The 5,4,3,2,1 of My Creative Process

I saw this profile series first on Mollie Johanson's blog Wild Olive.  Its a simple set of 5 questions about yourself and your craft, started by the super creative people at Craftzine.  I thought I would add my own 5,4,3,2,1 to the fun and so here goes...

One Product You Are Particularly Proud Of
The Magic Dinosaur painting that I did with my 3 year old son.  I could never sell the original, I love it so.  To me it completely embodies his playful spirit, the innocence of childhood, and the simple beauty that can be created when you let go of your expectations and free yourself. 

Two Mistakes You Made In the Past
1.  Putting too much pressure on myself to be an instant success as an artist selling on Etsy.  I  started to feel like it was a reflection of my talent as an artist when months would go by with no sales.  I wanted to give up and forget that I even tried.  I was painting and creating constantly worried whether it would sell, and it was just totally wrong for me and my creative process.  Lesson learned: create only from your heart and never your head.

2.  Not understanding what a non-juried "art/craft" show could be like before I bought a table space for an event.  Oh man!  Nothing prepares you for trying to sell your handmade wares that you slaved and sweated over and poured your heart into positioned in between wholesale sellers (you know those people selling off-brand purses and hawking low-priced cologne).  It was a very disheartening weekend of sitting alone in my booth full of my creativity, while customers shopped for deals on either side of me.  Lesson learned: Do Your Research!  Just because it says it's an arts and crafts show, does not mean that only artist and crafters will be there.

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique
1.  Pairing bright bold colors with Natural ones.  I just adore the juxtaposition of a totally unnatural color, like neon pink or bright teal with a dark natural green or a mustard yellow.

2.  Mixing the textures of sewing, fabric, paper, and paint to create my paintings.  I love the soft and hard mediums working together to make something really beautiful and interesting.

3.  Not being afraid to try something new in my mixed media: I love grabbing bits of whatever I can find around me when I paint to add into the composition.  You never know what you might find hiding in the paint layers.

Four Tools You Love to Use
1. Brightly colored oil sticks - these suckers will draw in wet paint!

2. Hand Carved Stamps to build a background

3. Vintage Papers and Photos - I stock up on old books at library book sales, shop flea markets, and raid my relatives' attics at any opportunity to find vintage materials

4. Distress Ink Pads - love this product! I want to own every color they sell.  Right now I have the linen, aged photo, and lipstick colors and I use them on everything to create depth and make something new look vintage.

Five Inspirations
1.  My Son!  I love to watch him draw and paint.  His freedom and playfulness with what he creates inspires to me no end to be more like that in my own process.

2.  Art Books.  I am obsessed with collecting art books of all kinds.  Modern, classic, abstract, photography, painting, paper arts, sculpture, you name it I have some of it on my shelf.  When I am needing a creative idea, I look through one of my books and get inspired by the master works of others before me. 

3.  My Artistic Peers - There was a reason why famous painters from the same era's all came from the same school's of art.  Nothing is more inspiring and motivating then surrounding yourself with your contemporaries and influencing each others work.  Nowadays there is the internet to connect with people from all over the world and build a support network of emerging artists and crafters and letting their talents push my boundaries and bring new ideas.

4.  Music - I love to play music when I create and different kinds of music creates different feelings and ideas as I paint.  I love how my process changes when I am listening some old-school Tori Amos vs when I'm grooving to Jazz.  No matter what I am listening to, I always have more ideas with tunes going in the background.

5.  Nature - God's incredible creation all around us gives me boundless inspiration and ideas.  From mimicking a shape, texture, or color palette, the natural world never ceases to be the creative master at producing unexpected and original ideas.

There you have it, my 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Things About Me! Try it yourself.  Now it's your turn! Do you own 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 post to your blog or social networks site, and leave a link to it here in the comments.  I can't wait to learn about your creative process!

XO, HARMONY

Shop Update: 20% off Summer Sale

I'll be posting a shop update on Fridays to catch you up with what is new and available for purchase.
Here's some new pieces that are recently finished, now available in my Etsy Shop.  I am offering a 20% off sale now through the end of July.  Use Code JULYSALE20 at checkout to get the discount.

New Original Mixed Media Works

 Original mixed media painting "Waiting For Spring" $105 

(only $84 with discount) *all discounts are apx.

Paired with new mixed media embroidery piece "Find Magic"- $35  

($28 with discount)

"Inspire Me" 13" mixed media original with embroidery - $125 

(only $100 with discount)

"Waiting For the Rainbow" - 5" Mixed Media Embroidery Original - $53   

(only $43 with discount)

 "The wings to fly" 3" Mixed Media Embroidery hoop - $25  

(only $20 with discount)

Paired with my original painting "First Flight" - $55 

(only $44 with discount)

New Prints now available!

 "The Magic Dinosaur" block Print now available! - $48  

($38 with discount)

"Life of a Flower" 8X10 Print - $20  

($16 with discount)

"Self Discovery" - Original $85 

($68 with discount)

4X6 wood mounted block print - $25  

($20 with discount)

I also have several totally unique Art Journals Available!

"Dream Flight" 8X10 Mixed Media Handmade Art Journal - $42  

($34 after discount)

...and much much more to see in the SHOP.  

I'd love to have you stop by and take a peek.  This sale will only be going through the weekend, so if this peaks your interest, dont delay!  Have a safe and blessed weekend!

XO, Harmony

Creative Play! Painting with a 3 year old the saga continues...

end result of last nights fun

Here's the second installment of the collaboration between my son and I on this large abstract piece.  I am still not entirely sure where it is going yet, but I think we made really great progress on it last night.  Sorry for the bad lighting and all, but it's a great picture into the chaos of creating with a 3 year old.  He actually spends more time enjoying watching himself on the video camera than actually helping me, but he has always preferred to jump in and out of the process as I go along.  He sees me missing something crucial in the work and just quickly blanks out whatever direction I thought I was going and sends me somewhere new with it.  I love how spontaneous he teaches me to be with my work.  Anyway, its a silly video and I hope you find it entertaining.  Our last session will be up next week and I promise to give a better video angle so you can see more of the painting process and less of my son's antics (although I thoroughly enjoyed watching them).  He brings me so much joy. 

Hello Again

"Home Love" 2011

5X7 original 

available here

So I've obviously been on an unannounced break from the blog.  Whew! Its been almost 3 months since my last post.  This has been a particularly full season of life for me, and I found that I needed to prioritize.  I am now starting the second half of my graduate internship, and just as I had predicted, I reached the halfway point and am just so ready to be done.  I find that I have to work more and more at keeping up my motivation for being creative in my therapy sessions with clients.  My three year old has transitioned into full time "No Mommy"-mode and takes lots of patience, consistency, and tons of activities to successfully get through the day.  I've also been very very preoccupied with another BIG project that I have been working on for the last few months.  This one has taken over almost everything else, and in many ways has drained much of my creative spirit. 

Yes that's right.  Baby # 2 is growing and currently demanding a lot of my attention, well mostly ALL of my energy.  Its very hard to feel motivated about painting when all you want to do is nap.  We are super excited about our little apple (that's the arbitrary item that the books assign to a 4month old fetus' size).  God willing, this little one is due to arrive in mid-November.  My little man is going to be a big brother!

So I have been practicing the discipline of slowing.  Taking time to sit and be and just take each moment one at a time. My energy has slowly started to return, and I am really excited that the start of the summer will soon bring much more artsy creativeness my way (the fact that my husband will be off all summer and more available for entertaining our son being a HUGE factor in this).  So I hope to have lots more fun stuff to show you that I am working on very soon.  Dont be alarmed if much of it is a bit nursery/mommy-themed.  That's just where my life is right now.  Thanks for sticking with me through my much needed time away.  Your support has always been a blessing to me.  

A Mommy Moment

So I started writing this yesterday, and didnt finish, but thought I should still share it with you.  A very real moment in a journey of motherhood and art making...

"I'm taking a mommy moment here...  I need to breathe.  I just strapped my screaming struggling 2.5 year old into his car seat and sent my poor husband on a drive with him.  It's been an entire weekend of whining, screaming, tantrums, crying, throwing himself on the floor.  He doesn't want to eat, to sleep, to get dressed, to take a bath, to get in the car, to stay home, to go outside, these things send him into fits of rage and tears.  He doesn't want to do anything but play with his trains and watch movies.  Is this what they call terrible twos?  Is he sick, is he hurt, is he upset about the dog joining the family?  I have no answers and no solutions.  I have gotten no work done all week, and I am mentally and physically empty.  I tried to work yesterday while he napped and all that came out was very very bad art.  I tried to finish a painting I had done a few nights before and I completely overworked it and just had to let it go.  (I tore it in half actually, it felt really good).  I started to think last night that I am out of my mind to try to do craft fairs this Fall while also doing full time childcare of my son.  Who does that?  Other people don't do it alone, they get help.  They find a babysitter, wrangle a relative, pick a daycare to alleviate the demands both motherhood and art business have on them.  These are really smart people.  I start to freak out that I don't have enough made, but then freak out that my son is stressed and needs more of me.  I started to have mini panic attacks about damaging my son by my lack of focus and sporadic attention.  He's not an easy child.  I know this.  He is actually a very complicated and difficult little boy to keep happy.  He's like me, passionate and emotional, and a tad dramatic at times and very very stubborn;)  I adore this little man more than anything in this world.  Its just that being a mommy isn't enough for me.  I need a bit more, but he wants all of me all the time, and now even that doesn't seem to be enough for him.  What am I doing wrong?"

