The Importance of Putting it Out There & Self Belief

I got some exciting news over the weekend! 

Artwork that I submitted last month has been accepted for Patti Dighs next book "What I Wish For You: Simple Wisdom for a Happy Life" being published in April 2011 WOOHOO! I love the title and its going to be such an honor to have work in this book. 

Being published was one of my Mondo Beyondo Dreams and the strange thing is, is that I was very close to letting this opportunity pass me by.  Yes I know, SO UNLIKE ME. But I was so overwhelmed by other forces in my personal life, I didnt listen to the universe giving me this opportunity, pushing me, reminding me, telling me to "put it out there" and believe in myself. 

There was such a huge response to the call for art, that the publisher decided to randomly select 200 artists who would get the chance to submit work and I was lucky enough to be one of them. I received the essay and instructions whilst I was away at Squam and as the deadline fastly approached, I panicked a little...those little negative voices started to tap away at me: is my work good enough to submit? It doesn't really match the essay, this wont work, they wont choose me anyway! Yes I know again SO UNLIKE ME. 

On the day of the deadline, the publisher wrote to me to ask if I was definitely going to submit, and that if I needed the weekend, I could get something back for Sunday night. My inner guide perked up inside of me and gave me a big sharp poke "Louise YES, you can do this", so I wrote back and held myself accountable by promising to send work over. There, it was done.

Receiving the acceptance email from the publisher this weekend was amazing and I wanted to share this little story with you to remind myself and share with all of you lovely creative souls out there, that putting yourself and your work out there is so important. Don't be afraid, or feel like you are not good enough or you wont get chosen, taking the initial step just makes us stronger and who knows what will happen! I cannot believe how close I came to not sending in my work. 

Thank you to Monica who posted the call to artists on her blog a few months ago, thank you to the publisher who chose my name at random and for the time....and most of all thank you to the universe for reminding me to practice what I preach: to believe in myself, giving me the extra chance to "Put it Out There". The work I submitted is above, my tranquility paintings that are becoming more and more precious and meaningful to me in so many ways as time goes on.

Is there something you are scared about submitting to at the moment? A letter of submission you are thinking twice about writing, a show you are not sure you are good enough to apply for, an exhibition opportunity?.....please please please take a deep breathe, muster up the courage from deep within your soul and take that first step - Put it Out There. You are good enough, you are unique, you are amazing. :-)

I'm also taking this opportunity to put 2 more things out there: 1) The Creative Color Challenge Ornament swap officially starts on Tuesday. YAY! 2) I am almost done with the ecourse, workbook & planner I am writing. "Putting our Dreams out there" and "Listening to the Universe" are important elements I'm including....I'm so excited to be creating these resources to help others plan and take action in their creative endeavors and make 2011 an amazing year. I'll be announcing the full outline in just a couple of weeks! 

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Delights of Halloween

I popped out this morning for a lovely long walk and wanted to share some of the delights I found... HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEKEND EVERYONE.

 Funny Faces at the local market

 My Neighbor going to town on his front yard decorations

 Witches just "hanging around"

 Pumpkins and streamers as you enter a home

 Open doors I'm weary about entering!

 Art and Sculpture in a front yard

 Friendly faces in the pumpkin produce.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins and more Pumpkins

Funky squash partying together

 "Pop Up" store just full with Halloween costumes

 Puppets in my local hair salon

 and most of all....getting some fabulous mail art for Halloween from a flying sister. Thank you Heidi. :-)

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE HALLOWEEN DELIGHTS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?

P.S. Pop back on Tuesday for the Creative Color Challenge Ornament Swap Kick Off! yay!

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Do You Think Storytelling is Important?

Camp Fire Storytelling. Coachella, CA 2009

It's funny how you can put thoughts about a particular subject out there and other creative souls, eventhough they may be 1000's of miles away are also picking up the same signals. 

Over the past week, I have been having many conversations with friends about storytelling, the importance of it, the lack of it and how we wish we were better at it. I enjoyed reading this post that Amelia put up over the weekend about Storytelling and her desire to research more about this and I also wanted to share some thoughts. 

Having recently experienced the joy of hearing good stories at Squam from lovely narrators like Jen Lee, its made me ponder the importance. Do children & teachers still share stories at school? Do parents still tell bedtime stories? What stories in our everyday lives help us get through the day or a difficult time in our lives? What about all the stories our grandparents have about their lives we know nothing about, or our parents? How can we capture those to help us grow and shape ourselves into better human beings aswell as stretch our own creativity? 

I want to HEAR more stories 

and

I want to TELL more stories.

"If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive" Quote from Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams

A lovely Squam friend is coming to visit NYC in November so we hope to catch some good old fashioned storytelling at The Moth on Nov 16. If you are in the area, come along. :-) A couple of other resources include: Storycorps, International Storytelling & festivals. Please add any you know below in the comments.

I'd love to hear what you think about storytelling. 

How important do you think it is for our creativity, our lives and generations to come?

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10 Reasons to Create a Vision or DreamBoard

I'm loving my Dreamboard for the Full Moon tomorrow night (Friday October 22nd). 

I am really excited about some of the things that have been coming my way (messages from the universe) lately due to practicing this ritual for the past few months. 

Every January, I create a visionboard for the coming year, and have recently found this regular creative practice to be very powerful. So I wanted to share some of the enlightening reasons for you to get involved in creating your own Dreamboards every month to help manifest your own hopes and dreams. I usually put on some lovely relaxing music, make a cup of herbal tea and browse through magazines to find the images of those very things I'm looking to invite in. So go on....join me, its lots of fun and who knows what will happen next. :-)

10 Reasons to Create a Vision or Dreamboard

1. It helps you vision and create a visual interpretation of what you would like to invite into your life.
2. The images connect you more fully to the essence of who you are and what you stand for
3. It keeps you focused on making those everyday choices from your heart and soul rather than what your head thinks you should do. 
4. It looks great on our bedroom wall. :-)
5. It enables you to tap into the creative right side of your brain to design your future life and how you want it to be
6. It can increase clarity and focus
7. It can keep you going through days of adversity or when you lack motivation
8. It will lift your spirits
9. You are putting it out there so the universe can hear you are ready to let new possibilities in.
10. It can help you reconnect and refocus to your goals and dreams, as well as who you are at your core

I'll be creating my next Full Moon Dreamboard starting on the New Moon (Nov 5th), so hope you can join me. if you created a Dreamboard for Oct, please post a link below and you can also post your photo in the flickr group I created. :-)

Do you like the idea of visioning your future, messages from the universe,  setting goals and the thought of a "I know what to do next" roadmap to follow? Well, stay tuned: I have some exciting news of new resources and an ecourse I'm developing covering all the tools and techniques I use to make things happen in my life!  So excited to share this all with you. More to be revealed in mid-November. :-)

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Artist Inteview: Laura Loving

I'm pleased to introduce you to Laura Loving a New York based Artist who has the most amazing style.

1) Can you tell us a little bit about your art and what inspires you?

I exaggerate color and shape to create art that is humorous, alive and uplifting. Simply put, my art is happy! I want my art to create a positive bond with the viewer. Without question, making a connection with someone through my work is the best part of being an artist. Lady Liberty is my signature image. However, The Wallpaper Paintings is my latest series. I think just about everything I come in contact with inspires my work. I especially find living in New York a fuel source for my creativity. There is an energy here that just doesn’t exist anywhere else.Manhattan is a never ending epic visual of people, places and things I would like to put in a painting.

2) Congratulations on earning your living through your art fulltime. How long have you been creating for and how long has art been your primary stream of income?

I have been making a living as an artist for 6 years. It took 12 years of shows and slowly growing a following to get there (now 18 total).I think the challenge of making a living as an artist is just as interesting as being an artist.I enjoy it and it is never dull. I feel more like an entrepreneur than an artist and I love the diversity of what I do on a daily basis. Creating art makes up only about 20% of my time.The rest of the activity pie chart is filled with accounting, public relations, marketing, sales and even mundane things like shipping and carrying paintings on the streets of New York City.

3) What were some of the key milestones along the way you’d be happy to share?

The biggest milestone was the day I quit my corporate job in 2004. I had no other source of income and it gave me the hustle I needed to make things happen. Necessity is the mother of invention! The second milestone was having an intern. I think every small business should have at least one. I promise you will learn as much from them as they do from you. It’s a valuable partnership (if you find a good one) and the karmic return is priceless!

4) I see you studied art at University, what do you think is the single most important thing you learnt? Does having an art school experience help you when dealing with galleries or showing your work?
I think having an art degree is an asset, but not a prerequisite. I know so many fantastically successful artists who DO NOT have art degrees. Confidence is the most important thing and that is a skill you have to learn yourself.

5) I’ve heard that artists need to think about lots of multiple streams of income to sustain a fulltime living. Would you be happy to share what has worked for you and why and some of the lets say “art disasters” you are glad you tried but know don’t work for you?
There are a million ways to make a living as an artist. There is no wrong or right way. I have worked in galleries along the way. However, I have found that if I had spent the same amount of energy on my own work as I did working for someone else, I could have made the same amount of money doing my own thing and in most cases more.

