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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.

Happy Friday !

*sigh of happiness*
Sometimes, we really need very little to be happy (and on the contrary, we sometimes also need very little to be upset).

I am filled with Gratitude, more and more. And I really hope that this little ritual of mind will encourage you to pause for an instant and reflect on what makes you happy.

This week, I am thankful for:

• Technology, it allows me to connect with my friends that are (very) far away.
• The bags Mom sewn for the girls.
• Losing weight.
• Journaling again and feeling free to write when I want.
• The new direction my art seems to be taking.
• Cocktails night. We had lots of fun with Nancy & David and enjoyed the cocktails happily made by my Chéri.
• Embracing all that I am.
• Learning music again.
• Music.
• The tv show «Criminal mind». Our public library has all the seasons in DVDs, perfect !
• Dreams.
• Sharing. My paintings. My experiences. My process. My joy.
• New doors opening.
• My girls’ creativity *that has many unexpected faces*.
• My Husband and my Mom.
• It’s Beltaine today (the Summer Solstice), will find a way to celebrate.

I will send the next Inner Whispers (newsletter) very soon. You can sign up in the sidebar if you want to receive it —-»

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):
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For our final day, our group was with Juliette. It actually was the class that made me the more nervous. But I’ve always been curious about how Juliette works on her paintings, I was eager to see the «behind the scenes» in more in details.

Juliette is sweet, it is the first word that comes in mind when I think of her (and she is so beautiful). When she is the room, everything felt calmer. Like it all fell into places just because she was there.

Passionate about sharing her stories, Juliette is also a writer. This is a common thread between the three artists that we had the chance to learn from at Sugar & Spice: the stories are told through their paintings. Each of them has her own way to convey her stories, but it is always there.

I hope that people will see that Juliette is SO MUCH MORE than her owls. I love seeing where her art is going, I see a great evolution and appreciate all the «in progress» pictures she shares.

Some of the things I learned from Juliette’s class:

• Every layer has its own meaning.
• Keep pushing until you love what is going on on your canvas.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment.
• There is a story behind each of her paintings.
• Not being afraid of covering it all up.
• Love the supplies you use.
• Simple can become complex.
• Don’t like this paint ? Use in to create painted papers. It’ll be covered up eventually !
• Use and abuse this paper you love, it’s okay to have it in every painting you currently create.
• It’s okay to see my art evolving, just go with it.
• Animals are fun to see emerging.

It was so nice to end up this amazing experience with Juliette. It was the calm needed to take everything in.

I am so happy to finally share a new video with you. It seems like forever since the last ones (a few weeks, actually). I think I really made the habit of recording and publishing a video once a week, and I am loving it for lots of reasons.

Since I came back from Port Townsend, my Mom tells me how my Nixies’ faces have changed. The shading is better. FINALLY *putting my arms high up in the air in a sign of victory* !!! I am not where I want to be with my faces yet, but I love the evolution I see, in such a short period of time. Growth spurt 🙂

I wanted to use this watercolor paper pad I bought a while back. I really enjoyed working on paper almost exclusively (until I gave in and found a store that was selling canvas boards) during Sugar & Spice, and wanted to keep that great feeling.

I collaged papers as a first layer: scrapbooking paper, Gelli plate printed deli paper (can’t get enough play with this ! so many possibilities), book page. I used Collage Pauge for the first time, to see what the fuss is about and why people love it. You’ll see in the video that the consistency of this glue is quite liquidy, and so I put a bit too much; however, that ended up ok as I used it to cover all the paper with eventually.

The three drops show up in every of my paintings. Maybe I will someday share with you were they come from and what they mean to me. But for now, I let you add a meaning to them if you want. The arrows… well, I love them.

I tried to incorporate some of the things I’ve learned recently for the shading. I still have a long way to go to find my own voice in the way I shade my faces, but I have no doubt that I will get there more sooner than later. 

This Nixie is for sale in the shop.

Here is the video, I hope you’ll enjoy (if you have any question, please feel free to ask me):

I don’t know where to begin… If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know my admiration for Mindy Lacefield (aka Tim’s Sally). I have been trying to share this with you, but keep deleting and starting again, thinking it is not matching the experience… but I guess I will do my best and see where it leads this blogpost.

I love her deeply. I remember when I contacted her, telling her I was hoping she did not think I was stalking her ! (yea… I told you already: I can become very obsessed when I love something. And it happens with artists too).

I have been learning from Mindy, online, since her first class: Paint Your Story. Holy wow, let me tell you. I then signed up for Neat stuff (which focused on using art journaling to revisit childhood memories), and I just could not pass out the chance to learn a new project from Mindy every month for a whole year… so I signed up for the amazing True Free Spirit class (and… how great is that name anyway ?).

I met amazing women (not only artists, human beings) thanks to the community that gather around her classes. I became friend with Lynda in Mindy’s classes, and we planned to share a room at the retreat but lemons came her way and she had to cancel, I dearly missed at the retreat but was with me anyway (thank you technology eh !).

My heart is so tender for all that Mindy is sharing in the world.

I was excited and nervous to meet her in person. I knew, however, that she would not disappoint me in any way (I was afraid of the other way around, shhh).

Let me tell you guys, there are no word to express how learning directly from Mindy was the whipped cream to my fresh strawberries (I love strawberries, but love them even more if paired with chantilly. now you know).

She has this thing that makes it easy, she is always looking for the fun but meaningful, as Danielle she also shares her stories in her painting (she was painting while talking with Anna *our hostess extraordinaire*, and apparently their entire conversation made it in the painting. You don’t know it if you don’t know the «behind the scenes» but I find it is magical to have this ability), and words are very important in her art as well.

Some of the things I learned from Mindy’s class:

• My stories can be painted.
• It does not have to look real to be real.
• The dark places of my Soul have their importance too.
• Cover up until you really like it.
• My art needs both the calm and the busy.
• I love the background making process. A lot.
• My symbols are very important. My painting is not mine without it.
• I have way more childhood memories than I actually recalled.
• I love the word «Pompidou».
• I want more poetry in my life.
• I have things to share with the World, and will find myself through my Art (even more).
• Oracle cards are amazing starting points.
• There is no coincidence.
• I actually enjoy painting with neon colors. And even start seeing neon red appearing in Nature.
• Bunnies and Hares seem to currently have a message for me, couldn’t help but paint them.

{my art from Mindy’s class will be added soon}

For the classes, we were divided into two groups, and stayed within it for the entire time of the retreat. I am sure it helped us create strong bonds (but not only).

On Thursday, we started off with Danielle. Oh Danielle… let me tell you: I’ve got a crush on her even before she actually shared her soulful paintings. She was still Danielle Fraser, her maiden name.
I remember when she was the owner of a bead shop; there was something regarding the pictures of her in her blog/website that just resonated with me on a deeper lever (I know I sound totally crazy, but I’m totally okay with that). And I remember when she announced that she was closing her store, how afraid I was to see her disappear from the cyberspace I was happily following her in.

I can’t say why but my Soul felt connected to her (ok… now you do think I am a total nutjob), I think it is just difficult to really explain the feeling if you’ve never experienced it before, yourself (did you ?).
A while back, I contacted her to tell her the Truth: how much I loved her artwork, how happy I was to know she was a fellow Canadian even if it is like the other side of the World because of the distance, and more I guess that I don’t really recall of. But I told her: «we will meet someday. I don’t know when. I don’t know where. but I know we will meet eventually.» And we did 🙂

Yours truly & Danielle

I could not wait to hug her and learn from her.
Because she was (and still is somehow) a teacher for so many years, this is flowing in her veins. Danielle’s heart lays in story telling. In each and every of her paintings but also in the forms of words (can’t wait to know more about her book); she uses both to express her stories, the ones of her ancestors and what is true to her. She lead us through what she jokingly called «quick and dirty writing», and… well, quick and dirty it was. No time to think. Let the hand writes, the mind answers, and then move on to something else.

There were lots of tears during her class, emotions were released, into our writing, into our paintings. I felt so safe not to be ashamed of my tears for once. I was understood. We were her first class, I know she was nervous but she rocked it more than she even thinks. She is gentle, she is honest, speaking her truth (as her tattoo says ;)) is what matters to her and she passed it on perfectly to us.

Some of the things I came home with, learned from/thanks to Danielle:

• Be proud of who you are
• There is no story that can not be told somehow
• How to create brown skin Nixies
• Words and Images have to be linked for me to be really happy with what I do
• There is nothing to be ashamed of when tears fall from my eyes
• You can be both sensitive AND strong
• Beauty is everywhere
• I still love writing
• No dream is too big
• It’s okay to have an evolution in our process
• Speak your Truth(s), no matter what.

I will be forever changed by this day with Danielle as my teacher…

Here are some of the paintings that I created during this class: