Art Finds Friday - Jan 6, 2011

1)  MIXED MEDIA

I am delighted to announce that this year I have joined Jenny Doh's CRESCENDOh design team. It is so nice to have this deadline and inspiration to get me creating. Maximus has become such a challenge at 14 months, zooming here and there, pulling things out of cupboards and drawers, by the evening without a strong reason to create I find it hard to not give into the desire to veg. You know what I mean Momma?

My first card made using CRESCENDOh products has been posted here. It is a kind of Workshop - I describe in words and pictures how I went about making this card with these Alice in Wonderland stamps.

I am full of ideas for things to make with the CRESCENDOh stamp lines and looking forward to creating lots in 2011 despite my crazy toddler!


2) GIVEAWAY

Tara Sophia Mohr is hosting an online workshop: Living Your Brilliance: Quieting Your Inner Critic and Reclaiming the Driver's Seat in Your Work and Your Life. Doesn't that sound nice? I am really practicing quieting my inner critic this year. My word for 2011 is positive. Specifically, I am determined to be more positive about myself! I am often so positive about the world around me, my kids, other artist's work, other folks blogs and books and on and on, reserving all my negativity for myself. I am so tired of feeling down about myself. I want to feel that what I choose and do is okay. So Tara's course sounds right along those lines.

You can win a spot on this course over here at Shelley Kommers blog Oiseaux (I love Shelley's collages, so her blog is always worth a visit). This giveaway is open until January 9th, so hurry on over.


3) MUSIC

If you grew up in the 80's then you probably loved George Michael's Careless Whispers. Guilty. But oh, Seether has done an amazing re-make. I can't get enough. I am not really into that video.....

but... someone has put Seether's song to the best bits of the movie 'Twilight'. Check it out here on YouTube.  Let me rant for a minute - I loved Twilight... yes it was cheesy but it captured perfectly the emotion, the awkwardness of new love, Edward's agony and desire, the first desirable male since Mr. Darcy. It inspired me to read all the Twilight series books (in like a week). I felt the coloring of the movie really complimented them... but then Summit stole the project from director Catherine Hardwick, who is first and foremost an artist, and gave it to directors who made the other movies into blah, blah big Hollywood movies. New Moon and Eclipse lack energy, the edgy coloring, the raw longing, the passion of the books and the first movie. They are simply wooden. Worse - pieces of plastic covered wood. Like toys you would see in Walmart rather than on Etsy. Sigh. Such a shame.

Another Seether song I love is 'Broken' with Amy Lee.....

The singer of Seether and Amy Lee were a couple when they wrote this song and I was thinking I wish I could create some art with my mate..... but then I remembered 1) my commitment to being positive towards myself... so I am not going to lament my lack of singing talent/creative opportunity. Check. Re-focus. 2) My husband and I have made some, no, the ultimate art - our beautiful children! 

Re-focus. Positive. Create.