Taking Megan Suarez's "Whimsy Girls" workshop.  So much fun!  I've loved her work for years and wished she would offer a workshop and now she has.  Yay!  Here is my first "Whimsy Girl."  "Whimsy Mermaids" coming soon.  Splash!!

Come on, spring!

Sooooooo tired of the cold and the wind.  The daffodils are trying their best to come up!  Yay, spring!

Did this painting for a friend's baby shower.

And this one for a friend's birthday.

And this one for my son's birthday.

So I finally got up my nerve to enter an arts and crafts show in April.  Just 3 weeks to get ready!  Luckily, one of those weeks is spring break, so I'll have a week off from school to try to get some small mixed media paintings done and create a cute booth.  Wish me luck!

Once again, it's been way too long since I've posted, but life is crazy.  GOOD crazy, but crazy just the same!  I've been re-reading Julia Cameron's Walking in This World:  The Practical Art of Creativity, and it is really helping me focus.  She encourages readers to give up the drama of oh-I-don't-have-time-to-make-art and if-I-just-had-a-studio-I-could-make-art and all the other reasons excuses we come up with for not making art, and just start!  There is real magic in just beginning:  put a pencil on a sketchbook page and you WILL start to move it around.  Put a paintbrush on a canvas and you WILL add some paint and move it around.  Get out some clay and push and pull it with your hands and you WILL start to form something amazing.  Write one word or one note and you WILL add another and another and another until you have a poem or a song or a novel.  You will, you will, you WILL!  So I'm going to keep reading Ms. Cameron's very wise words and keep following her advice.  I hope you will join me and we will see what magic we can make together :)

For my friend's granddaughter Abby who loves mermaids!

And for my sweet Aunt Charlsie's 85th birthday:

Having so much fun taking online art classes this summer.  The first drawing below is from Tamara LaPorte's class "Summer Girl."  Creative Workshops sponsors the "Artful Gathering" online art retreat, and I took two classes at their first session.  "Sweet Art" with Jodi Ohl (the 2 cupcakes in the earlier posts are from that) and "Whimsical Characters" with Monica Zuniga (that's the sun drawing below).  AWESOME teachers both.  Had so much fun!  Also bought Suzi Blu's new book - the bottom drawing is my first effort there.  She is also a great teacher and her book is a ton of fun.

Summer vacation has given me a new lease on life!  My first year of teaching was extremely stressful, and not having any time for art made it even more so.  But the last few weeks have been filled with creative energy and lots of TIME to make art, and I've never been happier.  This has taught me that I have to be more organized when school starts and stay organized through the school year so that I have time for art which really is my therapy.  How about you?  Don't you find that art heals your heart and soul? Hate that I've discovered this so late in life, but happy that I've discovered it!

Have finished two UFOs (Unfinished Objects) from my knitting basket - a luscious shawl in shades of copper and teal and a melon colored shawl made of ribbon with tons of fringe.  Have started a scarf of Lorna's Lace "Lion and Lamb" yarn - so yummy - and a denim colored shrug.  Have promised myself I will not buy any more yarn until I finish all my UFOs.  Yeah, right!

So here's what else I've  been up to:

These are from two online classes I've been taking through the "Artful Gathering" retreat.  Session 2 hasn't started yet and there are so many exciting classes to take.  You can go here to find out more and sign up!

Spring Break!  Finally, a chance to catch up on so many things (housework, organizing, blah, blah, blah...) but I'm going to focus on the art projects I've been wanting to get to for the longest time.  I love my new teaching job, but it leaves very little time for anything else.  Even so, I've managed to complete a few things and here are some pictures.

I designed a bra for the "BraHaHa" breast cancer fundraiser to honor the memory of my beautiful cousin Cheryl who died last year and who I miss so much.  The bra was titled "Cuide sus maracas!" ("Take care of your maracas!").  Cheryl loved the art, culture and color of Mexico, thus the design.

My holiday Zentangle design:

More tangles:

And a few more collages - hmmm, guess I've accomplished more than I realized!