This is Who I Am
The day I got the horse I wanted all my life (Abbey)
I live in Tennessee, with my husband, 2 horses, 3 dogs, 3 cats, 1 bird, 1 Betta fish, approximately 40 pet praying mantises. You might say I like animals, and nature. I neglect my garden and get along really well with herbs, not so well with garden pests (or peppers, which will not grow for me). I make chainmaille and wire jewelry - that's one day job (the one I enjoy). The other one involves typing medical records.
A lot of the poetry I'm posting on this site is old stuff I've written. I'm hoping that posting it, and the journaling, painting and meditating I'm doing, will inspire a little more writing. Poetry is something I've been doing for most of my life.
In contrast, I started painting in 2009. I had thought to get lessons for my son Brandon from Karen Ross Walton, who sells her art at Fragrant Mushroom, where I sell jewelry, and when she told me how much lessons were, I thought, I can take them too. I was really just along for the ride.
But Brandon finished three paintings and went off to college, and Karen and I went on with lessons for a year, and it was treasured time creating with a wonderful mentor and friend, whose advice about art and life are little treasures I hold in my heart and take out to look at from time to time (a lot of my tips below are these same treasures). I told myself I'd paint between lessons but I almost never did. When life got hectic for Karen and she couldn't do lessons anymore, I told my self I'd keep it up. I didn't. I've been telling myself that for over a year, and it's that thing that I know I'm supposed to do to feed my soul, but I never made time for it.
Then I discovered the Daily Painters movement and Creative Every Day and I've wanted to participate. I put that off for 4 months, too, but I'm done procrastinating now, I hope. I've decided that this is a priority and my plan is to get up every morning, write in my journal, spend a few minutes meditating, and paint/draw/art/write for at least an hour, depending on what else I have to do that day.
Words and art and nature are how I connect with my spirituality, so expect to meet a good deal of that here. My path has carried me from a very strict Christian religion to something I can't really call religion anymore but is very definitely spiritual. My paintbrush is my prayer and any forest or night sky is my cathedral. My teachers and mystics are furred, feathered, hooved and green.
I hope that what I have to share connects somehow with you, too, and maybe inspires you in some small way.
If you are a person that, like me, has been telling yourself for years that you wish you were an artist (in one form or another), here is my advice for you.
And a few book recommendations for artists and artists not currently making art.
A lot of the poetry I'm posting on this site is old stuff I've written. I'm hoping that posting it, and the journaling, painting and meditating I'm doing, will inspire a little more writing. Poetry is something I've been doing for most of my life.
In contrast, I started painting in 2009. I had thought to get lessons for my son Brandon from Karen Ross Walton, who sells her art at Fragrant Mushroom, where I sell jewelry, and when she told me how much lessons were, I thought, I can take them too. I was really just along for the ride.
But Brandon finished three paintings and went off to college, and Karen and I went on with lessons for a year, and it was treasured time creating with a wonderful mentor and friend, whose advice about art and life are little treasures I hold in my heart and take out to look at from time to time (a lot of my tips below are these same treasures). I told myself I'd paint between lessons but I almost never did. When life got hectic for Karen and she couldn't do lessons anymore, I told my self I'd keep it up. I didn't. I've been telling myself that for over a year, and it's that thing that I know I'm supposed to do to feed my soul, but I never made time for it.
Then I discovered the Daily Painters movement and Creative Every Day and I've wanted to participate. I put that off for 4 months, too, but I'm done procrastinating now, I hope. I've decided that this is a priority and my plan is to get up every morning, write in my journal, spend a few minutes meditating, and paint/draw/art/write for at least an hour, depending on what else I have to do that day.
Words and art and nature are how I connect with my spirituality, so expect to meet a good deal of that here. My path has carried me from a very strict Christian religion to something I can't really call religion anymore but is very definitely spiritual. My paintbrush is my prayer and any forest or night sky is my cathedral. My teachers and mystics are furred, feathered, hooved and green.
I hope that what I have to share connects somehow with you, too, and maybe inspires you in some small way.
If you are a person that, like me, has been telling yourself for years that you wish you were an artist (in one form or another), here is my advice for you.
- Stop putting it off. Make one small step toward it today. Get out your sketchbook or your paints. Seriously, go do it.
- Allow yourself to make bad art. You have to make a lot of bad art before you can make good art.
- Show up at the canvas/page/studio/whatever. There is only one way to become a good artist. You have to put in the time. Regularly. Preferably daily.
- Play. Don't take yourself too seriously.
- Every day, do something for your artist's soul. Every single day, no matter how hectic. Doodle while you're on the phone. Something.
- The best advice my mentor ever gave me was, all mistakes are correctable. Don't let fear of making one stop you from creating. Each one is a learning experience, too. When she took the brush from me and painted out the eye that I had so painstakingly crafted... in the wrong place... it opened MY eyes.
- When you're painting, step back from the canvas every so often so you can get a different view. Staring at shapes and little details is a little like snow blindness... everything changes when you step back. And often things will either fall into place (wow, how did I do that? when your left brain is trying to dictate what it thinks a pair of glasses looks like, it's usually wrong. When it gets out of the way, it'll feel like you did magic while your left brain was on vacation). Or sometimes, you'll see exactly what's wrong that you need to fix.
- Don't throw anything away. If nothing else, the stuff you make that sucks will serve as something to compare to later, so you can see how far you've come. You can stash it somewhere. Just don't toss it. ALSO... you never know what someone else might love. All artists are their own worst critic. If you don't believe me, go browse art that has sold.
- Have a place that is just for art, even if it's a tiny corner of a room in your house. But also, don't get stuck in one place. Go outside and paint, or try painting to a different kind of music than you generally listen to.
- I highly recommend either an art journal or an art blog. When I don't add something to my blog I feel like I cheated myself. It's great for making that commitment to yourself, and also for tracking your progress.
- Listen to Artists Helping Artists podcast. It's practical and inspiring at the same time.
- Just do it. I said this about three different ways and I know Nike owns it but I am going to say it again: Just. Do. It.
And a few book recommendations for artists and artists not currently making art.
- The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
- Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards