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I try to be in my studio five days a week. I know have about 6 hours these days to just do what I want without being interrupted.
It changes everything. I’m sure you Moms out there can relate: when the kids finally go to school full time, your life is changed 😉

But working from home can make you feel lonely sometimes. And even if I appreciate being on my own, I love sharing my Studio with another artist.
My friend Melissa comes over when she can, and this week my neighbor is coming over ! I’m sharing my techniques and we are creating along.
Having another artist’s energy, witnessing the “ah ah-s” but also the frustration that comes too sometimes is just priceless…

The amazing Julie Prichard reminded me of a current issue we have, us who have a Facebook page.  You can read her blogpost «the ugly truth about facebook» by clicking.

Facebook is very clever about how to push us to spend money if we want to actually be seen by the people who are liking our fanpage. But as a small business, trying to have the head about the waterline, it is not in my budget right now to spend between $5-20 for EACH of my status update to be seen by you.

I have published it on my personal Facebook page, knowing that if I was posting it on my fanpage, only 10% would see it anyway. But I am pasting it here too, because this is important:

ATTENTION! Facebook now requires page administrators to pay to promote their updates if we want our content to be seen by our fans. If we do not pay to promote our posts, only about 10% of the fans receive the updates on the Facebook home page feed.

To keep RECEIVING ALL POSTS FROM US you have to hover the mouse on the “Like” button near our name. In the drop-down menu select “ADD TO INTEREST LISTS”. Then create an interest list (and make a name for your favorite sites). When you select that interest list you will see ALL of our posts and you won’t miss anything important!

 We recommend that you follow the above instructions for ANY Facebook page you care about, so you can continue seeing all the posts from the pages you love.

 Thanks for your help, and please share this with your friends! 

If you want to stay in touch via my page, that I update everyday, often several time a day, please take 2 minutes of your time to make sure you are seeing my statuses.
I really appreciate it. Thank you.

And if you are not a fan yet, you can still «like» my page anytime. It is right here: http://www.facebook.com/InnerVoices.net

ATTENTION! Facebook now requires page administrators to pay to promote their updates if we want our content to be seen by our fans. If we do not pay to promote our posts, only about 10% of the fans receive the updates on the Facebook home page feed.

To keep RECEIVING ALL POSTS FROM US you have to hover the mouse on the “Like” button near our name. In the drop-down menu select “ADD TO INTEREST LISTS”. Then create an interest list (and make a name for your favorite sites). When you select that interest list you will see ALL of our posts and you won’t miss anything important!

We recommend that you follow the above instructions for ANY Facebook page you care about, so you can continue seeing all the posts from the pages you love.

Thanks for your help, and please share this with your friends! 

Hello again !

I am so happy to announce I have some new paintings available for you to purchase. For now, one Sprixie and one Nixie.

They were both created on 5×7″ birch wood panel.
I really really enjoy working on a wood surface. Because it is hard. And If I want, I can let it more or less show through.

Title: «Move On»
Original available here

This Sprixie is really all about leaving what you don’t need anymore behind in order to make room for what is to come next.

He is looking right ahead, to what the future holds, refusing to stay the prisonner of the past, of the emotions and thoughts that he does not need anymore. He works hard to get rid of the hurt, to mend the wounds.
He is tired, and his heart is heavy with all those conflicted feelings. The will to change for better, and the «not knowing how to make that change a reality». The fear of not being able to find his way to his beautiful self.

But overall, he knows that all the struggles happen for his growth and that yes, everything is gonna be okay. everything is okay.

Title: «Charlie»
Original available here

Charlie is quirky and different. She even has a (teeny tiny) mouth. And small wings that trick people, because they think these wings are useless and embarassing.
She is so strong and brave, you would not know that by just looking at her. There is way more under the surface than what the eyes can see, just as much as the background composing the painting, made with layers and layers of different media (the papers, art tissue, paint, stamping, scribbling, scratching and more than I can actually remember afterwards).

For more details about their stories, please go in the shop.

Prints will soon be available in the shop as well (next week) and I am now able to offer several sizes of the same print, so if you would like bigger than 8×10, this will be made on order but available at the same time than my usual size.

Gratitude Friday is a weekly ritual I started in order to focus on all the small and big positive things that happened during my week. I invite you to join me, you’ll see how much being thankful can change your life. If you want to know more about it, read my introduction post.

Hello dear Souls !

I really try to think ahead to be sure I have a Gratitude Friday to post every week. I know some of you are waiting for it, and I thank you for that. It helps me to keep doing it, even if it is unconsistantly.

I hope some of you will feel free to comment and share some of their Gratitude with us ♥

This week, I want to thank for:

• Our kind neighbors and our movie nights. We’re watching «The Lord of the Rings» trilogy, extended version (Cheridoo and I have never seen the cut scenes etc. so there is still something new for us). 6 adults watching movies while our 7 kids play together.
• Anu and her kindess, she sticks with me no matter what and she is precious. I’d hope she’d like her life and herself better.
• My secret project that is almost done. I am not sure how I feel about it, I may (knowing myself) do it over… again.
• My husband was not feeling well and stayed at home yesterday to rest. We did not do anything but he was here and it was nice.
• The paintings I am secretly creating for my girls. Not easy to keep a secret from them as they come and go in my Studio !
• My mom that listens to me rambling and crying on the phone.
• TV shows.
• Pictures of our daily life taken. Kept in our Project Life-ish albums. So we remember.
• My husband and I, trying to become better parents for our kids. Trying to change bad habits we cumulated over the years.
• Sunny DRY days. Grey is okay but rain… it gets to my bones (I know I am not in the right Province to stay dry ! ahah).

If you wrote your Gratitude Friday on your blog, don’t forget to enter your NAME and URL below so I’m notified and can come to read you (you can also join by commenting this post):
[linkme]

You know how I keep saying this Truth: «I can not draw». I were never able to draw anything near to realistic, and kept holding on that. Not that I don’t feel down when someone I don’t know thinks one of my painting was made by my 7 or my 5 year old kid, but this was my Truth: «I can not draw». So for years I have been making the most of it with my Nixies and other Sprixies, and love it.

However, since I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia in the summer of 2011, I am not able to paint every single day like I used to. So my alternatives are doing something in my art journal (because I can do that on my couch), and since not so long ago, keeping a sketchbook. Isn’t it paradoxical to use a sketchbook when you don’t draw ? I thought so too, to be honest with you. But I went for it anyway, because I am the kind of person to always push the limits further.

As I’ve told you, I have been experiencing quite a big existential crisis about me, about who I want to be as an artist, about the fact that «I am not there yet». Knowing where you want to be in your professional career but not seeing the steps to get you there is very hard; it is something I have been dealing with for a decade or so (the «there» had changed several times during that lapse).
It resulted in an «empty inspiration well», and me not painting nor doing almost anything in my studio for more than a month. Which never happened before. Never.

Some of the things that are created in my sketchbook are meant to stay as they are: sketches. Some I love more, I carry the hope to give them life on a full painting (if you recall my process, you know that I don’t start a painting with a plan in mind. So that would bring me back in time when I started it all). This is what happened for my OwlCtopus. She was a sunnyafternoononthebalcony sketch, and became a 11×14″ mixed media painting.
I hope that this guy on the left will become a beautiful painting on his own as well.

Click to enlarge

You know what I really like doing ? Sketching while watching TV or while listening to music. I can catch shapes, ideas, faces.
This is when I finally can let go of my perfectionism and just get my hand moving. Not looking for creation anything in particular, just getting it onto the paper.
The sketches on the right were done almost in the dark, while watching The Return of the King (the third installment of The Lord of the Ring trilogy). Yo ucan see how imperfect it is, but i just don’t care, I was looking for a simple sketch showing the bigger eyes on a face, and I loved Saruman’s wand design and I wanted also to see how i could draw a male face, as I exclusively draw female characters for now.

My Truth about sketching is that it’s the perfect tool for me when I am in too much pain for anything else creatively.
My Truth about sketching is that quick and simple is good, too.
My Truth about sketching is that in a few years from now, as it is for my art journals, I will love having plenty of sketchbooks to look into.
My Truth about sketching is that with a bit of perseverance, I could draw…

Here are a few other examples of my sketches, just because (click to enlarge):

What about you, do you have a sketchbook ? How is it different than you Art journal ?