Misty said in today’s lesson that photography was one of her favorite ways to entertain herself. Mine too! I am loving the photography lesson today! I’ve been playig with Photoshop for years, but I am self taught, and I’m sure I don’t know half of what it can really do. Picked up a nifty layering tip from today’s video and just had to try it out.

I am so loving Misty Mawn right now!

We are doing assignments with drawing, painting, creative writing, journaling, and clay. Much to keep up with, but so much fun!

I have done my first sculpture ever… and I wasn’t even planning to play with the clay assignments. I had no idea I would enjoy playing with the air-dry clay so much, but this little girl was so very fun to do. I put a birdie in her hands intending to paint it blue for my mother. She loved blue birds, and when she died a family of them came to live in our yard. I always thought it was a message from her, a sign that she was ok. So, when my little girlie was dry enough to play with, I got to work in my studio with the Adirondack inks and some sponges and …

Squee!!! I love her!

I believe we are supposed to do some photography this week. Can’t wait to play with my camera a little. All this drawing and painting is a bit intimidating to me sometimes, so it will be good to wander back towards my comfort zone for a bit. Though I did really enjoy the clay…

Misty is just so inspirational. I’m sure I’ll love whatever we do going forward. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

I am happy to report that I got to spend the entire afternoon puttering about the studio yesterday, and it was glorious!

What do I have to show for all of this activity? A new worklight, and a pretty spiffy journal to do my workshop practice in.

Yay studio time!

Bring on the art, 2012!!!

I didn’t do too badly keeping up with the blog this year. I did let things lapse through the fall, but that was because I was focused on other things besides my art. I’ve kept myself busy getting a few personal & domestic duckies in a row, and I have accomplished much in my absence. Yay me!

Everything has been in chaos these last few years while I slogged through a long & painful grieving process, and the end of this year has been about finding my footing and organizing the elements of my life to fit into my new normal… or, more accurately, getting out of the way and allowing things to coalesce around this new normal.  At long last, I feel as though I’ve finally come out the other end of a long, dark tunnel into daylight!

I think my first steps toward engaging with the world again were taken in Misty Mawn‘s Stretching Within workshop last January. It was, as promised, a place to stretch, have a welcome reunion with my muse, and begin  to shrug off the weight of stagnation I had been hiding under. It set me off an a year of online workshops – some of which I shared with you here & some I did not. It was a year of  going back to school in a sense… of learning how to enjoy art and life and creativity again, a year to relearn how to be fully present in my own life in ways I feared I could never rediscover.

I started 2011 with the intention of stretching myself and that is what I have done. I have discovered new pieces of myself and rediscovered old ones. I have adopted new routines and purged unhealthy ones. I have allowed myself to be grateful for all that I have instead of obsessing over what I have lost. I have allowed myself to just be, and to let that be enough.

Now, as the year draws to a close, I find myself looking forward to the next with unexpected energy. I am excited to move ahead now that I have mastered standing still in this strange new terrain.

To that end, I have decided to begin 2012 with Misty Mawn as my guide once more. I am looking forward to the beginning of her Open Studio workshop on January 9th with great joy and anticipation!

She has posted some content already & given us a writing assignment to start us off.

Our prompt was I am here.

I thought I would end this post by looking ahead to the new year’s journey by sharing…

Before I was in darkness, wandering lost & afraid… but now I am here. 

Before I was broken, paralyzed with loss, no voice to sing… but now I am here.

Slowly – oh, so slowly – the ground has settled once more beneath my feet & I am once again ready to take my first tentative steps, to plunge into this new normal. I am here.

Aching to spread my wings and fly at last, to glimpse the light of the sun again. Face upturned to the wonder of this fresh day. 
I am here.

In reality, I am having a blast!

Part of yesterday’s assignment was to do portraits using artist’s ink and a dropper. This is officially my new favorite thing!

The face to the left is actually the tissue paper I used to blot my original. She blurred badly, but the blotter picked up the cutest little girlie! What can I say? She was my first try, and I was a little heavy handed with the ink. I love happy mistakes!

I kinda messed up the face on another attempt, but I kept going. The more I looked at her, the more I decided that she had real character… even if she wasn’t quite as pretty as I had intended her to be.  I really dig her now. her name is Hattie.

I had a few turn out to be really fun, and a couple even turn out as I had intended them to. I even had one or two turn out better than I had expected! Not bad for a morning’s play.

We are doing little watercolor faces and blind contours as well. Also one line drawings and sharpie sketches to practice shading. And let’s not forget that Carla is fond of asking us to do drawings with our non-dominant hand… though after seeing the sketch I did of her, she might change her mind about that.

I am really having fun. Usually when I have an assignment that is difficult for me, I put it off until I am feeling brave enough to attempt it, but I find myself waking up each morning and heading straight to my computer for the day’s worksheet & assignments. Big thank yous to Carla for making something that I am usually reluctant to practice so very fun to do!

The ink portraits are without a doubt my favorite thus far. Sadly, this requires the purchase of yet another category of art supplies. I have several Liquitex inks, but the dropper in the FW Artist Ink is better for this technique. Oh darn! A trip to the fine art store… twist my arm.

My final inky pic that I want to share is the one I call Our Lady of Ink. My model was a vintage picture of an actress draped in flowy silk, but my inkie girl turned out looking more like a religious icon. Squee! I love her!!

My computer needed an operation to replace it’s logic board, so I got a little behind in my classwork last week and had to play a little catch up over the weekend. I did a little to get started on Saturday, but set aside all of Sunday to really focus and finish the first week of class… Imaginary Creatures.

I played with pencils and charcoal and watercolors. Then I played with india ink markers and copics and pan pastels. There was the odd micron pen and some decorative tape as well. I had a blast!!!

