I absolutely love books. Especially art books, with their colorful illustrations and pages of inspiration. And, I’m a bit of a collector. Put the two together and you can imagine what that means to my house! Some of these books were Christmas gifts; others are the fruit of Amazon’s pre-order and Gold Box programs. And, I was lucky enough to catch…
It’s a new year, so you know what that means: New Years’ resolutions! A lot of people are skipping those resolutions this year in favor of setting an intention of a single word to represent what they want to embody for the upcoming year. I’m not sure where this idea originated, but I first heard…
I have an empty shop over at ArtFire. I’m planning to get a few things listed in the next couple of weeks. I thought I’d start a new feature: Once a week, I’ll put together an ArtFire Collection (kind of like an Etsy Treasury) and post it here. That way you can see some of…
I am working on a piece for Hope For Creativity, a youth-powered organization in Massachusetts that supplies homeless children with art supplies. The piece I am making is for a fundraiser that they are having in October. I’ve never donated a piece for a charity auction, so I’m very excited. The piece is supposed to…
First of all, I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Labor Day Week-end. I enjoyed the extra day with my husband, even though we didn’t do anything really special. Just hung out and spent time together. Traditionally, we head to his parents’ house for a cook-out, but that just wasn’t in the cards…
Prompted by a discussion in Kelly Rae Robert’s ecourse, Flying Lessons, I’ve been thinking a lot about why it is I do what I do. Why I write, why I make art. Why I want to share art through teaching. Why I want to make a go of a creative business. To be honest, I’m…
Every New Year, instead of making resolutions that I won’t keep, I pick a word that I hope to embody during the next 12 months. This year my word is THRIVE. Usually I give this a lot of thought — both during the process of choosing my word and after, as I figure out how to let this word affect my life. This…
I was busy over the holidays. Between preparation for the actual holidays and some art making, I kept well occupied! Most all of the art I’ve done recently was inspired by Roben-Maire Smith. I’ve taken two classes from her recently (Mixed Media Mayhem and Sewing Paper Gift Bags) and thoroughly enjoyed them both. I finally finished the…
I was talking to a good friend Sunday afternoon and she mentioned something that I’d been thinking lightly a few weeks ago. To paraphrase her: If I want to see my life change permanently, then I have to be willing to change permanently. Kind of an “ouch thought”, huh? My friend was talking about weight…
We all have our favorite art supplies. I confess my list changes frequently, depending in part on what kind of art I’m making. This list represents my current favorites: Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints — These are my absolute favorite paints! They are artist grade, so they have a high pigment load; a little can go…
