The weekend has begun! I hope that you are safe and sound and enjoying your favorite morning cup of whatever getting lots of creative inspiration for your days off. I wanted to offer you a bit of fun, energy, and lots and lots of color today! (oh and a bit of rock and roll) So for your viewing pleasure, here's my latest episode of Creative Play with my 3 year old son.
I needed to design some fabric for a project I will be showing you later next week, and it seemed like a perfect mommy and son art-tivity. We taped a piece of white muslin to a plastic table, grabbed a couple of sharpies (BTW: Under 5yrs + permanent markers typically demands being outside to avoid the "accidental" inspiration on your walls).
Then when our fabric was entirely covered in our creations, we watered down cheap-o craft paint and did a watercolor play over the design. The effect was gorgeous, lots of pretty mixing of color. There was seriously no way to screw it up, which made it PERFECT for little helping hands. When it was finished we hung it up to dry and Voila, ready to use fabric for lots of projects.
There it is drying with the sunshine coming through, so pretty. While it was drying, I started gathering up laundry to start a wash since we were already playing outside, and my son starts yelling "Mommy!" "MOMMY!" like something was wrong (but honestly right now, every bit of information he has to share is urgent to him, regardless of the reality). I poked my head out and asked what he needed. "Mommy! (still yelling like it's very serious) It's PRETTY! I LIKE IT!" pointing at our creation. Sometimes he totally kills me with cuteness.
(FYI: This fabric is NOT washable, so you cant use it in wearable art. To make it washable use fabric markers and watered fabric paint and then heat set). I hope I've inspired you to try to try this project by yourself or with a little helper the next time you need interesting fabric for a project.
BTW: If you didnt see my post yesterday, right now I am on the hunt for some artsy/crafty/creative bloggin people that I can team up with, more information HERE. Have a wonderful Saturday!
I recently got swept up into the Pinterest craze. It's an easy one to get swept up into. There are so many incredible photos that people are sharing there, that I can follow links for days discovering creative ideas, getting lots of inspiration, and finding new artists that I truly adore. For those of you who havn't caught on yet, Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Almost like an etsy treasury or a Flickr Round-up but better, because you can organize your boards, keep adding for days, and any photo file on the web is fair game. What I love the most is how each person's boards reflects glimpses into their passions, their hopes, and dreams, and their style, really you get a fun picture of who the person is (or who they would like to be).
I also REALLY love that you can easily find exactly where the original image came from. As an artist whose art images are flying around the web going who knows where, I think this is a brilliant feature to respect the work of original creator/poster. Pinterest is not for everyone, though. My husband totally does not get it. He barely uses facebook and so this new social networking idea has totally perplexed him. Try explaining what a virtual pinboard is to someone who doesnt really use social networking interfaces and see how silly you sound. So we have this joke between us now, whenever he sees me clicking away on the computer across the table during our morning coffee time, he asks me (with a bit of a smirk on his face, mind you) "What's Pinteresting Today, Hon?" To which I reply, "Oh my goodness, you should see this incredible yarn bombed tree!" or "look at the rainbow made of coordinated crayons" or "this is the most adorable baby bunny I have ever seen!"
At which point, he looks at me like I am nuts, smiles affectionately at me and goes back to checking sports stats on his phone. So perhaps my overly manly man isn't my audience for this new found love of Pinning amazing images, but I have a feeling I am preaching to the choir here. Any Pinterest groupies here? Let's have a Pinterest party today! Here are some of the links from my boards that have me swooning and brimming with creative ideas.
As you can see, I am having a bit of an obsession with fiber arts and color.
What do you find Pinteresting? I would LOVE IT if you could post links to your latest Pinterest favorite find in the comments here. I want to see a bit of your passions and dreams. Oh, and not to be totally self serving, but I would be honored if you ever wanted to "pin" any of my photos or artworks to your boards. It's a great way to get more people to see my artwork.
Yesterday was supposed to be my work day. I was supposed to have the whole day of quiet and space to start on a new project without interruptions or distractions. I packed up my son's little bag with cars, books, crayons, and swimming clothes and sent him off with my husband to my parent's house for a day of grandparent love and pool fun. Then I took off in a different direction to run the few supply errands I needed before I could start on my project. What I apparently forgot was that I am 6.5 months pregnant and my body makes it's own demands now regardless of how much I intended to get done. By the time I returned home several hours had elapsed (because of course once I was out I kept thinking of other errands I needed to make that I had been waiting to make without a 3 year old in tow), so I was now starving, slightly dehydrated, exhausted, and totally unmotivated. Bah! I was able to eek out an hour or so of work before I had to submit to my littlest child's demands... preggo mommy needed a nap. Next thing I know, I'm getting the call that my parents are on their way to drop my son off, my husband had come inside asking what we should do for dinner (after announcing his incredibly productive day working in the shed, which of course didn't bother me at all), and I had yet to complete one thing on my list for the day! Frustration and hormones kicked in, I wanted to scream or throw something, and I had to retreat. Into my art room with the door closed and locked, I pushed it all away and just started playing in my art journal. It always makes me feel better. After a while scribbling with paint, pencils, and oil sticks, I felt like myself again and, ironically, had started thinking about my sweet little boy and how much I really do miss him when he's gone all day. It was time to let go of my expectations and just be mommy, even when it means that I dont get anything else done that day. So with a sigh and a smile on my face, I finished up the pages I was working on and closed the art room door behind me as I joined my sweet little family for the evening, as they were just settling down to a picnic dinner on the living room floor. Sometimes mommies just have to have their moments, but we always find our way back.
Here are the pages I worked on... (there was a moment a few days ago when my son discovered that the glass in our front door creates rainbows on the carpet when the sun shines in. He was so excited that he had found rainbows and kept putting his foot under the light and screaming with laughter cried, "Look mommy, it tickles, it tickles!" So that sweet little face that I was seriously missing at this point and his delight of rainbows was the theme here.)
And this Found HERE - its cake! so cute and such rich colors I couldnt resist (FYI: my secret dream is to moonlight in my retirement years as a cake decorator. I have no idea how to do anything with cake, but I am obsessed with cake decorating shows! It seems like such fun.)
Found HERE - Eco Finger Paint, the colors come from natural earth elements, so pretty!
So as you can see, bright colors are really attracting me right now, which is kind of odd since I am currently working on a piece with a very subtle color palette, but I just cant stop looking at bright color collections I find along the way. Hope you find some inspiration in there too :)
My son always gets so excited about seeing a rainbow. Whether it is a real rainbow in the sky or one he spotted in a picture book, he exclaims excitedly... "look Mommy! Rainbow!" with a huge smile on his face. How can you not spot a rainbow and without donning an instant smile? There is a quiet wonder about them. Its part of the magic of nature... God's gift to us.... a refracted light spectrum... whatever you choose to believe, I am sure that you too have experienced the childlike excitement that a rainbow lights up inside us. I love to get inspiration from my son and so here are two recent works I finished onthe magic of rainbows after a storm and a play on the spectrum of color in white light and self identity.
Calm in the Storm 2011 by Harmony
Mixed Media Acrylic Painting on Canvas Board/ 8X10
Reflection and Refraction 2011 by Harmony
Mixed Media Acrylic Painting done on Canvas Board/ 5X7