image from here

24 hours later, I feel better and so does my son.  Turns out that he is teething.  We finally realized this late last night when he tried to take a bite of his spaghetti and started to cry and then grabbed my finger and shoved it in the back of his mouth.  I have a teething toddler, not an out of control little monster (which is how I felt yesterday afternoon).  Today he is sweet again, soothed with some tylenol and frozen yogurt sticks.  We have made up, finally gotten a good nights sleep, and peace is restored to our home.  Its amazing to me how effortlessly my art process reflects what is going on in my life.  That last painting I ruined this weekend happened because I would not slow down, really look and feel what it really needed, I just kept trying and adding and adding, and pushing the image until it was over worked, washed out, overly saturated.  I was doing the same thing with my son, over doing it, trying too hard, not listening or feeling, and it was overwhelming and chaotic.

Here's whats left of my painting.  Its just a piece from what I ripped apart, but I thought I'd keep it to remind me of what happens when I push too hard and stop listening.  So this week I am trying to be more present (again), take more time to do things, listen and feel my way through each process.  I find that it helps when I start to feel out of control, too many expectations on me all at once, I whisper out loud "I am here" and it brings me back to center.  It is a prayer for me, but it can be whatever you need in your life, if you find yourself overwhelmed with all the many facets and complications it brings.  So for now, "I am here." I am listening and taking some time.

 

Heres a little bit of what I did get done this weekend.  Be blessed where you are at today.

The Recesses of My Life Returning

In my other life, the one before having a baby and getting swept up into art buisness dreams, I was a student in a doctoral program for Marriage and Family Counseling.  It was all I did, all I thought about, it consumed my life.  I was a career girl, driven and focused to reach the peak of my chosen field.  I was good at counseling and even better at academics.  My ego could not have been any bigger.  Even though I was still finishing the Masters portion of my program, I was adopted by one of the more sought after professors in my Dept, and he began mentoring me through my first steps of conducting research and publishing in professional literature for my upcoming doc program.  My interest was in further developing Adventure-Based Counseling and Wilderness Therapy into benefiting couples and families. 

 found here

This was a passion of mine and I was throwing all my energy into this project.  And then everything started to change.  A summer mission trip to Haiti and the unplanned arrival of my son the next spring shifted my heart, my mind, and all my focus.  Research and doctoral programs were the farthest things from my mind.  My life now revolved around this new little person that entered my life and my heart and passion became focused on families and wanting to help people more than help my profession through teaching and research.  So I stopped going to school, I stayed home with my son, and 2 years flew by. 

Now I find myself in this strange space of wanting to continue to stay at home raising my son and keep plugging away at building my art buisness, but I have this almost completed Masters degree (1 clinical left to graduate) looming out there in the fringes of my heart and head space.  I have no intention of going to work until all the children we choose to have are all in school, but I have to finish my last clinical in the next 2 years or I cant graduate AT ALL! (there is apparently an expiration date on learning).  I struggle with the choice of when to go back and finish, EVERYDAY.  I know that I have come too far to not graduate, and I know that when my children are older that my passion and focus for practicing counseling with families will probably return, and I dont want to regret not finishing.  So after a lot of family discussion and prayer, my husband and I have decided that I will start back up in the Spring 2011.  What I have to do is do a 2 semester internship, where I practice as a counselor at a clinical site and get weekly supervision from a licensed practitioner.  Then at the end I write a really big paper and get reviewed by the department where they decide to sign off on my graduation or not.  Fun, right? 

