How to Take a Leap of Faith - A Mother's Love

I hate to waste paint - so I made this from wet acrylic paint from a previous project.  As a mask for the "leaper," I used the form I had cut out to make the jumping girl stencil.  Then I sprayed around it with Adirondack color wash to give it some depth. 

Using the Balzer Designs punchinella stencil, I added some texture on the left, and painted swirls with watered down gesso.  The lettering is a mix of my hand and stamps.  I painted shadow around the form (right side and under is the mantra I repeat to myself) and I love how it looks like it's popping out of the page!   

Also today, a design for Mother's Day.  There's nothing like being a mom to give you perspective on your own mother.  When we're young, we lack the wisdom to appreciate our mother's advice.  By the time we have our own children, we realize all too well that a mother's strength rests in the love of her children.  

Thanks Mom - for raising me to be a creative, caring person, just like you! 

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Three Ts: Trades, Talk and Thought

Hey - I have three Ts on my mind.  First up is Trades:

Art is You Mixed Media Retreats is around the corner.  It's customary to bring little pieces of art to trade and the theme last year and this is charms.  Using some of my patterned paper from my Festive Soul Food lesson, made with my Stencil Girl stencils and RubberMoon stamps,

I punched circles, added words, punched little holes, and covered them all with Glossy Accents for a ceramic look.  They look so happy all together!   I'll share a picture when I have the charms all assembled.  In the meantime, I'm covering everything in sight with Glossy Accents - it's so much fun!

There are still a few seats left in my class, Masked and UnMasked: Stencils & Silhouettes.   Here's a little video to tell you what the class is all about.  

You can also watch Stencils Silhouettes Class Preview on YouTube here.  

Talk:

About a month ago, I received an email from the prolific, awesomely talented and generous Julie Balzer asking me to be a guest on her podcast, Adventures in Arting.  We spoke on Tuesday, and the podcast is available airs starting today.  We talked about musical theater, yoga, my former career as a lawyer and, oh yes, art. I hope you'll have a listen!

Thought:

I'm thinking a lot about where I'm going with my art, this blog, and where to put my energy.  I'll be sharing the results of this thinking soon.  I know that I loved creating my lessons for Festive Soul Food, and definitely plan to create an online workshop this year (which for me goes September to September!)

Plus, my younger daughter, Samy, just started High School, and I'm very aware that these are the last four years that I "have her" home.  Having watched my older daughter Mariel grow and spread her wings, I know that these four years are extremely precious.  So I definitely want to make time for all the moments.

Here's a bit of Samy, singing recently at our summer community.  I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!



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Get Ready to Fall Fearless and Fly!

In only 6 days, Carolyn Dube and I will launch an exciting challenge on Artists in Blogland.   know I've been talking about it a lot, but now that it's almost here, I am beyond excited.  Carolyn and I are getting the launch post ready, preparing our work for the first challenge, and touching base with all of the amazing artists who will be our guests during the challenge.  If this is your first time hearing about it, visit Artists in Blogland here to learn more.  Thinking about the first challenge has required me to delve deeply into my heart and mind.  Even though this has already brought up a lot of "stuff," I'm ready for the journey.   I know these challenges will help me enter 2013 with clarity and more trust in my intuition.

UPDATE! - Jane Davies, one of our FFF featured artists, still has room in the encaustic workshop she is teaching in CT the weekend of October 13-14.  If you're interested in learning about this medium from an absolutely amazing teacher, check it out here. 

Another UPDATE: Nathalie Kalbach, another of our FFF featured artists, has just launched an online workshop about Acrylic Ink that sounds fantastic - here's the link.

I have been taking Flora Bowley's online workshop called "Bloom True."  It is the beginning of week 3, and we are just moving beyond creating layers of paint to adding recognizable elements.  Here are some looks at the transformations one of my canvases has gone through as I've added 5 layers, alternating between warms, cools, black and whites, and translucent layers, letting each one dry before moving to the next:


Flora encourages us to keep turning the canvas around, so that there's never a clear top or bottom, left or right.  I feel like I've only just begun to relax into the process of adding layers, while staying unattached to the layer underneath.   Does this sound like yoga?  You betcha!  Today's assignment is to start to paint in some elements from a sketchbook we started keeping over the weekend.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here's a peek inside my art journal:

I had paint leftover from doing the warm and cool colors exercises in Bloom True, so I smeared them on a spread in my journal -- randomly.  Who knows what it will be, but it's a nice, colorful background for the future:

Sometimes I have a lot to write -- so I write.  I write over what I've painted, or I paint over what I've written.  Sometimes I write my schedule for the day, or my list of things to do.  Notice how horrified that girl on the left side of the double spread looks about the size of the to-do list...

When I'm done working on something, I glue in whatever small pieces of paper or other stuff (like leaves!) that I have on my desk.  If they're too small to save, I glue them in.  This will form a basis for something...

This is a lady I painted years ago.  I glued her onto a spread of color and stencils from The Crafter's Workshop by Balzer Designs.  Not sure yet what she is contemplating...

Inspiration Avenue had a challenge to design something around the word "Friends."  I can't think of a better friend than my husband (collective "AWWW"), who I can tell everything to without fear of judgment, who is my biggest source of emotional support and encouragement, and who I just love spending time with.  So that page up there with the nasturtium leaf became this:  

And last but not least, you still have two whole days to link up to Scrapping the Music's current challenge.  Again, you don't have to be a scrapbooker - although you CAN be!  Anything goes.  The song lyrics to the current song, Rain Red Roses, are very cool, as is the other prompt - to design around a song your parent/s liked.  Check out the DT's amazing work.  Only one person has linked up work so far... what are you waiting for!!

And... drumroll please, the winner of my Fairy Tale water color is Diane, who wrote:

Diane ~September 23, 2012 2:24 PM

Hi Jessica, how sweet of you to invite me to your party. Your art work created a lovely party brimming over with delightful whimsy!

Please enter me in your give away and i am your newest follower.
And thank you for stopping by my party, it was wonderful meeting you there! :D 

I have already emailed Diane to get her snail mail address to send her her prize!

Linking up at Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day and Art Journal Every Day (links on the sidebar.)
Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Play!

So much to do and so few hours in the day!  That's how I feel.  Before talking about today, here's what I did yesterday.

I spent the start of yesterday listening to a great podcast between Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Ronda Palazzari.   Julie has started a series called "Adventures in Arting," and Ronda was her first guest.  Ronda will be Carolyn Dube's and my first guest on Fall Fearless & Fly, the "art cleanse" starting 10/1 on Artists in Blogland.  It was so interesting to hear Ronda's and Julie's perspectives on fear of failure, and what exactly is success, as this is so much what the fall challenge is all about.  As I listened, I stenciled the cover of my new stencil storage book.  Ronda had a great tutorial on her blog about this, and I was so excited to try it.  I love how it turned out, and it's so nice to have all my stencils stored in one place!  I used regular craft and fluid acrylics, and am loving all the colors.

 

When I was done with the stencil journal, I had paint left over on my palette.  I HATE to waste paint!  So I smeared it into my art journal:

and layered over the background with Julie's Leaf Frame and Dyan Reavely's Distressed Harlequin stencils:

Smeared more leftover red and green paint on copy paper and then cut the papers up to make hearts, stems and leaves, to create this page.  Yesterday, I only had 3 students in my 4:30 yoga class because it was back to school night in our area.  Because it was such a small group, we were able to really take time and delve deeply into the poses.  I was able to give each of them a lot of individual attention and hands-on adjustments.  I felt like I was of great service to them -- I helped them get a better understanding of their bodies and breath through very detailed work.  They were so grateful, and I was so grateful.  And this made me happy.  Love truly grows by giving.

Two days ago I received a monthly package from Scarlet Lime studios, which contained a set of Maya Road chip board doorways.  I haven't used chip board in my work, and was a little mystified as to what to do.  So I did a little online research and found this great tutorial by Natalie Kalbach for this beautiful canvas:   

 

I took a canvas I had previously painted but didn't like, and added some stencils, sponging, splattering, etc.  I was pretty random with this.  I knew this layer was going to be behind, and peek through the openings in the doors.

 

Then I used a sponge to texture paint onto 12 doors:

I typed this saying:  "be an opener of doors...every exit is an entrance to somewhere else" using the American typewriter font and printed it out on white card-stock.

 

I added black and white detail on all the doors and windows, as well as some stenciling with TCW's mini-heringbone and mini-hexagon stencils (designed by Balzer Designs),  to add more texture.   

The numbers across the top are plaquettes by Tim Holtz.  I used "82" in honor of my dad - who is a young and vibrant 82 and still plays a mean game of tennis!  (I didn't use one for my mom's age because she likes to keep that a secret.)    UPDATE  - I want to make clear that this is my dad and MY MOM - not me!  I know it's confusing - I am lucky to look a lot like her!

I am busy setting my table and polishing my best silver for the Fairy's Tea Party on Sunday. I hope you'll visit me and all the other artists participating.  One of the commentators to my tea party blogpost will win an original watercolor - you can see and read about it here.

As always, Happy Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day and Inspire Me Monday! 

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Round and Round in the Circle Game

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Joni Mitchell

This song is very much in my head and heart today.  Yesterday, we had to put down our wonderful cat Tory.  She was a rescue kitten who came into our family over 17 years ago as a present for my then 3 year old daughter, Mariel.  She was my companion through a contested divorce, getting my feet wet again in the dating world, several relationships, a new marriage, a new baby, moving to a new home, and transitioning from working as a lawyer, to embracing a new life as a yoga teacher and artist.  She was feisty and a diva -- she didn't like new people, new animals, or being transported to new settings.  She had a wail of a meow, and a purr that was so loud that it could be heard from another room.  As the lyrics from Stray Cat Strut go - she was a black and orange cat with class and style, who never bothered chasing mice around.  I will really miss her.  Although I don't often try to paint with any realism, this art journal page captures her and her regal, haughty expression.

