Persistence

I'm a persistent kind of person. I will work and work and work at something until it's what I want it to be or I'm so frustrated I want to chuck it through the window. Sometimes both. But when someone ELSE is pushing and poking at me? I dig my heels in. That's just how I am. This is a Kellyism, because she's the same way!

Remember Angry Caterpillar? He's resisting the urge to become a butterfly! 

September Soul Garden

For June, July, and August I used patterned scrapbook papers as the "base" for my planners. I might have already told you I'm using a sketchbook this month and so far, I LOVE it. Here is my September page:

 I wanted to experiment with backgrounds, so this one was lightly sprayed with alcohol ink:

This one completely blank:

And this one covered with papers:

So far, my favorite is the sprayed background underneath the notecards. I'm having LOTS of fun this month!

September

It's a new month. Lots of "stuff" going on, lots of stuff to do, lots of thoughts in my head. So, this is the first page in my new Soul Garden planner. She makes me SO happy, but I was totally terrified to add color to her. Usually color is the part where I fuck everything up. But really, what's the worst that could happen?

I inked the flowers but not the face, then shaded her with prismacolors.

This is the part where I really hesitated. I carried her from couch to table to couch to table almost all day before I finally decided to add color to the flowers. I'm REALLY BAD at knowing what colors "go" together, so I just picked some random ones and went for it. They don't look bad. Maybe not awesome, but not awful.

When she was all done, I added watercolor around her. Since it's not watercolor paper, they don't act quite right, but I'm still really liking her!

Then a little stamping and Sharpie pens.

See those green spots? NO IDEA how they got there. I haven't used any paint that color today. 

I AM good enough

and so are YOU.

One of the girls in Suzi's newest class (Soul Garden) mentioned how she had done something at work that made her feel stupid and how she felt like everyone was talking about her and what she'd done. I've been there. Totally there. Paranoid. I know I'm paranoid, and I know that people really aren't that interested in me - certainly not interested enough to talk about. I also know that IN OUR MINDS we accuse people of doing things we would never do. Would you really laugh at a coworker for making a mistake? No. They're probably not laughing at you, either.

So I have a challenge. You ready? What I'd like is for you (yes, you) to reverse this thinking. Instead of shrugging off the good things you do every day and ruminating on the bad things, celebrate the good things. Today I did NOT lock myself out of my apartment!! Today I did NOT spill tea when I poured it!! Today I did NOT burn the cupcakes I baked!! Today I did NOT forget to brush my teeth!! Fuck yeah! I'm on a freaking roll!!

Wanna hear about the rest of my day? Mini and I walked to Target (it's 1.5 miles) and I didn't wear a bra. I ate a good breakfast but a crappy lunch. I printed a bunch of pictures to put around the huge canvas if the twins stadium I bought for my husband's birthday. I made a few journal cards. I let my computer die. I called my brother to check on my sister-in-law. I put one friend in touch with another who needed her. It's nearly 5pm and I haven't showered. I have homework that isn't done, and finals I haven't studied for, but I'm going to spend some time painting with my son instead - because it makes me happy and him happy. I'm AWESOME. Why do I let myself forget that? Why do I let SOMEONE ELSE decide that I'm not awesome? Why on earth would I believe them??

Analytical vs. Artistic

Artists are flighty, unreliable people who rebel against scheduling and live life by the seat of their pants. Right? Right?!? RIGHT???

I am a very analytical person. 1+1=2. I don't see signs or miracles in things, I don't believe in god. When I look at a sunset, I see colors. Yes, they're "pretty". No, they're not miraculous. Rainbows are a refraction of light, not a promise from a mythical superbeing. Babies are functions of the human reproductive system, not miracles. TO ME. My beliefs are not yours. This is how I cope with my life. You can choose to cope however you wish.

But I know one thing. A lot of people look at something pretty - a painting, a rainbow, a quilt, etc - and they say "I wish I could do that!" but they don't. Not that they don't wish for it, but they don't DO it. I will never be Mozart. But that doesn't stop me from playing his music on my clarinet.

People are WRONG about artists. Artists are NOT dreamers, they are DOERS. I went with Suzi, Kelly, and Carolyn (a new friend) to the Rembrandt exhibit at the MIA for Suzi's birthday. We wandered around separately and studied his paintings and paintings of his students. It was AMAZING. My first real museum experience. I got yelled at for getting too close to a painting and Suzi was appalled, but Kelly giggled.

But when it was over and we were leaving, I said "I want to do that", meaning I want to paint like Rembrandt. And you know what Suzi said? "Let's take a class." And you know what Kelly said? "I'm in."

Dreamers, in my mind, are the people who think that Rembrandt's work is beautiful but beyond them. Will I paint like Rembrandt? Probably not. But knowing that isn't going to stop me from trying. We've researched classes, and Suzi, Kelly, and I will learn to paint like Rembrandt together. YOU can do it, too. All you have to so is stop telling yourself that you can't.

Look out world, these friggen people are coming at you with OIL PAINT!

Notecards

Today on Soul Garden chat, we talked about notecards and how we're using them in our planners. Here are some that I made today. I carved this little owl and the talk bubble stamps for this one:

Nothing but paid for stamps for this one!

I really like the gold and brown here:

And this is just a chunk of scrapbook paper with some embossed flowers:

Great, Goog, but what the heck is Soul Garden? Suzi's newest class, of course! It's fantastic so far :)

A Birthday Plan Gone Awry

So...a great idea, right? I made these for Suzi's birthday. This is mine:

Kelly's:

Suzi's:

Alas, I put mine on and forgot the others...sigh. They had a lovely day on my couch. So, I was the idiot at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts yesterday wearing the "happy" shirt. 

