Sunday, January 30, 2011

Love is the answer....

Welcome back!  :)

Let me just say that yesterday was one of the most creative, love filled, days I've had in a long time.  It was decided late Friday night that our wonderful community was going to join together and create a wonderful day focusing on LOVE and PINK.  We decided that an impromptu Ustream-a-thon was in order.  A Flickr group was also created called Lovingkindness.

Here is what I created very early in the morning while chatting on Skype with a beautiful friend:




After all the drama I needed to focus on love rather than hate, I chose the title "Live and let live" because it speaks perfectly to what I need to focus on.  My life, my art, and the wonderful positive people I chose to surround myself with.  The flowers on this page are actually a scrapbook paper that I cut out.  Lots of layers including a few stencils... the empty box on the left is waiting for journaling.

The scrapbook papers inspired me to create a second page in my new Moleskine (yes, I know some of you are rolling your eyes at me, I DID buy another one).  I started out pretty similar to the spread above, but this time I drew the flower at the bottom.  This is a work in process page, I will be painting the flower today.


After watching many wonderful artists (I will list below) it was my turn to end the amazing day with my regular show.  As it is approaching February I chose to work on my monthly word of intent altered tag.  You can watch the recording HERE.  It is not finished yet, but I like where it's going.


I chose the word ARTFUL for February.  Now that I am in my art room and almost fully healed I want to focus on creating art this month.  I was going to use the word create, but artful seemed more fitting.  I was successful with my January word of intent, NOW, and I look forward to a wonderful month of creating.

This past Wednesday I also had a wonderful show.  I used colours and magazine images and created this WIP.  

Grunge Flower

Here is the recorded video:


Thanks so much to these wonderful ladies for keep us company all day with their wonderful art:


Up for today are my amazing friends:


If all of these links are too much for you, you can always follow me on Twitter to get the info on who's streaming when.

Thanks SO much for all the loving comments, emails and support I've been receiving the past few days.  I love you guys!!

Much Love xo

Friday, January 28, 2011

Community

Back in June, after a month on the couch with a broken ankle, I decided to start streaming my art journaling process live.  Over the past few weeks I've thought a lot about why I did this, why I devote over 3 hours a week streaming and a bit more for preparing.  The answer was easy, I love art journaling.  Art journaling has changed my life, and I want to share this love and gift with others.

This journey has went beyond all of my expectations.  I have shared a lot of laughs, learned many things from other artists, and made many wonderful friends.  We have built a community of some amazingly generous, loving and gifted artists.  I feel truly blessed to be a part of this growing family.  Yet, as with any community, there are a few kinks.

Over 80 recordings later (and a few that didn't record) I have been forced to take a stand.  I streamed a class on New Years Day.  At the beginning of this show I went over the new rules I felt was necessary to assure a positive, enjoyable show for everyone.  I had been getting feedback that viewers were being turned away from my show due to the behavior of others.  I could not let that trend continue.  It was causing extra stress in my life as well as hurt and stress in others.

Unfortunately, a few people did not want to respect my wish for a fun, positive experience.  A few decided to erode the community by spewing hateful, untrue statements on Twitter about myself, my show, my mods and my friends.  A few people continued to ignore my wish of no advertising, derogatory religious or political statements, or soliciting.  My wonderful moderators acted on my desires for my show.  Again, this has caused an outburst of hateful, untrue statements.

Throughout all of this "drama" I have tried very hard to take the "high road".  To ignore these irrational statements, to state the truth in all I do.  As I have said before, I have been an open book.  I post journal pages that have REAL journaling, I put myself out there live twice a week, I believe in showing my true self, with my true obstacles.  I am a real person with worries, stress, a 50 hour a week day job, a man, 2 cats and a bunch of love.

After having been attacked by trollz and having my friends be attacked by trollz, I have been thinking about whether all the effort of streaming is worth it.  Was I doing to much?  Have I been putting myself out there too much?  Have I let myself become too vulnerable?  It has taken a few days, and lots of written pages in my journal to come up with an answer.  It was a huge NO.  I will NOT let a few negative people ruin an entire community of WONDERFUL people.  I will NOT let these few people stop me from doing what I love, and assuring my vision is intact.  I will NOT allow these lies to affect me any longer.  

I truly appreciate all the love, support and emails from all of you.  YOU make this journey enjoyable and a true blessing in my life.  I look forward to growing this community of wonderful, supportive artists.  Thank you so much for enjoying the ride with me.

MUCH Love!!

PS, I have not named names or quoted the hateful, untrue remarks.  If you want to know the truth, my email is always open.


Monday, January 24, 2011

Time to play with collage and paint for Altered Postcards

I have been participating in the 31 Day Challenge for 24 days now.  I must say, I'm completely exhausted.  I knew that cleaning and organizing my art room was going to be a huge challenge, yet I underestimated how tiring it would be.  Both mentally and physically.

