Secret #7 and Crusade #28

This chapter of “The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women” asked us to identify who influenced us early in our life. I immediately knew that my sister, Kathy, had been one of the most influential people when I was young. I think I had a predisposition to all types of arts and crafts but I remember being in awe of her when she left for college, majoring in art. I often wondered if it I interpreted her changing majors to Occupational Therapy as a subliminal message that a career choice should be “practical”. In every book I’ve read about creativity, the question always comes up as to those instances in your life where you were discouraged from following your dream of being an artist. I never felt that anyone said “you can’t make a living being an artist”, but when it came time for me to go to college, my interest in business and computers prevailed. So fast forward twenty years, I’ve experienced the corporate world and am now a stay-at-home mom with two boys (who are growing up much too fast) and I am recreating my life to include my need to be creative. I only wish I could share my experiences and my creative passions with Kathy, but unfortunately she died from cancer over seven years ago.

In the last two years, I have been actively seeking out other creative individuals, some who I consider as guides in the journey and others who are traveling companions (I have found this a bit ironic since it feels like just yesterday I was giving my nephew grief for his “networking” mindset). Having these people in my life has been such a blessing. They have instrumental in identifying my dreams and giving me the confidence to go after them (and if you are reading this, then you are one of those people and I THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart).

And now….on to the Crusade part of my post…

In keeping with Michelle’s play on traditional new year’s resolutions, she titled GPP Crusade #28 as “Portion Control”. I didn’t use my shape from Crusade 27 but I did use the technique in a couple of recent projects. The challenge was to use partial images or shapes to add visual interest. The first canvas, my angel project, uses only a partial image for the focal point and also incorporates part of the angel stamp I carved. I also made a combination mask/stencil of a pair of wings. I used part of it by dry brushing over the mask and also glazing inside the stencil. My original image transfer of the angel head was much more distressed but it was a little “too partial” for my tastes and I ended up doing a second image transfer. My second canvas, with the buddha, includes partial stencilling of the words “purposeful life”. Both of these canvases were made for a challenge that my friend DebMarie and I do every two weeks. We have been meeting for breakfast every two weeks since school started for our kids. Although we always seem to be on a creative high afterwards (don’t you just love talking to people who get you 🙂 ), we decided that we would also pick a challenge so that we could each see how the other interprets it. Week one was the color red and week two was to incorporate a map (the base of my buddha piece is a japanese map). Don’t forget, if you click on the image, it will bring up a bigger size in a lightbox so you can get a better look at it.

Well, that’s all for now but hopefully I will soon be showing you a piece I’m making for a charity auction AND since it is for a public radio station it had to include some type of vinyl record…have I piqued your interest?