12 Dancing Princesses

If you've made your way over here from Carla's  Sonheim's blog, welcome.  I was delighted to contribute to our Year of the Fairy Tale course call for some fancy schmancy princesses!  Carla does a great job inspiring us and encouraging us. These online art classes are wonderful and I could easily take 12 at a time, though I know better….  My dad and I are going to begin a sketching class together this fall. We are a couple thousand miles apart, so how fun is that do something artsy together?  But, I digress.

My princesses came about as I glommed onto some techniques I've been learning this year. When I clean up my hands from messing with my clay sculptures, I am enjoying making another kind of mixed media mess. I have a theme here, do I not:  messes.  (Another blog post)

Here are some Princesses In Progress.

I love my iPhone for trying out positioning in art projects.  These dancers found their way all over the canvas before I settled on the final groupings.  I can take numerous shots then scroll through them on my phone to see which pleases me!

Dancers close up.  Tissue paper on collaged background.  I used water color pencils and Caran d'Ache water soluble wax pastels for the colors.  Water soluble crayons??  What ELSE do I have to learn!

And then I just decided: They are done. Off to the dances and to Carla for publishing…

Thanks for peeking.  May you dance in today's sunshine (or air conditioning if the humidity calls for such drastic measures.) 

Squam and CREATE!

As the kids head back to school and my remaining 'kid' starts college classes again today, I am looking towards fall, my all time favorite season! (I had a quick conversation with an acquaintance at an art journaling workshop a couple of weeks ago... fall is her least favorite season and reminds her of death.  Honestly, I have never thought of it that way, even though my mom died two years ago in October.) Anyway. Late summer musings... 

Art and travel are lined up in my life again for September and October and this brings me more than a wee bit of joy!  I'm going to Squam for the first time! It looks like my kind of outdoors, campy, New England place and perhaps these will be my kind of people too.... though, I don't know.  I'm showing up alone, as usual, and I suspect I will be way older than most of the artsy, flowing dress, bohemian souls who show up. But, with white hair comes wisdom, yes??  I can at least offer that!  

The season brings an artsy shift with it for me too... less mixed media and more fiber.  Wool and thread and color and stitching and more creating. I am so thankful... 

Master of Fine Arts

It may not be 'official' official, but I am currently engaged in my MFA.  It's self directed, mind you, with online courses chosen BY me, FOR me.  I will, in fact, award myself with the appropriate degree at the end of my studies (whenever I decide that will be.)  If I really were the control freak this sounds like I am, I'd be in heaven!  I am learning a ton from instructors of varying skills from all over the world.  Who knew? 

In the absence of my children and their friends inhabiting our household, my empty nesting self is engaging my deeply embedded creative passions.  My interests are many and varied and quite unstoppable. Currently I'm diving into mixed media with clay "on the side." Soon I will be taking a live course at the fall Squam Lake Art Retreat with upcycling fibers and design as the focus.  I'm all in with that too.  

All that to say, it's time to take a clue from these artsy teachers who use their blogs to post short and sweet comments alongside photos of their current work.  When I figure out all the watermarking copyright details, I'll be back….