Embracing ART

Most people who know me, know that when I get involved with something I am an all or nothing woman.So as usual and true to my form , I have gotten myself into several art classes. I became interested in mixed media art and in particular the faces . I'm excited but seriously I need an intervention. I am so facinated that I can take a class from my home and learn with these wonderful artists but I can't take them all at once right ? right? . I am almost afraid to click for fear I may want another one,LOL. So , I am going to give my all to what I have signed up for .Here is where you can find me.. 1> HANDS AND HEART with Monica Zuniga ,She is a wonderful teacher and I love her voice and she is so kind. I signed up for the magical kit and I have four classes there.Right now I am working on the pencil drawing course, which I LOVE.
2. (This one I am blaming on a tweet) Suzi Blu's Les petit Academy . I am taking the Goddess and Poet class, it just started.What can I say it's Suzi Blu? So as you can see my hands are full .
3. Paulette Insall's , All about faces class (thank goodness it's not until Oct) , but I am excited for that one as well.

When I was younger I wanted to be a makeup artist, I loved looking at how I could transform faces but I got married young and didn't really think about that dream anymore but you know what ? I think in this way maybe I can reclaim a piece of that dream. Did I mention that when I was young I never had an interest in art? Not even coloring .Somehow though it has been a part of my life and is helping me learn about myself .I never even knew I liked art but I am embracing it now. I have never even tried to draw but when I first saw faces and mixed media art ,I knew I wanted to learn . So I hope to share my journey here and I hope to embrace other artists as well, all of us learning from each other . I want to give a special shout out to one of my fellow beginners , who is finding her way in art too. I found her post so beautiful and so raw and honest , and I think we can all see a piece of ourselves in her lovely post. I wish for all of us who want to be artistic that we can embrace those parts of ourselves and with lots of practice excel and share our uniqueness.Here's to us!!

I have had many lovers...

One day I came across this post .In it the writer compares her interests to new lovers. I have had many lovers. Once when i went in a music store and looked at a violin , I was infatuated, i bought it and in my 30's decided i wanted to play.I took lessons from a very young talented woman , who wanted me to play twinkle twinkle little star in front of an audience,,, GASP!! Did you know playing a violin is difficult? Once during a lesson she picked up her viola and I was more in love, I wanted to play both ..lol . So my teacher , whom i adored , moved away and with it my went my new found infatuation. Don't get me wrong ,I still look longingly at my violin but it sits unplayed in a corner.I am surrounded by books calling my name. I have dvds on Knitting and needles and yarn because I fell in love with the peacefulness of it.Oh did i mention I also have crochet dvd's because I fell in love with a pattern that needed both..lol.I have an art room all to myself because I fell in love with scrapbooking that then led to stamping . That lover has led me into lots of self exploring and still entices me.. I could go on and on and on. Would you like to meet my new lover? My new lover showed up unexpectedly , as I was surfing the internet, beautiful and seductive, called to me, igniting in me passion . It was this thing called Mixed media art .and this lover encompassed all the infatuations I have.Vintage items, Words,Color,Faces,stamping .. it was love at first sight! I longed to learn to draw and paint .This lover awakened in me hidden desires. So when I read this post . I knew, knew I needed to nurture these lovers .I am going to embrace them when I can. I am going to let them seduce me and see where it leads.If it doesn't work out , I will take what I learn and move on . Maybe just maybe I will find one that will be a lifetime passion . So here is two ways I am nuturing these passions.
I am taking this class, the painting faces one, with Paulette Insall in october and I found this Magical kit that includes 3 workshops with Monica Zuniga for an amazing price for this week only.Oh , and I am hoping to win this workshop . Boy it's sounds like this new lover has my head spinning !! here is a little preview of Monica Zuniga
Be careful ,, you might find yourself in the arms of a new lover...

