Create Wildly Today!

You have a creative heart.  It should be celebrated.  Often we bind our creativity up because we are afraid of the messiness it takes to make something new.  Its the process of creating that we fear, not the end result itself.  We fear the mess.  The in between stages of trying something new are often ugly and painful, and we tend to try either skipping to the end or not starting at all in order to avoid those growing pains of creating.  I know this all too well.  My emotional baggage is littered with ideas never realized because I was either too scared or too scattered to work through them and discover my potential.  I am on the road to creative recovery, and my offering to you today is this...

Recover with me!  It may be time for some creative therapy in your life as well.  Share your story.

XO, HARMONY

A Gentle Reminder For Myself

With all the distractions of modern day living being way too available for sucking away my time, (and the craving it develops for us to want to be entertained at all times) here's just a little reminder that I needed today...

 artwork by Harmony Lenasbunt 2012

So here's my challenge for us all to take a day and unplug, turn it all off, look around us, and breathe in life just a bit more slowly...  This is a very good thing.

XO, HARMONY

Dreaming Big, It takes two.

Dream Big

Original Mixed Media by Harmony Lenasbunt 2012

Prints available here

Well, I just returned from the show in Chattanooga.  I am always amazed at the resiliency of my kiddos.  They took the 8 hour trip like champs and handled the busy show schedule with ease.  My now 5 month old spent the early mornings strapped to my front while I hung paintings and organized prints at the show tent, while my 4 year old busied himself with a "scene" of wooden birds he had stolen from my display and hid under one of the tables playing happily for hours.  The show was fun, with lots of great stories heard from various people visiting my booth, and new friends made from the amazing array of talented creatives that were vending beside me.  It was a terrible selling show, as we barely made back the cost of our space fee and our hotel bill, but I always love visiting Chattanooga, which made up for that fact.  My husband and I always call it the "city of wonders" because they always have some totally interesting or off the wall thing to explore around almost every corner in the downtown area, and we have had several family vacations there in the past.  This visit did not disappoint us in the slightest.  The weather, which had been promised to be awful (thunderstorms and constant rain), ended up being a mix of clouds, sun, and perfectly cool, a welcome respite for this heat wearied Floridian.  I was so blessed to also have the willing hands and companionship of my sister, her husband, my brother and his wife along for the weekend, so there was lots of help and plenty of time away from the booth to play with my boys and visit other venders and enjoy the art festival itself.  I actually really hate the selling part of shows, love setting up and seeing it all together and beautifully arranged, but when it comes down to watching people pick over what you created, it just feels odd and I want to be as far from the booth as possible during that part of the show.  I do love the stories though.  How a certain image or phrase sparked some memory for them or inspires a dream.  I love to encourage each person to keep reaching for that place of peace and happiness that they hope for, keep being creative, keep finding joy in little simple bits of life and letting it seep into their souls.  I hope my art can do that for a few people, and I send out my own gratitude to each person that took the time to look at my work and took a piece of it home with them.  You are inspiring my own dream, and so I thank you all.  

XO, HARMONY

A bit of catch up...

My world has been overwhelmed with good things lately.  Mothering, art making, new friendships, all good stuff, but I have been lacking in my posts here.  I am truly an introvert in that way.  When my life gets really busy, I tend to shut out any other social outlets that I can, just to keep myself feeling on top of it all.
So to catch up a bit, here's a few pics of my Easter Boys.

 Always the happiest baby in town, my sweet Zay celebrated his first Easter Day with all the Joy that the Lord has given.  He is such a gift to me, I often wonder what I did to deserve such sweetness.

 My oldest, Izzy, was not interested in a regular easter egg hunt, so my sister ingeniously incorporated his favorite game into the mix and viola! He was so excited to help the Angry Birds recover their stolen eggs that the pigs hid around his Grandmother's yard.

And then there was lots of train time with Grandpa...

I always forget to take pictures of myself and my husband.  I suppose all the cuteness just distracts me, but we had a wonderful weekend of friends and family gatherings.  I couldnt have imagined a better way to celebrate resurrection day!

