Pencil Shavings

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com.

This is brilliant!  This guy has nailed it exactly on the head. 

It's time to stop punishing our kids for being the wonderful, sparking, creative souls that they are.

In My Next Life....

My five year old daughter has already decided that she will come back for another few turns around the planet in “her next life”. 

“I have decided that I want to come back as a Mallard in my next life.” she stated as we walked home from the store the other day.  We had passed a pair of mallards who were swimming in the pond not far from our house.  “I thought I might come back as a rose, but I think a Mallard would be better.”

Then she quacked and played SuperMallard for the rest of the morning.

This afternoon instead of getting my painting of the week ready for listing (sorry 'bout that) the family went to the Bird Sanctuary to look at more ducks, this time all of us were armed with cameras.  The weather was clear, but cold.  We had a really great time wandering around and looking at the old and new nests.  We even saw a porcupine.  The girls had lots of questions about birds and animal tracks and I felt very fortunate that I had the answers for them.  I am a lucky person that I have had the outdoor experience that I have.  I hope that I can pass that along to them before the wilderness is gone.

They had questions for the docent when we got back to the “bird house” and then we bundled up and headed back to the car.

Next we were off to the art supply store for some canvases for a new commission I have.  They also had Purple Lake acrylic ink – which might be just the ticket to get the lilacs painted onto a bamboo tile pendant I've had a request for.  (the blue and red I have now make an aubergine colour that I'm not happy with, so instead of mixing for colour I'll be mixing for tone, which is easier!).

I will get the Painting Of The Week ready and photograph it soon.  This week is going to be insane with a birthday celebration plus school plays for both the girls on different nights.  But I will get through it as long as I don't lose my to do list.

Don't forget to have a great week, no matter what live throws at you.  We have so many choices in our lives.  Choose to be joyful.

Checking In

Well, artistically, it's been a pretty good week for me.  I've had lots of sales for my scrabble tile pendants, (only two left in the ArtFire Studio)  I made some big progress on my larger painting, (it's 12x16 – which is a lot bigger than a scrabble tile!) and I wrote up another article and posted it on Squidoo.  This article is about ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) and ACEOs (Art Cards Editions and Originals) and the differences between them.  I like the article, I hope you go check it out.

Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for a painting session, and I'm hoping to get a few art cards made up myself.   I got my latest American Artist magazine yesterday and I'm trying to resist crawling into bed to consume it until I fall asleep and dream art dreams.

I know I'm getting tired of the late nights creating, because I fell asleep on the couch today while I was checking my e-mail on my laptop.  It's a good thing that I set the alarm – or I would have missed picking the kids up at the school bus while I got QWERTY all over my face.  I do set the alarm everyday.  I'm really paranoid about missing the bus.  I see the look on some of the kids' faces when their parents aren't there to pick them up, and I don't want my kids to look that way, ever.  So the alarm gets set – and thankfully today I needed it and I wasn't late.

It's getting a little late here, and I have some more tiny things to paint before I crawl into bed.  I'll try to catch up in a more meaningful way tomorrow.

While the Paint Dries

The worst thing about being self employed is your boss.  My boss is constantly bugging me about getting stuff done, and is really on my case this week because I haven't knocked the things off my to-do list that I wanted to get done, but I did play a lot of games on Facebook.  No wonder she thinks I'm a slacker.

 I am participating in the monthly painting challenge at WetCanvas, and my painting is long way from being finished (I thought I would be done last week... but I'm sitting here looking at my painting and wondering if getting out the hairdryer to hurry things along might be a good idea.

On the upside I did a few things that weren't on the list, like making some “lenses” on Squidoo about art.  That was very satisfying. 

I didn't get a painting of the week again this week (once again wondering about the hairdryer) but I did finish five scrabble tile pendants that I listed in my ArtFire Studio.

Uh-Oh my boss is wondering when I'm gonna wrap this up and get back to work... better get going!

The Life Lesson as Taught by Susan Boyle This Week

Unless you have totally been living under a rock, or perhaps have lost all contact with the outside world and are requiring immediate assistance from the authorities, you have probably heard about, or seen the YouTube clip of Susan Boyle on Britian's Got Talent.  If you haven't... then go do that now.  It's OK, I'll wait, because you need to see it before you read anything else from me.  Go on, what are you waiting for?

Here is the clip.

Seriously, watch it now!

OK... Now that you are sitting back in your chair and calming the goosebumps that you got, and wiping the tears from your eyes, we can go on. 

Susan Boyle is unassuming.  She is a nobody, but she is everybody.  Susan Boyle is every person who ever had a dream, who ever wanted to do something, a small thing, or a big thing, but something that she knew she could do, and no one else believed in her.

Susan Boyle is you.  You are probably sitting there right now thinking about your dream, the dream that you hold in your heart, that you rarely talk about to anyone, except maybe your goldfish.  You wish that you could do what you dream but you are afraid that you will fail, that you will be laughed at, that you will fall short. 

Go back and look at that clip.  People were laughing at Susan Boyle.  She was the ONLY person in that room that believed in her.  And she took that little dream, she wrapped it in that big voice, and she gave it wings and set it soaring.

Go.

Give your dream wings.  There is only one thing that is stopping you, and that is you.  So go and set your dream flying.

Is It The Best Of Both Worlds?