My heart is torn,  I want to finish and the thought of doing counseling again is a bit exciting (it is one of the very few things in my life that I feel really good at), and I am really excited to incorporate more art therapy techniques than I had before, but I look into my son's teary eyes on the few times that I leave the house without him now, and I wonder how will I manage to leave him day after day for 8 straight months?  My prayer right now is that I get accepted into a clinical site that allows for night and weekend appointments, so that my husband will be home with him for most of my time away.  So here goes,  I am filling out my application and sending it in today.  No more thinking about it, no more should I or shouldn't I, no more wondering when, it will just be and I will take what comes one day at a time. 

 Trash Art done by my son and I

prints available here

Any advice from the fabulous working moms is appreciated :)  How do you deal with the separation of your heart and mind?

Reflection and Projection

 Wow what a weekend!  I was able to sell all the medium sized Limited Edition Bird Print Journals that I had made.  This was a HUGE blessing!  I put lots of love and blessings into the books I make and hope that all that wonderful positive energy can be received by their new owners.  So on this wave of excitement, I would like to see if there are some more creative people out there searching for an outlet for their thoughts and ideas. You see, I currently have 15, YES 15!!, small sized journals from the Bird Print Series and the Houses series.  I would LOVE to find homes for them as well and so decided that I would extend a special sale just for those journals that would start now and end next week.  That's one week to pick up a very special travel sized art journal at an amazing price.  Instead of a %, I just went ahead and changed the price for the books to $10, YES 10!!, just for this week.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ON SALE JOURNALS

Painting used for the 

"There Goes the Neighborhood" 

Journals (on sale this week)

I've been feeling really overwhelmed recently by the amount of work I still have to get done before the craft shows this fall vs the amount of work I actually get done each day.  The imbalance is insurmountable (one of my favorite words). :)   I have been doing really well at not freaking out.  I still have just over 7 weeks left to work.  The thing that troubles me is that I think I am going to have to create a work schedule to keep myself on track.  This was something that Kelly Rae suggested as part of her incredible ecourse that I took a few months back.  Her example and explanation of how it could be done, while gearing up for a craft show, was inspiring and very enticing.  However, scheduling myself and creating checklists have always been uncomfortable for me.  Its totally against my nature to be motivated by my 1-5 things needing to be done today.  I love spontaneity and unknown, when things get too planned out, I tend to back out.  I have lots of friends who are this type of person (the scheduling, listing, planning, type of gal).  I can think of one in particular that is a master at it, and it is incredible to witness how productive and focused she can be everyday.  I wish I could have more ease about that kind of lifestyle, but it is a struggle for me every time.  

I will have to force myself to stick to a schedule, talk myself into moving to step # 2 instead of detouring to some crazy new idea that just popped into my head, and I will definitely abandon my schedule over and over only to sheepishly pick it back up when I realize that I am wasting time.  I know this about myself.  I've had 31 years of experience in trying to be more organized in times when it is needed (ie: academics, work life, baby sleep training, etc) but always end up falling back into a casual "go with the flow" attitude and behavior.  I will keep trying though, if nothing else, it helps to give me a ballpark idea of how much I need to get done, even if I dont get them done "on time" according to the schedule.  

"Finding Balance" Cover Art done by me for an Art Journal

print available here

So without further adieu, here is my 
"TENTATIVE" Art Production Schedule.  
(the word tentative makes me feel much better) :)

WEEK 1

1. Finish art block sets (5) - print artwork, cut papers, attach, cover with 3 coats poly

2. Make Art Necklaces (20) - print images, attach to glass, cut out, adhere to settings, attach bails and chains

3. Get (10) Journals done - print covers, attach to cut cardboard, gather papers, bind

WEEK 2

1. Make Art Journal Necklaces (30) - cut, sand, stain wood for covers, attach cover art, apply resin coating, assemble papers, bind, attach chain

2. Finish out finished paintings (6) - cut, sand, stain trim wood, attach to edges, check all collage/mixed media elements that they are fastened securely (secure any bowed papers/elements), add varnish coat, attach hardware to backs for hanging 

3. Get (10) Journals done - print covers, attach to cut cardboard, gather papers, bind

WEEK 3

1. Catch up on any/all list items from Week 1 & 2 that I inevitably did not yet complete .

WEEK 4

1. Make pinback button sets (30), make magnet button sets (20), make freebie buttons (250)

2. Create Art 2011 Calendar and have printed

3. Make painting for bookmark freebies, stamp logo on them, and cut out (200)

4. Make "trash art" wall hangings with Izzy (3) and finish out the ones we already started (3)

WEEK 5

1. Make rest of Journals needed (20 or so)

2. Catch up on items from Week 4

WEEK 6

1. Finish making art card sets (50)

2. Finish out all art journal ornaments (30) - cut cardboard covers, cut inner papers, print instructions, assemble book and bind, attach canvas squares with front image, embellish with ribbons and trims, make loop to hang from.

