More Book Collages

Sure To Be In Demand 

Ask Your Big Brother

Both of these collages were made from vintage book parts. I am loving this process and the different ways that the books, titles and parts inspire me. 

And I am still practicing portraits. I love using the iPad to paint and manipulate sketches I import from my sketchbook.

Photography is also calling to me again. I am wanting to get out and experiment more with different locations and subjects. I'll always find beautiful subject matter at the nature preserve. Chasing hawks is my favorite pastime while I take my morning walks.

These are a few of the things keeping me busy right now. I am enjoying the weather, the walks and the inspiration! 

Hide and Seek

It was the day we laughed so hard

we made the irises bloom

I was five

it was cool

we were running like cats

a game of hide and seek

happiness all balled up in our hands

shooting out of us in shrieks and bellows

I'm a tiger

she declared

and I decided I was too

a fearless tiger

with nothing to do 

but chase the wind

they say it whips you in the face

but this isn't how it works

if you run hard enough

the wind bores right into you

I don't remember anything else

except the smell of the ocean

sweet as ice cream

the wind carried the rest away.

Instapoem by bentlilly.

I have two versions of this painting. The original is posted below. I like this version (with a digital filter added) better. It's still a work in progress. I've started this painting and gesso'd over it three times now so it may end up back in the gesso pile. ;-) Here it is in the raw state (no filters):

Meh...

The poem was my inspiration, though. If you've been following my site at all you know how much poetry and music inspire my art. I stumbled upon the bentlily site through Susannah Conway's website. She's awesome in her own right as inspiration through her photography, courses, etc.  She mentioned the bentlily site on one of her posts so I had to check it out. You create your own instant poems by filling in some prompts. This was the poem from the introductory prompts. Check out the site; it's pretty cool. I've also signed up to receive the daily poem. ;-) 

I'm offering this for Paint Party Friday. Have a great weekend everybody! 

Hold On

This is a journal page I worked on today. So many things going on right now that I wanted to take a minute, take a deep breath and regroup. Funny how things happen...

I subscribe to Trendland (love it). One of the features they send in their daily posts is usually a music clip. Yesterday (or thereabouts) they sent a free download for music by this group, Alabama Shakes. I've been playing this song and their entire CD, Boys & Girls, on my iPod ever since. LOVE this group! This song, Hold On, inspired the journal page. This woman can sing!



So, just when I needed something to help me hold on... this song comes to me. How cool is that? ;-) Have a great week everybody!

I Wish...

"I'm so tired,

I wish I was the moon tonight..."

Neko Case

Well it's been a while since I posted! I want to thank everyone who has sent emails asking about me. I'm fine. Just a little tired. I've been taking a little time off to visit with family and friends and to hopefully get some inspiration for my art. Now that I'm home and settled back in, I am hoping the time away will bring some energy back. Aren't you supposed to feel MORE rested after a vacation?  ;-) 

This is a journal page I did while trying out my new watercolors. They are yummy!  So that's supposed to be me staring at the moon, waiting for energy and ideas... We'll see if it works. This song keeps playing in the meantime:

Let It Go

"And in a burst of light that blinded every angel

As if the sky had blown the heavens into stars

You felt the gravity of tempered grace

Falling into empty space

With no one there to catch you in their arms."

--from "Iridescent", by Linkin Park

I'm often inspired by music and poetry. This song has been playing on my iPod constantly. There has been a lot of frustration for me lately. Maybe it's because the knee is still not completely healed. Sometimes when I'm hurt or sick, little things will often become magnified. Aarrgghhh! Then I find myself having little pity parties. Well, I have to stop that. I have to keep reminding myself that the little things are not worth it and I do need to just let them go. Otherwise I let them eat at me and take what little energy I do have.  :(

So I went to the canvas and the verse I quoted above really stuck with me. And when I started to paint I just let it ALL go. It felt good! :-) I have these gold mica flakes that I love to use for special effects. They don't show up very well in the photo but on the canvas they really shine, like little stars. This piece makes me happy. That was my goal when I started, so mission accomplished! Here's the song that started it all. I hope you like it as well as I do:

Reflecting

If She Only Had One Minute

by Kay Ryan

What would she put in it?

She wouldn't put

she thinks; she would take,

suck it up

like a deep lake --

bloat indiscriminate

on her last instant --

feast on everything she

had released, dismissed, or

pushed away; she would make

room and room as though

her whole life of resistance

had been for this one purpose:

on the last minute of the last day

she would drink and have it; ballooning

like a gravid salmon or the moon.

