Still Here

It has been months since I last posted to this blog. I decided I better write to prove I am still here. Actually, it has been a very busy few months since my last post. I have been completing custom orders, creating art for retail accounts, and participated in Artissimo, an annual art show and sale. Last week I also took several pieces to 2nd April Galerie, a gallery in Canton, Ohio, which carries some of my work. I decided to include a photo of one of my recent encaustic paintings, which sold at Artissimo. I close with the intention of doing much better in my frequency of posts.

Seeking beauty...

I have not posted in several weeks due to busy summer schedules. Hope that everyone is enjoying a wonderful summer. I thought I would include a photo of an old project which was a shower gift I made for our nephew and his wife for their bridal shower last summer. It is a mixed-media collage piece incorporating my calligraphy along with a section of a responsive reading text from an old hymnal and a variety of papers. Also included is a bit of Biblical text from Corinthians, which was taken from an ancient Bible that is literally falling apart. It is an amazing treasure given to me by a friend, because I don't have to feel badly about using pieces in my artwork since it is already in pieces anyway.

In addition, I wanted to share with you an excerpt from an article I read by Christine Valters Paintner. She writes, "Every person has an aching need for beauty; in beauty we discover the face of God." She further develops this point:

An aesthetic spirituality is one that recognizes this longing as a response to a call already issued, to an invitation always present in the world through beauty's presence. We are called to awaken to beauty, to see more deeply, to cultivate practices of attentiveness. We are invited to let beauty penetrate the heart, and to respond to it by creating further beauty in our own lives.

I encourage you to answer the invitation with a resounding yes!

Waxing poetic...

A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of taking a workshop in encaustic painting from Clare Murray Adams of Blue Door Studio. I LOVED this medium! I feel that it works really well with my collage and calligraphy. Encaustic is a type of painting using hot beeswax with oil pigments and I love the colors, textures and especially, the translucence of the medium. I am excited to dive into this new technique and incorporate embedded pieces of text, my lettering, and other treasures.

Clare is a wonderful teacher and I adore her artwork. Everywhere I looked in her studio and home there was eye candy and inspiration. Check out her talent at www.claremurrayadams.com. It was nice working with the other students that day, too... interesting to see what they created.

My initial attempts at this new medium are pictured. Please keep in mind that I was concentrating on technique with these pieces and trying to get a feel for the encaustic medium, which is quite different than anything I've ever done. Obviously I have a long way to go, but I am really excited to learn more about encaustic painting.

Changes

It has been a while since I posted. My life has been extra busy lately. My daughter moved home early in May after completing her internship at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia and we were busy as she prepared to move to Denver, Colorado. She left yesterday with her dad for the drive out in her vehicle to get moved in and settled. My husband flies home on Friday. Needless to say I have shed many a tear in the last few weeks. I am excited for her in this new season in her life, but it is sad to see her go so far away. Often in recent days it felt as though my heart would literally break apart. I know though, that this is part of motherhood, and so I pray through my tears and hope the very best for her in this exciting adventure.

Meanwhile, I have been busy with work and projects. I've completed a variety of orders for individuals and a retail account. I had the privilege of completing a special gift for a customer to give to her mom for Mother's Day. She ordered a prayer journal and an anointing oil bottle. I used an old hymnal for the covers of the journal with calligraphy and collage work throughout, as well as some pages from the hymnal, old maps, and other treasures. I loved the idea that the hymnal cover had already been used for years in worship and adoration of the Lord and now will continue in use by this mother in her devotional life. I have included some photos of the journal cover and oil bottle in this post.

Love and Wonder

With Easter fast approaching, I thought I would share a quote from the book Entirety: Love Gives All, by Dana Candler.

"In Jesus' giving of Himself, the hidden plan of God's heart was revealed in the midst of time and space, and Love was the message made manifest."

I am absolutely filled with awe, adoration and gratitude as I contemplate this beautiful truth! May you enjoy the rest of this Holy Week and may you have a blessed Easter.

"Loose" script

I was playing around last night with my ink and a Leonard EF Principal nib and did some "loose" style scripts. It was fun and a bit freeing to not worry about straight lines and exact ascender/descender heights, etc. Here are a couple samples of what I came up with rather quickly. They are envelopes for a couple friends who also happen to work with us at Paperworks and More. I think there will be more of this loose "unbuttoned" style coming from my pen in the future.

Lock & Key

I thought I would share a photo of a collage piece I recently completed incorporating a very old lock portion of a doorknob set and an antique skeleton key. These elements made me think of the passage from Matthew about your heart being where your treasure is found, so I included that verse in calligraphy on the piece. This is for sale at our little shop, Paperworks and More.