3. Make collage panels (30)

WEEK 7

1. Update all signage, prices, labels, etc..

2. Purchase shelving for tables, purchase dress form for jewelry, pegboard for collage panels to hang on (and hooks),  and all the other tiny things I cant thing of right now.

3. Print out all art prints, sign and date them, put in sleeves (100 various sizes and images)

4. Set up Mock booth

5. Assemble boxes for all items, label, make box with tools and supplies for show, gather all things needed for collecting $, get cash for change

6. Freak out a bit, because I have abandoned my schedule weeks ago and now my list for this week has 13 items on it ;)

Then LET THE CRAFT SHOWS BEGIN...

my booth banner

Have I overwhelmed you yet? I am already exhausted just typing it all out.  I am really really excited about all this though.  I have spent years jealously eying all the amazing art and craft booths at these same shows, wishing I could be one of the incredible artists behind the tables, displaying my handiwork, inspiring people, and making $ from the hard work that they alone had done.  It is one of those dreams that I always wanted to do in my life, and I am overjoyed to be inundated with work in preparation for it.

I'll let you know how I'm doing in my progress over the next 2 months.  It'll will be fun to see how jacked up I can make this schedule over that amount of time.  I'm off to start #1 of Week 1.  Wish me luck and send me prayers ;)

 

My "Oh Sh*@t!" Week

 (some squirrely cuteness for you)

I am realizing that I have a tendency to do things quickly when my life gets chaotic.  I tend to cut corners when ever I can, even if it sacrifices quality, just to get it done.  I find myself leaning towards things that offer me immediacy, efficacy, and minimal effort right now.  It wasnt always this way, but I think Motherhood has really sucked the patience and focus out of every other facet of my life to stockpile for constant toddler antics, and now with my dear husband back to work for the school year, I am overwhelmed with responsibility and demands.

In my life right now, I find that I will watch a TV show instead of read a book, make a meal with partially pre-made products over completely from scratch, and text instead a phone conversation.  I hate being this way, but its the only way I find that I can cope with my schedule right now.  When I have phases like this often my frazzled attitude and behavior will bleed into my artwork time and inevitably disaster always strikes me.  This is what this week has been like for me.  I should know better by now, that things will just end up going badly while I am feeling scattered and drained, but I push myself to meet my self-inflicted goals for the week (as far as producing work for the fall craft shows).  That's what happened all week long. I'd be working away on something almost about to finish and "BAM!" I'd notice something I messed up or forgot to do, etc and some un-premeditated expletive would explode from my mouth.  I couldnt help it, I was so often frustrated by how difficult it was becoming to finish anything well this week, while home alone with my son, and it just became one long string of "Oh Sh*@t!" moments.  It was incredible and annoying and humbling all at once.

A Few Stories From My Week

I started working on the journal necklaces I needed for the shows.  I wanted to make 30 and spent an entire day printing the images, altering the photos, attaching them to backing, cutting them out, cutting sanding and staining the wood, attaching the images to the wood, and then covering with resin glaze.  It was a ton of work.  Finally. the covers were all there on my work desk done and almost dry, when I hear "Mama?...Wow!" and then a smack.  I turn around to see my beautiful son with at least 10 of the tacky covers stuck to his hand.  He immediately starts freaking out that they are stuck on him and starts shaking them onto the very dirty carpet where they got bits and pieces of stuff stuck in the sticky glaze. (Oh $%!#*!!!)

I was finally able to salvage all but 5 of them and continued with the project.  I was all the way at the end of the process and ready to start drilling holes in the covers and assemble the jewelry, when I realized that I had bought the wrong thickness wood and the back and front cover together with pages on the rings are too wide to close correctly.  (Oh *&$*&^$!!!)  I had 25 finished covers that I couldnt use!

 I gave up on those and moved on to doing the pendants for other necklaces that would feature little prints of my art in them.  I had resin settings for them and was eager to see them all assembled.  I printed the images, fitted them in the settings, and covered with resin glaze.  A few hours later they were partially dry and I looked closely and realized that the resin that I had used came from a bottle that my son had shook up (i have two bottles and I picked the wrong one).  The pendants were drying perfectly with a million tiny little bubbles trapped inside the clear coating.  It made my art look like it had freckles!  (Oh *#@!$#!!)  I quickly worked to scrape all the resin out and the image underneath before they got too hard to salvage the pendants.  Luckily, I figured it out in time and can start over with non-shaken glaze.  (here are the freshly washed pendants.)