BUT let me tell you how I made them - it was genius. I got some of those vinyl sticky letters and stuck them on the shirts. Then I put liquid Rit dye (black) in a spray bottle and sprayed over them. I was worried that it would seep under the letters, but it worked beautifully! I wanted to use blue on the blue shirt, and maybe red on the pink, so it wasn't so stark, but I wasn't sure if it was going to work, so I just got black. Since it was freaking AWESOME, I'm going to do it again with better colors.

Uncomfortable with attention

Maybe it's "credit" more than "attention" that I'm uncomfortable with? I have a friend who wants to submit our Zombie Bunny project to Somerset Studios next Easter and the thought of my name in print makes me squirm. I've been avoiding putting anything in my eportfolio at school because that will be my name AND my work out there on the web for anyone and everyone to see. It just creeps me out, and it makes me feel like "Who the fuck are you to put your stuff out there like you're somebody? You're just a chick sitting on the couch animating fruit for idiotic cartoons." Harsh, right? We say meaner things to ourselves than we ever would to anyone else. See how I'm babbling to avoid  saying what I'm here to say? I'm super squirmy about this!

This is Suzi's book. By now, you guys all know that Suzi and I are good friends. She moved here to be close to me and Kelly, we hang out and drink a lot of coffee together. We paint together. Her book is really great. Amazingly great. It comes with a DVD, and shows all the steps and stages of making a mixed-media girl, Suzi Blu style. I LOVE it. But I've avoided promoting it (which is silly) because....

I didn't want to tell you about this! How sill am I? It's my painting in Suzi's book. 

So, the book is AWESOME, and you can get it at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or from the amazing Suzi herself! Now I have to be done talking about it, I feel a little sick. Ridiculous, I know.

Butterflies!

Just some sketches for the ATC swap we're doing in Suzi's Fairy class...

This guy is a little bewildered, like "Um...what just happened?"

This one is the most bug-like:

And this one is supposed to be sniffing the flower, but it doesn't really look like he is:

I'm bringing some blank ATCs to school tonight to sketch them out on, I think I'm going to make one of each for my swap partners. That way if they hate them, they can pick the one they hate the least and keep it.

Soul Garden, part 2

These pages are from my July planner. I'm having SO much fun with this, you have no idea! 

These are a couple of stamps I carved. Stamped on post its and stuck in:

For every day of the month, I made up these little list thingies. It's half an index card, backed with cardstock that was leftover from making the planner. I just take one, glue it in, and write down the stuff I want to do today. Cute and functional! This has been SO useful for me.

  This is just a doodle - usually I do this on my homework papers and notes.

I carved a cupcake stamp and used it for July birthdays. A stamp and a name scribbled in it so I don't forget.

Some days there's no list, no To Do's, no homework. Just pancakes and the pool.

I have Liam make me a little piece of art on an index card every day and I add it in. 

I also have these little badges that I made up. This particular day I made art, took my medicine, studied, did the dishes, went for a run, talked on the phone (twice), made some cartoon pages, and cooked. They're one inch squares and I got the clipart and the iPhone pic online. Resized and colored in photoshop.

This is a screen grab from my iPhone about a funny conversation I had with Paul. 

This is what I'm doing with my Project 365 pictures:

This planner has been SO helpful for me so far. Sometimes all I need to get me motivated to fold the laundry that been sitting, clean, on the couch for a week is to put it on today's To Do list. I know that seems silly, but that's just what works for me. And why take all these pictures for P365 if nothing gets done with them? The badges make me want to glue them in - and I don't get to if I don't actually DO the dishes or MAKE the cartoons. Those silly text message conversations? Who doesn't want to remember those?

What makes a soul grow?

This is a little preview of Suzi's next class, Soul Garden. It's a collaboration between her and Kelly, which I think is SUPER fun and a first for them. The idea is a planner. A planner for our lives. NOT just one where we jot down our appointments. One where we make goals and have rewards when we complete them. Simple goals, like getting up earlier or eating a healthy breakfast. And more difficult ones like integrating exercise into our daily lives.

 

It's part journal, part scrapbook. The ephemera of our lives meets practicality.

Just in case you can't read that To Do List, it says "Carve light bulb, Make cartoon pages, Yesterday's cartoon page, Eat chips & Cheetos, Watch Gilmore Girls". Sometimes that's the kind of list I need - one I'm going to actually accomplish. There's also an elephant I drew, a little musing about weeds vs. flowers, and the top of an individual cream cheese container - and my face, of course.

Here's a horribly taken photo of Mini me, and a page where I wrote in shiny gold pen.

There's more, trust me. Stay tuned for much, much more!

Fairy #2

I don't know about this one, either. Maybe I'm just not a fairy kind of chick.

First Fairy

I've sketched a bunch of fairies for Suzi's class, but this is the first one I've painted. I can't decide if I'm happy with her. I really like the colors, but maybe she's not shimmery enough for a fairy.

 I sprayed purple on her face. Accidentally, of course, poor thing.

Best playdate ever!

First there was dirt drinking:

Kelly is chasing it with water, clearly it didn't help:

Then some art:

Three-way collaborative painting - step one:

And Suzi telling Kelly she wants to take a serious picture:

Believe it or not, we also watch True Blood, got Caribou, carved stamps, drew and colored other faces, made dinner (OK, Kelly cooked, but I chopped stuff), and painted about a zillion layers of our collaboration. 

C-Faces Play Date

FIrst Fairy Palette!

Will posting this here help me actually start painting? Am I accountable to you? Maybe! Here's the palette:

And the paints I made for it!

More to come!