Artistic Musings

I can tell when I'm getting more focused on making things happen and getting things done. All of a sudden the dusty cluttered areas of my house start driving me crazy. I go through a frenzy of clearing trying to attain peace in my house and in my heart. I'm so easily distracted that alot of times the dishes get over looked, or the dirty laundry starts looking like the perfect hide and go seek spot. Now is a great time to figure out how to map out my time and balance what part house keeper, mom of two at home during winter break, and what part artist I get to put in which time slot. There are a few things I've figured out about myself that will be a benefit. What time of day I work best at which things, which tasks are hardest and will take the most time. I am aware that I am so far out of balance my focus looks more like a picasso painting. Nothing wrong with that - I just need to shape it all back into clay and start fresh by shaping it into what I would like it to...

The presents are unwrapped, the candy has been eaten. The tree looks rather empty without all the colorful presents underneath it. I have a warm cozy feeling though, and no the egg nog wasn't spiked this year. My family surrounds me today in love, friendship, and open acceptance. It is a very nice feeling. Tomorrow I plan on catching up on the chores around here so I can start focusing on my illustrations and the plans for the art shows I need to set in motion over the next months. New Years resolutions include getting organized and maintaining that organization. I'm so far behind right now, but I know that's only temporary as I catch up to the holiday craziness. I face the future of after Christmas with hope and determination. I'm starting my company in the next few weeks and months called PrismCanvas. I am making friends that are positive and supportive. I worry about my mom - but she's on her own path - and will either find her way or not. My job is t...

I don't know why the holidays are such a hard time for some. I grew up with a parent that the holidays were always tough on. Yeah it was tight, and yeah we did without a few things - but it was the emotional struggle that always brought things down like a house of cards. Like the shorter days were a darkness they couldn't escape from. Perhaps that's why I enjoy light and color so much - to keep joy around me. As I write this the a fore mentioned parent is having a really tough time right now, and there is literally nothing I can do. The light, love and color I have surrounded myself with is like garlic and holy water if they were a vampire in their opinion. It makes me Sad. I think that's why I love to share my joy of creativity with everyone around me. I can't heal those that don't choose to walk the path I do - but I can share the joy of creating beautiful things with the people who share the love of creating something. My passion in life is to inspi...

I am an artist, a crafter, a writer, and on occasion a semi poet. I am also a Wife, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Cousin, Daughter, Grandaughter, Daughter-n-law, and Next Door Neighbor. Everyone has at least one of these titles in their collection. For myself, I take being an Aunt very seriously - it is my job - and joy - to make hand made gifts for all the kids in my family. My past attempts have led me to learning to crochet, sew, color manga, and a variety of wonderful skills I can add to my resume for life. This year - sewing is my main tool. That and ALOT of stuffing. Since my nephews and nieces read my blog I can't divulge what I am making - but I can tell you I am buried under bolts of fabric, stuffing, and thread. Watch out for the sharp pins too. Last year I made hooded towels for everyone, a couple years before that I made hats and scarves for everyone out of fleece. I like getting creative with something they will use and have fun with. Some day I hope to make them all q...

So - I called a publisher. We hit it off fantastically. We set a lunch date. We had a blast! The ideas flow like a spring run off from the mountains. The energy was so high I could have floated on clouds hours afterward. Such a wonderful day. We discussed her ideas, my ideas, shared ideas. The one conclusion that was made was that were pretty certain we will work well together. No contracts have been signed yet - or even drawn up yet. It's all preliminary. However - I KNOW I can do this - and do it well! I just have to convince her counterpart and business partner. That will be a dinner date with them and my husband and I after the new year. I'm soo excited!! I have had story ideas in my head for years now - and the oddest thing has happened. I feel like someone pulled them off the shelf, blew life back into their embers and now I have fae and dragons flitting around my house. I spent the ENTIRE day while my husband was at work sorting and cleaning and organizin...

After 8 months on and off my Iris and it's lovely background is finally finished. You can see it here: (copy and paste) http://www.trcreations.com I've entered it into the Romancing the Arts show. We'll see if it gets in. I decided on a lattice fence in the background and added a me-designed butterfly to give it a bit more to look at. That one petal on the right draped over so much that it left a big whole what would only be filled with fence - a butterfly was a logical choice :). It feels good to finally have it finished! Now my monochromatic blues piece is calling to me to be completed lol. I'll have to see what I work on next though. I think for the holidays though my sewing machine will be the one hard at work as I hand make the gifts for all the kids in my family. I love making them home made "I love you" gifts - and they all really seem to appreciate them! I meet with the publisher on Thursday to show her my portfolio - we'll see what happens...

As I type this December 8th looms closer and closer. On this day - a normal Monday for most - I have to have applied for two shows - one at a gallery, and one that will hang at the Phillip S. Miller Library if it's excepted. There's a jurying process. If you've never sent in an application for juried show - the way it works is you send you application, the money, and the images. Then a 1- to up to a team of people look through all the images and choose which ones will stay. This may seem cruel - to have people decide what images they like best to stay in the show - and probably seems biased and unfair. The reality is that they, as a group - have to weigh in a couple of factors. Things like - how much room do they have to hang, how many prizes do they have to hand out, and what kind of reception can they afford. The space, the prizes, and the reception come from the application money. If you get $20 total (say $1 from 20 applicants to keep it simple) then you have t...

I have a fun story I had to wait till today to tell anyone per a contract I signed. The serendipity is that if I had never had the faith to join this guild, put the time into the gallery, put the personal time into getting to know an incredible congressman, or brought my artwork to work on outdoors - this chance would have never come my way. The store and the links to it follow below. It all started with a guild I joined here where I live called GCRAG (GCRAG.org if your curious) Well one of our new members who is also the former mayor of Castle Rock offered his office walls and conference rooms for a gallery. So we scraped wallpaper, tore off trim, repainted, re-trimmed - and when it was all done hung a glorious collection of artwork from 26 of our members. One of the obligations to being in the gallery is to man the receptions desk on Fridays and Saturdays - so we split it into shifts and took turns. One of the appealing ideas to draw people into the gallery was to demo our work. ...

So here I am with 5 projects in my lap all due around the same time. I'm beyond busy, and feel like I'm caught in a tornado. I'm learning to organize - but I have a hard time keeping it all up to date due to being busy. I'm curious how other people make it look so easy. Daily planners, books, calendars, and all that jazz just seem to keep me going in circles when I'm not grounded in what I'm doing. Maby it's the case of too many pieces of paper - perhaps I just need to clear my desk, write a hard copy and a computer reminder and leave it at that. Sounds simple - would help if I could find my hard copy version - it seems to have taken a train to Shanghai. Messy house, messy schedule - and too much to do. *looks around frustrated* I'm not sure whom I should apply the theoretical whip to - me, my children, my husband - or all of the above - and where exactly I get this whip from. Anyone know where you find an invisible non painful effective "...

Wow that was interesting, I enabled translations on the settings page and it turned all I wrote into Hindi - which would be fine if I could read it to proofread my sentences. To me it looks like beautiful scribbles - which is what english must look like to someone who is Hindi that enabled the English translator. Ahh well - made the morning interesting for certain - and it's not nearly time to get up yet *grins*. Yesterday was my 13th wedding anniversary - as usual we didn't prepare and it snuck up on us. Not sure why, but it always does - maby it's the nature of how we got married. We got engaged in April, and set the date for August 24th - the day came and went, as did 8 others, and finally on December 1 I looked at my beloved and said "Are you going to marry me or not?" So we went right then down to the Justice of the Peace, got married and walked out with a nice little care package that couldn't even pretend to prepare a person for what marriage real...