So in my life right now, I have two art shows coming up in the next month, which has put me and my sister back together working again to get the booth, artwork, displays, all together and ready.   I am making some shifts and trying to do more ART shows and less CRAFT shows.  The crafting part of getting ready for a festival is like and addiction but the work load sucks the life out of me, so I am trying to quit.  I am on step 2 of the craft making recovery process.  It might be a long road ahead to a full healing, even now I've had two different moments this week of "I could totally make that and sell at my shows!", and then I have to stop myself and remember my promise to myself and my boys that I am done with mass crafting (no matter how stinking cute and easy it looks on pinterest!).   So I have reinvented my booth to feature mostly just art and prints and invested in a professional wall system.  Here's a booth shot with a quick mock set up I did the other day for a show application.

(of course I realize after the shot and everything was put away that the paintings in the back were crooked).
I  honestly wish that I could just make art and somehow it would find its way to the people who want it, without all this presentation and show, but I am trying to pay my dues to the process of becoming a selling artist, and I am very blessed to have my family supporting me in this and my sister's dedication as a teammate to helping me get there.  I have been working really hard on some new pieces.  I havn't been able to get them scanned yet, so I'll post them as soon as I can.  In the mean time, I did a few more digital artworks using layers of my own hand-illustration and vintage photos that I own.

 The Dancer  2012 by Harmony Lenasbunt

I Vow Forever 2012 by Harmony Lenasbunt

You can find prints of both of them in my shop.  I hope you are having a wonderful April.  I will be on the road with my family next weekend doing my first OUT OF STATE show.  YIKES! I am a bit nervous, but it should be lots of fun.  If any of you are around the Chattanooga area, come on out and see us at the Chatty Crafty.  Well, there's a little boy yelling my name, so I'll sign off.  Be blessed and check back for new painting updates and pics from our next show.  Ciao Bellas!

XO, HARMONY

She Has The Spirit Of An Eagle

In her is the courage and strength to take a leap of faith and soar to enormous heights letting her dreams guide her heart.  

XO, HARMONY

Motherhood...(sigh)...

I love most everything about being a mom.  My two kiddos make me laugh and keep a smile on my face almost all day long.  Then we have our off days, the fussy, impatient, needy, clingy, crying, off days.  That was today, and I am mentally and physically exhausted.  So a little photoshop therapy in the form of what I am calling digital art journaling, and I feel much better.  I've been playing with layering vintage photos and different textures and colors.  Its really fun when you want to be creative but you dont have the time (or the space) to get messy just then.  So with a baby bouncing on my knee and a 3 year old building structures on the floor behind me, I made this.  Hope it inspires you too, and I wish you (and myself) a stress-free day tomorrow.

XO, HARMONY

She Helps Me Be Better

Yesterday was kind of a hard day for me.  For various reasons, there was quite a bit of sad news from people that I care about, and my heart feels so heavy for them.  I was playing around with an old photo of my great grandmother and her sister when they were in their 20s.  I started thinking about those people that we become connected to in our lives, and how we effect each other and force change and growth for one another often even without knowing it.  It is through their experiences and our relationship with them that we feel challenged and supported and motivated to change, be better, try harder, and love more fully and be less selfish.  A family that I love lost a loved one yesterday, and as my heart breaks and weeps for them, I am also finding myself wanting to be a better mother, a better friend, a better sister and daughter and wife.   I want to do these things because I am reminded so acutely that our time on earth is limited and our relationships are the one true good thing that we have while we are here.  People matter, they matter more than stuff, more than experiences, and more than our individual accomplishments.  When I work hard to love someone really well, with truth and an open heart, I become the best version of myself that I can be.  I was reminded of this again yesterday when a beautiful young soul left this world.  She had very little time here on earth, but I dont believe that makes her life tragic, but instead makes every moment that she brought joy to those who loved her that much more special and important and life changing.  I hope to keep being reminded of this.  I pray that I can always keep striving to be the best version of myself, and I have many many amazing people to thank for that lesson.  Thanks for letting me ramble a bit today.  I made this artwork to thank those amazing people who inspire me in this way.   I hope this message blesses you where you are at.  It is definitely what I needed to hear today.  Who inspires you to be better?  Find a way to thank them and bless them today.

XO, HARMONY