Check it out

I received an email from Suzanne Lamar announcing the release of Art Unscripted Retreat with Carol Duvall. Suzanne’s the owner of PageSage, a company offering very cool instructional craft DVDs from some of leading designers in the industry.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this DVD since I met Suzanne at CHA. If you remember an older post of mine, you’ll recall one of my events-of-a-lifetime happenings when I got to go up on stage and craft next to the amazingly talented Sarah Hodsdon and Carol Duvall(!), along with a whole slew of amazing artists, such as Chris Cozen and Mary Jo McGraw. Rather than rehash an old story, I’ll just redirect you to the super excited blog post I wrote at the time.

PageSage had wrapped up filming of Art Unscripted before CHA. Suzanne’s been hard at work editing and creating a masterpiece. Projects include everything from carving your own stamps to metal embossing to polymer clay. I can’t recall ever seeing such a wide array of crafting in one DVD. Pre-orders are up now and the first 150 people to order get a signed copy.

I received a signed copy of Carol’s new book, Papercrafting with Carol Duvall for participating in the CHA event. It’s a cool thing to have, and I keep it right next to the scrapbook layout I did of me standing next to one of my crafting mentors. I use the word “mentor” loosely because I’m really like the rest of the crafting television audience. Just a fan whose seen this really nice lady help the careers of many talented folks over the years.

Congrats Suzanne and Carol and Sarah and all the other talented artists participating in the DVD. Can’t wait to preview it soon.

The very talented Lisa Englbrecht

The June/July issue of Home Companion is online and that means I can announce this issue’s featured artist in Paper, Scissors, Crop! It’s the very talented Lisa Englbrecht, a lettering artist who does the most amazing handmade books, as well as mixed media art quilts.

I met Lisa at last year’s Art Unraveled and thought her work, with its raw edges and artful handwriting, was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. She is also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet and a wonderful instructor to boot. The thing about Lisa’s teaching style is that she stands before the classroom not as the expert, but as a guide. Of course, she’s an expert as what she does, but her laid back style is more muse than anything else. She’s teaching at AU again this summer. Her first book is coming out next month and she also has a DVD.

The other thing I wasn’t able to get into the small space of Paper, Scissors, Crop is Lisa’s passion for helping inner city youth transform destructive graffiti into a legitimate art form by unleashing all their creativity onto paper or canvas or board. She’s working with LA youths in a way that empowers them and builds up their self-esteem.

“With computers, hand lettering is a dying art form. These kids’ graffiti is beautiful. I want to help them realize what they are doing is art and teach them how to create in a way that benefits society,” she told me during the PSC interview.

I truly believe art can transform the world and I stand in awe of the amazing artists who are doing their part to make the world a better place by sharing their talents.

 

(some pics of Lisa’s amazing Abecedarium featured in the June/July 2008 issue of Home Companion)

My own space

The brilliant writer Virgina Woolf has been famously quoted for saying every woman needs a room of her own to write fiction. As much as I agree with the esteemed Ms. Woolf, I’d like to take liberties and amend her quote by leaving off the last three words.

I fully believe every woman needs a room of her own. Period. A room to wish in, to dream in, to scream in, to scheme in, to play in, to plan in, to rest in, to create and to just BE in.

I’ve been longing for such a space since Greg and I moved in together so many, many years ago. Our first apartment was a studio. Our second apartment had one bedroom. Our first house had three rooms, but we needed the money so badly to pay the mortgage that we rented a room to a friend. Greg and I shared the other bedroom for our separate computers (something we have never shared because some things are sacred).

We still shared our office in Phoenix in our newer three-bedroom Ahwatukee home. Ty had come along by then and required the second bedroom. Then we moved to a tiny cabin with only two bedrooms and our “shared” home office was a long desk stuffed into the only free corner we could find. I scrapbooked and made art on the kitchen table, each evening shoving the day’s work to the edge so we could sit down for family dinner. I dreamed for, longed for a room of my very own.

When we decided to gut and rebuild our cabin, we took a huge leap and designed a four bedroom house. We marveled at how much room we’d have. Mind you, they are not big rooms. They are just average-sized bedrooms but there are four — count ‘em 4 of them. Our small detached garage was to become Greg’s home office — away from me and our daily life of raising a high-energy boy.  The plans are still on track, only we ran out of money and had to put off his work space for another year. For now, the guest bedroom is his office and, for the first time in 15 years of married life, we each have our own rooms!

So now you see why it was a travesty for me to let my room get so out of control. But life is good and I’m back on track. I feel like I’ve lost 20 pounds in worry and guilt!