Win a free Art Journaling class

Guess what?? Julie Prichard is giving away a free art journaling class! How exciting is that? It is called Super Nova and it has two parts.The first part you can learn to make 3 of your own journals and the second part is all about art journaling .Its a great price anyway but the chance to win makes it all the better. For some reason this class is calling my name , rather loudly I might say. SO i hope I win:) > she has a cool blog too . Here is the promo video , go check it out!! GO ! GO ! GO!

Just my opinion...

Last week ,as I was going through the motions of reading the blogs that I follow , I came to a blog that I am always inspired by .I read the post and when I got to the bottom of the post I read this sentence " Who would your true self be if you were willing to drop the baggage and take other people's opinions more seriously than your own"? A voice inside me rebelled against this. I heard it say " You want me to value the opinion of someone else over my own? You see , I found this a contradiction to the authentic me. How authentic am I if I am willing to take someone elses opinion over my own? I am a firm believer that the answer to who I am is within me already and that it is my job to excavate the real me.That sentence that day was something that I thought about"alot" .The context that the author wrote it in was that someone had said something positive about the author and caused her to see herself in a new way. What if the comment had been a negative one? Would it have changed the weight of the opinion ? It still would have came from the same source . So what weight should we give any opinion in deciding who we are? I see myself as a filter. Positive and negative opinions go in , they are weighed by my authentic self to see if I accept them or not and I choose what feels like it fits.If it fits then I keep it , if not , then it is discarded. I challenge that the reason the author kept that persons opinion that day was because it fit her authentic self and it was brought to her attention that maybe she should consider this as part of who she is. She accepted it to be true , therefore it was ,but it was HER who accepted it. Everyday we are told positive and negative things about ourselves, it is our job to sort and apply. I cannot trust that someone can see me better than I see myself. I have to trust myself to be authentic and truthful with myself.Take for example, if I tell a skinny person that she is fat and she knows she's not ,most likely she will filter it and not give any weight to it ,but if I tell an overweight person she is fat she will know in herself the truth and it will leave a mark . If the person is skinny and for whatever reason believes shes fat she would give my opinion the same weight as the overweight person. She is choosing this to be part of who she is.Therefore , isn't it still her own opinion? I am not saying that we should disregard everyone elses opinion. I am saying we should use them only as a means to discovering ourselves, questioning ourselves and as part of the self excavating process. I cannot ask the world "Who I Am"? that is a question only I can answer.

Be your authentic self. Your authentic self is who you are when you have no fear of judgment, or before the world starts pushing you around and telling you who you're supposed to be. Your fictional self is who you are when you have a social mask on to please everyone else. Give yourself permission to be your authentic self.
~ Dr. Phil

WishCasting....

Who Is the "You " you wish to be? this is the question that was asked in this wishcasting post.
The woman I wish to be is a woman who is at peace with who she is . She is a woman who feels comfortable in her own skin and is not afraid to be who she is despite other peoples opinions.She is a woman of strength and independence and peace.Confidently showing herself to the world without fear of being judged.
Who is the "YOU " you wish to be?

Whats your type?

One day a friend of mine suggested I twitter. I really had no interest as I already have a myspace and facebook and blogs.. yada yada. I didnt really get the whole concept of it. I was thinking why in the world would someone want to know that im sitting in my pj's drinking coffee . I really thought it must be stupid. Well I was wrong. So wrong! I have been following some great people and learning alot about myself. So one day someone tweeted at me " What is your MBPT ?" it said "I am INTJ". so I sat and I looked at that tweet and I was thinking " what the hell? MBPT -INTJ ? i ran all the possible codes in my head. Finally I thought she must be asking me my message board name and she is telling me hers ..LOL . So I tweeted back about just signing up and that I hadn't got my invite to the class yet, That must have sounded like code to her. I should have said WTH IDK (what the hell? I dont know) .So guess what? today I figured it out ! Its kinda like saying whats your sign in tweet.. Who knew!! You can read about it here.You can find out your type here .Now I know , I am INFJ :)

Whats your type?? leave me a comment , i'd love to know . Oh and sandy, I'm sorry I was a dumbass..LOL.but next time I will proudly answer ,I am INFJ.

