Mixing Business and Pleasure

My husband had a business trip to San Diego and asked me if I wanted to tag along.

San Diego?

Of course!

We decided to extend the tip a few days and make a vacation out of it. We fit a lot in and had such a great time.

And then it was time for him to go to work and what's a girl to do with all that free time?

Create of course!

I found an awesome Expressive Art Studio online before I even boarded the plane. I signed up for classes and even arranged to rent the studio for a little one on one time with paints. 

On the first day I arrived a bit early and decided to hang out at Santo's,  the local coffee shop. It was such a cute place and I really got myself in the right frame of mind while relaxing on the patio. 

 And the coffee was delicious!

Then it was time to play! It was such a fun space filled with color and tons of art supplies! I felt like a kid in a candy store!

The first day we played with collage. Working with color, image and texture we created pieces that reflected how we were feeling in the moment. 

  

Day two began with my private studio time. I taped up a large piece of paper to the wall...oooh the possibilities!

The tempera paints were especially vibrant and I just went to town. What pure joy it was to just play. There are a few little monsters that decided to show up. I welcomed them and let them speak their peace. 

She had a whole room just for sand play. I had never done anything like this before so I decided to spend a little time in there. 

The process was meditative and relaxing. It reminded me of my mosaic days a bit. No pressure though, just playing in the sand. 

I headed across the street for a bit of lunch and reflection time. 

Then it was time for Painting Aerobics. A wonderful bunch of women, paint, paper and some fun music. It was time to let my paintbrush dance. 

It was such a fun experience. No thought, no worries, just dancing around and splashing paint. 

The whole trip was great and my little art retreat was amazing. 

As women we need to refuel ourselves and fill our well. A creative retreat is absolutely perfect because tapping into the creative energy flow shifts you out of the everyday. It brings you to a place of infinite possibility and allows you to play in wonder. 

You don't have to go anywhere to give yourself the gift of a creative retreat. 

You can bring some crayons and paper outside and sit in the sun and color. 

You can play with magazines and cut and paste into a journal. 

You can play in the sand at your local beach and make patterns. 

But, if you're in San Diego or just passing through, you should definitely stop by and visit Tish for a little fun!

Smashing Business

I am the queen of ideas. If anything comes easy to me it is coming up with ideas. I am also the queen of spiral notebooks. I buy them in bulk at the beginning of the school year and I always have one, two, OK, probably 3 or 4 of them lying around my house, my car, in my purse. I use them for everything from writing lists, recording ideas, doodling, making notes...you name it and it's in there.

There are many problems with this I must admit. Number one is that I lose them. I misplace them and can't find them or the precious material that is in them. Also, I never know which one has which thought in them and I am forever leafing through notebooks looking for lost tidbits of information. It really is most frustrating.

While I was on vacation I watched a video of a woman who was talking about the exact same problem except she uses Moleskines. You will have to forgive me, I wanted to share the video with you but I can't find it. I've searched my history and I've gone back to try to find out where I ran across it but I can't for the life of me find it.

My new red Smash Book!

Her solution to this problem was to purchase a Smash Journal to use for all her blog and business ideas to keep them in one place. Genius! I rushed right out and got myself a pretty new smash journal. It comes with a pen that attaches to the journal and has a glue stick on one side so you can glue things in or "smash" them in.

Recording my notes from my spiral

There are decorative pages in the book and little doodles and fun things that make it easy to make it look nice. It is spiral bound so it is easy to work in and really, it's just plain fun.

So many ideas

I just happened to have one of my spiral notebooks with me in Florida (imagine that) so I decided that I was going to transfer some of the notes I had in there to my new journal. I got busy on the airplane and worked furiously for 2 1/2 hours straight. I was so excited.

It was wonderful looking back at all the great stuff I had in that spiral that I hadn't seen in a while. I was shocked at all the good stuff I had in there.

