Solstice Sun

Today is the winter solstice, the longest night and the shortest day of the year. For me, the solstice represents transition and new beginnings. As we pass through the longest period of darkness in the northern hemisphere, we enter into a new phase where the light gets longer and stronger with each passing day. And with the light, comes hope - something that is desperately needed in these times.

Solstice Sun

available in my etsy shop

sold. thank you!

Art Allows........

Thought for the day.........

5x5: Chapter 7

I may be the author of The Pulse of Mixed Media but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.

The Pulse of Mixed Media presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.

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If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

Amy Duncan

"The most ordinary of objects can tell a story. you just have to be listening."

Teri Mahl

"I am living on the west coast. Torn in many directions. Conflicted, fearful, anxious, unsure of myself. Searching new directions. Searching new paths."

Elizabeth Bunsen

"Gather the light"

Frances Peets

"Until you came into my heart, I did not feel. Until you touched my soul, I did not dance. Until you took my hand, I did not trust. Until you looked into my eyes, I was lost. Until you held me, love was not."

Shari Adkisson

"Silky, subdued, handmade and gorgeous colors. They just about sum up my take on art - fibre related!"

Carol Henley

"Your art is a reflection of you"

Erika Husselmann

"Love inspires"

Pat McNally

"Appreciate me"
(this 5x5 also answers the other two questions)

What is the one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Artist at large

"I haven't shared my bank details with the creative community because they will hack into my account and spend it all on charcoal."

Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

Darlene Wilkinson

"Me! and my higher self. I go thru life seeing, experiencing so many different facets and moods, colors and experiences. Then I go to my studio and intuitively create art via life experiences."

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The next edition of 5x5 will be posted on Sunday, December 23rd.

Explorations in...Giveaway!

Thanks to everybody who left a comment and entered my recent giveaways. I am sending out congratulations to the following three lucky winners: Susan Burgess has won a set of TEXTures stencils created by Jill K. Berry. Darlene K. Campbell will be receiving a copy of Photo Craft by Susan Tuttle and Christy Hydeck. Jan from Jan's Art and Musings will be getting Alternative Art Journals by Margaret Peot.

GIVEAWAY

Tis the season of giving and I have one more giveaway for you all.

Jess Greene from Seek Your Course, a wonderful site that highlights live and online art workshops - and much more, has just released three exciting and unique ebooks. I asked Jess to share a bit with my readers and this is what she had to say:

"After spending my summer on the road with the Jumpstart Creativity Tour I got an idea for the next phase of my business, Seek Your Course. While on tour I met many creative instructors who use SYC and so many people who were trying to fit more creativity into their life. This made me realize that we needed ebooks that guided readers through a bite-sized, at-home creative retreat. So over the past couple months I have been working with Stephanie Lee and Pixie Campbell to write the first three! Pixie leads readers through soul crafts with Spirit as a theme, Stephanie shares a plaster project around the theme of gratitude, and I teach a bookmaking project and talk about Journey. They are beautiful and finally ready for all to enjoy."

For this giveaway, please leave a comment on this post by end of day Monday, December 17th and you will be eligible to win your choice of one of the ebooks. Be sure I have your email so I can contact you.  The winner will be chosen randomly. Good luck!

2013 Workshop Schedule

I am going on the road in 2013 and just might be in your neighborhood. I have been working on scheduling workshops for next year and am now officially booked at multiple venues in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington State. Details, including descriptions of all the classes, are now posted and can be seen at any time by clicking on the "workshops" tab at top of my blog. I am in the process of scheduling additional dates in other states and the listing will be updated in bold as workshops are confirmed. One of the best parts of the classes I have been teaching is actually meeting so many online friends in person. Hopefully I get to meet you soon too!

5x5: Chapter 6

I may be the author of The Pulse of Mixed Media but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.

The Pulse of Mixed Media presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.

---------------------------------

If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

Darlene K. Campbell

 "Go ahead and jump down the rabbit hole"

Wanda Hickman

 "It's all in the details"

Sarah Fishburn

 "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all" E.D.

Raylee Syrch

"You see me. Do you feel me?"

Bleubeard and Elizabeth

 "Get me out of the studio and into the real world"

Kathryn Dyche Dechairo

 "Touch me"

Terrie Purkey

 "I am worthy"

Barbara Kleinhans

"Come close and let your eyes wander"

Jane Royal

 "Capture the essence of the subject and move on. Don't get caught up in the details. In the case of portraits, my most common subject, I focus on the expression and personality of the subject more than the exact likeness. I do strive for recognizable but I don't get too upset if a feature is slightly 'off.' It would be safe to say that I'm not a perfectionist."

