DREAM

 “I am always doing what I cannot do yet
in order to learn how to do it.” 

 - Vincent VanGogh 

 The Next Chapter 

Once I retired, it was always my dream to spend time, all day if I wanted, in one of my favorite rooms… ”My Studio”. In June of 2016, I did retire, and the next chapter in my life entitled, “My Life as a Mixed Media Artist” began. For over 30 years, I was an elementary school teacher, and as a teacher, I was told what to teach and when to teach it. The only creativity allowed was how I taught it and sometimes that was stifled. But now I have the freedom to create. To create what and how I want, and when I want to create it. 

 ArtEveryDayStudio is born 

After creating art and posting it on my former Instagram account, @elephantandtheowl, I began to gradually accumulate followers. It was so exciting to have other artists like and comment on my art. So the next step was to expand, to share more and deeper, and so I rebranded everything! In order to share my mixed media artist journey and to become part of a large, supportive community of artists and other like-minded individuals, I started ArtEveryDayStudio blog, changed my Instagram account to @arteverydaystudio, created a Facebook fan page, a Pinterest account, and a new email account. My thought is to share how this new chapter in my life is evolving, how I'm evolving, what and how I’m creating, what inspires me – other artists, places, things. I know ArtEveryDayStudio will show the beginning of my journey and how my journey changes over time. My hope is that arteverydaystudio.blogspot.com becomes a place where you will come along for the ride!

 Trust Vincent 

And so I welcome you to my first blog post ever! This is so thrilling! I envision it to be a sharing of quotes, thoughts, and art. And it doesn’t scare me in the least that I’m a novice at this. I have the time now and the desire to work hard at it. I’m perfectly willing to learn as I go, and just because I’ve never had a blog doesn’t mean I won’t learn all about having one. I’m trusting Vincent, because it obviously worked for him.

 DREAM 

I wanted to have this art journal piece, DREAM, be the one included in my first blog post for several reasons. One, I love stamps with faces on moons and suns. Two, my daughter loves hexagons and green, and she has always been my #1 fan. And three, the message is simple but appropriate – DREAM.

 How to - 

To begin, I added strips of washi tape across the page and then painted a glue layer of Liquitex Matte Medium to make sure they stayed adhered. Using "Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste" (The Crafter’s Workshop), I stenciled TCW324s "Mini Hexagons" (The Crafter’s Workshop) and let that dry thoroughly. (NOTE: It is very important to thoroughly wash your stencil after using texture paste so it doesn’t dry on and ruin your stencil.) Then I painted the hexagons with citron green (Americana Paint); and to use up the extra paint, I diluted it with water and applied drippage from the middle going down and then turned the journal upside down and repeated. I dried that and stenciled TCW261s “Mini Art Is” (The Crafter’s Workshop) with mars black paint (Liquitex Basics). Next I randomly dripped some turquoise paint onto the page. After everything was dry, I outlined the hexagons with a #2 pencil and smudged them a little with my finger.

This "Flying Moon" stamp is an oldie but definitely a favorite, (Lost Coast Designs). I stamped it with black permanent ink (StāzOn), fussy cut it out, and used it to make a collage with a scrap of my favorite shade of green, a black “thread nest” as DeeDee Catron calls it, and some cardboard that had random swipes of turquoise and green paint. Then I stenciled the word DREAM, TCW585s "Mini Inspired Words" (The Crafter’s Workshop).

There also happened to be a small scrap of pattern on my table and it was added, of course.

Finally, I added “Gathered Twigs” Distress Ink (Ranger) around the edges. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first post and will follow me. Please  join me every Tuesday and Friday  for more posts at arteverydaystudio.blogspot.com.  Sweet dreams, friends!

 Art in the Studio makes every day a good day.

 Thanks for spending time with ArtEveryDayStudio!