CAMPANOLOGIST

 Keep away from people who try to  belittle your ambitions. Small  people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

 - Mark Twain 

 Camponologist 

For almost 20 years, I’ve been a camponologist. Now before you run for your dictionary, I’ll define it for you. A camponologist is a handbell ringer. My group, The Celestial Sounds, rings monthly in our church from September through June; and we perform an annual Christmas concert each December at our local public library. We have five octaves in our choir and 14 dedicated members. The surprising thing is, I can’t read music. I only know the notes I’m playing because I color code them. I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking that after almost 20 years, I should be able to play 4 bells without color coding my music. Oh well, I’m just comfortable with it that way.

 A Simple Question 

Last year, my choir attended a workshop with a bell choir director from a regionally popular bell choir in our area. It sounded like fun and I was excited to play with other choirs. Once the workshop began, the instructor shared general info and then turned her focus to the day’s workshop. Not too long into it, she said something so devastating that I will never forget how it made me feel. She asked a simple question, “How many of you color code your music?” I proudly raised my hand along with a few others. “If you color code your music,” she said, “then you’re not a musician.”..............To say I was stunned is an understatement. She verbally slapped me with that statement. From that moment on, I couldn’t tell you what she tried to teach us, the music we played, NOTHING! NOTH-ING!

 Your inner voice 

That was over a year ago and I’ve come to realize she is one of those small people Mark Twain was talking about in the quote above. Sad. Will I ever be a gifted musician? No. Do I still color code my music? YES! Am I a musician? YES, I AM!! So don’t let anyone tell you what you are or are not. If your inner voice says, “I am an artist,” YOU ARE AN ARTIST! Listen to your inner voice. Listen. And don’t let anyone change your mind.

 How to:

In my large journal, I stenciled TCW267 Ledger (The Crafter’s Workshop) in mars black (Liquitex Basics). 

Next I added some color by putting dots of paint on the pages, spritzing the dots with water, painting them with a paint brush, adding more water, and wiping off so there is just the hint of color.

Over that, I added some tissue paper securing it with matte medium (Liquitex). This was totally going in the wrong direction, but I kept going and added strips of beige collage paper using matte medium to secure.

To try and save it, I decided to add some stripes using lemon yellow (Master’s Touch acrylics) and bright aqua green (Liquitex Basics), and some cadmium red light hue (Liquitex Basics) dots on the strips of paper. So far, this was my favorite. Things were looking up.

Black. Yes, that’s what it needed so I traced the large silhouette (Penelope?) from the TCW355 Casey & Penelope stencil (The Crafter’s Workshop) onto black paper and then cut it out. Since I really liked the background, I decided to cut out the inside of the stenciled silhouette.

Inside the silhouette, I stenciled TCW541s Mini Believe Script (The Crafter’s Workshop) with mars black (Liquitex Basics). I stenciled the words, “Listen to your inner voice” from Dina Wakley Media Affirmations stencil (Ranger) with mars black and also added a border on the top and bottom from TCW470s Mini Geometric Art Layers (The Crafter's Workshop) using mars black. 

Don’t be afraid to pursue your dreams whether anyone else believes in them or not. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and will join me every Tuesday and Friday for more blog posts at arteverydaystudio.blogspot.com.

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