Arabella Grayson

 "My art work, my heart work, is beauty - love - peace from my heartspace"

Deborah Guthrie

 "The child in you lives on. Childhood is cherished now as a memory. It was lonely but cherished and the loneliness gave you permission to play and entertain yourself. The stage awaits every day. The lines to say, the costume to plan, make and wear. The delight of the day. Oh the drama of the day. The chances to do it again and again and again."

Loryn Spangler-Jones

 "If perchance he feels himself falling in love, come inside"

Beth Bynum

 "My artwork quotes American author, Joseph Chilton Pearce, To live a creative life, we must lose our fears of being wrong."

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The next edition of 5x5 will be posted on Sunday, December 16th.

A Photo Craft Giveaway

I was provided with a review copy by North Light Books of Photo Craft: Creative Mixed Media and Digital Approaches to Transforming Your Photographs co-written by Susan Tuttle and Christy Hydeck. Released about 3 weeks ago, this book focuses on the unique combination of both digital techniques using Photoshop Elements (PSE) and mixed media techniques by hand.

In my initial "flip" through the pages, I was immediately struck by the amount of information that this book offers. This initial impression was confirmed when I read through the book page by page: Photo Craft has the feel of a comprehensive, go-to guidebook. The book starts off with a brief mixed-media toolkit and a more in depth introduction to PSE. On the photography side of things, sections cover taking great photos, making digital improvements, depth of field, composition, light, texture, blending modes, photo effects, brushes,  and more. Many mixed-media techniques and supplies are covered, including faux plaster, crackle paste effects, foil transfers, PanPastels, watercolor, woodburning, charcoal, tissue, wax, and more.

There are tutorials on both the digital and the mixed-media techniques - and more importantly the  combination of both in single projects, hints on iPhoneography, additional tips & prompts for all the step-out projects, lists of recommended apps, and artwork and instruction from 9 invited artists including Pam Carriker, Susanna Gordon and Madelyn Mulvaney. The sample photography is beautiful, the written instruction clear and concise, and you can feel the passion for the subject that both Susan and Christy clearly have.

GIVEAWAY

One lucky reader will win a copy of Photo Craft. For a chance to win, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post by end of day December 14th and be sure to include your email address so I can contact you. The winner will be chosen randomly. Good luck!

An Alternative Giveaway

North Light Books has provided me with a review copy of Alternative Art Journals: Explore Innovative Approaches to Collecting Your Creativitywritten by Margaret Peot and released this past September. There have been many books focused on journaling but, as the subtitle for this book suggests, Alternative Art Journals looks at this hot topic from a fresh perspective.

The book is divided into 8 chapters and also includes a gallery section and a short list of additional sources on art journaling. Chapter 1 focuses on journaling in the traditional book format and includes some interesting step-by-step tutorials to create textured and distressed backgrounds. The remaining 7 chapters introduce alternative approaches to art journaling and combine step-by-step instructions and diagrams/photos with completed samples. Just some of the non-traditional formats include envelope journals, card set journals, scroll journals, Tibetan work structures, accordion journals, correspondence journals, box journals, photo album journals, tag journals, and charm journals.

The main focus of this book is on creating these innovative journal structures but more is included as well. Sidebars throughout the book introduce tips, ideas, historical information, prompts, and other bits and pieces of info to help you think outside the box when it comes to journal making. The gallery includes some beautiful examples of journals, all of which were created by the author.

GIVEAWAY

One lucky reader will win a copy of Alternative Art Journals. For a chance to win, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post by end of day December 14th and be sure to include your email address so I can contact you. The winner will be chosen randomly. Good luck!

A Very Berry Giveaway

Jill K. Berry Stencils Blog Hop

I am so very happy to be a part of a blog hop, promoting a new line of stencils created by artist and author Jill K. Berry - she of Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed-Media Mapmaking fame. I had the pleasure to have met Jill when I was out in Colorado earlier this year and am not surprised that she has created these beauties. After a short time with Jill, I realized that her imagination has no limits.

Jill currently has a four-stencil set that is available from Artistcellar.

Her new line of stencils are based on her own abstracted calligraphic writing and are called TEXTures. They are unique and very cool.

I used one of the four stencils to create the background above...which I turned into the mixed media piece below.

Imaginary Letters

Sold. Thank you!

To celebrate the release of Jill's stencils, I am sponsoring a giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, including your email address, to be eligible to win one, four-stencil set as pictured above. Comment by end of day on December 14th, at which time I will chose the winner randomly.

I am just one of the many stops on this blog hop. I hope you are able to take the time to visit everybody!

11/30 Jill Berry

12/03 Sketchbook Challenge Guest post

12/04 You Are Here

12/05 Diana Trout

12/06 Traci Bunkers

12/07 Tracy Verdugo

12/08 Anne Gaal

12/09 Effy Wild

12/10 Dawn DeVries Sokol

12/11 Aimee Myers Dolich

12/12 Sue Bleiweiss

12/13 Pam Carriker 

12/14 Jane Davenport