"She hangs the stars..." finished.

She Hangs the Stars, original mixed media artwork by Katie Holmes.

It'll be in the mail soon, Amy K.!!  Never forget what a work of art you are.  I love you dearly.  :)

Silence the voices.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."  

-Vincent Van Gogh

I will paint.  Even if my work schedule only allows me to paint on the weekends, I will paint.  Even though I may get frustrated that I "can't" paint what I see in my head, still I will paint.  If only to silence the voices.

"She hangs the stars.."

"Hers wouldn't stick to the sky, so she hung them from the tree instead."

Almost finished with a painting that I'm gonna stick in the mail to a dear friend of mine.  Got a little sad yesterday because I realized that even thought I adore artists like Kelly Rae Roberts and Julie Nutting and they have the most precious "girlies" in their artwork, I can't draw a human figure to save my life.  So the style that I LOVE is well out of my reach.  This saddened me.  Then two things happened. 
1.  My husband told me to work with what I am good at.  He mentioned the "be not afraid" tree.  Which got me to thinking.  I do love trees.  They aren't intimidating....just fun.

and

2.  I read the following exerpt from Inner Excavation by Liz Lamoreux:  "Then, I decided I needed to figure out how to "make a girl" with paint.  But I had no experience drawing or painting faces, and the negative inner dialogue that came up when I attempted when I attempted it pushed me away from wanting to paint at all.  I spent months almost frozen creatively because of this need to "paint a girl".  Somehow I had arrived at the conclusion that to be an artist I must be able to paint a girl."  Ha ha!!  Someone else has been there too!  All of these lovely painted girls floating around in the world, simply out of my reach, and come to find out, I'm not alone!  :)  Thanks for that, Liz!

Anyway, I painted a tree instead.  Threw some stars and glitter in for good measure.  Take that fear and frustration!  I painted anyway.

And Amy K., if you are reading this, I hope you like your tree, darling girl!

"At present your business is to see."

"How soon do you think I could begin painting?" it asked.

The Spirit broke into laughter.  "Don't you see you'll never paint at all if that's what you're thinking about?" he said.

"What do you mean?" asked the Ghost.

"Why, if you are interested in the country only for the sake of painting it, you'll never learn to see the country."

"But that's just how a real artist is interested in the country."

"No.  You're forgetting." said the Spirit.

"That was not how you began.  Light itself was your first love:  you loved paint only as a means of telling about light."

-from C.S. Lewis', The Great Divorce

Oh, how desperately I want to learn to see.  Not for the sake of making art, but for the sake of appreciating the beauty I hurry past every day.   

Clarity.

She seeks a reservoir of healing

a moment of rest

a reflection of stillness

in which she can see clearly

the vibrant girl she is meant to be.

Side note:  The above poem is the product of an exercise from a  book by Liz Lamoreux:  Inner Excavation.  It contains some freeing exercises in poetry, photography, and mixed-media and so far I'm loving it!  The art pieces displayed in the book alone are worth the money spent.  

Determination

Working on a few projects.  Not sure I really have time for this...so much to do at school now that Christmas Break is over.  Still, I feel a little more balanced taking the time to glue paper to a box, or ponder future fabric artistry.  Allowing myself the "permission" to have a little fun might have been the best resolution I could make for this year.  Stay tuned for sneak peeks of the current projects.  :)

be not afraid.

Had a great time this afternoon with my art-lovin' friend, Amanda, working on this piece.  I admire her for how much she manages to get accomplished with a little two-year-old running around.  We certainly had an interesting time trying to "do art" while trying to keep the Mod-Podge off of the coffee table and the paint-water from becoming a thirst-quencher.  :)

Many times during the making of this piece, I had to remind myself of my desire to let go of my tendency toward perfection and just try.  At the end of the evening, I'm pretty proud of my work.  And I had great fun doing it!

Be not afraid, original mixed media artwork by Katie Holmes.