Frida Kahlo Gone Mad

 Meet Frida Kaho.  What nationality is Frida?  Mexican.  Frida, of course, is Mexican.  Frida fell in love and married one of Mexico's most famous artists.  Then she became an artist and did mostly self-portraits because "that's who I know best" she said. 

 These are some hand-drawn and hand-painted Frida collages.  I think she was a little wacko, but then ... who knows what people say about me?  (don't answer that)  I'm finding that there are lots of people out there who go bonkers over Frida stuff. 

I'm not enamoured by her life story.  But she is fun to collage.  I mean, it's a great way to put my she-art techniques to use in a new twist, yes?  And really, if we could ALL wear headbands and large flowers in our hair, we should - don't you think? 

Courage & Kindness Girls

Bye bye perfect.  Hello Courage.  I must admit that I try to be perfect a lot of the time.  Perfect wife, mom, friend, crafter, etc.  But I'm learning that we don't have to know what we're doing all the time.  We don't have to have immediate answers for everything.  We are allowed to lose inspiration and get off track for awhile.  We can be human and get annoyed by petty things.  We can be messy, chaotic, and courageous all at once.

Welcome to The Kindness Movement!  The idea is that kindness is contagious.  Ellen DeGeneres inspired the creation of The Kindness Movement.  At the end of her show she says "Be kind to one another."  I love that!  We all know that simple gestures speak loudly.  A door held open, a hearty thank you, offering up the closer parking space.  What simple little thing could you do today to offer up kindness?  Kindness does matter.  Uh huh.  En how.  Cha ching. 

BaBushKa Girl

When I was a little girl, my mom always referred to wearing a scarf as wearing a "Babushka".  I think it's such a funny little word.  Meet my Babushka Girl.  She's very small - ATC card size (2 1/2 by 3 1/2).  It all started when I wanted to learn to draw a few days ago. 

Oh, I've been drawing -- kinda, sorta -- when I do my she-art canvases and notebook covers.  But Babushka Girl is totally drawn by my own working hand, rather than collaged in bits and pieces.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE collaged bits and pieces, but this was a challenge I issued to myself.  Something that was on my creative bucket list.

It feels good to be in charge of me.

And I am particularly fond of Babushka Girl for obvious reasons.  She's my first.  She's got a mom memory attached to her.  And, well, she's just got a cute personality.  She's got postive energy.  She's an encourager.  And, she's flying a balloon -- symbolic to me.  Fly.  It's a pretty good word too.

Taking Flight.  That's me! 

Recently, I discovered an online ATC community that I'd like to share with you.  ATC's For All is fun!  I've never been much of an ATC girl, and truth be told, I'm finding it challenging to create stuff in such a small space!  But that's the point, isn't it?  I don't want to go all weirdsville into the ATC world.  I do want to do MY art in MY style (ever evolving as it is) and that is what I hope to do on my ATCs.

Taking Flight.  Yep, that's me!

She Loves She Art

More "she art" to show you!  Some time back, we had a women's ministry summer gathering at church entitled "Singing in the Rain" and our guest speaker was a lovely lady named Amber who shared her powerful testimony about the loss of her 7 year old daughter to an inoperable brain tumor, and Amber's resultant crisis of belief 5 years later.  Her wrestlings with God took her through unimaginable grief, leaving her alone with her questions.  Have you ever questioned God?

Ultimately, God won Amber's heart in a year-long wrestling match when she came to realize that He loves her no matter what.  As a thank you gift for ministering to our group, I made Amber this 8x8 canvas with the bible verse "She can do all things through Christ who strengthens her".  I think I love this canvas more than any others I have done.  It's color palette is soothing, and so is it's theme.

A matching composition notebook  joins the canvas, in the same soothing colors.  I do love butterflies, oh yes I do!  On these types of mixed media projects, they just "fit" the flighty nature of the art, don't you agree?  Butterflies in headbands, hair pony tails, dress trim, and backgrounds.  Flutter by butterflies!

This morning, I am thankful for my creative times.  Time that allows me to reflect and ponder my own "wrestlings with God" and how he ultimately won my own heart.  We all have a story to tell.  We are all stories in the making aren't we?  Today, as I go about my busy day at work and in life, I will remember that "She can do all things through Christ who strengthens her."

"Dear God", she prayed ...

"Dear God" she prayed, "Let me be something at every minute of every hour of my life. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost." Have you ever worked on a 12x12 canvas? I had worked with 12x12 scrapbook pages in the past, so why not give it a try in the mixed media art world?! (she said to herself) So ... she did.

And it was both fun and freeing to have the opportunity to fill a lot of extra surface area, all around my little darlin' girl. Now, I could have made little darlin' girl BIG, but maybe next time. For now, I like her full profile. I love the uneven ruffle on her dress, hemmed with pearls. (Be warned: I am brewing up a little idea inside my head to make a big profile using only her face and upper body. I brew ideas, not coffee.)

And a notebook to matchy matchy. Guess who is typing on a new laptop? And guess who went to see the movie "The Help" yesterday? I live a charmed life, I do!Now, I must go and "labor" on Labor Day. As in, I have been to 8 states in 2 weeks, and only taken 2 vacation days (in addition to the weekends), all in a car (not in an airplane), and that means the laundry needs done. I just got a telephone call from my High School Math Teaching Son, Keaton, who wanted to know if he would look like a cool High School Math Teacher in a white double pocket dress shirt? The issue was the double pockets, he said. He thought math teachers only wear 1-pocket shirts. So, ultimately, after deep, soul-searching conversation, we decided that he would be a trend-setter. My son, the trend-setter. Yes, I really do live a charmed life, I tell ya!

