Studio Sunday

Don't know why I felt so compelled to hole up in the studio and make art journal pages this weekend. Maybe it's the weather. It hasn't stopped raining for three days.



"Someday, the light will shine like a sun through my skin & they will say, What have you done with your life?"



"And though there are many moments I think I will remember, in the end, I will be proud to say, I was one of us."

Brian Andreas

My One True Thing

"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
Buddha

for the Three Muses

Be Inspired

for the Three Muses

Almost two years ago to the very day, my husband took me to an opening at the Bennett Street Gallery in Atlanta, and, if you've read my old posts, you know that this is what motivated me to resume my own study of art. Well, the artist was Kenson Thompson, whose work you can see here, and this weekend I am going to a two day mixed media workshop that she's teaching at the Art School of Sandy Springs. I've been working so hard on color and composition, and I think she will have so much to teach me about technique. I am so excited that I will be in the same room while she's weilding a paintbrush that I'm practically beside myself. I will be sure to take lots of photographs and share them with you, if that's okay with her, and, in the meantime, expect progress.

Love,
Kathy

P.S. Van Gogh's called to tell me that I sold "Lotus." Yippee!!!

Begin

Hey

Have you ever had just the perfect moment, on some random day after work, tired and worn out by the sinus infection that apparently came to stay, just getting ready to crash and take a little nap? I know I haven't really blogged in a while. I've been conserving what little energy I had for making it through the day at school and creating a little art on the side. But I think I'm making a comeback. Something happened today that I had to tell you about. It might not seem like such a big thing to you. In fact, it was a just little thing. But it was a big thing to me. In fact, it was what's known as an epiphany. I realized that I am the luckiest person in the world. I got an e-mail from a girl (well, now, she's actually a young lady) that I coached in cheerleading 14 years ago. Yes, I said 14 years ago. She said she was thinking about me and found me on Facebook. How nice is that? She was always special to me. It's funny how some kids are. In her letter, she told me I was an "encourager during those awkward middle school years." BTW, Mel, if you're reading this, you were never awkward. I thought you looked like Julia Roberts in the 8th grade. But anyway, after reading her letter, just before I dozed off, I said a little prayer, and I thanked God for letting me be a teacher and for letting me know kids who are wonderful enough to take the time to get in touch with me after so many years. I don't think I could've asked for anything more out of life. I don't think I could have been given any greater gift than that. My cup runneth over.

A Fish Out Of Water

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau


for Creative Therapy and The Three Muses, and Andrew

MMM: A New Journal Page

The World Is Full of Zanies and Fools

"...who don't believe in sensible rules and don't believe what sensible people say. Because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes, keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every day!" Rodgers and Hammerstein




Since I've been reading about words for the year on some of my faavorite blogs, I've decided that "possibility" is going it as my word for this year. Several challenges inspired this journal page: Crazy Amigos' "Brand New Start" challenge, One Powerful Hour's "Inspirational Word" challenge,Wednesday Stamper's "When I Grow Up challenge, and Illustration Friday's word "Confined" sent me running in the opposite direction. This journal page started with a background from the dictionary, the page with "possibility" on it, although I don't know if you can even see that any more. Then, I added a handpainted image from a Tim Burton-inspired fashion spread I cut out of Harper's Bazar, acrylic paint, handcolored scrapbook paper, and flourishes with a rubber stamp. Now that I think of it, she looks a bit like a fairy godmother, which is exactly what I'd like to be wne I grow up.

"Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today." Mark Twain. This is what I believe. This is what my life as a wife, a mother, a teacher, a friend, and an artist have taught me.

To see hopes
Even in a black, confined world, Kanon Wakeshima


Stay warm and cozy and allow yourself to see the possibilities!

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

for One Powerful Hour

Dreams That Came True For Me This Week:

1. Results are in, and every single one of my students passed the Georgia High School Writing Test!!!

2. Junior performance essays exams were organized and well supported.

3. I heard from my three very best friends from college on Facebook.

4. Inspiration came to town; I started 3 new paintings.

5. Life is so good.

My Inner Child Is In the Hood

for Created By Hand Craft Challenge and Creative Therapy. Joining in the Dia de los Muertos festivities with all of you meant more to me than I ever dreamed it would, and it helped put so many things into perspective. I enjoyed visiting all the other celebrations at Dia de Bloglandia and reading your stories about your loved ones. Today I feel grateful for the memories I have, and new my journal page is another celebration of memories. I made this page by layering a map, a magazine page, and some cigar box labels with an images from Collage Images Not For Posting. I used acrylic paint in layers of yellow, green, and blue and then hand-colored Little Red Riding Hood with Prismacolor pencils and acrylic paint. Then I added a chipboard letter and some doodling with a black Sharpie, a white gel pen, and a little more red paint. This was definitely a fun page, and I really enjoyed incorporating techniques that I learned from different journal artists, such as Nancy Baumiller, Kelly Kilmer, and Teesha Moore. If you've always wanted to try journaling, but didn't know how to get started, you can visit their blogs (by clicking on their names) for some wonderful tutorials and techniques.

Morpheus

for Ma Maison Butterfly house prompt

Continuing Education

Today I started my very first online art class: Kelly Kilmer's Prompt A Day, and this is the page I made for The Three Muses, following Kelly's instructions.

New Journal Page

fallen leaves

a walk with my sister

a rainy morning

dinner with old friends

a finished painting

sunset on the pond

simple gifts


for Creative Therapy and The Three Muses

New Journal Page

A Wing and a Prayer for Inspire Me Thursday

The Three Muses: Numbers Challenge(d)

Zlightly Zetti

for the Three Muses "Zlightly Zetti" challenge

Fair Play

Play


Learn


Pass it on




for One Powerful Hour

Faery's Child

Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I med a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long;
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery's song.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew;
And sure in language strange she said,
'I love thee true.'

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she gazed, and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes--
So kiss'd to sleep.

And there we slumber'd on the moss,
And there I dream'd, ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd -- 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,
Hath thee in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill side.

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci, John Keats

This journal page is a 10" x 12" collage using a photograph from Vogue, anemones from a Springhill Nursery catalog, and roses from The Avalon Rose Collection All images were hand cut and colored with acrylic paint, inks, and Prismacolor pencils. The background is Arches coldpress watercolor paper which has also been painted and stamped with watercolor and acrylic paint, colored pencils, pastels and inks. (for Creative Therapy) and Wednesday Stamper.

New Journal Page

for The Three Muses


"I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit." George Bernard Shaw

If You Want To Get Ahead, Get A Hat

A little advice from me and the Three Muses to Andrew on his 28th birthday (the quote, which I took some artistic liberties with, isn't too bad either, sweetheart). Created By Hand for you. Hope you had a wonderful birthday. See you tonight.

Love,
Mom