EEEK! Where does time go?

My apologies dear friends! How could more than a month have gone by since my last post? Everything and nothing has happened. Does that make sense? Lots of great things, and a few yucky things have happened. Here is the whole tale, the good, the bad the ugly, AND the wonderful!



First, I had a great time painting faces at a community family festival. Great accommodations, wonderful patrons!

I also painted faces at a lovely 6-year old birthday party. Beautiful day, sweet and friendly people, and great atmosphere.



For sometime now, I've tried to get help for where I severely injured my collarbone. It causes my arm to ache and go completely numb. It pokes out and has to be worked on 3 times a week to try and get it back in position. Not fun, but thankfully I have a wonderful Dr. who is helping me tremendously. But I can't be on the computer for more than 10 minutes a day! It has been building up for some time, and I tried therapy a couple years ago, but now it's so bad I've had to take a break from my job for awhile to see if I can get it healthy again.

Was contacted to take more face painting jobs- had to turn them down due to timing. Always so nice to be in demand.

Next, as a little souvenir of a community festival, I caught the mumps... I mean who get the MUMPS as an adult? Especially when I already had them before??? But, the upside, because I could only eat Popsicles and liquids, I lost 10 pounds...Woo-Hoo!

Then I started feeling better, and I met with the wonderful people of the Village of Groveport. I've been asked to teach art classes, workshops, and art camps! They have several GREAT spaces for the classes, and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. For children, tweens, teens, and adults. All sorts of ideas for classes are swimming in my head! I've never felt so energized, so full of ideas! I'm scribbling them down everywhere trying to capture them. I will start later this year- more info coming soon.


Then, the lingering end of the mumps turned into bronchitis. I was holding my own against it when I had an unfortunate incident by the shower... I slipped and fell and fractured my sacrum...SO now I'm having difficulties sitting, standing, sleeping...But, all the more time to write down my art ideas...(though they do get a little weird during the middle of the night...) Funny, with all this padding, I figured I would have bounced...LOL!


Mike has had his own ups and downs. He's had another 2 back surgeries, and is facing 1 more this spring, 3 more this winter. On the positive side, he's attending State Classes for Real Estate. He's really enjoying them and excited about the future. He's almost through except for the crammer for the State Boards. He's so focused and great with the details, plus he knows SO much about construction and real estate appraisals, I think he's going to be a fantastic realtor!
He's had several offers already!

Oh- and dare I forget? There was Artiscape. Busy Busy Busy! It was Fantastic. Had the most awesome people in classes! Couldn't have asked for more from an Art Retreat! And tomorrow I'm thrilled to be winging my way to Salado Texas for the Shady Ladies Altered Art Retreat. Can't wait to meet my online friend Jeri in person! If you are in the area- come join us! you can check out the link on the side of my blog.

So- as soon as I get back I'll catch up. (This little tale took me several days to write! !0 minutes a day is almost unbearable!) Hope all of you are having a less bumpy, but just as happy Spring!

I'm elated to have had this time to rest a bit and work on my art. Lots of new projects and ideas are coming forth!

Art & Soul Reflections

Some of my journal page backgrounds

Do you have Art Heroes? I do. Not just ones like Leonardo da Vinci, Monet or Cassatt. But ones still among the living and creating... I think it's no secret to anyone how much I adore Anne Bagby, Lynne Perrella and Carla Sonheim. I've written and spoken of them often. It's not enough for me to read their books, watch their videos and attend their classes in order to soak up every single drop of insight and wisdom they might share... I want to eat what they eat, sleep how they sleep, breathe what they breathe in hopes that some of their awesome talent just MIGHT be influenced by environment, and therefore I might- by osmosis or some other such magic- soak up some of the elements to be able to create in a similar fashion!

These past few days I was busy soaking! I was fortunate enough to attend Art and Soul, and sit in some of my Hero's classes, and to find some new Heroes to learn from as well.

Jan Harris

Jan Harris, an incredibly gifted artist started me out with some new journaling prompts. She also caused me to work bigger- something which I had shied away from prior to spending time with her. Maybe I worked small because I was afraid to have to do too much writing on any one page...now I'm embracing it and no longer hesitant to work 9 x 12 in journals! Brave Jan stepped in and took over Judy Wise's classes with very little notice and did an admirable job!

Julie Haymaker Thompson
(Although it looks as if she's yelling, she wasn't! I just always seemed to be shootin' while she was 'splainin'! She's just the cutest little thing!)
Julie Haymaker Thompson. Was in Jan's class with me, and then the next day I got to take a class from her. I can't say how much I enjoyed her class! She too was a last minute addition to the Art & Soul lineup, and I was THRILLED to have been in one of her classes. Lively and fun, supportive and creative! Can you say new hero???

Lisa Kaus & hubby Dave

This is my painted, collaged and bees-waxed box from Lisa's class.
Lisa Kaus was my 3rd instructor. She certainly knows her stuff and shows up very organized and prepared. Hubby Dave even lends a hand with the power tools!

Carla Sonheim

Finally, Carla Sonheim! In her class, I reached a level of whimsy and looseness that is very difficult for me to reach on my own. She is so intuitive in her teaching! She seems to have perfected the timing and exercises to be able to help open you to a new area of your own style. I've been a big fan of hers for years, and even have her prints up in my house, so to get to meet her was an absolute joy!