Wanna see what I did?

This week is Faces 101. Can’t wait to get my chores & errands done, so I can play this afternoon! Yay art!

Misty was so worth it! She is every bit as lovely and generous and inspirational in person as she was in her online workshop. I cannot say enough about what a talented artist and wonderful teacher she is.

After coffee and a few deep breaths, I was able to focus enough to really enjoy playing in this class. We played with paints and gel medium and stencils. We did exercises with the Stabilo marks all pencil and water. We played with text. We did gel transfers. We played with inks and masks. It was a messy, creative, really excellent day!

After class, I checked in and got myself organized to go to my evening class with Stephanie Rubiano. It was called Over the Edge, and we did a little collage on art board with metal accents that hung out – yep – over the edge. It was my first class with Stephanie, and she did not disappoint. She was lovely and full of excellent information for doing dimensional collage projects. I would love to take a longer class with her sometime.

The other thing I took away from Stephanie’s class was that she was using this cool modified eurotool that she got from Richard Salley. I was lusting after the thing & just ordered a couple from him. Yay for new tools! You will note the cute little embossed polka dots on my little guys cap…

The next day was Saturday, which was another class with Misty called Cover to Cover. Another excellent class!

We made little books and decorated them with painting and collage. I have tried to learn copic binding several times, and have never had it explained in such an easy to follow way. Way to go, Misty! I didn’t think to bring any of my painted papers from the day before, but I was able to use the techniques to do the background for the front and back covers. Then I tried my hand at painting over a collaged photo to do a portrait. I still need work on the whole portrait thing, but I’m better than I was when I started. Also, using a photo to do the underpainting is a nifty shortcut.

I got just a little carried away with the ribbons and buttons and embellishments, but overall I like the effect I ended up with. I plan to use my little book to practice my portrait drawing and painting.

Also, Misty had a proof copy of her book, Unfurling, in class and we got to have a little sneak peek. It made me even more excited about getting my copy – which arrived just after we got home from the beach. I recommend it highly! So much to explore, and the way Misty shares her talent is just so inspirational. Big thumbs up! The preview was a really nice treat.

I am very bad about over-scheduling at Art & Soul and getting fried and a little cranky by the time I get to my last couple of classes, so I decided to build in a little semi- down time this year. I took a Zentangle class with Suzanne McNeill on Sunday. It was lovely and very relaxing. I got to play without overloading. 

I also won a door prize! She had taken her four Zentangle books and had them bound together into one larger spiral binding. I had a couple, but not all of them. I almost bought them at vendor night but decided to hold off. Now I’m glad that I did.

Sunday night, I had signed up for an evening class with Thomas Ashman called Dremmel Applications for Mixed Media Artists. I have to admit that I was unsure about this class. I had been in the first class he taught on the copper & glass journal, and it was a less than wonderful experience. I wasn’t sure if it was just a new class and the need to iron out the bugs or if it was him. I am happy to say that the dremmel class was lovely, and I really enjoyed the evening. Really good practical info and a pleasant vibe in the classroom. I’m really glad I took it… except that now I know that dremmel has a workstation that turns your rotary tool into a drill press. So many tools… so little space. *sigh*

That was also a nice night because I was able to reconnect with a friend I had made in a Carla Sonheim class several years ago. We sat together and got a chance to catch up a bit. I really enjoyed getting to see Amy again, so cheers to her.

My last day was a class with Sally Jean Alexander called Secret Surprise. Basically the idea is that we were making something way spiffy that she wouldn’t do again, but we didn’t get to know what it was until the end of the class… in short it was a surprise even while we were working on it. We got info on a need to know basis over the course of the day. Despite a couple of setbacks and the class running over a bit into the evening, it was great fun. It did make packing a little challenging, but I always bring too much stuff, so it didn’t really matter that much. The project itself was most nifty… it was a jumping jack.

My time at Art & Soul was fun and productive. I always enjoy going to these retreats. I’m looking forward to Virginia Beach next year! Glenny has moved the spring retreat there from Hampton, and I think it will be lovely to be at the ocean while I play art. Good call.

That’s about it for the recap.
Now I need to spend some time in my studio – maybe even unpack – and put all that I learned to good use…

We left for our annual visit to the Outer Banks the weekend after I got back from Hampton, and there’s no blogging allowed at the beach.

Vacation is a sacred time filled with relaxation and frivolity. What can I say?

We walked on the beach, read trashy novels, collected sea shells, blew bubbles… it was grand!

The beach has been my happy place for as long as I can remember.

My first visit to the Outer Banks – too many years ago to mention – was further down the Banks than Duck, where we stay these days. I went to Buxton, down on Hatteras, and it was magical! I remember getting to Hatteras after dark but really wanting to see the lighthouse. It was still out on the beach at that time. I went out there and it was completely deserted… nothing but the sand and the ocean and me watching the light reach out across the water as it came around again and again. A perfect introduction.

I will get my head back in the blogging game soon, I do promise. But for the moment, I must confess, my brain is back on the beach… in the sand, with my toes.

This year I’m taking…

Painted Papers & a handmade book class called Cover to Cover with Misty Mawn. Can’t wait to take a Misty class in person!!

Over the Edge, 3 dimensional collage with Stephanie Rubiano

Zentangle 101 with Suzanne McNeill

Secret Surprise – you guess is as good as mine at this point – with Sally Jean Alexander

I’m also signed up for an evening class with Thomas Ashman called Dremel Applications for Mixed Media Artists

As usual, I have packed way too much! The ratio of clothes and personal items to art supplies is about 5 to 1… seems about right.

I hope to come back with fun art projects and much knowledge.
See you next week…