The Color of truth

If I could paint truth using a color ,I would choose Yellow, a transparent bright yellow. A yellow so bright that sometimes you would need glasses to behold its brightness.Why? because truth is light and there is no darkness in truth.Transparent because the truth is something that you can always see through , no secrets hiding underneath it. Andre Gide writes " The color of truth is gray " .I have been thinking alot about the " truth " and what our responsibility to the truth is and how hard it is for some to look into its glaring light and how some walk through life shrouded in a cloud of lies unwilling to see the truth. Maybe Andre Gide thought the color of truth was grey because there is such a fine line in truth . A fine line we walk daily . I am by nature a very blunt person .I believe in the power of truth .I believe that facing the truth, however hard, allows us to grow as people. I search out the truth in myself because I know that in those truths is the real me. What is our responsibility to the truth though? Should we offer people our truths without them asking us for it? What if the truth is something they are unavoidably trying not to face? What if their untruths are uncomfortable for me? Should I sit with the uncomfortableness and allow them to remain in their own darkness because its not my business? I picture these untruths like a person sleeping in a dark room .Is it my job as a truthseeker to come in and jerk open the dark curtains and let in some light? Is it my job to tell an abuser that he is abusive when in his mind he is a good husband? Should I tell an addict that I see the addiction they are hiding? Should I tell the teenager who is pregnant with her second child that I see her mistakes? Should I turn my cheek to prejudice even though I flinch at the ignorance ? I have made mistakes, I have went through times of darkness , we all do , but when you are trying to live in the light , how do you handle the darkness? Some of the most life changing things for me in my life was when someone looked me straight in my eyes and said " I don't agree" or took my hand and said " turn around, you are headed in the wrong direction". Sometimes I needed a slap of reality and truth .So when darkness is near ,how do I protect my light? What if my light infringes on someones darkness and they aren't ready? What is my responsibility to the truth? What color is truth for you?

Shiny Glass Globes and Sweat....

Today I want to share another wonderful blog I love with you.It's called Blisschick. She has some wonderful posts. One in particular that made me think recently was one about negative people and how they hinder our growth.Here is an excerpt from her recent post..
Negative Nellies will pop your balloon or take in hand that fragile, shiny glass globe, pretending interest, and then "accidentally" drop it.
How many times have we shared an idea we thought was wonderful or a piece of ourselves that we were proud of or excited about (our shiny glass globe) only to have our excitement burst by feelings of inadequacy and self doubt? I know for me, many times a negative comment has left me doubting myself,had me reevaluating myself and my worth, wondering if my view of myself was somehow distorted,that maybe what I thought was shiny and beautiful really wasn't. In her post Blisschick reminds us "that we have to stop showing these people our shiny glass globes"
Positive people who support us are essential to our growth.There is a part of me , a big part, that doesnt value what I am doing or who I am without the approval of others.I have been struggling and working on this for a long time. I want to be the woman dressed in the outrageous outfit or the woman standing out in the crowd and not caring about what others are thinking.The woman who is completely comfortable in her own skin.You know the one? the one who has a peacefulness on her face and really is ok with who she is.That is the woman I aspire to be. I also want to remember to "give back" ,listen and accept the creative voices of others without judgement . I want to be the woman who knows how to handle a shiny glass globe with care.
She also has an interesting theory on how we can help get rid of all this self doubt , you can find it here . Blisschick says we need to "sweat it out" , literally, Move, work our bodies into a sweat to dissolve our inner "stuck chick" . Ok , she has my attention, that inner voice who has been telling me to "Move More" got a little louder when I read that. Thanks Blisschick!!

Ordinary Courage and Midlife...