I love my new Smash Journal so much that I catch myself looking at it and petting the pages. It's so me. It's simple and not too decorated but it feels so nice to look at.

So far it's helping me record ideas that I might have even lost before and it's helping me organize my thoughts for the blog too.

I even have a page started for inspiration. I write down quotes and kind words shared through my blog, email and Facebook. All you sweet people who have something uplifting to say about my work will have a place to live right here in my Smash Journal. I love that!

Lessons at the Art Festival

A beautiful painting displayed at the Fort Myers Art Fest

For years I shut down my creative side. I decided to be a mom and to put my kids first and do everything for them and be everything for them. As I'm sure you know, I have 5 boys and a husband who all play sports. They have pretty much tried them all. When they aren't playing sports we are talking about sports or watching sports. It's a big sports household.

There never seemed to be enough room for my interests...OK, that's wrong...I never made it a priority so therefore there wasn't enough time for it. For the most part my kids didn't even know how much I loved art. It's really strange the things we do.

When I decided to go back to the thing I loved I began sharing it with my kids and I was pleasantly surprised that they were open to it. They enjoyed looking at art, talking about it and creating it. My youngest son Aidan really jumped on board. He decided that he was an artist and started drawing like crazy.

Exploring the techniques used in the paintings was great fun with the kids.

So this year when we went on our vacation I noticed that there was an art show going on and I decided that I wanted to go and I wanted to bring the kids too. This may seem like the obvious thing to do as a family but you have to understand that in the past my husband may have come along with me and we would have left the kids home thinking they would be bored and uninterested. In fact, I had to tell my husband twice that yes, I wanted the kids to come.

It was a BIG show. There were tents as far as the eye could see and then there were more around the corner. My dad and step mom joined us too. It was hot and holy cow was it crowded. I immediately got uptight. My internal voice started going off, "Oh my gosh, they are going to hate this. They are going to get bored. It's going to take too long. I'm the only one who likes this and I'm going to make everyone suffer."

This is something I do to myself so even when people are doing things for me I have so much inner chatter that I don't allow myself to enjoy it. I rush through, I think about everyone but myself and I leave feeling very unfulfilled. Well not this time!

Professional chalk painters creating works of art on the street

I caught myself and I said, "NO! Not today! I am going to enjoy this for me!" I set off and my sons were right there with me. We stopped in all the booths that drew our attention. We looked at the brush strokes, the techniques, the use of color and the innovative creations these artists were sharing with us.

I was surprised at how into it my son Aidan was. He wanted to stop at every booth and look through the bins of prints. He spent more time in some of them then even I wanted to. I watched as his brow crinkled while he was in serious thought analyzing the art. I watched him take pictures of the things that inspired him and I introduced him to some of the artists so he could learn how they made their creations.

The funniest thing was having him look at the prices. There was no real sticker shock for him. He saw a small glass paperweight that cost $40 and he said, "$40? That's not very much for this." Ha, here I was thinking $40? Too much! I love the innocence and love he brought to art fest.

A beautiful work of art that will be gone in a few hours.

I am proud of the fact that I have embraced who I truly am and shared that with my children because I think it is making them better. They are being exposed to parts of the world that can make them richer, more whole people. It is giving them the opportunity to know all the parts of who they are and uncover talents they may not have known they have.

It's funny, my son came home from school one day and said he stood up and shared that his favorite thing to do was to draw. He said one of the little girls said he couldn't be an artist because he was a wrestler. I explained to him that a lot of people have beliefs that if you are smart you can't be athletic or if you are athletic you can't be artistic. I told him that it's all a lie. That he can be anything he wants to be and that the cool thing is he is good at all of it so he could be any combination he wanted.

Having a little fun decorating piggy banks

Do you think he would have had the opportunity to learn this lesson if his mom was hiding away, afraid to be who she is? Do you think he would know anything about the arts or the joy he experiences if his mom hadn't shared her passion and encouraged him to explore? Maybe, but more likely not.

