we're all mad here!

Creatively Made - a fabulous giveaway!

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Melissa Pinter
and
Josette Russon 

I've sent you both email requests via a private message on Facebook. Please contact me if you didn't get it for some reason. As soon as I hear back from you, I will forward your info on to Jeanne so she can get you a login/password for Creatively Made. Thank you so much for spreading the word!

My amazing, inspiring, incredibly brave friend, Jeanne Oliver, is getting ready to relaunch her e-course Creatively Made on Monday, and she's asked me to give away 2 spots to my blog readers. I had the pleasure of taking this class when she launched it in the spring, and had such a wonderful time getting to know Jeanne better and learning her art techniques. One of the goals of Jeanne's class is getting to know yourself better through creating art, and taking advantage of the unique gifts each of us have been given. To say that Jeanne is a kind and patient teacher would be an understatement! As a dedicated homeschooling mom, Jeanne seems to operate in this amazing state of "let me show you how" which to me always seems effortless. I think one of Jeanne's gifts is to teach other women how to live a creative life, and she's doing a wonderful job of it.

Some of the things she will cover in Creatively Made are:

journal making & techniques
mixed media collage
metal & leather stamping
image transfers
charcoal drawing
and much much more!

There are a plethora of videos to go along with all of Jeanne's posts, and a studio tour to help show you how to create space for yourself and your unique gifts. You can find out more about Creatively Made by watching Jeanne's video below or hoping over to the registration page on her blog:

http://www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com/item_142/Creatively-Made-E-Course.htm

Here's the skinny -

I will randomly select 2 lucky blog readers to receive a free spot in Creatively Made on Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 4:00 pm EST. You can get 1 entry into the drawing for each of the following you do:

1. reply to this post with what you think your unique gift might be
2. share the link to Jeanne's class on your FB page & tell me in this post
    http://www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com/item_142/Creatively-Made-E-Course.htm
3. share Jeanne's video on your twitter account & tell me in this post
   https://vimeo.com/43159561
4. pin the Creatively Made video to your Pinterest & tell me in this post
   {you have to watch the video & click the "share" button} 

It's that easy. That's up to 4 entries per person my peeps - pretty decent odds if you ask me!

NOW GO MAKE ART!

 

 

the art of letting go

This spring & summer, I've been taking an incredibly fun e-course by Mindy Lacefield {aka Tim's Sally} called Paint Your Story. One of the things many of us taking the class have been talking about struggling with is how hard it is to cover up each background layer with a new one ... especially when you really love the way it looks in the moment. I've always looked at it as a great way to practice the art of letting go - a hard thing to do for many artists.

When you're passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection.
+ Debra Messing +

I have struggled with the concept of letting go in many areas of my life, but find it pretty easy to do with my paintings. Maybe it's because I'm still new to the world of painting, and see it as a necessary part of learning. However, I suspect that the real reason lies in all the changes that have taken place in our family this past year. I feel like I'm becoming an expert in the art of letting go. I've had to let go of: old ways of thinking and behaving ... my children's lives as they move on to college ... friends I thought I wanted as life-long partners in my life journey ... goals and dreams that no longer fit who I am or want to become ... all kinds of things I thought would be harder to do then they ultimately ended up being. That's not to say I didn't suffer horrible growing pains with some of them, because believe me I did. Not all changes are easy to make ... especially the ones we want to hold on to with both hands.

One of my new goals this year, has been to teach myself how to acrylic paint. It's one of my favorite kinds of art to look at by other artists, and I decided that it's about time I make a go of it myself. Something I knew was going to be an important part of achieving the look I adore is creating a rich, layered background by painting multiple backgrounds over each other; letting bits and pieces of the previous layer peek through. Painting has become part of my morning routine, and I now like to refer to it as my Morning Meditation. I put on the music ... tune out the world ... and just enjoy the process:

   


NOW GO MAKE ART!