Another of my favorite poems of Kay Ryan's. *sigh* This is a mixed media piece I did a while back. I'm still digging through some of my older pieces looking for inspiration. I expect that with the coming Fall things will pick up. I am already beginning to feel the stir of excitement in anticipation of the new season. That's when I begin to come alive artistically. For now, I'm just being a little quiet; taking it all in.  ;-)

Discovery

Is it June already? The summer will be here before you know it. I'm always looking for inspiration and signing up for courses is a fun way to start. So this is what I'm excited about now: Yesterday was the beginning of the Summer of Color, hosted by Kristin. Every week there will be a new color to inspire. This week: Blue! (No, the art at the top is not the entry for the week. I have until next Monday to post!) We can work in any medium. I will probably stick with acrylics but I'll see what mood I'm in that week. ;)

Today is the first day for Soul Restoration 2. I LOVED Soul Restoration and was thrilled when they decided to offer a second workshop. So that will definitely keep me busy. And later this month I will be starting the Experimental Art e-course with Amelia Critchlow. I am really looking forward to that!

I hope this will be a summer of discovery. There is a lot of emotional baggage I'm working on unloading and once that is sorted out maybe I'll find my way to where it is I'm trying to go with my art.  ;)

Heavy

Heavy

by Mary Oliver

That time

I thought I could not

go any closer to grief

without dying

I went closer,

and I did not die.

Surely God

had His hand in this

as well as friends.

Still, I was bent,

and my laughter,

as the poet said,

was nowhere to be found.

Then my friend Daniel

(brave even among the lions),

"It's not the weight you carry

but how you carry it --

books, bricks, grief --

it's all in the way

you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not,

put it down."

So I went practicing.

Have you noticed?

Have you heard

the laughter

that comes, now and again,

out of my startled mouth?

How I linger

to admire, admire, admire,

the things of this world

that are kind, and maybe

also troubled --

roses in the wind,

the sea geese on the steep waves,

a love

to which there is no reply?

And The Music Plays On

Sometimes solutions aren't so simple

Sometimes goodbye's the only way

And the sun will set for you

The sun will set for you

And the shadow of the day

Will embrace the world in gray

And the sun will set for you

So I'm obsessed with music lately. These are lyrics from "Shadow of The Day," one of my favorite songs from Linkin Park. Do you ever get a song in your head and it just won't leave? This one has stayed with me for days. But I really love it so it's okay that it's playing over and over. And maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm also playing it repeatedly on my iPod while I write or work in my art journal.   ;)

I'm still trying to adjust to a regular schedule now that I'm home from my trip. I'm also trying to get my emotions back on track. So listening to music, thinking about a lot I left behind leaves me sad. I need to move on and rejoin the here and now.

I knew I'd be feeling like this when I returned and I was hoping I could find a distraction. I didn't really plan it quite this close but I'm taking an online painting course. The first week happened to fall while I was away so I'm already a week behind. But this will make me focus. I thought it sounded like a great class. It's called Paint Free and it's taught by Wyanne. She wants to help you develop your unique painting style; not one that mimics someone else. Well, we shall see what develops! Stay tuned.

That's one of the things I do like about digital art. It's nice to do in Photoshop what I wish I could do with paint and brush. So if I could paint properly, I'd do a piece like the digital one above.  ;)  I did happen to stop at a real, bricks and mortar DickBlick Art Supply store while in Columbus. Ooh, I found some yummy encaustic paints that I had not seen in their catalog. Yep, I grabbed them up and now I'm trying to decide what to paint with them. So, I'm thinking all of this through. I'm sure something will come to me and I'll be back to "normal" soon.



Impressions

This is one of the few posts that I don't have a photo to accompany it. I'm still on my vacation and I'm using my friend's computer. I'm on my own for a little while today so I'm taking advantage of the time to work in my art journal a little bit. I brought along a few supplies for background pages and played with those this morning.

I've been working more in my writing journal. I think it's all of the memories bombarding me as a result of being back in Columbus. Ooh it's nice being here again! Although I was surprised that I've actually gotten lost a few times driving around. I've never had a very good sense of direction but, in my defense, the city has grown. Yes, some people would say Columbus is not that big of a city but to me it's just the right size. I'm soaking it in!