6) What do you wish you had known when you first got started?
I don’t think you can ever know everything you need to know to get started and it’s probably better if you don’t.I had no idea how hard this was going to be and I think it made it easier to come up with solutions rather than get stuck along the way. Sometimes naivete is a gift.

7) What is the most scandalous thing you’ve done in your life as an artist? For your art?

#1 most scandalous thing - I quit a well paying job with health insurance and a 401K to pursue my art career. There are days when I still wish I was in Corporate America, but not many. I would like to remind your readers that if you work for yourself, you can’t get fired!

#2 most scandalous – In the height of the recession, I sold my art in Union Square one Saturday as an experiment. I have to say, it was fun. I got photographed for the New York Times that day and I met some great new clients. I wouldn’t do it again, but it was a great way to get some fantastic feedback from the public and keep me going through this weird economic time.

8) Who that you know personally has affected your life/work as an artist and how?
My patrons affect my success as an artist. If you do not have patrons, you do not have an art career. I have so many loyal patrons that keep my art career going. Repeat business and referrals is the name of the game.

P. S. I include family, friends and my husband in the patron bucket. My family and friends have functioned as my unofficial “Board of Directors” as I grow my business. They were also my first collectors.

9) Whats next for Laura Loving Art

The week of October 18th through 24th, I kick off my Manhattan Magnolia Art Tour through Georgia (my home state).

• October 28th, I launch my first blog on www.StudioLauraLoving.com.
• I will be featured in the November issue of Country Living Magazine.
• I am creating an affordable line of unique home and fashion products that will be available on-line early 2011.

10) Finally, what advice would you give other artists who are just starting out?

• Take yourself seriously and others will too
• Have a business plan and tweak it as you go
• It takes a village! Develop a group of advisors that are experts in areas that you are not (Lawyer, Accountant, or Marketing Guru Etc). Also, know who your loyal supporters are and keep them close.
• Don’t forget to enjoy everything! Every time someone buys a piece of my art, it makes me happy. I never take it for granted and I always appreciate this simple joy.

Thank you Laura! You can connect with Laura on her Website and blog (launching oct 28th)

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Self Portrait & Protest on Perfect

I'm a couple of days late to the Self Portrait Challenge being held as part of Tinnie Girls fabulous Blogtoberfest. But I thought I'd have a go anyway! and include this Self Portrait I took a few weeks ago as part of the "Perfect Protest" from Brene at Ordinary Courage.

I was working late, hair all over the place, no makeup on and saw Meghans post and photo (below) on her blog and thought "Hey, ill give that a go, I'm far too busy living to be perfect"

Meghan, one of my Squam roomies

So everyone, lets celebrate ourselves, our imperfect wonderful selves.

As Brenes new book The Gifts of Imperfection states

"Let go of who you think you are supposed to be and Embrace Who You Are"

Wise words for a Thursday. :-)

Also wanted to remind you of some Swap Love coming soon so mark your calendars!
** Tues Oct 19 - Beth is kicking off round 2 of her fab Stitched Postcard Swap, dont miss it.
** Tues Nov 2 - Ill be announcing a special "Creative Color Challenge Ornament Swap for the holidays!

YAY to creating yummy goodness to swap with creative souls.

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Go Go Gocco & One Year Synchronicity

My finished Gocco Prints

I've always loved PrintMaking and having experienced Lino, Silkscreen, Etching, Aluminium and Wood prints over the years, I was intrigued to try out Gocco printing with Marisa Haedike from Creative Thursday. (who I took an online class with last year and was excited to finally meet in person) for Day 3 of Squam.

Print Gocco is a Japanese color screenprinting system developed in 1977 by Noboru Hayama and uses a flash bulb to "burn" the carbon drawn design into the screen. You then ink up the screen and go for it! Such a simple straightforward way to create some gorgeous images either on paper or fabric.

Marisa did a fabulous job of guiding us through setting up the screen with the bulbs, inking the screen which by the way can churn out up to 100 prints without having to be re-inked!

There were some wonderful designs from everyone in the class and it was also great to see how some of the fabric printed images came out. Very inspiring.


It was also so lovely to meet Marisa in person after all this time and really brought home what a difference a year makes when you put your mind to do something. It was almost a year (1 week out) to the day that her "In The Fish Bowl" class began. An e-class about Life As An Artist - kick starting me into this very life I am now amazingly living :-)

Riso who brought the Gocco Printer to market ceased Goccos in 2005 and shipped the last supplies in 2008 and many have joined the movement to save the process and revive it. More information here. You can now find Gocco Printers and supplies on ebay and etsy.