This is my junk mail art book. Everything you see was junk mail, and then the birdees morph from page to page. I'm addicted and can't put it down! I've never been this loose and free with my sketching before! I'm not done with it yet, so I'll keep you posted with updates.

The other thing about these art retreats are that you meet the nicest new friends. I had the pleasure of sharing 2 seperate classes with these darling and beautiful two "sisters," Sheryl and Teresa. What a hoot they were!

OWOH Giveaway Winners

The big day has arrived!
Drum roll please.... The names have been pulled out of the sealed mayonnaise jar.....
And the winners are....

Lemondrop Marie said...
Please tell Mike that my entry should be put in twice, I love this piece that much. Does reaaaallly wanting it count any extra? ;0)Thank you so much for the chance to win, would love to!Marie @ Lemondrop ViNtAge OWOH necklace giveaway
February 13, 2010 9:21 PM

and...

Amisha said...
I saw your work in the Art Journalling magazine! What a treat to find you here!
February 7, 2010 10:42 AM

Congrats to you both! Thank you all for stopping by!

If you didn't win one, you can always sign up to take the class with me at Shady Ladies Art Retreat in April- I'll happily teach you how to create your own fairy, angel or mermaid! Just click on the logo over to the side and it will take you to the site...

One World, One Heart Giveaway ~Magic Carpet Ride

It's that time of year again! It's time for open hearts and making new friends, and for giveaways! This year, I will be giving away one of my clay creations. Matter of fact, for every 200 comments I receive, I will give away another angel or fairy!

This years One World, One Heart Event runs from Jan 25, 2010 - Feb 15, 2010. On the 15th, I will print out all the comments and will cut them apart. My trusty assistant, handyman and all round good sport of a hubby Mike will draw names of the winner(s).

What is this OWOH you ask? To read the story behind it, you can go to OWOH and read the whole story. Lisa Swifka's idea (which I think is GENIUS) behind this event "was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way." OWOH also is the place to go to find all the links of the other participating bloggers...

Appropriately this year's theme is the Magic Carpet! What a perfect metaphor for traveling to all the wondrous places these links will take you! Happy traveling, and the best of luck!

PLEASE MAKE SURE you either have a blog link, or a valid email address IN YOUR COMMENT so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner! On the 15th I will contact you to get your mailing info and your prize will be addressed and put in the mail ASAP!

Angels Angels Angels

I've been busy creating Angels and Mermaids of late. I find once I begin, they are so much fun, I can't stop with just one!


If you would like to learn how to make these enjoyable little creatures for yourself, I will be teaching this class "Mermaids, Fairies & Angels" in April at the Shady Ladies Altered Art Retreat. If you mention that you saw this blog post, I'll arrange for you to get 10% off of my class fee!

It's sure to be a wonderful new annual retreat! Jeri, the coordinator has pulled out all the stops to truly make it a luxury weekend, with all the creature comforts in mind! She's taken the economy in mind, and provided creative and talented, local and nationally known instructors, at "girl next door" pricing! Jeri has thoughtfully arranged for lots of time with these instructors, both in the classroom and socially through out the weekend. It's sure to be the event everyone will talk about this year! I hope you'll join us.

SO far so good!

So here is my accountability for my goals this year so far...
I've cleaned out my jewelry drawer, and 2 medicine cabinet shelves, the little one's entire room- closet dressers, shelves and all, and I've cleaned out the pantry...

For my health, I've eaten salads when I wanted ice cream, I've walked up and down stairs about 60 times in 3 days, and I've been drinking more water... (not so good- I had 2 oreos on New Years Day- but good because I stopped before I ate the whole bag!) I've been eating brown rice and lean meats and generous spinach salads...

For my ART! I've called several art friends- just hearing their voices charges me up! I've written up several class proposals and I've been in the studio several hours per day. I also allowed myself to surf the web for inspiration, a luxury that has to come in very short spurts.

The biggest thing is I almost have my giveaway gift completed for the One World, One Heart giveaway which will take place later this month! I love this being ahead of schedule stuff! I don't miss the pressure at ALL!

Erosion Bundles Art Project

I'm very excited about this new art project I'm participating in.

It's called The Erosion Bundle Project.

It's been organized by a very talented artist I'm proud to call my friend Kris Henderson.

This is a simple personal and creative challenge: to create a bundle made of my favorite media and hang the bundle outdoors.

Mother Nature is to be our collaborative partner, other participating artists will be our sounding boards, and our inspiration!

In my bundles I placed some old sheet music, large colored post-it notes, some cotton, coffee grounds, colored tissue paper dots, paper flowers, old keys, copper tags, old keyboard parts, printers heat foils, colored construction paper, colored printed papers, and cardboard tubes. I can't wait to see what nature and time does to them all!

The schedule for the project is as follows:

On January 1, 2010 - I placed my Erosion Bundles in nature.

In between = we will share thoughts and photos

On April 15, 2010 - I will retrieve my bundle from nature

By August 1, 2010 - I will finish an art piece using my eroded stuff!

http://erosionbundles.blogspot.com/ if you are curious to follow along...

I chose to do 3 identical bundles, to allow Mother Nature to tell me WHEN to use the treasures inside. I will take one down on April 15th, but I've tied all my bundles on with cotton string, so when they disintegrate and fall down, I will create with the other bundles. I think it will be interesting to see different time intervals of the disintegration.