Artful Thinking

Reaching across...Cyber Colleagues

Altered Perception by Holly Dean

I have to admit that I am a very hands-on kind of person.  Becoming fluent with blogging and Facebook has not been an easy task for me.  When Julie Prichard and I first started working together I wanted to just be the "idea" person, not onscreen and especially not looking at the camera! I am really good with being in front of an actual audience or class full of students, but cyber people was just plain weird to me.  How would I be able to read their eyes or see their questions in their body movements?  Anyhow, Julie eased me into it and I got over that.  Then she pushed me to blog more and make FB pages.  Once the classes we do on The Land of Lost Luggage got up and running I found that the interactions within our forums were like private tutelage.  We got to "know" our students work, their hesitations, their strengths.  Pretty soon it was clear that some of these students were our colleagues and we were learning from each other.  The questions asked within an online class gave us pause, created new ideas, and helped us to solve and resolve issues for others.

I want to give a shout out to all of you who have been taking classes with us and tell you that you have made me grow and learn as an instructor.  You have helped me move pass my own limitations and find new avenues to explore.  Best of all I count a number of you as friends and colleagues and I celebrate your contributions to the world of mixed media.  The interactions you provide keep me focused on my own growth while I work to foster the growth of others.  You keep me reaching for new techniques, new ways of seeing things.  I applaud you today.

 

Spilling over...

Can you find all the stencil designs on this piece?

What a year this has been so far!  It started off with the release of my DVD series on Acrylic Solutions which were produced  through ArtistsNetwork.tv , then at the end of March came our book Acrylic Solutions: Exploring Mixed Media Layer by Layer!  That should have been enough you say?  Well I wanted something playful to do so I asked Lisa and Michael at Artistcellar.com if they would be interested in some stencil designs.  If you know my work you can already guess they are Pods.  There is going to be a fabulous Blog Hop with some really terrific people participating and some fabulous give aways including the stencils (of course!) and some other pretty special stuff courtesy of North Light.

You'll want to stop in at Artistcellar this morning (www.artistcellar.com/wp) to see what you have to do to get in on the fun and games.

 
Then we HOP to:

Monday May 13         Seth Apter (http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/)

Tuesday May 14        MaryBeth Shaw  (http://mbshaw.blogspot.com/)

Wednesday May 15    Maryjo McGraw  (http://maryjomcgraw.blogspot.com/)

Thursday May 16        Jane LaFazio  (http://janeville.blogspot.com/)

Friday May 17             Pam Carriker  (http://pamcarriker.com/blog/)

Saturday May 18        Jeanette House  (http://www.jeanettehouse.co.uk/blog/)

and finally back to me on

Sunday May 19           Chris Cozen  (http://chriscozenartist.typepad.com/my-blog/)

You'll want to leave comments on all the blogs and let them know I sent you!  A special thank you to all these amazing artists/friends that have agreed to share in the fun.

PS: Did I mention there was going to be FREE stuff?  Oh, and lots of it?  

Looking beyond the obvious...

I had to share this latest art adventure with you before I burst!  I LOVE how this turned out.  But you should see how it began...hold on, let me find that image.

 

Yes, this is what it started like.  Then more paint and then more pattern and pretty soon, you get the picture.  Well, I'm loving this process right now.  It is completely intuitive and you just keep working at it until something completely wonderful shows up.  Most of the time it does and that is what keeps you coming back for more.  I'm working on Canson Watercolor Board and it is 16x20 in size.  Fabulous surface and takes a lot of abuse.  Fluid Acrylics, OPEN acrylics, stencils, papers, pastel pencil and lots of imagination.  Enjoy!

By the way, time is counting down and if anyone is looking for art for gifts please get in touch!

Facing my fears...

