Art School :)

Living the dream… finally! 🙂  Thanks to the stars aligning or wishes on shooting starts or answered prayers or living angels or simply showing up, I’m finally going to art school (something I gave up on in about 5th grade).  And this is the best kind of school, lots of learning and no grades! 🙂

Here’s what I’ve been up to recently this semester, many are not yet done. 🙂  I post pictures more frequently on instagram so follow Loving Rd there to see more work in progress and photos more often.

A Year of Painting

This one was finished while listening to moving music by Peia:

Bloom True

Music is highly encouraged while painting in this class so I’ll share what music I was listening to while working on layers when applicable.  🙂  These 3 first layers were done listening to Lindsey Stirling:

Big canvases are needed for this class and quite expensive so I’m getting creative and looking for any big surfaces that can be used for painting, such as the 2 old suitcases in the first picture below, which were found at the thrift store for $1 and in my attic for a while!  I discovered while painting the 3rd picture on the right below that I really like the diamond orientation and it also helps keep the canvas more stable against the unfinished wall. 🙂

Life Book 2015

Week 4 Lesson by Patti Ballard.  The first tight-rope walker was done following Patti’s lesson pretty closely based on her original.  The acrobat, still in progress, is my own twist on the lesson. 🙂  It will say, “So fly she does!” or something similar.

Week 5 dream catcher lesson by Rachael Rice.  The lovely background in the first picture was done by my online friend, Iti, who made it into an envelope to send me happy mail.  I’m trying to use more of the fun happy mail goodies I’ve received and this one just kept saying, “pick me!”  It even already had the word ‘dream’ stamped on it.  I removed the address and postal labels and kept Iti’s return address information hidden under one of the bottom feathers since this is collaborative effort of sorts with her.  This is one of the first collaborative projects I’ve done and I love the way it turned out.  I look forward doing more collaborative work with other artists intentionally in the future. 🙂

The photo with all the bottles in it was taken while the tacky glue was drying to hold on the real feathers and beads.  The word ‘happiness’ that ended up in the middle of the dream catcher volunteered itself… I found it on the bottom of one of the bottles (my art table was a mess so who knows when it was ripped out and where it came from!).  After finishing the dream catcher portion, there was still a big open area on the upper right that I didn’t know what to do with.  I went to bed and that night, I awoke with the image of a bird silhouette and the message, “gliding safely on the winds of change” and knew it was for that area.  🙂  Loving the intuitive process that I’m learning and practicing with some of these projects.  That statement addresses the fear that sometimes comes up when stretching out of my comfort zone and dreaming big!  Listened to Walela while making this, which brought an energy all its own to the creation.

Radiant Faces

From Lesson 1 with Jane Davenport:

My heart is bursting with gratitude to be living my dreams and learning with these amazing artists!  What a ride it has been to get here (read more about the past year and how this came to be in the next blog post).  My wish for you is that you are able to hear the whispers of your head, heart, and soul harmonizing and live your dreams, too! <3