om: art masterpiece

Tabac Royal, Henri Matisse

Wow, I can't believe I have lead 6 Art Masterpiece discussions for my son's Kindergarten class and have yet to share any of them with you! That just shows how fast this year has been. Things have been moving along at lightening speed. Let me take a moment to slow down and tell you a little bit about Art Masterpiece.

Art Masterpiece is an art appreciation program offered to elementary children by parent volunteer guides. Essentially, art history for kids. The goal is to help students look, think and talk about great masterpieces of art. I'm a trained Art Masterpiece Guide for the Mesa Public Schools (MPS) Art Masterpiece Program. I started back in 2010 when my oldest was in Kindergarten. As a guide, I lead 30 minute discussions about famous paintings (chosen by MPS) every other week from January - May. 

This has been a great way for me to be in my son's classroom, volunteering with something that means a lot to me and watching the kids minds and imagination at work. Much of the art I am learning about for the first time which is amazing. When I discuss an artist or artwork I have seen before, I love that I gain more intimate in the knowledge of the person and their work. The things I love most are the smiles on my kids faces when they see me arrive to talk with their class, watching the kids soak up the images and discuss the details of great works of art and noticing the different characteristics of each artwork and how a work of art may relate to them in some way. Such bliss!

Stay tuned as I round up my discussions and share them here on my blog. To see the posts from 2010 and 2011 discussions, click here.

One Moment [OM] is a weekly meet up that promotes living in the moment.  Whether funny, sad, ridiculous, or banal, looking for these moments can promote balance in our lives. Anyone can join – read about it here.

creative goddess e-course starts this sunday

Do you know who Goddess Leonie is? She is a bright spirit full of magic and generosity. I have been following her on social media for a little while and she never fails to make me smile and inspire me. Remember the World's Biggest Summit I wrote about a few months go? She is the one who pulled that glorious event off with many wonderful and inspiring teachers, all for free! I so enjoyed that! Today, I wanted to share with you some information on her very popular Creative Goddess e-Course.

The Creative Goddess e-Course is a powerful, spirited way for you to experience creativity in a whole new way. The e-course is six weeks to discover the Creative Goddess in you.

• Every week you will be assigned Creative Goddess projects to do for the week in a range of creative mediums ~ you will be exploring new ways of creating and connecting with the gorgeous soul, wisdom & beauty inside you.
   
• Six hand-drawn, illustrated and painted ebooks and three sets of worksheets guiding you on creating art as a sacred practice, how to find healing on your journey, walking through your stucknesses, how to create sacred space and discovering the Goddess in you.
   
• Six videos each week from me and Charlie the Happy Healer Dog guiding you on the next part of your Creative Goddess journey.
   
• Six guided 30 minute MP3 goddess meditations by me to work with for each part of the course. These are incredibly powerful resources, and are worth the price of the course alone.

The next Creative Goddess e-course begins this SUNDAY APRIL 1st. Enroll NOW to be a part of it! Click here for all the juicy details.

Disclaimer: I am an affiliate for Goddess Leonie. 

upcycled hand cut canvas earrings get a makeover!

Upcycled Hand Cut Canvas Earrings

All my canvas earrings had a photo makeover and look truer in color then before!

Wearable art! Fun, funky and super lightweight hand painted canvas earrings. These earrings are hand cut from my abstract acrylic paintings. Newest designs are layered with a hand cut geometric design done in a faux leather or faux suede material upcycled from an two old purses. Earrings are double sided with a solid color lightly painted on the back and sealed with acrylic varnish for added shine and protection. See all 10 available canvas earrings in my Etsy shop.

mixed media painting: sanctuary

The creative every day theme for March is mixed media, today I am sharing a mixed media painting I finished last month. This one is mostly acrylic paint with some charcoal to darken the words and oil pastel for some added pop and texture to the Queen Anne's Lace flowers. I had a Queen Anne's Lace (aka Wild Carrot) sketch in my sketchbook which was the jumping off point for this painting.

After starting the picture I knew I needed some words. I did a little digging online about the meaning of Queen Anne's Lace and the word "sanctuary" appeared. I worked on this right before my RAW showcase and the words poured out of me. It says "Be still and listen to your magic, the truth is you are enough, love yourself and awaken your secret sanctuary with your soul, trust in your magic".

I think I needed the words of encouragement before my first art show to remind myself that I can do this, I am meant to do this, I just need to trust in my abilities and try not compare my work with others. I am call it my "cheerleader piece".

I love the addition of words on artwork but, they can be tricky to get right. I went over and over the words many times until I was finally happy with them. I didn't intend for the text baseline to be in the final work but, I wasn't able to remove them easily. So, I went with it and made the lines part of the design and I think they worked into the painting nicely, a happy accident.  