Then last night, I tried to get all the transfers finished for the Christmas ornaments that I am making to sell in Oct/Nov.  It was so frustrating to get the transfers to come out perfectly!  I dont have a lot of experience with transfers, mind you, but it seems simple enough.  I would have 2 or 3 in a row come out spot on and then 2 or 3 that were just terrible.  (Oh @#&^!)  They had large pieces of the image missing, stuck on the transfer paper and refusing to release.  I had to make twice as many as I needed just to get enough good ones done! I was so frustrated by the end of it that I just threw them all in a heap on my table and left the room for the rest of the night.

I closed the artroom for the rest of the night and all day today... I left the house and had a wonderful visit with a good friend and some of my family.  I held my son and we tickled each other, read stories, and played hide and seek for hours, ignoring all other things that needed to be done.  Then I sat in silence while he napped and felt my head start to slow down.  I centered myself.

Weeks like this dont happen all that often, the ones where it seems like everything just keeps going wrong one after another.  So here I am at the end of my week, utterly exhausted from fulltime mothering and doing crappy artwork, but surprisingly feel myself finding a healing center.  I have very little work to show for all my effort this week, but I am hopeful for tomorrow, coming away with a very hard learned lesson... I am not perfect, I am growing, and when it all seems to be going wrong just walk away, let go of expectations, and let your heart and mind gather your frazzled pieces and become whole again.

Do you have weeks like this?  How do you find your center amidst all the chaos that life throws at you?  I wish you all a very balanced and restful weekend :)

 

 

a work in progress in great need of an opinion...

You know how when you are too close to something you have been working on for awhile and you just cant tell if it is good or not anymore?  OOH I hate this experience! But for right now, in my own artistic process, I still battle with feelings of discontent in my own abilities and can often second guess or rework a thing to death.  So I am going to stop, take my hands off, and take a breath.  Let that negative spirit drain away from my space and invite constructive critique from you.  I would love some feedback on this idea, I've worked so many different ideas for it, I cant judge it's merit any longer.

(pic from weheartit)

I am currently trying to work out a design for a holiday ornament to sell this fall at the Craft Festivals.  My idea is to make a very small 3X3"  or 2X2" art journal (in the same style and heart as the bigger ones I currently make and sell on etsy) that could hang on a tree.  I was thinking that the little book would have a little message inside prompting the family to each sign the book and record messages to themselves (or each other) for next year.  Would this be appealing to you as a buyer looking for a family ornament this year?  What sorts of things you want to write in a little book like this with your family (messages to each other,  funny stories, christmas quotes, ...)?

Here is the latest artwork that I have created for the cover art.  Its a mix of collage, painting, and penwork.  I plan on printing it on material and sewing around each square attaching some antiqued looking trim, then mounting it on the cardboard book covers.

Your thoughts are incredibly welcomed!  Be Blessed Today As You Have Blessed Me :)

 



 

An Artful Morning in Pictures

Today was scrap art day!  Whenever I feel I have the energy to keep up with a 2 year olds art process and deal with the aftermath of mess, I pull out all the art supplies and have a collaboration session with my son.  This is something I started doing with him as a last resort to keep him from painting/drawing all over the project I was working on a few months ago.  In the process, we discovered MAGIC!  I blogged about it and explain more about what the scrap art pieces entail HERE.

("Childhood" by Mat. 2007)

It was a whirlwind of fun, messiness, fingerprints (and footprints!), and creativity.  I adore doing art with my little guy.  I hang on to the hope that if I keep involving him in my art, giving him lots of opportunities to explore his own creative capacity, that a little artist may emerge.  Given that my husband doesnt have one tiny inkling to do any kind of fine art (he's more of a musician), I want to produce at least one other artsy person in this family. -it's my own little selfish mommy moment.  

15 minutes of getting organized and set up takes about 5 minutes to deconstruct as he loses patience to start and begins exploring the boxes

The glorious chaos of art making can not be contained! (see the splats of paint in the back and there are little blue footprints all over the tile).

Here are some of our pieces drying.  See how super fun they are!  We even used my old bag of buttons to add in the mix.  After the paint is dry, I will go back over them with some more collage elements and pen work.  Then I attach 4 panels together to make a wall hanging.  (I'll post more pics of these when they are totally finished)

 

The footprint culprit!

 Have a creative and artful day!