My friend and I are having the best time. We are staying up way too late, sleeping in, laughing until we cry... and this is going on every day. It's so therapeutic. Every now and then I'll be struck by something she says when she describes me. It's like she's talking about someone else. I'll file that thought away and we'll move on. One night she was on the phone with another friend and I overheard her talking about our visit (I swear I was not eavesdropping!) and she was describing the different contradictions about me. They were all very complimentary but I thought they were funny as seen through her eyes.

I've been writing this morning and thinking over a few of these impressions. I guess it's true that I see myself a certain way and my friend sees other sides of me that I really am not even aware of. But I notice when I describe some of the contradictions in her personality she has the same reaction, so maybe it's just that we know each other so well. We often finish each other's sentences and can even tell what the other is thinking by just a look. Yes, we have been very close friends for many years.

Today I'm taking my camera out and hoping to get some photos of the city and the surrounding area. It's nice and chilly outside, the way I like it. I packed all of these fuzzy warm sweaters and jackets and when I got here it was 75 to 80 degrees everyday.  :(   Now the weather is starting to cooperate!

I'm itching to make some art! When I get back home I'll be able to let loose in the studio. I am gathering all of these impressions in my various journals and I can maybe pull them together in some art pieces when I return home. Right now I'm still enjoying my friends, these crazy hours we're keeping and a few more days of just breathing it all in.

Like A Dream

My sister spent the past week with me and, as usual, we had so much fun together. And I was sad to see her go. We laughed a LOT and the time was just too short.

She is my technology expert so when she visits I like to take advantage of that. I upgraded to an iPod Nano while she was here. Oh I have to say I am loving that little toy. We had a lot of fun searching iTunes for old and new music to load. Someone please keep me away from that site for awhile. I could be dangerous. ;)

One thing I realized this week was how much the fantasy genre influences my art. (That is what inspired the digital piece at the beginning of this post.) We both had our Nooks and were at Barnes & Noble one day browsing the ebooks. It's funny because I never used to read any fantasy/sci fi. She was always reading that genre from the time we were teens; I never got it. Now I've totally changed my preferences and my Nook is almost full of it. Go figure. The darker, fantasy fiction really interests me now and I love the ideas it is giving me for some art pieces I'm trying to put together: emphasis on the word trying.

Speaking of trying new things: hubby agreed (reluctantly) to my using a propane torch for my encaustics! Yay! Gulp!! I love my heat gun and my tiny butane torch. But after watching Daniella Woolf and other encaustic artsists, I see the results they achieve with their torches. I knew he'd be very nervous about me handling a torch. It even sounds ridiculous writing it. But I want to get serious with the encaustics. Plus I want to attempt larger pieces. I've got all the added safety equipment needed to take this next step. So after my "lesson" with the torch tonight I'll be ready to go. Stay tuned and cross your fingers that no accidents will occur.

I've been experimenting with a really cool technique of transferring graphite drawings to encaustic. So easy! The tricky part for me is the heating afterward. Transferring the graphite is a piece of cake. I did it with no problem. Unfortunately I had my heat gun set too high for the fusing part.  And when I went to fuse the graphite to the wax it was too hot on one spot and melted that area. Grrr...... So I need to practice with that a bit more. But I love the possibilities of that technique! I don't have anything presentable to show yet.

My other pieces I talked about in the last post are still sitting there glaring at me. I haven't done anything to them yet. I'm wanting to either transfer a graphite drawing to one of them or collage something...still deciding. Maybe my torch will inspire me. Maybe I'll just set them both on fire... no, just kidding.  ;)

So that's where things stand right now. Getting ready for my "torch" lesson. This should be interesting. But he has my safety (and the house's) in mind and I'll pay close attention. Hopefully there will be something to show soon!

Listening

This is how I feel this week. Like the girl in the photo (not me). Looking out over the water... thinking... listening. I'm just a little frustrated. I've been working with my encaustics the last couple of days. I love them, I do. I just wish I were more experienced with them.

You know how you get an idea of how you want something to look? Well, I've got quite a few of those ideas in my head. But when I went to actually translate some of those ideas onto wood...I did NOT end up in my happy place! So I have three canvas panels sitting in my studio in different states of ... I don't know what. So I'm letting them rest and then I'll just listen to what they have to say to me tomorrow.

I knew I was at a stopping point today when I just started laughing. I remembered, of all things, a video that Gary Reef had posted on his Ning site a while back. He must have been having one of these days but he was handling it much better than me. He is such a great inspiration and SO funny! Anyway, he was talking about his day and then out of the blue he said something to the effect that after working all day and trying to make things fit and then re-trying to paint over things, blah blah blah...what he finally ended up with was something that looked like a big pile of doggy doo doo. Then he just laughed it off.

Well I was getting dangerously close to the doggy doo doo look and encaustic wax is not cheap so I decided to turn off the hot plate and do something productive like laundry. But I've been thinking about ways to salvage those three canvases. Of course there is always the last resort: paint the whole thing titanium white and then scrape back and see what colors show through. And that may still be my best option. I'll see what my morning walk in the cool weather with the loud music blaring in my ear buds does for my Muse.

By the way, this digital piece was made with elements from a kit called Poet's Keepsakes by Lorie Davison at Scrapbook Graphics.With a name like that I had to grab it up. It's a pretty amazing kit and at least I could do something creative today that did take me to my happy place!

Eyes On Fire

I haven't done any sketching for a long while. I have had my sketchbook and my drawing board sitting right beside me for months, glaring at me, daring me to pick them up. Hmm... Finally, yesterday I did it. I thought I'd try sketching a model from a magazine (one of my favorite things). So I got the basic things drawn in my sketchbook and then colored her in with colored pencils.

After I scanned her into Photoshop then I had fun putting her into this piece. I "painted" her some more with Photoshop and added other elements from the Stark digital kit that I mentioned from the previous post. I was listening to my iPod while working on this and "Eyes on Fire" by Blue Foundation started playing. This verse stuck with me:

Eyes on fire

Your spine is ablaze

Felling any foe with my gaze

And just in time

In the right place

Steadily emerging with grace

I especially like the first and last lines: Eyes on fire... steadily emerging with grace. And there was my lady!

I worked on this piece all morning. I guess I was pretty engrossed with it. And since the ear buds were blaring I couldn't hear if hubby was saying anything from downstairs. I noticed my phone lit up beside me on the desk. I had a text message. It was hubby: "I'm having soup...are you going to eat today?" LOL! Pretty sad when you have to text each other to talk!

Funny how you know you enjoy something and yet you don't do it. I forgot how fun it is to just play with sketching faces. I'm not perfect but I like to do it. I like to exaggerate certain features, giving them my own twist. Then I like to place the figures I draw in a really cool background and give them a story.

Now my pencils, drawing board and sketchbook aren't glaring at me anymore. We seem to be getting along just fine!

Fuzzy Feelings

I was really drawn to a couple of digital kits that I saw recently at Deviant Scrap. They can both be found there at Holliewood Studios. One was called Stark and the other was called Void. Today I started playing with the all-white images of the Stark kit.

The title for this piece came from a poem by Alice Fulton called Fuzzy Feelings and goes with my mood today. Here is the part of the poem that inspired this piece:

"Does grace mean alive and lucky

to be not writhing?

Or the ability to hide it

when you writhe?

The fissures == vacancies inside."

Some days you just go through the motions and do what you have to do. You're lucky not be writhing; or, at least you can hide it. But you do go on. I am fortunate that I have my husband, my art and my volumes of poetry and fiction to turn to in the dark times. And the dark times are not all bad. And they aren't really sad for me, just reflective right now. I'm okay with that.

So these fuzzy feelings are floating in the back of my head and I'm even doing some writing of my own. I used to write fiction and poetry years ago. I'm starting to dabble in fiction again. I went back and read some old stories I had started and never finished. I felt a little tug when I revisited the old characters and plots I had created. Now I'm playing around with their worlds again. I see it as just another form of creativity; another outlet.

I even used to write stories when I was in junior high school. My sisters would read them and then show them to their friends. They would then come back asking for more and I found myself writing mini soap operas because these girls were so involved with the characters I created. It was fun and even now one of my sisters still writes her stories. So maybe when she comes to visit again next month I will have some to trade with her!

I like how I can be inspired by poetry or music or even other images. It's funny how you don't even realize that something is inside you waiting to come forth until you see an image and it breathes life into it or a song moves you and wakes it up. Or maybe a poem evokes a fuzzy feeling that eventually manifests itself into a piece of art that is exactly what your soul would say if it had a voice.

Prelude

I think I mentioned in the last post that I've been reading a lot of poetry lately. I have found some new (to me) awesome poets out there! My favorite poet right now is Matthew Zapruder. His new book of poems is called Come On All You Ghosts. Right up my alley, huh? Of course the title alone grabbed me, with my current obsession on all things dark and ghostly, etc.

I ordered his last two books and just devoured them. There is not one bad poem in the lot. I just love his style, his words, his imagery, everything. This is why I haven't been making any art! I've been swimming in poetry; drowning in it. Here's one example of a verse that made me swoon:
It's from his poem called Poem (yes, that's the title).

"... I love your love,

it feels dispensed from a metal tap

attached to a big vat gleaming

in a giant room full of shiny whispers."

Gah! I love this verse!! So I've been dancing around reading this guy's poetry books, filling my head with his imagery. Drunk on poetry with a goofy grin on my face. Hubby thinks I'm crazy.

BUT I did manage to take another of my many favorite poems of his and make the digital piece at the top of this post. It's from his poem The Prelude. Did I say it's another of my favorites?

Here's the part of a verse that really stuck with me and inspired this piece:

"... Come to the edge

the edge beckoned softly. Take

this cup full of darkness and stay as long

as you want and maybe a little longer."

The whole poem is like that. The entire BOOK is like that. So I'm making notes and filling an entire notebook of images and ideas for my encaustics, art journal, and paintings. My class with Sharon Tomlinson and Deryn Mentock just started (the first video went up yesterday) and Monica Zuniga's class is still in the early stages. I've been slow to get back in the swing but I'm feeling the stirrings.

I've said before that, unlike most people, I feel alive in the Fall and Winter. Summer is my blah time. Heat and humidity zap me and leave me feeling down. Leaves are starting to fall a little bit here. School has started again, football is starting up...the Fall will be right around the corner. I'm awakening little by little. The temperature won't stay near 90 much longer (thank God!) and then I'll be on track.

So, this is just a prelude to the things that are to come. I can't wait to see the rest!

Here are the covers of Matthew Zapruder's last two books. If you get a chance, and are a poetry lover, they are definitely worth it:

Tempest

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted. I've been taking a little down time. I haven't been feeling very artistic lately so I have used this time to get caught up on some reading. It's amazing the number of books I've been zipping through with my Nook, and I've missed that. I used to read so much more than I do now. I was also able to get some great poetry books (real ones, not ebooks) and have been using those as inspiration for some art pieces I'm excited to start working on. Plus I've really enjoyed just sitting and listening to the playlist on my Ipod. Heavenly!

I've been through these dry times before. This one is about to come to an end. The poetry and the music and the reading have all helped to re-fill my artistic well. And I'm starting two new courses: Mixed Media Faces by Monica Zuniga at Hands and Heart Ning site and Towers and Turrets, taught by Sharon Tomlinson and Deryn Mentock at All Norah's Art Ning site. Both look to be great boosts to my Muse!

I put together the little digital piece at the top of this post today. I thought I was going to enter it for Kimmie's digital challenge this week at Digital Whisper Ning site but I just realized it wasn't what she was asking for! We were given the image of the lady and were supposed to do her up her in a Teesha Moore style. Oops! I was just in a darker mood, I guess. So I used elements and papers from Tangie Baxter at Scrapbook Graphics (her Tempest kit). Appropriately enough, I call this one, "Tempest".

Hopefully other things going on here behind the scenes have calmed down enough so that I can really concentrate on these two classes this week. The videos are starting to go up and I am looking forward to sitting down with those and trying out the lessons. Hope to have more to show you real soon!

Changes

I've been trying to stay balanced with all of the changes that are taking place right now. A lot of things are going on behind the scenes here that I'm not ready to talk about yet. But I have had a little down time to soak it all in.

One thing I keep noticing: the image of hearts keeps appearing. This digital piece has the same "dissolving heart" that I have in my encaustic piece (see last post). Here, I've changed the color (one of the advantages of digital art). I love the poetry of Mary Oliver and recently came across a poem that I couldn't get out of my head. It was after I'd made the encaustic. The poem is called, simply, "Heart Poem".

These were the verses that really spoke to me:

"My heart, that used to pump along so pleasantly,
has come now to a different sort of music.

There is someone inside those red walls, irritated
and even, occasionally, irrational...

...Now again it is the wild man..."

I'm cleaning out my art studio (again). But this time I'm getting rid of everything that doesn't speak to me anymore. For example, I've accumulated a lot of scrapbook materials and all of the things that go along with that. None of that interests me anymore. My sister is coming to visit on Monday and staying for a week. She is really into scrapbooking now and I plan to load all of this into her car and send it home with her.

This will help me clear my studio and my head for what I really want to do and to move on. I think I hold on too long to objects for sentimental reasons. That's not a bad thing. But now that I realize that holding on is exactly the thing that holds me back...it's time to let go.

So, hopefully these changes will bring about the "different sort of music" I'm hearing. Something is trying to break through the cracks...let's see if it succeeds.