Have you created art with words, do you have any tips to help the words look/read well or do you just wing it?

om: best week ever

Last week my kids had off school for Spring Break, I had to work during the week but was able to change my schedule a bit so that we could plan afternoon outing with the boys. This gave them something to look forward to each day and after going to the movies (The Lorax was great!), the park, the pool, rollerskating (love!), going to a restaurant dinner (rare that we do this), art making and attending a st patty's day parade and farmer's market they declared it their BEST WEEK EVER! Not bad considering they were requesting trips to Disneyland and Legoland at the start of the week. These little joys in life make happiness go round.

One Moment [OM] is a weekly meet up that promotes living in the moment.  Whether funny, sad, ridiculous, or banal, looking for these moments can promote balance in our lives. Anyone can join – read about it here.

zen feather art prints now available

 Zen Feather Art Print

Zen Feather is the last of my feather inspired paintings to share with you. You can read about how I ended up naming this piece here if you'd like. With this painting I focused on creating an abstract piece. I like exploring abstract from time to time. I love the final color scheme, it reminds me of the colors of the desert. The colors changed more then I can count but, in the end I think that added to the richness of the colors. I used oil pastels on top of the acrylic paint for added pop and texture; the feather was painted with watercolor on paper and decoupages to the canvas. I intended to post the original for sale today also but, it just so happen that it was sold on Monday. Although the original has sold, art prints of Zen Feather unframed, framed or on canvas are available in my Society6 shop.

mixed media: wherever your smiles have been

 The creative every day theme for March is mixed media. It's funny I call myself a mixed media artist but, I don't create a lot of mixed media art. Say what? Well, I like to create in mixed medias (digital, jewelry, paint, pastel, charcoal, ceramics, and more) but, I don't usually use mix media in one piece of art. So with the CED theme this month I wanted to challenge myself with to create a mixed media piece of art. This wood block painting has a watercolor feather that I painted, cut and decoupaged along with scrapbook paper, a butterfly and some words cut from a 3 year old birthday card. I loved the words so much I held onto the from of the card all these years. "Some people radiate love and leave happiness wherever their smiles have been." Sweet, right? I have to say this isn't my favorite work. I'm not even sure if I like it. I was a little frustrated creating it. But, that's okay. The point was to stretch outside my comfort zone and just see what happens.

Have you stretched outside your comfort zone recently? Did you like what transpired as a result?

project letter writing

This is actually my post for February's letter. I just had not gotten around to sharing. I wrote two letters last month. Linda from a la mode stuff sent me a wonderful card to use this month and with that card I wrote a note to my husband to say thank you for his support and care while I prepared for my first art show ever and my first craft show of the year in the same weekend. He was pretty over it by Saturday and it was the perfect time to share with him my appreciation and gratitude. The second letter I sent was to a good friend to thank her for a surprise gift she sent me recently. It was really thoughtful of her and I was happy to thank her with the handmade card and envelope shown above by Len of Unhibited Spirit.

Would you like to join us in project letter writing? There are no hard and fast rules, just mail a card or letter to someone each month and with it a little happiness unfolds.

om: cooperative abstract painting

We picked up a "new" old couch for the boys playroom at a rummage sale two weeks ago so, we reorganized the room and added art to the walls. I had a large frame (about 2ft x 3 ft) with a cardboard backing that was sitting in the garage.I pulled out the paints and let the boys paint away. At first they each had there own idea of what should be on the painting and they were pretty far off from one another so, instead of battling who paints where and what I suggested they create an abstract painting. They both knew the term from my art masterpiece visits in school so, excitedly they both agreed "to create nothing".

 

They worked on this piece very cooperatively. It was a nice calm painting session where the only rule was to have fun and use all the colors.   

 

The finished artwork is about 2ft x 3ft and hangs in their playroom. I love putting my kids art on the walls and especially love when they create with that purpose in mind. I think seeing your artwork displayed at a young age makes it easier to imagine when you get older and I want my kids to feel like their art is always worthy of being displayed.

One Moment [OM] is a weekly meet up that promotes living in the moment.  Whether funny, sad, ridiculous, or banal, looking for these moments can promote balance in our lives. Anyone can join – read about it here.

black and white love: birch trees and chunky bracelets

Birch Trees in Winter Art Print

Birch Trees in Winter Original Watercolor

Title: Birch Trees in Winter
Date: 2011
Medium: Watercolor
Surface: Strathmore 300g/140lbs windpower watercolor paper, cold press, acid free
Dimensions: 8" x 10"

Inspired by birch trees I saw during a road trip in northern Arizona this black and white watercolor of nature is classic and simple. Original for sale in my Etsy shop and art prints are available in my Society6 shop.

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Chunky Glass Bracelets

On a black and white kick, I created two chunky glass bracelets. 

Classic, versatile, dramatic. The smooth chunky glass beads lined with gold foil are dramatic and comfortable to wear. Combine that with a classic color palette of black, white, silver and gold and it creates this casual chic bracelet. Strung on Soft Flex beading wire and finished with lobster clasps. Bracelets are only $15 each in my Etsy shop.