Another blog that I discovered and had been meaning to share is "Ordinary Courage" .Just the name itself is Beautiful to me, but their is some real content there.Today I was struck by this little sentence "Midlife is when the universe gently places her hands on your shoulders,pulls you close, and whispers in your ear". Maybe I should do an art journal page about that and what she would be saying to me because about 6 months ago it felt liked she gave me a kick in the A**. I will be turning 40 soon and about 6 months ago I was acting like a lunatic.When I read this excerpt from Brene Brown -
"It’s time. All of this pretending and performing – these coping mechanisms that you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt – has to go. Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy and lovable, but you’re still searching and you’re more lost than ever. Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. The time has come to let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are."
I thought wow thats powerful and it is.You ever read something and you think something is here for me? I just need to sit with this and think about this and soak this up for a little while. Brene' is right. we spend the first part of our lives keeping ourselves protected with all kinds of vices and defenses only to find out that this only kept us from our true selves, it hindered our growth. We are taught that we should fit in ,only to discover that true beauty comes when we allow ourselves to stand out and embrace our individuality.I picture it like a flower in youth closed up tight ,protected, but the real beauty is on the inside , when the flower opens fully,only then , can you truly appreciate all it has to offer.

Beauty In strength...

Honestly a month ago I didn't even know the definition of mixed media art.Somehow when I was blurfing my way along one link led to another .Literally sometimes I was so taken by a piece of art that it would bring me close to tears .Today it did bring me to literal tears.Along the way I found the artist Pam Carriker.I remember the first time I visited her blog ,I was so drawn to the colors , the faces , all of it.I emailed Pam and I remember that she directed me to a place I could find more info because for the first time I saw something called an art journal.At that moment all the things I was attracted to made perfect sense.The quotes I would save, the vintage things I loved, old books. A place that would incorporate it all .I still haven't begun but the seed has been planted.I had intended to find my way . The idea of this blog was there. Then today literally I cried and decided it was time to start.Here is why...

It is a painting by Pam called " Beauty in strength". You can read her inspiration for this piece on her blog , but , as soon as I saw it ,I knew, before I even read the story.You see ,I have seen this face of strength before .I Have watched this determination .For me ,this was the face of my aunt, a face of someone I loved.Sadly, my aunt did not win her battle with breast cancer.This September the 13th she will have been gone 4 years .She was a woman with the most beautiful spirit and the expression of determination and strength is one that is easily recognizable in many who are battling this disease.Before she passed away I dreamt of her and in the dream she turned into this beautiful butterfly ,I cannot even describe how beautiful the butterfly was , so when I also saw the butterflies in this painting it made it even more meaningful to me. The writing on the painting says" I don't think of the misery but of the Beauty that still remains" and that is the truth , that's what I remember, her beauty, that strength , that will remain with me forever. I bought this piece today and I will cherish it forever.Thank you Pam !

Pam is also going to make prints of this to sell in her etsy shop and all proceeds will go to the Susan G Komen foundation

Right after my aunt passed away I wrote this for her and I thought it might be appropriate to share it here...



My biggest fear is that no one will know...

how you were so much bigger than your disease,

how you found humor in the unlikeliest of situations,

how you smiled through pain,

how you found courage in the face of fear,

how you held hope through hopelessness,

how your eyes twinkled brighter than your baldness,

how you became determined to beat the unbeatable,

how you fought with hope until your very last breath,

how you believed in the strength of all women,

how you inspired me to be better than I was,

You were beautiful.

You had a beauty so bright your disease was dimmed by it.

You had a spirit that will not be quieted by death ,

and my biggest fear is that no one will know....



~In memory of Debra Overbaugh Adams

Welcome..

I have been wanting to start this blog for a while.I already have a blog where I share cards I create, but I often blurf around the internet and I have been so inspired by different mixed media artists and others who so inspire me with quotes and other things.Inspire me to listen to my own voice ,inspire me to push myself to be a better person ,inspire me to learn new things.Sometimes the things I want to share just doesn't fit well on my card blog . Maybe something you see here will inspire you or lead you down a different path towards exploring your own creativity.Maybe you will find a new artist that touches you in some way and sparks a new interest.This will be a place for me to refine Me,down to a fine art!