To all my girls who are still longing for Ms. Woolf’s requirement, all I can do is send you big hugs and a loving vibe. Your time is coming, my friends. And, when it gets here, remember to sit in the middle of your room and savor the feeling of accomplishment and freedom that comes from being able to have a lock and a key to your own private world.

(OMG, a clean desk! Things got so messy there for a while I was trying to create 12×12 scrapbook pages in an 8×8 space. I actually switched to some mini books just to keep working without stoping to clean my desk.)

Confronting my stuff

Sunday morning, I took everything — EVERYTHING — out of my craft room. The task of cleaning my studio/home office was so daunting that I’d been putting it off for months and months. It eventually got so bad that I was forced to wend my way through an S-shaped path running from the door of the office to my laundry room. Supplies, books, magazines, vintage items I’ve collected, paper and stuff were stacked floor-to-knee.

I had even contacted a professional organizer, thinking I was too overwhelmed to do it by myself and wanting to pay someone to tell me how to fix my train wreck. Feeling heavy, lacking in creativity, over run with guilt and self-criticism for living in such a mess, I knew it was time to face my inner demons and confront both my physical stuff and my emotional baggage.

I’ve watched that HGTV show Clean Sweep, as well as an Oprah episode on a couple who hoarded stuff. I saw a glimmer my own life in other people’s clutter and it dawned on me that I have definite hoarding tendencies myself.

I emptied my room with the exception of the desk my computer sits on because with the Ethernet port in the wall, there’s really only one spot for it. Then I figured out how to maximize the storage I had with my desire for more storage. Then I had to determine what to purge because I had wayyyyy more stuff than I have room for or (here’s the kicker) need.

I put a huge garbage can outside my room and started tossing. Scraps that I’ve been saving for years went into the dumpster. It felt sacrilegious. I thought, there goes my collage career! Old scrapbooking supplies that I will never use because my style has changed so dramatically went into large plastic containers to donate to a group of teenage girls I know who love to scrapbook but have no $$$.

Craft supplies to make everything from crochet cozies to paper mache masks went into a donate bin. Beads and buttons and fabric, oh my! I kept my favorites, but it seems like it took forever to figure out which ones were my favorites. The host from Clean Sweep says there are two kinds of clutter; the things you keep for sentimental reasons and the kind you hold onto because you may need it someday. My boxes and boxes of craft supplies definitely fell into the latter category.

I worked from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday and began again yesterday morning after dropping my son off a school. By 1:30 p.m., I had purged and organized and knelt and bent and climbed and dusted until I felt like I couldn’t take even one more minute of it all. My back ached, my head throbbed…life just, well, sucked.

There was one time Sunday afternoon when I felt so defeated by the clutter that I yelled –actually SCREAMED at the TOP OF MY LUNGS ARGUHHHHHHHHHHHH… just to give me some comic relief and the strength to push through. Living in the country, my holler carried on the wind for at least 5 miles. I’m surprised my neighbors didn’t call the Sheriff to do a welfare check on me.

I haven’t 100% finished. My desk is still piled with stuff. When I finish this post, I’m back to it until everything has a place. The walls are bare for now and I still need more shelves. My furniture is a mish mosh and I need more light.  

I can honestly tell you this is not the pretty craft room of my dreams. I wanted black IKEA furniture, beautiful shelves filled with all my artwork and funky jars for my collections. The truth is we ran out of money on the remodel when it came time to do my room. Forced to make a choice between the living room and kitchen of my dreams or my craft room, I stuck to my priorities.

In addition to dealing with my stuff, I dealt with my life. I realized I’ve been secretly dreaming of being an artist for the past 10 years I’ve been writing about and promoting artists. By making a space I can truly work in, there’s nothing left to do but sit down at my desk and figure it out.

Life is like a good spring cleaning. Sometimes we need to clear a path for our truth to shine through.

(Before shots)

(After Photos)

My friend’s beautiful horse finally had her foal. I’m not really a horsey kinda gal, but I do love new babies of just about any kind of cute species. Ellen invited Ty over to see the new horse when it was less than 24 hours old. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to pet it because mama was being very protective of her new offspring. I was still trying to settle in Mom and Dad, so Greg took Ty and a neighborhood kid to see the newborn. He also took my camera and did a pretty good job with this shot.

I’m not going to be updating my blog for a few days because I’m going to take some much-needed time to completely clean and organize my studio space. To say it’s a mess is more than an understatement. It looks like a bomb went off in it because I’ve been going from back-to-back writing assignments to art projects to classes since I returned from CHA. That was what??? 4 months ago. Yikes, where does the time fly?  I’ll take before and after shots to share.

Have a beautiful day!

 

Why so many words?

A friend of mine who’s seen my recent work asked why I’m not sharing images on my blog. I thought I’d take a moment to explain why there are so many words here and so few visuals. This seems as good a time of any to time to explain some of the inner workings of the craft world that happens behind the scenes of the articles, webisodes, trade shows, books and events that, as consumers, we’ve become accustomed to seeing.

First off, very few artists put their best images on their blog, unless one is very prolific, has had a long art career or works as a designer for a specific manufacturer and gets paid to make art every day. The one lament I hear constantly from artists is that there are never enough hours in the day to create all the cool stuff that’s swirling about their brains.

When one is in the business of art, trying to make a living as a designer/teacher/author there are demos to do, ideas to dream up, marketing and PR to contend with, networking to accomplish and deadlines to meet now for projects that won’t be seen by the general public for months, perhaps even a year from now. Maintaining a blog or website, finding studio time to experiment and sharing a life with a spouse or children are also part and parcel of most artists’ lives.

For some designers, there are non-disclosure forms, non-compete agreements or other contract clauses stipulating how, where, where and what type of images are revealed. If one has really had some success, there are photo shoots and book signings, television appearances, DVD filmings, exotic teaching locales and a world of opportunity followed up by nose-the-the-grindstone work. I’ve featured some art rock stars. No one works harder than those ladies!

No one is complaining. It’s an amazing thing to work from home and make a living from one’s creativity. It’s a blessing beyond blessing. But it’s also a lot more work than most people realize. Also, art and craft tends to be a female-dominated career field.

No offense to my hard-working hubby because he’s brilliant and wonderful, but we all know men’s and women’s brains just do NOT work the same. Greg can multi-task well, but he simply does not talk on the phone to his friends, dream up new business enterprises, solve the world’s problems, throw a load of laundry in the washer, make a snack for the kids, clean up his art studio and decide what’s for dinner all within a 30 minute time frame.

Oops, went off on a tangent there. (smile) Sooooo, back to my opening paragraph. My little art projects and pages are stacked in a corner of my studio, unphotographed and patiently waiting. The general rule of thumb is that once an image is published (personal blogs included), its unavailable for a book because original, unseen images are what publishers desire.

For now, I’m sharing my words. I thank everyone who visits my tiny corner of the Internet to see what I’m up to.

Moving Mom & Dad

My world has tilted. This past weekend, we moved my mother and father from Phoenix to Payson. They’re 78 and 79 years old with health issues. I’m calling my dad the Energizer Bunny because he faced so many illnesses this past year and is still with us. If I told you all the things he endured and how many times he was in the hospital the past 9 months, you, too, would be wondering how he made it through. There must be angels on his shoulders.

Unfortunately, my sister carried the burden of caring for our aging parents through all of this, and she is worn out. The time away from her business and her own needs took an emotional toll.

I tried to get my folks to move near me three years ago, but they are old and resistant to change. There’s a saying I heard once that I can identify with. It says: “Change is easy. You go first.” Now the options are dwindling. We are doing everything we can to keep them independent an out of an assisted care facility. Time is not on our side.

Greg and I spent the weekend packing them up, moving their items up the hill and settling them into a cute little two bedroom cottage-style home with enough space for my mother to be self-sufficient in her wheelchair.

I love my folks more than anything and I’m very close to them. My son adores Grammy and Poppy. The thing I’m trying to figure out is how I am going to balance my job of being wife and mother, continue writing my book and doing my freelance assignments and caring for elderly parents.

As I explained in one of my very first blog posts, the Superwoman role is an ill-fitting one. I just don’t believe in perfection because it’s an unattainable goal. At least for me. All I can hope for is that the experiences will enrich my life with wisdom and that I can balance my roles with grace and ease.

Life is interesting.

 

Crossing off my “to-do” list

This morning, I decided to knock a few items off the bottom of my “to-do” list. I always get to the top 3 or so a day, but never get around to those items at the bottom which are important to me, but never seem to get done.

I’ve had some really great craft books lying around my studio that I’ve been meaning to write reviews on my Amazon site. I added three new ones today and hope to add at least a half-dozen more in the near future.

Obviously, what I write is just my opinion. I get the opportunity to look at a lot of craft books. I made a decision a long time ago when I began writing about the visual arts and, later, crafts, that I would never slam anyone in print. The one thing I’m not is an art critic.