I have been doing well, once my stamp shelves go up I can say I'm almost done.  I did do a little organizing today but I felt I needed a break, and did some art.  One of my great friends, Dede inspired me to just sit down and play.  I took a sheet of 12x12 cardstock and went to town, getting my anxieties down on paper.  I cut the cardstock into six 4x6 postcards that are now ready to alter and send to friends.


I chose the colours and papers based on the journal page I worked on during my Saturday show on Ustream.

I will be back soon with more art and art room update pictures!
Much LOVE

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Recent Art Journal Pages

Welcome everyone!  I thought I'd take a break from organizing my art room and share few recent pages from my art journal.

Inspire

I created this last night during my new art room party over on Ustream.  As part of the celebration I thought I would give away a composition book with the two page journal spread I created during the show.  You can check out the recording HERE.

Wine in progress

This is an in progress page I started during this class.  I love the layering.  I am going to do some journaling in the wine bottle.  I am not sure if I like the blue circles, I think I need to add another layer of paint.  Is a journal page ever really finished?

Circle of Fire

Another almost completed page.  I really loved the postcard and magazine image used.  I got the image from a Men's Health magazine.  This 31 Day art room clean up challenge is really kicking my butt, yet I must remember that there is something wonderful on the other side.  You can watch this class HERE.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Thanks SO much to those that celebrated with me last night.  Speaking of Ustream, I was poking around my computer today and finally have found the right setting for my webcam to fix the sound.  Stay with me guys!  :)

Much LOVE

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Before and During Art Room Organization

Who remembers these pictures from seven months ago??

Art room before

Art room before

Art room before

This is where I used to work before my injury.  I had originally taken these pictures and uploaded them to Flickr to give myself a bit of motivation to get it organized.  Well, a few weeks later I broke my ankle and was forced to do Art From the Couch for months.

Now that I am almost at 100% I felt it was about time to get my art room together.  Fourteen days into the 31 Day challenge has given me this new space:

Art Room- During

Art Room- During

Art Room- During

Obviously I have a bit more work to do.  The good news is I have another two weeks to do it.  It truly is amazing to me to realize how much I can get done when I put my mind to it and dedicate a little bit of time to it daily.  I will be streaming a live art journaling class at 9:30pm EST tonight, it will be my first in this new room.  To celebrate this, I will be having a little party and giving away prizes, including a copy of 1000 Artist Journal Pages by Dawn Devries Sokol.  You won't want to miss it!  Here is the LINK.

Don't forget you can see the daily progress over on Youtube, they are short five minute videos where I explain in more detail my storage solutions.

Hope to see you tonight!!
Much LOVE

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Art Journaling into the New Year and Textured Art Journal Pages


2011 is a year of promise for me.  It is the year I am turning over a new leaf so to speak.  I am going strong on the 31 Day Art Room clean up challenge, and it feels great!  It's absolutely amazing what you can get done in seven days.  If I can do it, anyone can.

Leaf

This spread is not finished.  I love the background so much that I am having a hard time deciding what, if anything, should be added.  I completed this live over on Ustream, you can watch the class when you have time.

Pens Left
Pens Right

I love pens!  I dedicate at least on spread in every art journal to them.  I also completed this live, and had a great time.  I have the most wonderful viewers.  I was practicing with my palette knife on these pages, I need to use it more to get the "feel" of it.  I find it completely different from my regular old credit card for scraping.

Now Tag

Here are a few pictures of my January NOW tag as promised.  For the story behind it, please watch my Youtube video in my last post.  I am excited about this monthly challenge!

Now Tag close

A close up of the wonderful texture.  I dry and wet embossed on the background of this tag.  I have a four part recording on Ustream if you would like to see the process.  The background techniques are completed in this recording.



I'm off to work on my art room for a few hours.  Wish me luck!  Here is the progress in seven days:



Hope to see you guys tonight at my Ustream class!  9:30pm Eastern

Much LOVE

Saturday, January 1, 2011

My Art Room Organization

Happy New Year all!

I will be participating in Marion Smith's 31 Day Challenge.  Here is my intro video:



Since I do not want to bore you all, I won't be posting all my video's here.  Please subscribe to me over HERE to see the daily updates.  They will all be short 5 minute video's, but if you are interested in seeing my process of organizing live please follow me on Twitter.  I will post updates of when I'm on live over on Ustream.

I streamed for five hours today, getting the initial sort pretty much done.  My day 1 update is already over on Youtube, so check it out!  My body is sore, but I accomplished a lot with much help from many friends.  It was a great time!

I need to prepare for my class on Ustream that starts at 9:30pm EST tonight, so I must make this short.  I will be creating the first step of one of my 2011 projects.  Grab a beverage and prepare for a fun night!

Much LOVE
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