It was fitting that this was the very last page in the art journal I started June 1.  I started it for Running With Scissors 30 day challenge, which was loads of fun.   Here are some pics of my finished journal!  I stenciled the front and back with Julie Balzer's Dashed Lines stencil and then added a zentangled mandala I did a while back.

Here are some spreads -- all of which I think I've blogged about in prior posts.  It's interesting to look at it all together -- I see that there are a lot of days I only feel like "arting," and not writing.  Because I tend to blog about the art in the journal, I'm not as drawn to write in it.  I save my journal writing for events and thoughts that are sensitive for me.

Of course, I had to start a new journal immediately!  Here's the first page, inspired by Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge: wheels.

I created this page by:

1. stenciling an 8 x 10 piece of cardstock with Julie's dashed lines stencil using adirondack color wash sprays in stream and lettuce.  
2. I placed a circles template on the page and layered modeling paste on top it.   
3. Once the modeling past dried, leaving raised circles, I pasted the page into my journal using Elmer's art paste and a disposable brush.  The color washes ran, creating a nice effect on the paper.  
4. While it was still wet, I used the wooden tip of a paint brush to scribble into the "glue-color wash goop." 
5. I cut out a clip art of someone doing cartwheels and painted the figures black to make silhouettes and then cut them out and glued them on the large circles.
6. The orange mandalas are from a large sheet of Nepalese Lokta paper.
7. I wrote lyrics from "The Circle Game" on copy paper and sprayed them with color mists before cutting them out and gluing them down.

I really like this message to start my new journal.  Hopefully, in each  "go round," we accumulate the wisdom to change how we relate to our experiences.  The Buddha taught that lasting happiness can be attained only through becoming a “lamp unto yourself.”  Both Buddhism and yoga philosophy teach that nirvana or enlightenment is not a different place -- it is a clear perception of oneself and of the entire range of human experience.  This is the key to self-transformation.  Similarly - “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21).  Every great religious, spiritual, and wisdom tradition teaches that life’s ultimate truth, its ultimate treasure, lies within us.

Linking up with Paint Party Friday, Artists in Blogland, Art Journal Every Day and Creative Every Day.  Click the buttons on my sidebar and go spread some love!

Thank you so much for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Face 3 and ATC Swaps

29 Faces:  Here's face 3 for the 29 Faces challenge.  This is my attempt at a self portrait (lol!).  Because the summer ended yesterday (I know not officially but it's back to school time for us), and because it was the second to last page of the journal I started on June 1, I thought it would be good to review what I learned over the summer.  It turned out to be quite a bit!  The design at the bottom and under my neck is Copada, the Diva's weekly challenge tangle.  We'll see if I can tackle my September goals!

Organizing Challenges:  One of my goals is to get better at organizing the challenges in which I participate.  Do any of you have suggestions for how to keep track of challenges, links, etc?  I find it all a little overwhelming! 

Upcoming Challenge:  Speaking of challenges, my friend Carolyn Dube and I will be hosting one beginning in October at Artists In Blogland.  Make sure you follow us and AIB to get all the info.  It will be about setting intentions and clarifying our thoughts to enter 2013 as our most fearless selves (and there will be cool prizes and give-aways)! 

Hot Off the Presses:  I will be teaching an all-day art journaling class at Rock Paper Scissors, a wonderful craft school and store in Montclair, NJ (only 15 miles from Manhattan), on Sunday, October 14, from 11 - 5.   It will be limited to 10 participants and the cost is $90 (not bad for 6 hours!).  This is so new that it's not even on the RPS website yet, but you can email Beth at info(at)rockpaperscissorsnj(dot)com to reserve a spot or for more information. 

Mini Canvases:   I created this 4 square set of flower canvases to illustrate various quotes I've been collecting.  I hope you can see all the yummy texture, which made it hard to paint the words on them!  Even though they are only 3 inch squares, they took me forever!   I'm going to enter them in Anything But a Card's September challenge. 

ATC Happiness:  One of the only good things about coming home from the lake was finding ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) in the mail.  Check out these gorgeous cards from Heather Santos:

 Arnoldo L. Romero:

and Lilian Reyes:

I'm loving the cards I received and doing these trades!  I have a few more, if anyone wants to swap.  Question -- how do you store and display your Artist Trading Cards?  Let me know!

Also linking up to Paint Party Friday, Creative Everyday, Artists in Blogland, and Balzer Designs.  Visit the artists there and share some love!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.