Snowed In and Makin' Art!

I had 2 weeks of vacation to use by March 1 or I'd have to forfeit it. I couldn't afford to go anywhere that's warm and sunny. I didn't want to go anywhere that was grey, cloudy, and cold! As it turned out, I got to enjoy that right at home here in New York City! But I had my plan to make this a great vacation, no matter what. I'm always lamenting about not having enough time in the week for all the things that need to get done PLUS have time for art. Well, I've been noticing that the balance has been changing over the past 2 months or so. It's changing because I am making the choices that make it easier for me to do art. For this vacation I decided that I wanted to create a collage and make more greeting cards.

I planned out exactly what prep steps I needed to do in order to really make the collage. I chose the photos, got the copies made, bought my acrylic mediums and paint, consulted my art books. I was ready! That's more "ready" than I've been in a long time! It felt good. The act of just preparing to create was a release in itself. It counted as "being creative".



As the snow came down, and came down, and came down...I set to work last week. I was able to complete the collage if about 4 days. So, now I have a total of 3 collages that are all mine!

The past 3 days have been a total card-making extravaganza! I've been experimenting with stamping and embossing, blending colors, color compliments and color families, pushing my creative edge. I've had some ugly mistakes and some real beauties. There have been enough beauties for me to have incentive to make more and to use the same technique with different colors. I've been pushing myself to work with what I have on hand - which is quite a lot of paper and stamps, and a ton of reference books at hand.

The energy that this created has been awesome! It was enough for me to search online for card boxes and stretchy cords, and to list my cards on Etzy.com. I've had an inactive shop for months because everything seemed to be too complicated. Suddenly, it wasn't complicated today. The shop is open and there are 3 designs available. And I till have the entire weekend to do more cards!

I was an artist this week. I fed mt soul. I feel satisfied and abundant. Not everyone can be creative and they don't understand the healing power of art from a personal point of view. I wish they could. Creativity is inside all of us and it costs nothing. You can create on paper envelopes, shopping bags, napkins. You can use a simple pencil. A doodle is art. A bunch of doodles all together tell a story. The story can be told in words. Everything all comes together.