progress, setback, progress

life is a dance, and i'm doing the cha-cha.

i did a few more layers on my dream board before succumbing to a cold virus that hubby shared with me.  he works in the computer field, and goes to schools.  lots of schools.  he then brings back "gifts".  lots of gifts.

we also had a big storm and fared pretty well with about 17 inches of snow dumped in our yard.  no power outage;  we just hunkered down and shoveled out.

i started working on my dream board life book lesson again this morning, feeling more like myself and less like death.  here is where i left you.

an image transfer of my face, 

some collage including some text from my daddy poetry book, 

and pretty, drippy colors

there were more layers since that photo was taken, and then todays progress got us to this point;

some close-ups of this work in progress;

i wanted the 10 of cups to represent abundance coming my way

a bubble of protection blankets me

the intention is to negate any anxiety that appears 

will be fixing problem areas in my next layers, 

but happy so far

cuckoo bird on my shoulder (lots of symbolism i need)

desert mountains

and a tent representing travel

my tribe behind me all the way

seeds i have planted reaching fruition

and a promise

keeping hydrated and warm in my funky owl hat

by hooks and hands

until later,

jenny

plugging away

i've pretty much fallen off of facebook, which isn't a bad thing for my mental health these days, but i'm still plugging away at this thing called life.  some days i have better luck than others with the getting off of the couch routine, but lately i've done some colorful work.

the state of my studio these days;

a complete wreck

but being used!

and what i've been working on the last few days;

a personal project is this mini journal, 

(follow effy wilds minimoleydaily on youtube) 

each quick page with a quote to inspire me.

page in progress

life book 2017

class with wendy brightbill

and current weeks class is a 'dream board' with tam laporte.  a couple progress shots;

my first ever image transfer went well.

painting and adjusting my features

after layers of 'stuff', including some text

from my daddys' poetry book.

sacred stuff, indeed.

i have big ideas for this dream board, have imagery and phrases i want to include further down the line.  this is where the magic happens, and we can't rush the magic.

in other news, little lucy chihuahua pup is doing a good job with making sure i know i'm loved.  i can tell she is adjusting to being an only pup after pitas death 4 weeks ago.  she was always a lap dog, staying warm top priority of hers, but now she is starting to come see where i am if i have wandered from her side.  pita was always the shadow, and he did a fabulous job of it, but i'm pretty sure she will be taking up that role very soon.  we bought her a new bed to go by the heater down in the studio, and while she doesn't love being down there, she is content to lay in it as long as she is with me.  i'm so happy she is in my life, for i would be lost right now if it wasn't for her warm body, her soft little head, and her silly antics.

until later,

jenny

a slowing down

fall is underway.

we've had a few days of indian summer and a few biting chills that foretell the coming bitter months.  but it is here, and with it comes a slowing of my creative blood.

i ask to play with my muse daily, i wish to dabble and throw glitter in the air so to speak.  and i'm so close to finishing my latest painting i can taste it.  but my muse apparently has attention deficit disorder and doesn't want to linger in the details of finish work.  she wants to splash and drip again.  we have too many unfinished paintings to complete, can't we just finish this one?  just the one, and then we can go play with a new canvas as a reward...

so, today i begged again, and she said if i make it another challenge to the end of the month she may play a bit more with this canvas.  i won't bore you daily with this small challenge, because the tiny differences won't be apparent to anyone but myself.

except today.  i'm gonna bore you with the minute details today.

here she was last time i blogged about her;

i have dabbled here and there on the girl and the focal flower without blogging for the same reason. small changes are boring.  i'm trying to get more depth to the girls features and make the lily sparkle a bit more.  i've changed her hair and eye color a couple of times and have been working on both again today.  the eyes still need more for me to be happy with them.

i think i'm finally happy with the depth of her hair color.  several layers of several colors and a glaze over it all.

the main focal point

before;

after;

a few days ago i added an iridescent pearl over each petal to see if i liked the sparkle.  i did, but it wasn't what i had expected of the color, so i added a glaze of the quinacridone magenta i used to begin with, and that did the trick.  this lily is a beautiful rich sparkling color that i am thrilled with!


i know that getting to the finish line with this painting is going to take some work.  i'm not only battling my own 'junk' getting to the studio, i have my almost 16 year old pup, pita, who must be by my side but hates being in the studio for some reason.  when i bring him down, he runs around, trying to get my attention, tap dancing like he has to go outside.  we have done this routine so many times.  he goes crazy, i bring him upstairs in order to go thru the house to the dog area outside, only to have him run to the living room instead.  as soon as i let my guard down and ignore his tap dancing, he will go pee on my studio floor.  i am always on edge with him, and he refuses to settle down.  if i leave him in the living area of the house he will run around barking and i worry about his heart issues.  it's just a frustrating situation right now with him in his old age.

i have been very busy while the pups and i form a cuddle-puddle on the couch.  it's getting close to the end of the year for my yearlong Life Book workshop, and i need to make sure all video content and pdf's are downloaded before the beginning of next years workshop!

i have a couple of other art workshops i'm taking, and each class has it's own download page to make sure i'm up to date.  it's good to be organized, and it's something i can do while pita stays happily by my side on the couch.

until later,

jenny

art challenge suckiness, but i have things to share

well, that sucked.  my so called art challenge.  i did about 9 projects this month, and then fell out of the nonexistent habit.  i did MUCH better with my 30 day yoga challenge and 100 day sun salutation challenge which is still going strong.  (days 59/100 for the sun salutation challenge, and 27/30 for my yoga challenge, following this yoga instructor).

here are the rest of the cards i did manage for my art challenge

meh

pure hatred towards this, so i left it.

this one was a style learned by ivy newport

i've also been working on some of my LifeBook projects, but not as many as i had hoped.

these are in progress, from a class 

taught by rae missigman

i've also found a wonderful artist who does real time, and live, videos on how to paint fun canvasses.  she is a hoot!  her name is cinnamon cooney, the art sherpa.  check her out!  i fell in love with one of her paintings that included a pony and sketched one out;

today i have been working on a canvas that is inspired by the teaching of shiloh sophia.  she had a free easter class you might still be able to take advantage of (free until may 2016), and she was this weeks' LifeBook teacher as well.  i incorporated a few of her other stylings as well.  it's not finished yet, but here are some progress photos.  i'm trying to stay loose and not worry about realism or proportions, just getting my ideas and my feelings down on canvas, letting the paint flow.  there are so many layers to this piece!

you can't see it, 

but her eyebrows are dragonfly wings

so this is where it sits as of now.  taking a break from her, and i will see what she asks me for tomorrow.  i'm loving her so far, but i know details are lacking, and i'm not thrilled with her hair yet.

until later, 

jenny

stagnation

i'm feeling so lost right now as an artist, and i feel it's so strange that i have this new kitty and i don't feel the color right now.  it could be that i'm still depressed and the kitty is keeping me from feeling the full brunt of it (thank you, pixel!).  it could be that i'm waiting for spring to make it's way to new england to thaw my emotions a little.  i'm angry at myself for not being able to force the muse.  i read about how this or that or the other artist works daily on their creativity and i am not able or willing to do that.  maybe in time i will have that dedication, but not now.

is it dedication, or is it just pushing thru the bad stuff?

is it wrong to push?

i don't know.

i feel it's the season of rest for me.  even though i'm angry about the rest, about needing the rest, about my muse abandoning me, i know i must do what i feel is right for me and to not push the ebbs and flows of my art.

i know she will return to me.  she has before.

i've been watching all the videos for my Life Book classes, printing the pdf's, being inspired and taking it all in, but i haven't been faithful with actually doing all the lessons the way i want to.  i'm getting frustrated that, when i do, it hasn't come out the way i had wished.  some of that is discouraging me from putting brush to paper.  but i have been learning by watching and by seeing others' takes on the subject at hand and that's a good thing.

i am not totally put off by others artwork.  sometimes i get angry with seeing all the beauty others have made as i am friends with many artists on facebook.  and the anger is toward myself and my insecurities, not at the artist, nor is it a jealousy that others have this 'good fortune' to be successful.  i know it takes hard work- or just raw talent sometimes- to get as good as these people are.  and i'm even looking at 'primitive' art and seeing how wonderful it is and knowing that if i had painted the exact same painting that i wouldn't love it as much and wouldn't see its' beauty.  why is that???

so, this is just me coming to let myself off the hook.  letting you know i'm still alive but in a cocoon state at the moment.  i will be back, hopefully soon.

i'll leave you with my favorite view of one of my first favorite paintings, and a powerful word that i also have tattooed on my arm;

until later,
jenny

update on the goings on of me

hello all! yep, it's been longer than i had hoped since i've updated. oopsie.

life has been happening, it's been full of goal making and note taking and just a little of art making. my minis have sort of fallen off the priority list, and i think part of the reason is because the christmas theme was an easy one to get into. now i must go to my notebook for ideas, and it's more of a struggle to get into my head that it might not be as easy.


life book with tam laporte is off and running. some of the classes are more my style and easier for me to get into, and others are harder to get the techniques down. i'm not stressing about doing them in order, but i am taking notes in my handy journal

one lesson, taught by ivy newport was painting on collage and i had a lot of fun coming up with inspirational words and meanings for me;

another lesson, by annie hamman was to be a wild romp with your inner child... if you don't have an actual child around to help you. the making of a face and then adding childlike smears and wild colors, painting as a child would, was rather fun for me. very much my own style, but with permission to try and push it further. i did my first painting on canvas, since i knew i wanted to play big! the lesson came around the time david bowie died, and since his portrayal as goblin king in the movie labyrinth is a rather important figure in our life (my youngest son was named after the character), it hit me hard. apparently my inner child wanted my painting to be a tribute to mr. bowie, so it transformed pretty nicely.

started out using greens for the skin tone, since i wanted to free myself with this painting.  no rules.

letting my inner child work her magic 

this is where the inner child wanted crazy hair and i thought it might be for mr. bowie

i added more details and slanted the eyebrows like the goblin king.  and the canvas 

"tears of a goblin" was created.

i also did a smaller painting on paper to add to my life book at the end of the year.

i've also been busy creating a yearbook full of goals for myself based on a class over at journalwild.com . jen has lots of great inspiration if you are interested in learning more about art journaling. here is a peek at some of my pages;

totally not done yet, and i'm seeing that her prompts, along with my goal setting, are helping me find what is important to me right now.


i also am trying to be more dedicated to my art journaling with effy wild. she has a free year long art journaling group that is full of love and great energies over at journal52.com. she is one of my favorite artists, ok, she's THE artist. i've got a 'slight' artist crush on her. do check out her stuff.

effy had a prompt for the full moon, and had a video of her doing her thing. i had an idea that was similar in mind for feeling gratitude for the full moon in leo that happened january 23rd, so i played with her positioning a little to make it more my own. but i made a mistake...

can you see it? unfortunately i didn't catch the mistake at the sketching phase, but after i had painted the VERY dark night sky, and was painting her hand. now can you see? yep, the left side hand is on the right side arm! i was not pleased. i was to the point of ripping it out of my vintage scrapbook i've been using for a journal, but the very delicate paper wouldn't let go. i took that as a sign that i should leave it in as a lesson learned. something i can look back on and laugh. and i went back to work, painting her pink hair, so much fun!


speaking of pink hair, i’ve decided enough with playing ‘by the rules’ with my hair color! i’m done with being the mousy one who wants to please everyone while letting my spirit wilt. i can understand if i worked at a bank or something uptight like that, but what do i do; i sit at home with my pups and i paint. every now and then i go to the store with hubby. who is to stop me from coloring my hair whatever my heart and soul wants? only me and my fear of not being loved. i am enough as i am. i am a good person, whether i have brown hair or teal. if someone cant love and accept me with crazy hair, then maybe they aren’t enough for me and MY life? maybe they don’t love me for the right reasons? i am an artist, and i love color. it's time to live for myself and do what i want to… with my hair, and my life. and, you know, if i hate it, i can color it black. it’s only hair.

