funky girl & happy Monday!

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.

Erich Fromm

Last night's play time.

A bit of collage for starters...

at this point, i rarely know what i'll be painting.

 

A quick little sketch...

At first i just wanted her to have curly hair,

but then it quickly became out of control. :-)

I usually sketch the outline on the canvas/collage with charcoal...

she seemed more sad than my sketch...

sometimes i mix the paint on my palette,

other times, i put the paint directly on the collage (as i did here)...

I kinda like the orange lips... 

  

having fun with the hair & gave her

a bit more of a smile...

added black, white, and a bit of detail

and there you have it.

Happy girl with funky hair & snazzy flowers. 

I use tissue paper for part of the collage

and i love how the fibres overlap.

Wishing you all a great week

filled with sunshine & lollipops. 

:-)

sick boy

Sometimes I see certain things
that burn images in my head
and until i put them to paper, or canvas, or cardboard,
they haunt me. 

Like this one. 

When i was last at the oncology center with my mom for her treatment,
a young boy sat across from us in the waiting area with his mom,
pale, losing his hair, waiting for his turn.

Shattered hearts. 

I thought of a few words that i saw recently -
STAND IN YOUR OWN LIGHT -
and I wondered if he was able to stand in his light,
despite everything.
I wondered if it was even possible... 

I hoped that he was able to find
solace, somewhere, somehow. 

So the image of the boy in my heart
is now on paper
and I gave him his own light,
just in case he didn't have the strength
to find it on his own. 

Standing in our light is great,
but sharing our light is greater. :-) 

xoxo 

confidence

We've all had our share of people who question what we do, or why we do it.

We've all seen those strange looks

after we tell them we are artists

as if part of the sentence is missing.

I used to think that art was just for fun.

That the only purpose for art was to make things more beautiful.

This may be true,

but I now know that art is so much more.

It is beauty,

and therapy,

and a way to communicate.

It is the telling of stories

and the sharing of cultures

through image and colour

and composition.

It is emotion expressed.

It is a way out of the darkness.

It heals

and cries

and sets fire to the soul.

It is a beacon

for those who are lost

and home

for those who are found.

It is truth

because it is essentially 

from the heart.

So for all of you out there

who yearn to create or write or sing or play...

and feel somehow intimidated

or shamed

or not "good enough"

Go ahead.

Let it go and make art.

Don't let anyone (or anything) stand in your way.

xoxo

reach for the moon

my pencil sketch wasn't worth much - after i spread the paint on the canvas,

it totally covered my pencil lines... :-)

a bit of colour & texture (sponge & paper towel!)

a bit more colour & detail

... me & the swirly swirls... :-)

a few little words & voilà.

This was done last night on a small canvas (i think it's 8" x 8"). 

I think back sometimes at how i became an artist and inevitably, it takes me back to childhood.

When my friends were playing with Barbies & dolls, i was painting their faces with magic markers. :-) I'd spend hours with colouring books & crayons & paper & scissors. Whenever it would thunder, mom would take out her ingredients & make us home made play dough with food colouring & all.

To this day, i love thunder.

When i was 10 or 11, a family friend came back from Japan & brought me a few magazines & books - all written in Japanese. I thought the lettering was the most beautiful thing i had ever seen. So I grabbed some paper & copied about 10 pages of text - only because i loved the look of all those little lines & squares & symbols. 

Were you always creative, or was it something you developed with time?

What kind of things did you love doing as a child? 

Carpe Diem folks...

xoxo