A Public Hanging...

I just witnessed a public hanging . What ? Where? Isn't this what you are thinking ? Surely they don't exist in the year 2009 ? They do. First , let me give credit where credit is due . I owe the honor of these words and this hanging to Suzi Blu . Today she hung a " baby goddess" in a public forum with plenty of people to watch . Let me explain ...
I know there is alot of copyright infringement going on and that there is alot of frustrated artists. I have seen Illustrators have their artwork stolen and sold as digital images for stampers.I agree that credit should be given to the artist for their work . I love and support my fellow artist. I have paid for classes with Suzi Blu and I loved that she would say " You have a right to make art " , "You are safe", and lots of other loving phrases . A lady had posted a you tube video on art journaling and she had used images in it off of the Internet and some of the images belonged to Suzi Blu
She did not claim the artwork as her own .She stated in the video that she had gotten the images off of the internet . It was a video for teaching purposes , she was not receiving money .
So here is where the lady is led up to the gallows ... Suzi Blu posted the situation on her blog and in her post she called the lady" old" accusing her of having" no pride" and called her art "inauthentic shit art " . (do you see see the noose being placed around the lady's neck?) .Suzi claims that" she doesn't have time to send the lady a private email " and that "this is a situation that needs to be dealt with in public" , " A situation that affects us all ". This is the part where I agree. This affected me . Deeply to my core . I do not want to be the silent onlooker watching in the crowd , as the crowd cheers the public hanging of an innocent person . My "voice" may be "Tiny" in comparison to Suzi blu but it is a voice of compassion . I was taught by Suzi that "no art is original ,that we are not so unique that it is not something that hasn't been done before ". I do not believe that the intent of this woman was to steal or hurt anyone but her voice was not heard over the rioting crowd who visited the hanging through a link on suzi's blog and threw even more hurt onto the situation. I know what it feels like to be vulnerable and how we need to be supported in order to feel safe to share our art and I am thankful for the people who do share and put their selves out there. I personally do not feel comfortable putting my "Art " in the hands of a teacher who would march me to the gallow for making a mistake or march me in front of a crowd calling my art "Inauthentic art shit" and trying me publicly and watching as I am beaten by the crowd in the name of her "Authenticity" .
I followed that link on Suzi blu's blog . I was too late. The lady artist had closed her youtube account and removed her blog . The public hanging was complete . I watched an artist die.

A to Z = ME

Recently , I came across a blog called "Circling My head" . I am happy that I did . She has the most moving blog, She lives with Inflammatory breast cancer and shares the most raw things. She feels like a kindred spirit to me and I hope you will visit her and leave some love. She did this little A to Z , and I enjoyed reading about her so I thought I would follow her lead:)
A = Age 40 years old
B = Bed size (King) oh , I love my bed!
C = Chore you hate (Grocery shopping)
D = Dog (2 chiuahuah's )
E = Essential to start your day (Twitter)
F = Favourite colour (RED)
G = Gold (white please)
H = Height (5 '4)
I = I’ve come to learn (I love learning anything)
J = Judge (with mercy)
K = Kids (2 teenagers, both girls )
L = Living (I am grateful)
M = Mood (Down)
N = Nicknames (none)
O = Owl (Sharp )
P = Peeve (Liars)
Q = Quote (Souls do not show up in business suits,they sit cross legged wearing jeans ,Sipping a glass of wine)
R = Reckless (I have been )
S = Siblings (A brother and a sister)
T = Time you wake up (varies always)
U = Unhappy (is just a feeling)
V = Vegetable you ate last (Mushrooms)
W = Want (Jacquie to regain motion- Renee to have her wish)
X = Xenophobic (No , I love different cultures)
Y = Yearn (Always)
Z = Zealous (Overly sometimes)
Thanks Renee

Struggling with myself..

I am sorry I haven't posted in a little while but I have been struggling with myself. I like to stay positive so when I am not feeling that positive I sometimes just get quiet. Why am I struggling? I am not completely sure. As you know , I am always talking about and looking at art. I started as a scrapbooker and then a stamper making cards and quickly fell in love with mixed media art. I decided that I wanted to learn how to "make art" like what I saw . So I jumped in , head first, and signed up for lots of classes. Seriously , I had so many. I became overwhelmed because I had never even really tried to draw or knew that I loved it. So I decided that I needed to take some baby steps. I decided to concentrate on learning to draw before I added some of the other things. I have always had trouble doing one thing at a time . I have an " I want it all" attitude and I am extremely hard on myself . That's why you aren't seeing me post "art". I am trying to keep it to myself because I feel very vulnerable and I want it to be about "art for me" right now. I don't want to get caught up in posting and thinking to much about it when I am trying to learn.
I love learning from others and I love seeing all kinds of art and for those who are putting themselves out there I am so Happy you do . I admire you for it . I think I could deal more with others than myself when it comes to my "own inner critic" .
Recently I saw a blog where a lady set up her own learning schedule , just like she was in college , with whatever she wanted to learn about art.I need to do something like that , so I can have some structure. I want to learn so much . Art history, sketching , painting. I just want to soak it all up and its very hard for me . I am like a child learning . I struggle because I suck at being a beginner. However , I intend to follow this wherever it leads for me because I want to make art.
If you have any suggestions for me , I would love to hear.
My wish for myself is that I can make art without judging myself so harshly because who knows what potential is locked up inside me if only I would dare just stop judging.

Tackling the "Truth"

As you know , I am reading the "Joy Diet" along with Jamie ridler studios and this week it was about telling yourself the "truth". I thought , that has to be a breeze compared to "Nothing" , but that pesky martha insisted that if we weren't comfortable with " nothing " we should not move on but stay with "Nothing" . I did. I did find this week of nothing a little easier . My body did not rebel as much as last week and it wasn't quite as bad. I did at the end ask myself the truth questions as I felt more comfortable and I have always prided myself on my ability to get honest with myself but you can't tell yourself the truth if your not quiet enough to listen and hearing my own truths is not something that is easy for me. When I know the truth, I act, but sometimes I just simply don't know "my truth " . I am hoping with time that my "truths will come into the light for me to see so that I can tell myself the simple ,plain truth. I wish I had some insightful , eye opening truth to share with you ,but I don't .. truth is , I am a woman still trying to find her own truths and the peace and joy that comes with it. I wish for us all that we find that for ourselves.