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I love Donna Downey‘s work. I wait for Wednesdays for two reasons: Jamie Ridler’s wishcasting prompt, and Donna Downey’s Inspiration Wednesday art journaling video.

In her shop, Donna sells some fabric handmade journals she calls inspiration journal. She creates in there everything that helps her being inspired. I love it. She also recorded a lesson where she teaches how to create these journals ourselves. That’s how I learned.

Recently, I acquired Tchoo, my sewing machine. I love her very much but she’s not my BFF yet, she’s not that easy peasy.

So I created my first Inspiration Journal. Yaaaay !

It was sometimes hard, for example to pull back the fabric+canvas sewn together to be the right side out because my canvas is very stiff. I have to find a way for it to be more movable. Any ideas ?
And I had to do with what I had on hands: my grommets were too big so I used simple eylets, I wasn’t able to use ribbon so I used thread. That’s okay, I like it like that. And I didn’t find any fabric covered button, I bought some beautiful ones instead.

My sewing is not the best yet, it’s zig-zagging here and there. The corners of the journal are kind of weird too.
So what ? I love it ! I have imperfections too.

I’ll don’t let the canvas inside blank. I don’t know if I’ll paint it, or play with my new obsession (the Lindy Stamp Gang products).

I’ll finish my current art journal and then start this one. i love the fact I can add signatures as needed. It has inclusions. It will be awesoooooom !

In the next one, I want to try to create a loop for my pen; and another closure like a flap.

So many ideas I want to experiment; this is good.

I wish you a wonderful week ahead.

2011 Goddess Year workbookGratitude 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 everyone !
How was your week ? Mine was focused on feeling and sending some Love whenever possible.

I had a weird dream to begin my week, after feeling uncomfortable by the facts I had kind of a breakthrough on Monday: don’t be ashamed or guilty to love because Love can have so so many different faces. And I discovered a new weird spiritual loving practice: hugging people, even when they’re not physically with me; please, don’t call the psychiatric institution now, I’m not crazy. Give it a try. I may be too good at positive creative visualization, I don’t know 😉

As I told in my yesterday blogpost, I’m a lot inspired lately, and it goes in a lot of directions. I have to refocus because I’m losing track.

This week, I am thankful for the Love in my life: my husband, my daughters, my mom, my friends, the people I connect with online.

I am very thankful for the package received from Hay House, with all the goodies I won at their Affirmations Card Contest. Awesome !

I am thankful for Jamie Ridler and my Circe’s Sisters. Coincidenced do not exist, trust me. We all complete each other wonderfully, Jamie is a maker of magic. And in already (!!!) seven weeks, I feel all the change in my World. I am very thankful for the opportunity I got to enroll in this, it’s a real blessing to witness and support all these dreams coming true way beyond what we all imagined when we started.

I am thankful for the Love I put in everything I do. Doing something you have pleasure to do is a real gift, whatever it is. I don’t earn any money through it (yet) but it will come eventually, for sure.

Being open to receive love is sometimes very hard. Because we’re not really used to it. But try, for example for just a day, you begin your day by setting the intention to receive all the Love floating around you without questioning it, without doubting you deserve it. Just receive.
Was it so hard ? How doe it feel ? Do you think you can do it as a daily practice ?

Please, don’t hesitate to come and share with me how it went/goes 🙂

I also want to talk to you about the recent launch of Goddess Leonie new 2011 “Creating my Goddess Year workbook“.
It’s not just a planner, it’s filled with inspiring imagery, there is a monthly calendar, worksheets to help you manifest your dreams and make 2011 your year. To keep it affordable, Leonie sells it less than $10 (and it’s 72 colorful pages !).
And I love the fact that you can buy one for you, but also one for you and another for a friend, etc. It would be an amazing gift for those that count so much in your life. You can also buy a gift voucher 🙂 How awesome is that ???
Click on the image to be redirected on the page, or right here if it’s easier.

Don’t forget: You.Are.Loved

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]

Hello !

Soooo you may wonder what’s currently happening here, I am doing a little catch up post. It’s like my life is going in a lot of different directions but at the same time, I don’t do all I wish I would. I don’t know if it makes sense.

I am painting like crazy, my head is filled of new designs/colours combinations/styles I want to try (I’ll make a special post about my inspiration sources). I try to focus on not-too-many-artworks-at-the-same-time because I tend to jump from one to another to another and I end up with too much in progress, not enough finished pieces.

I was sure I took more photos of the different stages this artwork knew, but it seems that I hallucinated it. It’s a pity because for me, this artwork is all about the process that took me to what it looks like now. On the left is what it looked like at the beginning of november, on the right what it’s today.
“Soar” is a big size, about 24″x24″. I started it at the end of September, all fresh from Jesse Reno’s 2day workshop.
By the way, it’s still hard for me to cover everything up, even if I now that it’s for highlighting a part I love in the artwork and giving it all the attention it deserves. But I get better at letting go and going further. Yes I do. A little more every day.
I think I’m done with it. Maybe in the future I’ll want to come back and add this or that on it. But for now, I consider it as finished. There are part of it I LOVE and others not that much, but I’m okay. I’m not looking for perfection. The picture does not do it justice though (gloomy weather and big piece are hard word for taking photos).

This one was a linen canvas (so like a beige colour instead of white). I wanted pink shades. But… I’m not that much of a pink girl, so one afternoon, I just opened several paint jars and started to cover up, repeating in my head “it’s gonna be alright, you’re not ruining everything by painting over and over until you enjoy what you see”. Brayering, using my hands (now that I have the “invisible care*” cream that Samantha Kira praised in her uStream shows. SO I determined what parts I liked and block them out with another colour. It’s not finished, in real life it’s more greenish than blue (a pity since I like the blue I see on my computer more lol). For now, its title is “Courageous Steps” as it’s two words that came in my mine while painting.

I am totally blocked on this one. I felt the urge to paint these gorgeous bright colours together but I don’t know what to do next. I am in love with the combo and what it makes me feel how it is.
I don’t like that we see the brushstrokes that much. In real life, the bottom are really pink, not orange like on the pic.
“What do I add now ???” is the real question. It was like an impulse to fill a canvas with this colour combination, but what happens now that it’s done ? Frustrating me.

And of course, I’m still working and playing in my loved Art Journal. Plus writing for my book project. And taking care of the kids (my 5yo is at school full time, but not my 3 1/2 so…) and the home (despite I’m absolutely not a good housewife, I try to get better at this too).

It’s weird because I don’t feel like I am doing a lot, I know I should do way more than this (!!!!).

And what about you ? What are you currently up to ?

Note: I bought the Invisible Care cream at Blick when we went two days in Seattle last week. It’s cheap, you don’t have to put a lot on you hands to be covered and it allows to work with paint directly on your hands without wearing gloves (but for more safety, I still only use non-toxic acrylic paint when it comes to play without a brush), here are the product infos:

EZ Air Invisible Care EZ Air is a before and after skin care product. It’s specially formulated to create a barrier that protects skin and pores against paints, grease, ink, and numerous other materials that stain. Apply EZ Air Invisible Care before you start to work and after each time you wash your hands. Conforms to ASTM D-4236.

Despite the fact that yesterday, I had both my girls with me at home all day long, I managed to both work in my beloved Art Journal AND to start a new artwork. It feels so GOOD !

I printed a selfportrait I like, and transfered it on a 12×12 cardstock with what we call in french “papier calque”. It looks like tracing paper but it has the particularity to transfer what we draw, in reverse. It very very useful and I don’t find the same thing here. Or maybe tracing paper does so and I didn’t know it ?! It would be totally possible 😉

I am practicing hard to get better at shading faces. I don’t aim to draw/paint realistic faces, but still I WANT to get better at shading, to give some volume to my characters faces. And it’s so damn hard. I don’t know why I’m so struggling at this, i never know where to put shadows exactly. Maybe I should stick to one source of light and always do the same thing ?
I don’t know what came in my mind when I decided to do a selfportrait mixed-media artwork, with my “real” metis colors instead of the shades of grey I usually do (after all, grey is kind of metis too uh ! lol). Whatever… I’m trying and if I don’t like it, I’ll do it again, and again, and again until I’m satisfied. I’m not affraid of making mistakes anymore. It’s just hard to have this feeling of “I lost so much time for nothing !!!”. I realised that it’s not nothing, it’s practice and experience.

I have no idea where this journal page is going, it doesn’t look like what I usually create at all !

I have a lot of work to do and I can’t really say I like it. Wait and see what it will become.

I am in love with new colours ! Payne’s grey is my favourite, it’s a very dark blue awesome for shading any other colour; I love love love transparent red iron oxide and quinacridone nickel azo gold (I love the word “quinacridone” ;)) and of course cobalt teal and the new van dycke brown. And titan buff, and I am discovering all the possibilities of zinc white (which is a transparent white).

Today (Tuesday) I received two good news:

1. My illustration “Meant to shine” was featured in another group on RedBubble. I’m very proud. It is the illustration that means the most to me in my creative and spiritual life. I am very attached to it.
2. I received an email announcing me that I won an Affirmations Package worthing several hundred of dollars; it’s not the carribean cruise but I’m doing the happy dance because the prize is just awesome ! It contains items that are on my to-buy-list for months, and even years.

You can’t imagine how good it feels to be like me again. I realize that creating in all forms is really a part of me. And that I just can’t deny it, even unconsciously.

I am digging in the suggestions people gave me regarding their own creative block solutions so I’m filling my universe with what inspires me: music, movies, images. It’s just perfect at the moment.

This is why I want to share what pumps me up since last week, the new video and song by P!nk. She is an artist i really admire, I love her since “there you go” when she had this short bright pink haircut riding on a big motocycle. She dares to say out loud what she thinks. There is something that emanates from her that is just bright and light.

Come and raise your glass with me (and yes, I was “too school for cool” when I was younger lol). Cheers !

P!nk – Raise Your Glass (Official Music Video)
envoyé par ChaOko_01. – Regardez la dernière sélection musicale.

I don’t know how your Creative Spirit works. And I must confess that I am just at the beginning of discovering the all process of mine.

I can have my head buzzing for weeks, full of new images, new color combinations, new pattern I want to try, new techniques I want to explore that I have no idea how to manage all these things I want to do. And I can be for weeks not feeling like creating something new, or going on with what is actually in progress. Like “I don’t even want to look at my pain or see my crayons”. It’s a real big roller coaster. And being at the low side of the loop is sometimes very hard and frustrating. I’m sure you’ve been there, too. Haven’t you ?

I still don’t really know for sure how to deal with it, but realized that forcing creativity and inspiration is absolutely not working for me. So I go with the flow, I do something else until it strikes my head again. BUM !

October has been a mix of “wow I want to create this, and that, oh and this new thing is just fantastic, I have to give it a try”, and about ten days of “why do I want to create, by the way ? I’m not even a real artist that has real projects, that sells blablabla” and I did nothing except writing again as a daily practice and achieve some experience pages in my Art Journal.
And the thing is that… I’m have facing a blogging block for two weeks now. Absolutely no will to write here. I have no idea where it cames from, it slapped me in the face out of nowhere. Just I didn’t want to write on my blog. And as always, I decided not to go against what my heart was telling me (to be silent).

BUT I fell in love all over again with painting, with creating my world, with wanting to put it inside in the World.

How do you deal with your creative ebb and flow ? Do you know how to always access this source of inspiration within you; how do you do ?
I’d love to hear from you. Sharing with others our process sometimes just helps to identify how we roll.

Here is 3 of the artworks I work on this month (The smaller ones measure 16″x20″. Click to enlarge).

1. Hope in a bottle
2. Uniqueness
3. I am meant to shine

The first one (in the middle) was in progress for MONTHS. No kidding. I remember having shown the sketch at the early beginning on my Twitter account. I was not happy with it, too much brush strokes showing, some of the colours weren’t as I wishing them to look etc. As Jesse Reno would say “if you wonder “Am i done with it ?” then the answer is simple: “NO !!!!”” 😉 I was less affraid to go over the part I didn’t fully love, to cover again and again. I added this and that. It needs more small details and then it’ll be finished.

The second one (on the right) was inspired of a discussion we had regarding our values in Jamie Ridler‘s Circe’s Circle. It says “I accept and embrace my Uniqueness”. Because I know how hard it is to stand for who you know you are, and not who you want people to think you are and even less who people think you are. It’s hard to finally be able to say “I am me, and only me”. So this painting is my little reminder that we are all Unique, and that it’s thanks to all our uniquenesses that the World is so rich and so beautiful.
Prints of it are already available in my RedBubble page: right here. And if you only want the “quote”, here it is.

The last one (click to enlarge) is nearly done too (I worked more on it since I took the general picture above). I just love love love it. It was inspired by my session with the awesomely fantastic Jo Anna Rothman.
I love the gentleness I see in it, but she’s definately bold. And she is not affraid of affirming that yes, she is meant to shine, she assumes it because there’s no shame of shining. Because we all carry Light and Darkness inside, but we all deserve to show our Light to others. I have to accept that I’m not only made of Darkness and that my Light shouldn’t only stay inside. I experimented a technique learned in Julie Prichard’s last online class, in duo with Chris Cozen, called Texture Town.

I fell in love with saying what i have to say through my artwork, with writing everyday, with having paint all over me (oops), with dreaming of what I could do next at night.
And it’s SO good to be in love.