I have such respect for people who choose to express themselves creatively. Some artists seem a bit more professional or polished than others, but, really who’s to say what’s good or what’s bad? It’s all about personal preference. Someone may love a nitty-gritty look (me, me, me!!!) and others may prefer a clean, classical style. My decorating joke is that my mind wants to be a minimalist, but my inner child forbids it. That kid inside me always wants to make messes. (oy, the bane of my housework existence!)

The point is there are as many artistic styles in this world as there are artists. What’s imperative is to discover your style, have a voice and stay true to who you are. No matter what you do, do it with passion and Be REAL.

The artists whose books I wrote about today are all authentic people. I’m happy to say I’ve personally met them and admire their courage to put their work out there for all to see. If you have a few extra bucks in your pocket and are looking for some visual eye-candy, these books are worth the money. Just my opinion.

Finishing touches

Today I’m finishing up my next Paper, Scissors, Crop column. I am soooooooo excited about featuring this amazing artist because she’s been in the fine arts field a long time and her style is truly unique/different. Many have tried to copycat her work, but there’s no comparison. She has a gift and is just pure, raw talent.

I can’t reveal a name yet, but I can say it’s for the August/September issue, so if you are someone who loves paper and fiber and mixed media, be sure to check it out. I’ll post a link here when the issue hits the newsstands this summer.

I’m also finishing up a gallery profile I wrote for an cool art magazine called Niche. I’ve been specializing in writing about the visual arts and cultural tourism for the last 9 years because I love covering the art market. I find the business side of art fascinating. It’s like the crafts industry. There’s so much going on behind the scenes that’s completely transparent to the average consumer.

Since there’s not much else happening, I thought I’d share a pic from a daytrip I took a few weekends ago to Sedona. The weather is gorgeous right now in Arizona, especially up north. I ran across this little rock sculpture during a hike. I thought it was a cool focal point with this huge expanse of landscape in the background. I wish I had my Nikon with me, but it was too heavy to lug around. This was taken with my little Kodak Easyshare, so the quality is not as clear as I’d like. It’s impossible to take a bad photo of Sedona though.

Hiking around Sedona is one of the most beautiful things to do. The red rocks are truly awe-inspiring.

 

Education never stops

I’m home from a great weekend of hanging with my new friend, Lauren Nwachukwu, who visited Mesa, AZ to teach at the CK convention. When I found out Lauren was teaching, I jumped online last month and registered for her Explosion Box class.

Oh my gosh, Lauren’s class was so much fun. It was challenging for the first 20 minutes as we folded our little hearts out making our box top and bottom and inside explosion pages. Challenging is good! It’s the reason I’m always searching for art classes. To me, there’s nothing worse than paying good money and giving up my potentially creative time for something I already know. Let me tell you, making that box was definitely a new project.

I pretty well knew from the get-go that I’d be bringing my own paper, ribbon and a button to two to change the look of the box. Some teachers might get miffed over me wanting to make their project my own. They might see it as me being snobby or that I don’t like their design.

The truth is exactly the opposite. I only take classes from artists whose work I admire and who are experts at what they do. It’s my way of learning at the feet of the masters, so to speak. I still believe in the concept of craftsmanship the way it was taught during the Renaissance. Master craftsmen took students under their wings as apprentices. Students were not allowed to make a mark with the master until they watched and learned and practiced, a process that took years.

Obviously, this is an outmoded model of education in the 21st century. But the core of the concept still rings true. Search out the best of the best and soak up their words like a sponge.

Even though I brought a few of my own supplies, I joyously learned Lauren’s technique to create a very cool, interactive mini book. It’s a perfect design to use again and again as a personalized gift for friends.

The coolest part is that Lauren took it as a compliment that I wanted to use patterned paper and colors in harmony with my world. She jokingly called me a “rebel” in front of her students and let them know that it’s OK to be different. Bless her soul!

I’ve taken a lot of CK classes in the 9 years since I started scrapbooking. The teachers and projects all taught me ideas that I’ve built upon. About 5 years ago, I branched out into mixed-media and found an entirely new world of techniques at my disposal. I’m signed up for a couple of classes this summer at Art Unraveled and can’t wait to add some more feathers to my wings. I want to fly higher.

I’m essentially a “self-taught” artist, but the reality of that statement is false. I’m an apprentice of dozens and dozens of gifted artists who’ve changed my world through hands-on classes or their incredible books or articles in magazines. I’m constantly learning and I’m grateful for every opportunity I embrace.

(Pics of my box. I used Crate Paper and Tim Holtz’ (TM) Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I didn’t have my UHU glue stick and brayer at the class. Need to go back and seal down the edges. Also have to finish the project because, in addition to the layered pages, there are 8 pockets for tags. I’ve got to add photos, more paper and junk it up, but the bones are in place.)