Cay Denise

I've just read my posts over the last six months and have found a telling comment in most of them where my art work from the Life Book program has been posted. What I've said in most of those posts is that my piece took off in a different direction than the lesson. Apology? Excuse? Justification? What it reflects is that I approach the lessons as a launching pad to explore techniques and create a piece that reflects the lesson concept, even though it may not imitate the art instructor's piece.  THAT IS OK!  I think I've believed that it wasn't -- but no longer -- my unique voice is already coming through. So, what I commit to from now on -- is to NOT SAY that my piece went in a totally different direction than the lesson (because each one will).  I WILL start acknowledging my take on each and every lesson is my own distinct voice!

Great lesson, but hard one to do -- for me, at least! It took my many stops and starts with this piece to get to the finished one.  We were to be fearless in our work and in deconstructing the work and then reconstructing it.  I did a bit of 'fearless', but still need to work on getting even more so.  I'm satisfied with the work tonight that has brought this piece to a sense of conclusion. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this link:  www.willowing.org .

While feeling a lack of inspiration, I started working up a color chart of all my colored pens, pencils and crayons (water soluble and non-water soluble). This effort revealed that there are a few colors only available from certain brands, and I got a feel for brands that are easier to work with than others.  Both are very good lessons. I'm now on Page 4...and still working!

I really liked the Week 2 lesson!  We were to collage images onto our canvas and then paint around and/or over the images (which were to include selected words) to create something with meaning to us personally.  From the instructional video, it looked pretty easy. But alas, it really wasn't -- at least for me.  The more I looked, I couldn't find magazine images that appealed to me or that had sepia and/or black-white-gray tones.  So, I used something colorful and ended up with a completely different 'take' on the lesson.  At first I thought I needed to do something more.  But it is growing on me as it is. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this link:  www.willowing.org .

Yes, I signed up for another year of Tamara Laporte's wonderful online art class (Life Book 2016), and this is my piece from Lesson 1! It took a different direction than what we were led to do, but it uses the same techniques.  The result has a slight medieval quality though the colors are definitely not medieval.  I'm pleased with the work which took all weekend to create.  But it feels like a great start to my new 2016 art adventure! This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this link:  www.willowing.org .

The first lesson came out shortly before January 1, 2016.  As was the case with last year, the first lesson has a lot of information to digest including videos to watch and work to complete. I haven't started the main project from Lesson 1 yet, but this is the warm-up to it.  This piece has a bottom layer of writing (using both hands), a collage layer, a watercolor/paint layer, layer of gesso cover plus a lot more.  The heart is a 'mask' made from a heart-shaped cutout that actually turned out quite neat all by itself. 'See' is my word for the year...as you can see in a piece from an earlier post.  2016 promises to be a very productive year of arting! This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this link:  www.willowing.org .

I've never done the Women Unleashed online retreat before, but I'm really enjoying it!  From creating the cover of my journal to beginning to fill it with imagery, doodles, etc., I've been have a good time! There are too many sessions to complete in the retreat's two-week format of two sessions per day, but I will have done some good work.  Among some of the things I've done so far, the two below were done this weekend, and tomorrow, I'll be making a personal reliquary.