For more photos on Squam, visit the flickr pool here

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Squam - Bloom True with Flora Bowley & Tonights New Moon

One of the most enjoyable things about Squam was the log fires that continuously burned. I almost felt that it signified the passion burning in all of us to let an artist inside come out and play. Day 2 was all about intuitive painting with soul with Flora Bowley and so much soul this lovely lady has. Such a pleasure to meet her.

We started off in a circle introducing ourselves and spending some time talking about our painting experiences and why we were there taking this class. It was so lovely to hear what everyone had to say and it bonded the class together as we embarked on this journey for the day.
We went for it, painting intuitively, making marks on the large paper before we started on the canvas, not thinking about what we were creating but instead letting it all flow. By lunch time, I had created two colorful creations. SO MUCH FUN!

The afternoon was a little more of a struggle for me, painting over what I had created in the morning to create little portholes into this background was something I found quite tough and it was a very interesting process I went through mentally to get my head around this. Others found it a little challenging too and I think this was such an interesting insight into this painting process and to ourselves that Flora was showing us.

The critiques and reviews we did throughout the day were really valuable to our group.

Photo credit: laverandlime on flickr

Here is my almost finished piece. I'm going to work on these further and try out some more painting using Floras wonderful technique so ill be sure to share with you once I do!

If anyone ever gets a chance to take a class with Flora, this is truly an experience not to be missed. Check out Floras website and blog here.

New Moon in Libra Tonight.

ALSO Tonight is a New Moon and I'll be getting ready to create a new DreamBoard/Vision Board for the Full Moon on Oct 22. Let me know if you would like to join in this month. Heres my call out from last month and also my dreamboard for Sept Full Moon here.

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Squam - The Nature of Klimt with Mary Beth Shaw

Here's the first in a 3 part review of the lovely classes I took at Squam.

Klimt has always been a favorite of mine and a few years ago I created a series of lino and monoprints using the swirls as inspiration from one of his paintings here. So when I heard there was a "Nature of Klimt" class at Squam, I jumped in!


Mary Beth Shaw was teaching the class and what fun, messiness and experimentation we had! I have never used Clayboard before and I was excited to learn you could scratch and add all kinds of wonderful yummy textures and materials to it! We used wood icing, foil transfers, inks, acrylics.

We started off by drawing a tree or natural object on our clayboard and painting it with black gesso. We then experimented with stencils, wood ice, and lots of great techniques and materials that Mary Beth had on offer to us for the day.

I added Wood icing using a stencil to create some embossed areas.
Then acrylics to create the autumnal backgrounds

Alcohol Inks were then splashed onto different areas which I loved! Creating some vibrancy to this work in progress

We used a hot iron to secure the foil transfers to our pieces.
and then a tool to scratch out all the designs on the tree image.

Here is my finished piece against the backdrop of the wonderful view we had all day at the class.

I was so happy with my piece. Do you think its very "Klimt like?"

I'm also happy to announce the winner randomly picked from last Fridays giveaway is: Rita A. Rita please email me info@louisegale.com with your address and ill pop your book into the mail for you. Congratulations!

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First Friday Find & Giveaway - OCTOBER

Hi everyone, this month is just the giveaway and what a splendid one it is. I have recently found my heart being pulled towards poetry and writing some myself, so when this gorgeous book of poems found its way to me, I wanted to be able to share this with you. :-)

I have one copy to give away to a lucky person, a signed copy by the author. "Wind & Autumn Leaves" is a lovely collection of short poems by James L Collymore. Over 35 pages of James' collection of "Heart, Mind & Soul" words.

Poems he has written since he was 18 years old, kept close to his heart and has found that now is the time to share with the world. The three sections in the book cover the neutral, the negative, and the positive and there are over 35 poems for you to enjoy.

So many delightful words will melt off the pages as you read these in contemplation: Meditations & Observations, Wobegone, Hopeful and epilogue divide the areas of the book.

Here is just one of the poems you can expect to enjoy.

Always Have - Always Will
It seems as though I've known you
for the longest time.
And all the dreams and plans you've made
are slowly becoming mine

I have laughed, i have slept.
I have longed, I have wept,
for all the good thing that we've had,
all the secrets that you've kept,

But if all this should pass
into the distant tomorrows,
It will surely fill me
with infinite sorrows.

So now let my heart speak, and let yours remain still.....

As a friend I have loved you
and I hope...I always will.

"Wind & Autumn Leaves" can be purchased from Amazon.com here and also all major bookstores. it can also be downloaded as a pdf version on lulu.com ($5 less than regular price) and as an ebook on Apples ibookstore for your ipad, iphone or ipod touch. How cool is that!

To win this delightful book, please leave a comment below: either with a line or link to your favourite poem or lovely inspiring quote.

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