End of a Retreat, Start of a Journey and a Wishful Giveaway!

WOW. Saying goodbye to My Artful Journey - a whirlwind of creativity, excitement, tears, new techniques, friendships, community and the outcome? Something that I can only describe as an amazing community and a realization - that if I deny this passion for living a creative life, I am denying life itself as fully as it can be lived. So many kindred spirits and talented women I have met and had the pleasure to create with over the past few days.... 12 hour days spent in our workshop space, cutting, pasting, laughing, supporting and most of all, completely sinking ourselves into our addiction. I don't want to take my paint stained apron off or say goodbye to these wonderful women, but I know this community will be there at the end of our blog posts, supporting, celebrating and planning reunions.



Huge thank you to Cindy at An Artful Journey and also Mati and Kelly Rae for this great experience. We also had Andrea from SuperHero Designs visit us on Sunday to hang out, which was amazing! She is part of the brainchild of MondoBeyondo which I had just completed so it was such a thrill to chat to her about dreaming big and living a creative life. (photo below: Mati, Me, Kelly Rae and Andrea)



THEN to top off my weekend, Mindy over at Wishstudio posted my giveaway to her community and there are some lovely comments...please check out her blog, still a few days left to win!

I cant wait to get back to share all my photos with you all and kick start the next phase of my own Artful Journey and also catch up with all my Artful Journey friends - thank you all for making this weekend one to remember forever. :-)

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Creative Bliss

I think the last 7 months have been leading up to this moment, to this weekend of creative bliss. Today I met my inspiration...Kelly Rae Roberts...a little surreal at first, but speaking to other creative souls on this retreat, so many have been inspired like myself and are answering a calling to lead a more creative existence. Meeting Mati and Kelly Rae was a little surreal at first, but they are also so genuine and lovely and being in a class learning their techniques is a dream come true. The gorgeousChrissy who has been a lively and fun blog buddy for the past few weeks is the bright spark in our class and a breath of fresh air, she is also my house buddy along with the lovely Lorrie and Robin who are are also so fabulous.

We began the day standing in a circle introducing ourselves and it was wonderful to listen to the stories of others and hear all the different accents from over the USA and overseas.

Learning different ways to apply paint was our first lesson, stamping, stenciling and then we were let loose to explore. Collaging in the afternoon came more easily for me, but our "Funky Chunky Coffee Books" are starting to take shape and so are our friendships. We created for over 10 hours and we are still popping back into our room, totally addicted to the paint and the new pages, throwing paper over the floor and covering ourselves in paint.


I cant begin to explain how exhilarating today has been, spending all day in this amazing creative environment has been a slice heaven....and its only day one!!

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I Carry Your Heart

"I Carry Your Heart" Original 6x6 Mixed Media piece available to buy here.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Poem by EE Cummings

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. Keep those dear and precious close to your heart.

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Explore. Dream. Discover

Woohoo! Officially on vacation now for 10 days....this time next week, I'll be at "An Artful Journey" in Los Gatos for 4 WHOLE days of doing nothing but art and meeting other artists...im beside myself I cant tell you. Sooo excited to meet Kelly Rae Roberts & Mati Rose McDonough and all the other creative souls who will be there. We are going to spend 3 days making a "Funky Chunky Coffee Table Book" which will be a collection and experimentation of favorite tricks, secrets and painting techniques of these two lovely artists.

In addition to keeping my butterflies in my tummy at bay, I've frantically been gathering all my supplies and have only just decided to take a few swap bags along to trade with fellow class mates - whoops! I'm heading up to Mamaroneck to visit a friend tomorrow so we are planning a little arty trip to Micheals craft store to explore supplies and art goodies before lunch so I can do some last minute craft store sweep! Thanks Leanne and Di!
Photo Credit: Georgia Cranston

oooh and I got my confirmation back that I got into Squam workshop too for the fall yay! More to come on that, but in the meantime I found this Mark Twain quote on their site and wanted to share to help us reflect and end the week...some food for thought to get ourselves out there everyone!... Enjoy

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

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My Very First Real Gallery Opening!

I’m just getting over the excitement of yesterday where I attended and took part in my first official gallery opening! It was a group show with my cooperative gallery – Hob’art. We had a great turn out (seeing it was Superbowl Sunday) and a fabulous time was had by all. Some photos of the great diversity of work and people can be seen here. The show is up for the month of February at the Watchung Arts Centre in NJ and is themed “Binaries” – showing “something made up of or based on two things or parts”.