A Little Magic

Things behind the scenes are moving along a little slower than I had planned. But I am making progress. I've had some family in for a visit and hubby had some trips out of town. Life just gets in the way sometimes and you have to stop and make time for family. This week, I hope, things have settled down and the real fun will begin. There shouldn't be any interruptions and I think I'll actually have an entire week to experiment with my new ventures.

I've been making new batches of CitraSolv papers and having great results with those. I've found with the terrible heat and humidity that the pages are easier to make if you do a few at a time rather than a whole stack at once. This was something that I didn't have much luck with in the Winter! But it's so much quicker and pretty much instantaneous with this Summer weather. I've got big plans for these papers and I'll show you a peek of that project later this week.

Some things that I had really planned on trying out by now had to be put on hold because the product I needed was back ordered for over a month. :( Can't be helped when you are at the mercy of online suppliers. Oh well, it's here now and I can finally get busy with it. :)

So, a little magic can start to happen this week (at least I hope so). I am excited to try these new techniques I've been reading and studying about. This whole thing is a new art form for me and will be just one big experiment. But you never know what can happen until you try. For the photo at the top of this post, I decided to use one of my recent sketches in a digital piece I put together. I added some magical bits and hope she can bring me some inspiration as I head into the week!

And I'm still loving Kelly Rae Roberts' ecourse. There is so much material that she is sharing with us on starting your own art business. It's a lot to take in but all of this will gel and begin to take form as I sort through it all. You may see some changes to the blog here and there as I learn how to tweak it and start to delve into the tech stuff. But I'm mainly in the information gathering stage right now and I know I can at least handle that much. ;)

So this week I'm looking forward to no interruptions and long hours playing in the studio! And, hopefully a few surprises to show very soon! And if not finished works, at least I hope to show some works-in-progress.

Indecision

This little lady was a sketch I did last week and she certainly proved to be prophetic. Have you ever had just so much stimuli coming at you at once that you didn't know where to focus your energy? That's where I am right now. Funny, I have had this same conversation with three different people this past week.

Anyway, it's ALL good! There are so many new things I'm learning and being introduced to right now that my mind is reeling. It's just all coming at me at once. Recently I was introduced to a new artist through my friend Kimmie, an awesome artist in her own right and the wonderful host at her ning site Digital Whisper. She introduced me to the art of Jared Knight through her paintings and then through his website. He's a fantastic, energetic, totally cool abstract painter. I loved his work as soon as I saw it. And, guess what, .... YES, he teaches classes!

So I watched his intro video and now am completely hooked on his process. I've just ordered my first class and plan on starting the painting later today. Yes, yes, I KNOW, I'm already in so many classes right now going off in so many different directions. Where do I focus?

Who says I have to? You are only limited by the boundaries you set for yourself. Right now I want to immerse myself in all kinds of media. I want to experience it all! I want to draw, paint, do mixed media and whatever else comes my way. Maybe someday I will focus on one particular media but right now I have a passion for ALL of these things and I am pursuing them all with the same zeal.

So, in addition to more faces (YAY! Monica's lesson this week is on drawing the mouth), a new SuziBlu class on Marie Antoinette, and a Frida Kahlo shadow box (ha! You didn't know about that one, did you?), you will also see some abstract art thrown in just to mix things up even further. Keep your mind OPEN to the possibilities. You could decide to combine them all and come up with something totally awesome!

Jared has a website at http://www.jaredknight.com/. This is where he describes himself and his art and where he offers his video tutorials. Right now he is offering a free class where you get acquainted with his style and you paint the painting along with him. It's WONDERFUL! I watched the video this morning. It's called Mountain of Mine. Once you watch his process and his teaching style (totally cool!) you'll be hooked. He has a ning site as well:
http://jaredknight.ning.com/ where the students in his classes show their paintings and discuss the classes. It's a welcoming, friendly place like all of the other incredible ning sites out there. I highly recommend that you check him out. I plan on being a student of his as long he is teaching.

I wish I knew how to make these links "live" but I'll add a badge from his ning site to my sidebar as soon as I finish this post.

So, to answer the little lady in the above piece, indecision isn't a bad thing. You don't HAVE to decide on ONE direction! Go where your Muse leads . . . and follow your bliss!

The Heart Sees

I came across this quote in one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. I love quotes; I collect them for my art. This one is by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. and it's from the book, The Painter's Keys.

I'm slowly getting my collages together for the collage exchange. Now back to work.