my first attempt, a couple months ago, to go for wild purple hair was pretty tame, close to the ‘wild red’ i had before. this time i knew i wanted a blue-purple, not a red-purple, so when i went to sallys beauty supply the woman working there (who had very beautiful bright purple hair) suggested some ideas, and when i still hemmed and hawed about how i wanted it she suggested putting manic panic purple in after i colored it if the color wasn’t right. afterwards i wasn’t too thrilled with the color. i figure if you have to hunt for the color if you are in shade, then why have a cool color? so i went with the manic panic. now it’s a very dark purple, almost black unless the sun is hitting it, and then it explodes into, yep, another red-purple.

before the manic panic

after manic panic, in my studio

after and in the sunlight

it’s neat in the shadows though. but, next time, i’m going to venture into the blues!



last but not least, i will be attempting to do something for 100 days. since it’s been a gripe of mine that the minis are getting harder for me to do, i was thinking it would be a good challenge for me to do a mini canvas a day for 100 days. am i out of my mind? maybe. but, during the christmas season, i was able to crank some out in a few hours each. maybe it’s thinking too big. i have started a nice mini that has taken a long time, so maybe the idea should be more of “work on a mini each day for 100 days” and see how many i can finish? i don’t want them to look cheap though, and since my geriatric dog, pita, doesn’t enjoy me working in the studio, i have to interrupt my arting for his needs (which usually include my sitting on the couch while he sleeps next to me. not too conducive for getting anything done). i was hoping to start this challenge on February 1st. maybe i shouldn’t wait for a ‘perfect date’ to start this challenge, but wait for the perfect challenge topic to start…

i’ll let you know!


(i've decided to learn to do the sun salutation and commit to do it for 100 days!)


until later,
jenny

end of the year 2015!

happy christmas to you and yours, from me and my crew!

we recreated a photo of our family taken about 22 years before.  this one is without my son, winter-orion, but includes my grandtwin hearts.

my life has been busy with painting my mini ornaments as gifts and for purchase, shopping for the loved ones and falling ill with a strange tummy and chest bug right before christmas.

a few months ago I signed up for Life Book 2016 with Tam Laporte, and it is coming closer to the day when this year long class starts.  so exciting!  i happened to look up from my life and realized I had joined a couple of free classes that are many days long as well.  i’m very excited to have some sense of schedule to my life, and i’m sure these classes will force me to do daily work just to stay organized and on track with my plans for the year.  but if i am to be honest with you, i am feeling a strange resistance from the free classes.  like they are a chore my mother wants me to do, or some homework.  i am procrastinating watching the classes, and the one class i tried to watch i had a hard time following the speaker before she got into the art portion.  part of my A.D.D., i suppose, and nothing to do with the class!  i know these two classes will not be available to me for much longer, so i must get my shit together and do what i can to stay focused.  i know they will help my life in the long run, as they are more of a journaling your years' goals type class.

in preparation for Life Book, i have been organizing my studio space as much as i can.  finding spots for my new supplies and tools.  one of my sons gave me a heat gun for christmas, so a big yay for less drying time!  my daughter gave me a gift card to michaels, and i loaded up on decorative papers and washi tapes in yummy colors.  i’ve been labeling my storage spaces and trying to find convenient spots for things i think i may go to the most.  the photo below is during my time going thru my ephemera, organizing the old letters and book pages into different drawers and separating tiny pieces from big papers.

 hurricane jenny strikes the studio!

i’m excited to concentrate on my art and business this year and can tell things are getting pretty fluid in my life.  my art is coming along nicely, i'm finding my own style; the blog is plugging away and i know i will be getting more confident in the how-tos’ of blogging; my learning will greatly increase in all areas of my life; my society6 shop will grow and i will get sales from my new heavenspirit creations facebook page which will be another project in the near future; my finances will increase and i will be able to get what i need when i need or want it.  the upcoming year will be one for the books, for sure!

a gift from son #2, i know this book will help me in the coming year!

until later,

jenny