march forth

I've been quiet lately...mostly working on a huge new plan for work (that I'm really excited about!) and working on mixed media paintings which mostly exist for practice and joy. I am loving the process. I have dabbled in mixed media before, but didn't really give myself a chance to explore it very well.


I've been aiming to create at least one new piece a week. I'm learning to let the piece happen in front of me, as if I'm drawing in the margins of a notebook during a meeting (yes, I do this, not ashamed). Once I decide if the piece will have words (and that's seriously the hardest part), then everything just flows. If something feels unbalanced, I balance it. I add familiar layers and different kinds of paper, and doodle with paint until it feels complete. It's really therapeutic, actually. It feels like creative rest.

Also, I think I'm finding a style that completely suits me. It's what was there all along, just amplified. Mixed media is just using more than one form of media. I see so many examples of mixed media work -and it's often beautiful, well created work- that uses such similar themes and arrangements that it kind of gets me down. The challenge is how can I continue to express something that has likely already been said (original thoughts also welcome) in my own way. I like that challenge.

Have a wonderful week!

11-11-11

I am too tired tonight to pick up a paintbrush, but my brain is holding a lot of ideas.

I want to mount some mixed media art on wood plaques.

I want to make felt rosettes.

I want to paint a canvas full of flowers.

I want to be better at integrating creativity into my everyday routine. My energy is poured into work, and sometimes it is an awesomely creative adventure. I painted a lot of paper leaves with watercolors this week for a "thankful tree" that is turning out beautifully (and I don't take credit for it - I only thought of the watercoloring part).

In the meantime, so many ideas crowd the space in my mind. How can I find the balance?



Here are some beads I painted a few years ago. I painted beads pretty compulsively for a while. I don't really feel like painting more beads at this point in time, but I liked these a lot.

Sometime I will have something newly created to post. Just not tonight. :)

picking up a paintbrush

this is what i've wanted to do for a while. these images - loud, crazy flowers - are living inside my mind and i am so happy to create them on canvas. creating is so calming. it's not just the spilling of an idea that helps. it's also the focus it takes to blend colors convincingly, and to balance light and dark on the canvas, and the method to choosing which colors of squares will work beside each others, and the carefulness of each brush stroke - all of these things force me to concentrate and takes my mind from the million other things that tend to occupy it. it's mihaly csikszentmihalyi's flow. (fun fact: in graduate school i learned how to spell that name, unfortunately, i've forgotten since then and had to look it up!) it's about the process, and i'm happy that i set aside some time tonight to paint, even if i didn't finish.

one of my mom's friends, upon seeing a ring i'd painted, said something like, "painting that small would stress me out!" i said, "this is the least stressful thing i do". and maybe it is the least stressful thing i do that's somehow productive, because i certainly may have watched a few interviews with charlie sheen this week. maybe.

i need to let myself stop and paint more canvases. i will share them with you whenever possible, and we'll see what happens.

warm up

I'm certain of it.

A work in progress...

Soon, these beads will become a necklace. I'm not sure what I'll add, or what I'll string them on, but soon...I'll figure that part out.

I have spent several hours over the past two weekends painting beads, and finding myself unsatisfied with the results. Beads were somewhat of a specialty of mine for several years, and I just wasn't feeling like I could get back into them. I wanted to...but whenever I would try a new design, it would just turn out all wrong. And I would think, "Yuck! I would not wear that!" So I would know it was time to move along and try something else.

So, after much trial and error, I am back to painting beads again.

Part of the blessing of NOT being a full-time Etsy seller is that I can deal with a creative lull once in a while and let it go. Then again, I am pretty sure that the lull was caused by long hours spent at my day job, but that's okay, too. Work is going well, and I'm getting back into painting after a break, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

pretty colors

I stayed up late tonight painting. Sometimes I just stare at my art supplies. There is so much potential in them.

When I create, I often start without a plan. I don't sketch much, unless it's a big project or something made for a specific person. Sometimes I'll just start with a line and it becomes a shape (or a tree). Sometimes I think a certain space needs a star.

Sometimes I'm not sure which brushstrokes to begin with, so I just organize my paints...