Play Time

I just bought the book "Living Out Loud, ActivitiesTo Fuel A Creative Life" by Keri Smith. You can check out her blog at Wish Jar. The first activity listed is:
1. Doodle wildly (try new colors or techniques)
so I grabbed a new sketchbook to start my journey and doodled.
I used oil pastels, watercolors, and sharpie marker and then I scanned it and opened it in Photoshop and altered it four ways and pasted them together. Here is the result. The one in the upper right corner is the original.
As I was doodling, I listened to an interview with Jafabrit on Dirty Footprints Studio Talk. I like to keep both sides of my brain busy.

Red Sky At Morning

What a beautiful sky I awoke to the day before yesterday. The old sailors saying, "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning" couldn't have applied to the rest of that day. It was a calm day, but yesterday, on the other hand was wildly windy. I could hear trees cracking and falling in our forest and trees were down on our road. Thankfully, they were not blocking the road.

"FAITH is the SUBSTANCE of things UNSEEN"

I got a little work done before I had to go to town. One piece is a copper necklace that I have had the components of for several months, but just didn't take the time to assemble it until today. I've been having a little trouble getting inspired lately, and I thought if I finished those little unfinished projects lying around that it would free my mind to create.

The other is another of my fused glass pendants made into a beaded necklace.

Also, last night I watched "Craft In America" a three part series made for PBS about the artists, origins, and techniques of American crafts. It was a beautifully filmed, inspiring documentary. I think that watching this will kick start my creativity and make me more focused on craftsmanship. It is available through Netflix.

Eclectic Mix

Floral Dance

I just added some new pieces to my Etsy shop. They are kind of all over the place when it comes to style and materials. I just do what strikes my fancy at the moment.

Flying Dog

Linked Hearts
(Made from recycled electrical wire)

Vision (commission for Karen)

I also just discovered that Cynthia Korzekwa mentioned and linked to my Medals for Everyday People on her Art For Housewives blog. It is in her January 31 post. I think that she lives in Italy. Her site always has the most interesting plethora of links to art using recycled materials. I have been following her blog for several years. Thanks Cynthia!

An Artful Evening

Last evening, I had the pleasure of attending a gallery show entitled, Revisited: an exhibition of works by retired Middle Tennessee State University art faculty. One of the artists is my uncle David LeDoux, and two of the others were instructors of mine while I was going to school there. Here are a few of David's paintings. Please excuse the glare from the lights. My pictures don't do justice to the vibrant colors. For contact information you may go to his Thistle Hill website.
Another of the artists is Klaus Kallenberger, who was my metals instructor for silversmithing and enameling. He had a few pieces of his silver jewelry and some small intricate sculptures on display, but says that he no longer does much metal work because it is so hard on one's hands. He now focuses on quilting. Here are two of his beautifully complex quilts. His quilts have been displayed at the Nashville International Airport and other galleries.

Ollie Fancher was one of the other artists and he was my graphic design teacher. He wasn't at the reception, but there were two of his mixed media drawings on display. Unfortunately, they were under glass and I couldn't get a good photo because of the glare.

I also had the pleasure of renewing an acquaintance with Elder Jones who does wonderful concrete sculptures. I had met him at a craft fair at Centennial Park in Nashville several years ago and I found out last night that he is a neighbor of my aunt and uncle. Small world. I learned about his work before I met him, in the book Creating With Concrete by Sherrie Warner Hunter, who is also a Tennessee artist. Check out his website Sand Pudding to see his work. I am hoping to be able to take one of his workshops this summer. I think that would be a blast!