I love writing.  I am actually not bad at it either.  I was going to apply for a job writing columns for a daily art blog, because I thought that it would be the best of both worlds.  But it turns out that they wanted columnists for specific topics only, and that I needed to turn out a large number of columns monthly (at least 9).  Now, I have to admit that my attention span is pretty short, and the idea of writing 9 columns a month on the environment and art, or art techniques, forever, well it leaves me a little cold.  I am not interested in reading 9 columns a month about those things, why would I be interested in writing them?  Also, 9 columns a month is lot of time that I wouldn't be spending making art, which is my over-riding passion these days.

That being said, I was really excited about writing on a regular basis again.  I love writing my blog, and I love writing other things.  Writing isn't always easy for me.  Sometimes I find it physically difficult to sit down and write.  Sometimes I find that the demands of my day job (aka being mom) are such that I can't write as much as I would like.  But I do like to write and I would like to write other things that are more challenging than baring my soul, and my personal life in this blog.  You know, I'm not a bad writer, I've received honourable mentions in three writing contests. 

I think this is something that I would like to do again.

So when I stumbled upon Squidoo this week I thought, now this is something I could do.  It's not a column, I can write about the topics I want, when I want to write them.  It's not a blockbuster money maker either.  But, it is a wider audience, that is as diversified in it's interests as I am.

So, I'm going to start creating lenses on Squidoo.  I actually worked very hard on making one today, that is a demonstration painting of a technique I like to use.  I would really love it if you went to have a look, and even more so if you would give it a rating.

If I make more, I'll link them up here so you can have a look. 

In the meantime it's back to the pendants that are flying off the shelf at Artfire.  My second job!

Curse of the Modern Age

My husband likes to nag me electronically to do things.  He likes to send me e-mails, insert things into my computer calendar, and text me his sweet nagging messages about things he would like me to do.  This is very convenient for him, as it can keep him miles out of range from the arc of a swung frying pan.

There can, however, be draw backs to this electronic marital communication.  Very occasionally he might just send a text message to his work colleague informing them that their cat's litter box needs to be cleaned.

The Loud Thumping of Bunny Feet

This morning my youngest daughter came into my room really early, saying that she was certain that she had heard the thumping of bunny feet downstairs, and it had woken her up.

My husband rolled over and started to explain to her that an 8 foot tall rabbit was bound to make a lot of noise.  But he was dismayed that the furry critter hadn't made any coffee this year like he did last year.  By the time we had decided to wake up her sister, my little girl was convinced that rabbit mayhem and merriment had been had downstairs just moments before, and could hardly wait to go and see what had happened.

The egg hunt was a lengthy one.  Seems that big rabbit had some new tricks this year.  After eggs hunting (and consuming) and after breakfast, we went to visit my brother and his church's sponsored egg hunt.  My girls were already full of chocolate, but enjoyed looking for a few more eggs and all the festivities that went along with that.

Then we came home and had some quiet time before visiting grandma for dinner.  What a busy, busy day.  But a really enjoyable one.  Easter really is the kick off of spring for me and I'm feeling very joyful and ready to celebrate.

This week I began working on my new pendants for summer.  I'm doing some wee little scrabble tile pendants, each hand painted, glazed and varnished.  The current ones are of sunflowers, but upcoming pendants will be of other flowers and summery designs.

I listed the first set of sunflower pendants in my Artfire Studio this afternoon and they sold out almost immediately.  That is a great sign for these little gems.  If you are interested in picking up one or two you can subscribe to my studio RSS feed and it will let you know when I've listed new things, or you can follow me on twitter, I usually tweet when new items hit the shop.

Tomorrow the kids are home with me all day – I wonder what we will be creating?

Sun Worshipping

After one of the nastiest winters I can remember in a long time, the sun has come out and is shining for us.  The snow is slowly receding from the yard and the kids are starting to draw hop-scotch grids on the sidewalk again.

Every spring I wait for the sign.  The moment that says to me that winter is giving up on us, and summer is waiting to come for it's all too brief visit.  It's the day that it is finally warm enough to hang my laundry out on the line to dry.

So in the very chilly morning my daughter and I went out and put the first load on the line.  I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to see the clothes hanging in the sunlight.

I know most people don't get that excited about laundry, but there is something about seeing fresh laundry on the line that makes me so happy.  Not only do I think that a laundry line can be quite beautiful, I also love the shrieks of delight as my kids chase each other under the towels and sheets and play “laundry tag”, it's  good for our power bill, and the best part it's good for the environment.

I think that someday soon I'm going to attempt a laundry line painting.  The sun shining through the clothes and all that riot of colour up on the line. 

Yeah... I think that is going on my list.

Start Me Up!

I am sure that it's a sign of parental cruelty that I have put away the kids CDs and now only play grown up music in the car.  I can only imagine what is going to happen when my kids start singing Paul Simon in school at recess, or show off their brilliant air-guitar skills via The Guess Who during the next family get together.

Although I can say that Sesame Street started it will all the change ups to hit songs that they do on the show.  They brought Fiest, the Plain White Ts, and REM into my kids' world and now they dance around with mom to Smashmouth while we clean up the living room.

I do know that I had a hugely proud moment today while we were in the car just before going into the doctor's office, and my youngest shouted “Let's rock out!” and started to wail on her air-guitar to the Rolling Stones “Start Me Up”.