She Can Do All Things Through Christ

"She can do all things through Christ, who strengthens her." Phillipians 4:13. A long-time friend of mine is learning to live life as a widow, quite unexpectedly. I wanted to make her something that would stand the test of time as she faces the future. I pray it blesses her days ahead.

I'm crazy loving this little she-art girl. Her braids were so fun to do. I wanted to try my hand at doing a neutral background, and it turned out to be a very fun challenge for me to find ways to make the neutral colors pop. Lots of stamping with black staz-on ink this time. Isn't the bird cage super caaute! It's a stamp that somehow found it's way into my shopping cart from the Donna Downey Studios. How do things like that just happen?! LOL

Getting pretty good at smudging, blending, rubbing, dotting stuff with my fingers. Quite an achievement from a girl who, not so long ago, was known to say "Ewww, do I have to get my hands dirty?!" Ohhh, the things we do for art.

She Had Three Hearts - Art Journaling

My next big creative adventure is Art Journaling. The same craft buddy who introduced me to She Art (also lovingly known as "Cindy the enabler") has now introduced me to Art Journaling. So a few of us craft buds are taking Christy Tomlinson's latest online class entitled She Had Three Hearts. Here is my journal cover (Gesso'd - of course!).Here’s my mess! The hand-written journaling around the heart says: “The Lord does not look at the things we look at. We look at the outward appearance. The Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) It doesn’t exactly follow Christy's 3 heart theme (world, family, me). While in church on Easter Sunday a few weeks back, I remember the Pastor saying “It’s all about the heart” and it stuck with me. Then yesterday when I was at Borders, I found a Beth Moore book entitled “A Heart Like His” so I figured it was meant to be! I’ll enjoy keeping this journal a lot! It’s a 7x10 size.

Thanks Cindy - I know you're there! :)

She Art Journals

Since I'm so into She-Art these days, I decided to practice by making some for the girls in my monthly swap group. I transformed composition notebooks into She Art Journals. And if they are not into journaling, then it will be a fun place to keep grocery lists! LOL! For me, discovering Gesso has been monumental. My husband might find Gesso'd socks and underwear someday, cuz I'm Gesso-ing everything in sight! The covers of these composition notebooks, once Gesso'd, were a fabulous surface to work on. This first girl says "the more the merrier". Love that. She's a happy little thing.

Little miss hat girl is sporting the number 26 -- symbolic to me because that was my son's soccer number for like-ever. He even designed a line of clothing (t-shirts) all with the number 26.
I love Butterfly girl for so many reasons, besides the butterfly in her cute hair that swoops because the wind is blowing it! LOL I love the red, and I love the friendship theme. Love love love!

Next we have a Flower Child from the 70s who is really skinny. I messed up her shirt, so I just kept adding on to it until it became a tunic. Good thing it finally worked, or we'd have a maxi-dress.

Lastly, I wanted to try a completely different color scheme in the tan-brown family. Love her blond hair piggy tails. When she was done, I sat back to take a look at the girlfriend I had created and said out loud -- WOW, you are a chubby girl! Thus the saying, Think BIG. I kinda relate to this one the most ... I'm just sayin!

All-righty then! This bunch of she-art girls are kinda like a little family to me. The others that I've made were all individually done. I guess that's why this bunch seems like a bunch of sisters. Funny how paper ladies with no faces can have such personality!

She Art for Mother's Day

This canvas was a gift to my daughter for a Happy Mother's Day. It reads "She was the keeper of her family" which was so very perfect for the occasion! She oh She .... I am on a roll, babycakes! I love the way this little gal turned out. I love the detailed trims on her collar and dress, and dig that cool hat and hair! Can I just say once again for the record, lest you forget, that I am really really really enjoying this paint, art, stamp, mess, cut, paste, draw, doodle, kind of fun! Did you check out Christy Tomlinson's blog yet? I'm debating over taking her next online class -- She Had Three Hearts. I hope you have the most wonderfulest of days! Thanks for dropping by.

She Art Revision

I posted a picture of this little canvas in my last blog post, but I was never really satisfied with how it turned out. So this is my new and improved version! I kinda love it now! No need to toss it out and start over ... just add, and add a little more, and add a little more more. That's one of best things about the whole "She Art" process - there's no such thing as a mistake. Love that! Here's the story behind this canvas. Ever since my mamma went to heaven a little over a year ago, there is a darling lil 'ole 80-something year ole' lady at my church who gives me a hug EVERY Sunday. She hugs me and says "This is from your mamma until you get to heaven too." She reminds me so much of my own mamma -- beautiful white hair, bright eyes and smile, and a fun giggly laugh. Now tell me, isn't God so good! So I added the saying "There's nothing like a mamma-hug" and gave it to her for Mother's Day. The number 87 on the canvas is significant, because that's how old my mom was when she died. So you see, I really do kinda sorta love this piece of art after the revision. The picture below was the first go-round, so you can really see the difference.

Yay for She Art! I am so thankful for my good friend, Cindy, who shared She Art with me. And I am so thankful for Christy Tomlinson's willingness to teach others to have "art in our heart" through her online She Art class. Check it out -- I think you'll be glad you did!

She Learned About "She Art"

Can I just say ... I am having SO much fun learning She Art! And that's a major understatement. I never ever never ever would have believed that I could do this. But guess what? I can do this! I am taking Christy Tomlinson's online class. It's A-mazing. Her videos are fresh and fun. Her teaching style is hands-on. And it's worth every penny! I can stay in my PJ's and watch and learn. And then go create! Swoon.

I don't yet know what She Art sayings that I want to add to these canvases, but it will come to me. She learned about She Art. She loved what she learned. She was a brave girl. She got her fingers messy. She was proud of her mess. She tried the untried. She knew creativity was good. She was a happy girl.