more carefully. To capture. To preserve. To live and re-live and appreciate and I am deeply grateful for them.
8. I will take the time to do art: Art makes me happy. It fulfills me in a way most other things don’t. I feel texture, color, pattern. I get messy. I am out of my element. I am using a different part of my brain than I do in the rest of my life. It feeds my soul. I am aiming to do a bit each day. Even if a tiny bit.
9. I will take the time to read: Reading, too, makes me happy. It takes me to worlds that I don’t otherwise get to inhabit. It helps my imagination. It calms me. It slows me down. It makes me feel at peace. It is probably the most peaceful thing I do. And peace is good.
These are the things that bring me peace. I want to feed the peace. The joy. The gratitude. The awareness. Taking time to do these is not selfish. It makes me a better person for me, for my family, for my friends. It makes me better at my job. It makes me better in life. It is worth taking the time each day to do them. And it’s daily work to keep the soul fed Just like my body. I feed my body with food. I feed my brain with work. I feed my heart with my husband and kids and family and friends. And I feed my soul with these.
They are just as essential as food.
Several people have asked me about Soul Restoration, I have a post coming up to talk about the class and my thoughts.
Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
|
projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
|