It's sad to say that my older children didn't get that mom. They got the mom who didn't know who she was, who didn't embrace her passion, and didn't share her love and dreams with them. Are they wonderful? Yes! Might they have turned out differently? Definitely! But I take solace in the fact that they are getting to watch me bloom now with adult eyes and I feel like they are still able to learn lessons from it.

I was watching Anerican Idol last night and there was a woman who made it to Hollywood and she asked Jennifer Lopez for advice because for years people were telling her that she couldn't do it because she had kids. Jennifer told her in no uncertain terms that she could do it and she could always make it work and that her kids would be better for it.

THE KIDS WILL BE BETTER FOR IT!

To all you moms out there, let that sink in. Following your dreams and passions does not make you a selfish mom. It makes you a mom that is an inspiration to her kids. It makes your children learn how to believe in their dreams and follow their passions and isn't that what we want most of all for our children?

Dream on my friends!

Vacation Journaling

Started playing on the airplane

 I decided to bring a small art kit with me on vacation this year. I haven't been doing much in the way of creating lately. The holidays are such a busy time for me and having my son leave for the Air Force in January has kept me away from my artistic expression and I thought vacation might be the perfect time to get back in the groove.

 I really wanted to keep it light and fun. Nothing tight or constrained.  I often struggle with this. I've always wanted to have that loose, messy style but it never comes across that way. In the above journal page I really tried to let loose and be messy. It was fun.

Hanging out at the pool with my journal

 One thing that happens to me every time I go on vacation is that I get a little whiny. I don't ever want to go home. I love every place I ever visit more than my boring town in the Midwest. I took some time to journal it out this year. I whined in my journal and then I flipped it and switched the energy. It was great because I got it out and I felt so much better and was able to move on and enjoy my vacation so much more.

Covering up an old Christmas list

At one point I came upon a page that I had written a Christmas list all over in scribbly, yucky handwriting. I was a little bummed because I hated the idea of all my fun and colorful pages being interrupted by this ugly page.

I showed it to my hubby and he said, "Why don't you cover it up?" I explained to him that watercolors wouldn't cover it up. But I became obsessed with the idea and decided that maybe, just maybe my gel pens would cover it and I set out to see.

It was a fun experiment and ended up liking the way it turned out.

Exploring the book, Life is a Verb

Have you heard about the year long project that Effy has called the Book of Days? I've been following her videos and while I am not really creating a book of days I am really enjoying what she is doing. While I was on vacation she started to incorporate the book Life is a Verb into her Book of Days. I had actually just purchased the book without knowing she was working with it. How funny is that?!

I created the above page to write my innermost thoughts about the questions Effy posted. I was happy with the way it turned out but I was a little shocked when I turned the page and saw that the sharpie marker I used to outline the  outer edges had seeped through. I showed my 14 year old Devin and laughed, "I guess I will be skipping a page huh?" He replied, "Well why don't you just put another face on that page?" Duh! What a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?!

So that is what I did. I used the same outline and created a second girl. When I was working on her I made a big boo boo. The paint was wet and I went in with blue and it spread like wildfire. Ugh! I decided to just go with it and embrace it. I put blue all over her eyes and the funny thing is it worked perfectly with the writing I had done.

I was really exploring my story and my relationship with taking ownership of my life. I ended up writing around her head, "She cried so much that even her tears got sick of her, dried up and ran away." It was a perfect expression of how I was living my story and playing my life as a victim. It just goes to show you that it really is true...there are no accidents.

I will leave you with this ugly page I created. I had decided to step outside my box and do something a little different from the stuff I normally do. Early on I knew it was bad...knew it was ugly. I could have given up and did something else but I decided to make it even uglier. I picked the ugliest colors I could and just kept going.

When I finished I decided to journal a little about it and this is what I ended up with.
xo

An Artful Journey

What a wonderful time I had in California at the Artful Journey Retreat. Cindy is a really great woman who planned a terrific event. Look at the welcome gift I received. It was beautiful! She was my angel on the last day when I lost the keys to my rental car! She went above and beyond to help me out and I am forever grateful.

I signed up to take Jesse Reno's class. I told you a little about him the day I left. I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought he might be a little rough around the edges. Let me tell you, he was great. He was really funny too. He told so many great stories and he genuinely wanted to teach us all he could. I even appreciated his grumpiness in the mornings. It reminded me of my 17 year old. :o)

His supply list was basic. Inexpensive paints, inexpensive paper and some brushes. That's it. Look how neat and clean everything looked when I first got there.

Nothing stayed neat for long. The first thing we did was apply the paint with our hands. It was fun. The idea is that you create this interesting "ground" with texture and color. This is done exclusively with your hands. We weren't allowed any brushes until day two. Can you imagine?


Once you have your ground down you begin to block out shapes and forms. I had THE HARDEST time with this part. I am telling you that I was so angry with myself. This flower was my first attempt and he brought it up the front of the room to show everyone what NOT to do. Hee hee.

The idea is that you are supposed to let things emerge slowly instead of making a hard shape. Now it was going to be a lot harder for this painting to be anything other than a flower.

We worked on 2-3 paintings at a time. He works on 10-15 in his studio. I had my grounds down on 3 of them and a flower on one and I was STUCK. He told me what to do to help me and I got back to my seat and forgot everything he said. I left for lunch so pissed off. I really could have punched someone. He kept looking over at me and he knew I was all kinds of messed up.

When we got back from lunch he sussed out the energy in the room. I don't think I was the only one struggling but I was definitely the most vocal about it :o) He told us that sometimes you just needed to get something blocked out so he was giving us 5 minutes to do it. What?! I about died.

I was frozen and he walked by and said, "You now have 4 minutes, now 3." Ugh! I finally just jumped in and created some weird animal like thing. Some people thought it was a dog. Others, a horse and still others thought a sea horse. I didn't know what the hell it was and I didn't like the looks of it but I felt so much better. My energy shifted immensely and I thanked him for pushing.

The painting continued to morph. I added a woman.

And then I stole the bottom of my creature and gave it to the woman. Now I had some funky animal woman. I have no idea.

I kept playing with it...blocking out the eye and repainting it (about 10 times), playing with the colors. Jesse called me his "every five minute girl" because I kept going up there to pick his brain. I figured I was there to learn his techniques and the best way to do that was to ask questions. He helped me so much.

This is pretty close to the final product. Like I said, who knows what or why. :o)



One of my favorite exercises was when he had us draw random things. He would say, "Draw a face. Now put a face coming out of the side. Now have an appendage coming out of the head." We just followed along. I have to say we were a bit taken back when he told us to paint a skull. What? We were a bunch of girls. We didn't want to paint a skull. He said he was going to be the only guy in a room of girls all weekend and since he knew about accessories we could paint a skull. We all laughed and painted our skulls.

My flower managed to transform itself into a face. A wacky face for sure. I worked on it for quite a while to get it to this stage. When I brought it up to him he asked me if I liked it and I said no, not really. So he told me to change the shape of it. To wreck it. In fact, he said that if we didn't wreck our painting at least twice it wasn't done.


I was a bit timid to wreck it I guess but I did change the shape and I hated it even more. So, change it again.

When I created this shape in the head it began to like a mask to me. You can see how the layering can really change things up. Suddenly my blue background made stripes so I put some lines and shapes on top to integrate it so it looked like one piece.

I tweaked the background a bit and we were out of time. This was my finished painting.

I really enjoyed learning this type of painting. He makes it look so easy but it is REALLY HARD! It is sort of the opposite of what you would normally do. Instead of building up shapes you are blocking shapes out of the background and then layering and blocking some more and on and on.

I have to tell you that I loved Jesse's take on life. I wrote down a bunch of things he said and I will share them with you in my next post.