Wonderful Banner

Over this past weekend, my husband & I attended a conference in Fairlawn, Ohio to hear Dr. James Goll, an author and teacher from Tennessee who ministers across the U.S. and internationally. The conference was held at St. Luke's Church and the banner in this photo was hanging in their entrance foyer against a brick wall. I thought both the lettering and the graphic were gorgeous and I loved the message it presented, particularly in this Lenten season.

Getting warmer...

My post title is not referring to the weather, but rather to my efforts to customize a header for this blog which meets with my approval. I already knew that my computer skills were lacking, so my son, Jordan, got stuck with that portion of this task. However, I'm discovering that the fine hairlines in my calligraphy do not translate well to the computer screen. Thus, it is like the old game from childhood when you would try to guess something or find something and the other player would give you clues by saying, "You are getting warmer; you are getting colder, " as you approached or made your guesses. The changes in my blog's appearance seem slightly more in keeping with my "style" and yet, I think I have more work ahead of me before I am happy with the overall look.

Meanwhile, it is getting warmer outside in recent days as spring begins to make its appearance and for that I am quite grateful!

Beautiful words...

Today I just want to share some words that have struck me with their beauty. This is the final passage from a wonderful prayer -- Celtic in origin, I think.

"bathe us
with the brilliance
of Your light
like dew."

Blessings to you!

Ideas

Today I had the pleasure of meeting with Sonja at Bloom Floral Designs about some orders she is going to have me do for her shop. If you are not familiar with Bloom and live in the North Canton area, you need to discover her work! She does amazing floral designs and all the gift items and displays in her shop are just wonderful -- very clean lines with a unique and "fresh" presentation. Her designs make most other arrangements out there seem rather old, outdated and "tired." It was fun to talk with her and come up with some ideas together about how she might be able to use a few of my art pieces. Quite frankly, I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to do these projects for such a creative soul as Sonja!

Since I am new to the blogging world, I am not going to try to actually link to Sonja's website, but her address is: www.bloomfloraldesigns.com

I'm also posting some photos today of some pieces I recently completed. These are little soldered collage charms with hand-done calligraphy used on antique bottles, some with vintage chandelier prisms for stoppers. They are great for bath salts, oils or to hold a stem or two of your favorite flower. The last photo is a small picture under glass with a velvet ribbon for hanging on the wall.

Sweet surprise...

I thought I would share this photo of a custom order that I did for a husband to give to his wife as a surprise for Valentine's Day. (I'm not at all sure that my camera or my photography skills are really up to par for this blog, but I will work on that in the future.) I had done a couple of similar frames for this family to give to grandparents for Christmas. The wife really liked them and so her husband decided it would be nice to have me create one for her as a surprise. He left the quote/calligraphy choice up to me, but requested that it relate to motherhood. I chose the line "i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)" from an e.e. cummings poem. One of several embellishments I included in the collage work was a section of a vintage measuring tape and I wrote the phrase, "Love without measure," alongside the tape. I also used some text from an old children's storybook that spoke of a mother, "happy and busy with her little ones." They will display a photo of their two adorable children -- or possibly the (beautiful) mom with the children -- in the frame. This is such a dear family and I thought it was a very sweet gift for the husband to order this frame for his wife. I hope she is pleased with the final outcome! I'd love to see it complete with photograph in their home.

Beginning...

Since I "created" this blog site many months ago, I guess it is time that I actually start to post some entries. Today feels like a good day for this beginning. I am not always the most computer savvy of individuals, thus the delay in getting this blog underway; however, today I am "jumping in" and trusting that anyone who may end up reading will be patient with my learning process. (Thanks in advance for that patience, by the way!)

Brad (my hubby) and I just returned a couple days ago from a visit to Tempe, AZ to see our sister and brother-in-law. It was a great visit and at the Phoenix Airport for the return trip, I noticed an art exhibit, entitled Other Words, with installations in several spots throughout the terminal. The description of the exhibit talked about letters, text and punctuation as being visual, with literary marks as texture, pattern, rhythm and context -- in other words, the language of artists. The pieces which I saw from the exhibit were wonderful and all incorporated letters, words, and text in a variety of ways. I loved the artwork and it inspired me to stretch for new techniques and expansion in my own art.

So today I am stretching a bit to begin this blog and hopefully to establish more connections with other creative folks as a result. Now I think I will close this initial post and go put that inspiration to good use otherwise in making some art on this chilly Valentine's Day.