A Grateful Heart

I am writing today to tell you about a great new blog written by a friend. It is fresh and insightful and will speak to all you creative hearts out there. I am so excited and grateful to be her featured artist today. What a sweet "shout out" she gave me and I am soaking up all the encouragement she sent my way. Her blog is going to be a major success... I just know it. Check it out at:

http://nichecreative.tumblr.com

Just do it...

A new year is well underway and with it I have a new resolve to begin posting on a regular basis. So, in spite of busy schedules, computer illiteracy, health struggles... in spite of anything... I am just going to do it.

Therefore, here is post number one for 2011. Blessings to all in this new year! I hope you are filled with new hopes and new plans and a continuing sense of gratitude and wonderment about this life we live. I leave you with a picture of one of my encaustic paintings. This particular piece found a home with a dear friend and fellow creative soul. I hope she is enjoying it in her home!

Projects, Process, Promise

I've been busy with a variety of commissioned art and calligraphy projects, from customized gifts for graduates to encaustic paintings to confirmation and first communion certificates for a local church. I love that I feel I learn from the process of each job that I agree to do. Each project also always shows me how much more I need and desire to learn. In other words, each job helps me to know how much I do not know.

I am excited about the promise of a great learning experience through a new e-course I signed up to take from artist Kelly Rae Roberts, called Flying Lessons. The course is about growing your creative business and promises to provide lots of great information and lessons designed to equip artists, particularly in the areas of publicity and marketing of artwork. Click on the button on my sidebar to learn more about the course.

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.