It has taken me a long time to master the simple idea of layers in Photoshop.  When I work in real layers I have no issues.  I totally understand the concept of layers in a physical sense, but for some reason my mind just could NOT grasp the concept when it was not tangible.  Recently I decided that I had run out of excuses and I needed to try again without bringing in my past defeats.  Sometimes we let the things we didn't understand from before influence our decisions about what we can do today.  I hated math because I wasn't good at memorizing things, but I learned that I think very mathematically about many things.  I am a pretty non-traditional learner and teacher.  I rely on my intuitive brain a tremendous amount.  It sometimes takes a number of trials for me to learn what a more organized brain might learn quickly.  Yet, sometimes I see things in a flash that no one else can figure out.  Brains are amazing and adaptable.  Creative endeavors fuel our brains to keep growing and changing.  I'm convinced that all these years of doing art have made my brain more flexible because now I understand layers in Photoshop!  I'm going to keep working at growing my brain, how about you? 

Julie Prichard and I have an amazing assortment of online art classes that are perfect for growing your brain, especially the creative side.  Why don't you check out our Online classes here.  They are so much more fun than the gym!

Potential...

I'm forever collecting seed pods.  What ever started me on this journey I cannot say.   An implied "possibility" is there when you look at the pods in their various states.  In the beginning they are just forming, tiny, tight and holding on to their potential.  As they begin to break open it is as if they are filled with anticipation, anxious to greet what may be ahead.  When they open and the seeds are still within, full and round and heady with life, the ripeness of it all is intoxicating.  So much potential and so many opportunities.  Even when the pod lies spent, empty of its contents, I am fascinated.  Just the pod alone speaks to a job well done, a beautiful vessel for the potential it carried.

As you begin each composition, think of it in terms of the life cycle of the seed pod.  An idea forms tight and unformed.  With nurturing it will ripen and reveal itself to you.  Keep developing it and it will burst forth and complete itself.  The pod that remains is your emblem of completion.  A job well done.

What inspires you?

Experimentation: Unlocking the key to your artistic self

When I first finished my training with Golden Artist Colors I was so overwhelmed by the number of products and the amount of information that I had to absorb.  I knew if I was ever going to be able to share things with others I really had to know what I was talking about.  The boxes of product arrived and I began to play and experiment.  I quickly learned that I had to lose the fear of making a mistake and go ahead and try whatever came to mind.  Not long after I had the opportunity to write my first book, ALTERED SURFACES which was the result of putting  all that experimentation and fancy technical information through the seive of my mind and sharing it on paper.  I found that people responded to technical information if you could translate it into useful language.  Since that time there have been two more books, my online partnership with Julie Prichard and another book in the works, along with hundreds of students in workshops. I love teaching and am always looking for the opportunity to share what I know with others, especially the part about experimenting.  Never be afraid to try something different it may lead you to your true artistic self!

Plein Air in the sunshine with Golden's OPEN Acrylics

I spent the morning yesterday at a Plein Air event at the Riverside Art Museum.  The artists were gearing up for their annual "paint-out" and I manned a table demonstrating Golden's OPEN acrylics.  This was a true test of the extended working time in outdoor conditions  as the table was set up in the brilliant morning sunlight and there was a brisk breeze all day. We started out cool but by early afternoon it was distinctly warm!   For 3 1/2 hours we painted and explored how versatile and workable the paint is.  The artists were amazed and created little landscape gems right in front of me.  I love spontaneous painting so I played for a bit myself while chatting with the other artists.  My landscapes are a bit more creative than the traditional type but the colors are fabulous!  If you haven't jumped onto the OPEN Acrylics bandwagon, you should give it a try! Layer Love V.2.0 is an online Class that I teach with Julie Prichard on her network.  It will give you a great intro to OPEN and its many possibilities.  You'll just need to take your laptop outside if you want to learn it plein air!

A sigh of relief...

I just got home after spending the last couple of days with my art partner, Julie Prichard working on the final photo sequences for our book together.  The art work is glorious and now we move onto the final writing stages before the editors at North Light/F & W do whatever it is they do to books to make it available to the general public.  The one really great thing about this project is that it is  forcing us to really think about our art and how we communicate with all of our students both in the online network in The Land of Lost Luggage and in my "in person" workshops .  We want our art to communicate, but we need to be able to explain how we do things so you can understand.  Understand?  All kidding aside, the teacher in me is always happy when you "get it!" 

Go make lots of art!