Hob’art got accepted with this themed proposal above many other art groups in the NJ area so we were all so pleased to have the opportunity to exhibit and be part of this. My friend Andrea (above) is a wonderful photographer and we loved that our work was hanging side by side. It was such a thrill to see my artwork hanging up and to also get the chance to speak to people visiting the gallery for the opening about my work, what was behind the idea of “Greenlife or Greylife….?” and how I had created the mixed media collage that was on display. My short but sweet artist statement reads "Think about how parks and green spaces are being sacrificed for buildings and concrete. How can some buildings and environments be changed with a little greenlife around them? The series of work created for Greenlife/Greylife shows this binary & contrast of greenlife versus grey and how the two can also co-exist."
Jennifer (in the photo above)was a delight to talk to, she is an aspiring artist and shyly told me my artwork was her favourite (warm snuggly feeling inside) and that I had inspired her to explore collage and mixed media. The photo above of her contemplating my work makes me smile so much and if I have been even a tiny inspiration to her following her dream, the world is put right this weekend.

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Finding Hearts

Image = "Love Is" Original sold, but prints are available in the shop and also in a few different colour combinations.

With just ten days to Valentines I thought it appropriate to share some love and hearts. I was so excited when a fellow blogging friend (and soon to be “an artful journey” friend) began her quest to find hearts in all sorts of places for the run up to Valentines. "Looking for love in unexpected places” Chrissy is also asking her readers to submit their own findings. Check out her progress and fab blog here. I submitted the heart stone from my girlfriends "creativity in the Woods" weekend last labor day.



Hearts can be found in some amazing places and Kelly Rae actually has a fab collection on her flickr of all the hearts she has also found on her travels….id LOVE to have a collection like this myself…so inspirational.

So talking of inspiration…..I also decided to “heart myself” to some art I love, so I popped over to Cathy Nichols site. Cathy’s art always inspires me, its amazing and her recent encaustic pieces are wonderfully vibrant that I’m dying to learn how to create my own using this technique. I just had to get something, so I am soon to be the proud owner of 2 of her small paintings which will hang in my bedroom.. I’m sooo excited!

So lovely creative souls, as you wrap up your week and ease into the weekend, keep an eye out for your own heart discoveries, you will be amazed at how they now start appearing and speaking to you.

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My Mondo Beyondo - Yikes! It's out there

Image=detailed enlargement of my "Inspiration Tree" artwork. Original sold, but prints, notecards and greeting cards are available in my Etsy store.

Week four of Mondo Beyondo and I’m starting to feel sad that it will end. The daily doses and community exchange has been an insightful comforting crutch, not that I feel I totally need the crutch, but this experience for getting 2010 off to a good start has really been a message from the universe (or a kick up my butt). I’m ready to share, open up, be brave and vulnerable all at the same time as I know we are all dreamers wishing for a particular life… but we should also remember that we deserve to live the best life we can, I think many recent world occurrences and blog stories I have had the pleasure to read have re-affirmed this to me…. My goodness, dare I say I am almost ready to walk the walk of my 2010 word not just talk it! Oh and last night after spending a whole delicious day of creating art, I finished my vision board

So here they are in all their glory…..Hello Fabulous February and hello dreams…

•Live a full, unconditional loving, fearless, entrepreneurial life with my soulmate
•Have a country house with a veggie patch, open fireplace, creative spaces and a kitchen that is the heart of the home.
•Own a gallery with studio space, gallery/store, space for workshops, creative/musical room for meditation & inspiration, garden for life & inspiration to bloom.
•For my art and creative writing to be a large source of my income
•My Big Apple Brits business I co-own to be highly profitable and successful, continuing to bring great people together, making connections that change lives.
•Be part of a thriving, celebrated art community, exhibiting, collaborating and giving something back.
•Leave the corporate world!
•Learn Spanish
•Travel to Portland
•Explore South America
•To find the courage to speak infront of a huge audience
•Learn the guitar and compose music
•Find the courage to play guitar and sing in front of an audience.
•Live in Spain
•Get published: write a book, publish articles and inspirational words.
•Teach, consult, coach and inspire
•Host a retreat with friends and strangers (soon to be new friends!)
•See my art being licensed in stores on some fabulous merchandise
•Have a kickboxing and yoga inspired body. Meditate.
•Give more back into the community through Big Apple Brits, my art and other endeavors
•And most of all, for my dad to be well enough to have both of my parents visit me together. (my dad is not able to travel easily so has never seen my USA home in the 5 years I've been here).

So dear Universe.... there they are. I'm now open to receiving new possibilities. :-)

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