Blog

While mom was living with us, I had someone kinda watching me while I was painting. It was weird. My mom is honest, trust me. And she does not always get the «why this is like this and not like that» but she also always understand my silences. My «mouthless» characters. Without me having to explain it with words. She gets me as I am. And sometimes this is all that you need. Not having to explain your decisions, just having your people understanding that this is an expression of yourself, no matter how different it is.

I never put my Nixies in «confrontation» with the previous ones. They all have a Soul and Story on their own, distinct from the others’. Sometimes though, I look back and some belong together. And that’s okay that they tell me so after they are finished, it relieved me from some pressure I would otherwise put on my shoulders.

I get bored easily, you might know that already if you’ve been following me for a bit. This is why I began this 365 Nixies in 2016 project, to push myself everyday. Going outside of what I know I can do. Going outside what I love. Finding new ways to create what tells the stories bubbling inside of me. This is also why I create several Nixies or projects at the same time.

I use what makes me happy (ColourArte’s products, The Crafter’s Workshop stencil, gels and gessos and colors, lots and lots of colors) because it is what makes my heart all fuzzy inside. What makes me burst a few dance moves in my Teal Studio. What keeps me sane while going all the way to the edge of what I know is true. This is when I let go of all these that weird beautiful things happen in the Studio (and you’ll notice that it can apply to any area of your life as well !).

When I write my bio, I try to put labels on myself. Who am I ? How can I describe myself and what I create so people can understand and see and maybe relate. But I know I need to let it all go. The labels. The expectations. Who I think I am. What I think my art should look like. Everything.

I am working on launching Texture Tales, my online class all about creating gorgeous texture in your art. The trailer is almost ready to be released. I can’t wait for you to discover what I have in store for you in this class ! It is another boundary pusher for me, getting it out there to you, trusting and surrendering.

What do you think would happen if you could let that go too ?

I love simple but impactful art. It does not need many things to make me happy and to directly speak to my Inner Self. This is what I wanted when I sat down to pull my intention up for this project. This is what came out of this session for today’s project video for ColourArte.

I hope you’ll enjoy this new video:

I had the Artifacts and Relics (by Prima Marketing Inc.) in my stash for a while but I felt it was a bit… intimidating. So I looked at it over and over, but always bringing it back where it was and moving on to something else (typical me). I wanted this piece to be the center of attention and knew that using black gesso, then Silks Glaze to add color would be perfect.

For the wood panel itself, I kept it simple but full of visual impact. I started by adding color in a marbled effect of sorts with Primary Elements *they are loose pigments*. Using clear gesso is essential, as otherwise the water we need to activate the pigments would be instantly soaked up in the wood (sometimes, this is what we want, but not in this project). The embed stencil, from The Crafter’s Workshop (my all-time favorite company to use stencils from) with 3D gel makes an easy stand-out result. I just adore how it looks subtle but striking.

*** SUPPLIES ***

Wood Panel	Finnabair Clear Gesso	Catalyst Mini-Blade 04	Fairy Plum Primary Elements	Pale Porcelain Primary Elements
Meridian Blue Primary Elements	Geodesic stencil	3D Gel Gloss- Finnabair	Flaming Hearts Ex Votos I	Black Gesso
Crackle Rock Candy	Courageous Rose Primary Elements	Emperor’s Gold Silks Glaze	Fire Opal Silks Glaze	Teal Zircon Silks Glaze
Iridescent Copper Silks Glaze	Chitchat stickers

InLinkz.com

Welcome on a new edition of my weekly ritual, Gratitude Friday (if you are not familiar with it, please go read how it came up and what it is about).

This week flew by and for once, this is not something I was looking forward to. Mom is going back home in France tomorrow, after 4 months here with us.

This week, I am thankful for:

• This time spent together.
• The sunshine after the storm.
• Gold painted nails as a reminder.
• Exploring new Nixies.
• Discovering new authors and new artists in general.
• Sleep.
• Going back to self-portraiture as my own medicine, and editing the photos makes me really happy.
• Video editing.
• New possibilities.

I know March is almost half way over, but who cares if I am a bit late to talk to you about my guiding word, I still have 9 months to go 😉

My word for this year came to me several months ago. You may have seen these meme-s around Facebook telling about words we might not know they exist, and if I recall this is how I stumbled upon:

Wikipedia defines Praxis as following:

Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied, or realized. “Praxis” may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas.

I knew as soon as those words hit me that it was exactly what I needed to focus on this year.
See… I live a lot in my head, I am a Virgo after all. I plan. I analyze. I think it through. I change my mind. I go for the details. But once comes the time to put all this into action and steps, I get lost. Overwhelmed, even.

Praxis is really close to my word of 2015: Devotion. They go hand in hand in my life, both personal and work.

You can follow my visual stories around Exploring Creative Praxis on my Instagram account (my favorite plateform of them all)

I have been creating with my daughter Koala (also sometimes referred to as Kaly) for a few years now. She will turn 9 later this month so I thought I would share with you our latest collaboration.

She quickly showed interest in anything creative. Drawing of course, but also sewing projects and simply building things. She has this ability to put whatever is in her mind into a project. She sees something and will draw it beautifully, in her own style already. We did video projects as guest for Mindy and since then, Koala has regularly told me “Moma, when are we gonna do a class online to share with people what we do ?” She is thinking Mermaids right now. We paint with four hands. Go back and forth in our ideas, and we make it work.

More important than anything: we take it as special quality time together. In between the “you’re not fair” and other kind words, it is good to at least have this to share.

This painting started by my desire to let a Nixie appear, inspired by my daughter’s style. She drew the castle and all its tiny details. That is our big difference: she is very detail oriented, and will start a project knowing exactly what direction she wants it to go. I don’t. We complement each other greatly.

She builds furniture for her tiny figurines and creates various clothes and accessories for them. She gets an idea and jumps on it. Yes, sometimes there is frustration, like anyone. But she will keep trying until she is satisfied with the result. And she inspires me so so much !

I told her that if she wanted to sell it, we could try to see if someone would like to welcome our painting and that a percentage of the sale would go into her bank account. Now, she wants to do more (she is obsessive, like me, and right now would like more Calico Critters to play with, but she noticed how expensive they are).

A few more pictures: