Courage Kindled

On To New Ground

Sometimes my voice may be as a toddler, standing up, falling back on its behind, wobbly, but always pressing on, striving to walk and giggling with joy when it does.

My voice may become rebellious and say NO! Not that. Yes! This! My voice will never give up. It comes to me from the deep well, the river, the source. It is more powerful than I can imagine.

New Rhythm

Sometimes my voice is a tree, standing tall, firmly rooted, limbs reaching for the light. Assuredly "being" without question, knowing it is Tree.

Sometimes my voice may be as a venerable old one, richly lined and weathered, with a knowing wisdom to share. I sit at her feet and listen.

Gray Promises

Sometimes, more often than I would like, my voice may seem silent, as a bear in winter hibernation. I may cast about in the snow, looking and searching, but I only have to wait for the thaw which will come as surely as the spring.

Sometimes my voice will want to run for the joy of running and feeling alive. I run with it, and see where I go.

Courage Kindled

In week five of the Seeking Your Authentic Voice group and I am feeling my energy for creating expand and become more sure. A little braver...and I'm ready to gesso the large panels that wait in the studio. What an adventure it will be!

Continents Forming

These words came to me one early morning this past week. I honored the gift by writing them down, and now I am sharing them with you. After all if my voice gives me words, I need to accept the gift!

Each of these pieces is a small collage on paper, which have come together in the past couple of weeks. Several more are in the works. Fun.



How is your creating going?

Seeking My Authentic Voice

I have a new appreciation for winter, after the holidays and the rush have subsided.

It’s a personal time. It’s easy to slip home after work and live simply. I find time for reflection, time for solitude, and studio time.

I think of my thought process as mental composting in a way. I don’t have to actively reflect, just see what comes up. I have no intention of any thing like a resolution. I am experiencing more “being” now, and eschewing goal setting and time frames. I am experiencing myself a la natural. It’s exciting really. What will come of it?

From this richness of space and time (and plenty of luxurious sleep), I have been working a lot in the studio. I’m going in new directions. Ideas tumble in my mind, one after the other, waiting to be acted upon. I’m having fun!

I’m not ready to share the “new” work yet, but I can tell you I have been playing with inks, bees wax, charcoal and egg shells. Even those ingredients sound a bit like a compost pile!

I have also developed a new coaching group – Seeking Your Creative Voice. This topic is so very dear to my heart.

On January 14th you can participate in a non cost teleclass exploring the topic if you like. You can find out more here. You will also find particulars about the group there.

As this idea was developing I started down a few mental dead ends; all a part of the process I suppose. Not unlike making art, for me anyway. Then this popped up from my compost pile:

When I tap into my authentic voice that’s when the doors open, the work flows and my heart knows, just knows “this is right.” Time melts. It feels good. The struggle is replaced with a sense of work; right work, good work, the work, my work.

Voice isn’t style, voice isn’t principals and elements of design, voice isn’t content, but the language we use to express our authentic voice includes all of these. Authentic voice is something more elementary than this, it’s something closer to primal, closer to the earth, and it is uniquely yours.

The authentic voice isn’t found so much as it is invited, finally recognized and accepted for what it is and celebrated.

We don’t choose it, it claims us. What we choose is to listen and dance to the sound. You may even find yourself weeping for the joy of connection with your own creative voice.

Happy January! What is coming up from your mental compost pile?

Artists Books and Some Things To Like About Art

My intrigue with artist’s books goes back to the second grade, when I fell in love with my teacher’s grade book. It was a truly magical book with multiple interior pages of different widths.

All our names were entered down the left hand column. Each interior page flipped to show our grades for a variety of subjects, the column of names on the left remaining constant. The beautiful Miss Monroe entered marks in blue, red or black ink, creating a random pattern of visual interest. The weight of her entries made an impression that created depth to each page. I was truly enthralled.

No other book I experienced had any handmade marks –books were stored on shelves, pristine and sterile. It was sacrilege to make a mark in a book, except for the teacher’s grade book. When ever my BF and I would play “school” I would always start by making an elaborate grade book, with pages of differing widths, filled with columns and rows. Heaven!

I seldom make a model book – I may as well just make another book. But I knew a model would help to test the weights of different papers and how they interact with one another. I used tape to secure the papers since this was only a model. But now I like the model book, so I may add content and hope the photo quality permanent tape will hold for sometime.

To add interest I used some of the paper I do warm ups on when I am starting a studio session. My warm up papers are like a sketch book of ideas. I hang a large piece of light weight paper on the studio wall so I can work on ideas in larger format. I also practice making gestures and marks.

I like a lot of things about making art. I like to work with my hands. It’s something that occurs right here, right now somewhat within my control. I can’t have much of an effect on world peace, but I can make art.

Do you know what I mean? I work out thoughts and responses to being human, especially the parts for which I can’t find deep enough words.

I like to see what happens when I create. I’m just so curious about the whole process. I’m always finding new ways of doing things. One day I may make marks with a stick dipped in paint, and the next day I may use a razor blade to scratch out lines and marks. Curiosity is real fuel for studio time.

When it comes to art, I get to do it my way, and create my vision. No one else is making the decisions, or setting the course. It’s all mine. As said in Art and Fear – art is about “a rolling tangle of choices.” We have to make our choices. And then roll with it.

What are some things you enjoy about making your art?

Speaking of rolling tangles of choices, my new life coaching for artists web site is up and running. So I’m offering a new session of the popular course for artists called Re-Fresh Your Creative Practice. The dates are Tuesday, November 2^nd to Tuesday, December 7^th. If you like you can participate in a complementary call to find out more about it on Tuesday, October 6^th. Head over here and also sign up for my newsletter to find out more about it. The next time I offer this course will be June, 2011, or thereabouts.

If you have signed up for the newsletter and haven’t gotten your complementary gift, check your spam folder. Once you confirm your subscription, an email will be sent to you with your gift. The spam folder is no place for your present to be!

Old Papers, Insects with Wings, and Stencils.

Collectors are happy people ~ Johann Goethe

Old papers, insects with wings, and stencils.

What is a collector? It’s an innate trait. We start as children, collecting leaves, or stamps or stones and, as we get older, teens collect friends, CDs and, as an adult it can be anything. ~Edgar Paulik

Vintage photography paraphernalia.

Post office stamps, beyond their original usefulness.

Collecting seems to bring out that primitive instinct for the hunt in some of its devotees, who stalk their prey with skill. ~Alicia Faxon

Did I mention leaves with spots and dots?

Bulldog clips and every kind of vintage office item.

I have yet to meet a collector who feels bad about his collection. Collection is also about the story – the story behind how someone found it and purchased it. ~Edgar Paulik

Of course, keys.

More, I have so much more…to be continued from time to time.

What do you collect?

I have a new coaching web site here. The small collage above is by Leslie Avon Miller. Thanks for stopping by!

Creating in Our Own Authentic Voice - Buried Treasure

One day not so long ago I was walking back to the house from the studio, a walk of about only 80 feet. It had been a pretty good day in the studio. I had been making collage, painting papers, tearing edges, arranging shapes, and gluing pieces down.


What was appearing on the paper was something I had never seen before, and it looked good, really good. And it was unique. And I knew that through my work I was speaking about breathing room, and calmness, and the state of being. The work I did that day was fresh, clean and strong. I was feeling very satisfied.


As I walked back to the house I was carrying my bucket of dirty brushes in one hand and my tea mug in the other, as the studio is unfinished and has no running water yet. I suddenly stopped and had an epiphany. I was truly speaking in my own authentic creative voice! Gosh, I thought, this feels so good, why would anyone try and speak in someone else’s voice?


That was when I decide to really zero in on the process of becoming an artist and creative person with a unique and very authentic expression.


My curiosity about the whole process of becoming someone who can and does express herself uniquely, and from her own truth was piqued. Hence my current focus is on authenticity in the creative process.


How do we get there? What is the process, and how can we enhance that uniqueness, that authenticity in our expression? What is the value of authentic expression?


What ever it is we are currently doing it is a step on the path. What ever it is you and I are creating today, it is the way we deepen own unique creative voice. Michelangelo said David was already in the marble, the artist just chipped away the excess to reveal the statue.


As well our voices and our authenticity are with us right now, we just have to tune in more clearly, and allow the flow.


This post was originally posted on my coaching blog, Create Your Best Life Coaching. It is my contribution to Buried Treasure, "an online, collaborative project that invites art bloggers to go into the depths of their blogs and dig for buried treasure. Each participant was asked to repost one (or more) or their favorite posts from their own blog. There are so many brilliant artists out there but so little time to explore all their work fully. This gives us all an opportunity to see highlights from posts we may have missed from so many of our favorite bloggers!" Buried Treasures is hosted by Seth Apter, the creative voice of The Altered Page.


If you read my blog from time to time, you might wonder about the reference to working in my studio. In 2009 when I wrote this post I was working in the studio on a temporary basis. I had a piece of plywood set across two saw horses which actually worked out very well.

Today's update on the studio construction is that the walls are all done! They look sharp in the new coat of fresh white paint. Next, Kurt will hang the ceiling fan.

This weekend we plan to paint the floor and then I will possibly be able to move back in. The trim and a few other details will still need to be done, but I can work in there while that is completed. I'm containing my excitement in the event something else needs to be done that will delay the process, but I also have my fingers crossed!

This collage is one I recently made. Thanks for visiting!

Seized with Creative Vigor

Being seized with creative vigor can result in fabulous art discoveries. And a few other things can be discovered too.


Here is a discovery. If you are concurrently doing the laundry while creating interesting collage papers, and you leave the lid of the clothes washer open it will not drain out all that fresh soapy water.


Then sometime later when you meander by, feeling all pleased about your new papers and notice the machine, you can add the clothes and no one will ever know you were a distracted laundry lady. You may wonder how I know these things…I’m not telling!





Are you interested in some tips for collage paper preparations? I know some people have all the technique they need, and some folks are open to trying more. If you have created papers that you find too dull or too bright, or too intense, or too ugly, might I suggest you assume an explorers mindset. Get those papers out of the drawer and on your work surface. Contemplate and consider what you have at hand. Then begin!


I usually work atop a piece of plastic such as a new white or clear garbage bag that has been softened to remove the sharp pleats and fold marks. I put the plastic bag in my clothes dryer with a wet load of laundry. I turn on the dryer for about 60 to 90 seconds and then retrieve the plastic bag. It will be nicely free of fold marks. If you want, you can then turn the dryer back on to finish drying the clothes.






If you don’t have a dryer, you do have an option. Crumple up the plastic bag and place it next to your warm skin. If you are female you have two pretty good spots under your shirt for two bags, one on each side. If you are male you’ll have to think of your own spot. It’s a bit itchy, but after a while the bag will be soft and the fold creases gone. A tip of the hat to Eydi Lampasona who taught me that technique.


Put the side of your paper you like the most face down on the plastic. This technique is for more porous papers like washi and tissues, not watercolor papers. I often find it’s the “B” side, the underneath side I like the best. If you enjoy mark making this is a good time to try some on your paper.






If your paper is too bright apply something to calm it down. Apply your problem solution – what ever it is – ink, paint, what ever you can think of and wait for the magic to happen. I leave each sheet of paper on its own plastic until it is completely dry. I don’t try to move the paper without the plastic support.


If your paper is too dull, how about a nice time flinging paint, or dripping ink, or transferring paint from one surface to another? Let dry, and repeat. That is literally how I create my best collage papers.






My next experiment involves cherry tree bark. I am taking my inspiration from India Flint, who uses eco dyes on cloth. Her work is stunning. I am waiting for the library to let me know her book Eco Colour is available for me to read. But since I am in the mood for exploration, I am just going to plunge ahead and try some things and find out what happens. Its only paper…


I attended a great non art work shop recently on human brains and learning. I love that kind of stuff. The fellow who taught it is John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, researcher and really funny guy. He knows a lot about how humans, especially babies, learn. Did you know the ideal student to teacher ratio is 1 teacher to 5 students? That is how many students the teacher, or more accurately, the teacher’s brain, is actually able to attend to.

The new studio space is tantalizing now. It’s all bright and white. The ceilings sore above the open beam and light streams in through the skylights. The scaffolding is moved out. The space is open and inviting. I could give in to temptation and move in before a floor covering and trim work are completed. I will try to resist, at least until there is a floor. Kurt says he will go investigate flooring options tomorrow. He must sense my patience beginning to melt now that moving into the studio is so close. It’s been five years in process.


I can envision the new studio space having ample room for 5 students and one teacher to work, even with the framing equipment in place. I can envision a 4 day class about collage and creating papers. A little exploration, a little collage paper making and creativity coaching…I love visions.

Expressive Figurative Art

Empty-handed I entered the world. Barefoot I leave it. My coming, my going -- Two simple happenings that got entangled.
~ Kozan Ichikyo

And between coming and going? Make art!




Continuing with the blog post series featuring figurative art I present here life drawings by Australian artist Noela Mills. Noela’s blog is called wabisabiart. Her blog features creative experimentation and a whole spectrum of her own art from jewelry to collage and from paintings to textile art.




Noela’s life drawings are oh so exquisite, using sensitive line, powerful shape and a splendid color palette. These drawings were part of the International Collage Exchange this year, but unfortunately I didn’t get one of them! Noela has also used life drawings to construct a most intriguing artist book. Oh, how I would love to hold that book and turn the pages! Noela is an innovative artist, who loves textures, color and shapes, so of course I feel we are kindred spirits. Noela tells us about her long time love affair with textures here.




When I was about eight years old, I went on a school camp. I borrowed my mother's bellows camera and took photos of rocks, bark, patterns in the sand, reflections, and only one or two of people. My love affair with texture had begun. Over the next fifty years, I explored all avenues of life and the visual arts, becoming an art teacher, a traveller, a ski instructor, a mother and eventually a professional artist. My art is now almost entirely consumed by the concept of 'wabi sabi' - the Zen Buddhist philosophy of finding beauty in things old, worn, incomplete, imperfect and common place. I work with rust paint on canvas, barbed wire in jewellery, antique kimono silks in scarves and teabags in almost everything. My personal mantra is HONEST, SIMPLE and NOBLE. I still take photos of rocks, bark and reflections.























I am a devoted fan of artist Robyn Gordon. You probably know her blog, Art Propelled. Robyn curates delicious on line art exhibits of all kinds including collage, paintings, textiles and anything else that strikes her keen artistic eye. Opening a new blog post at Art Propelled is like opening a birthday present in beautiful kuba cloth wrapping tied with native grasses and decorated with seed pods. But Robyn is best known for her own wood carvings. Robyn takes figurative art and totems to a whole new level. I am fortunate enough to have one of Robyn’s small goddess carvings. It has a place of honor on my windowsill alter of inspirational Very Cool and Arty Things.










Robyn’s carvings make statements about her love for her native Africa and art and her deep sense of compassion. Robyn’s reply to the question “What story are you telling with your art?” follows.



I suppose I am telling the story of my life in South Africa. The niche carvings hold objects that are of the land (pebbles, bones, cowries, driftwood etc.), symbols of Africa (beadwork, arrowheads, tiny stone carvings), symbols of my British ancestry (silver teaspoons, Minton china shards). The totems "speak" of the legends that have been passed down from one generation to the next. The patterns, objects, symbols are all of this land. No matter what tribe we belong to we who were born in this country belong here and make South Africa what it is.




















I am so thankful for the art blogging world. From my little town in the Pacific Northwest of the US I can experience the art, the creative explorations, musings and processes of artists from around the world. Thank you Noela and Robyn.

Contemporary Collage Art

I love an art which allows me to document my place in this mix... This is my past and my future. It has its own logic and finally, its own sense of fulfillment.

~Burton Silverman

Yesterday was a banner mail day because my exchange collage from the International Collage Exchange arrived. I got to sit down and look through my new collection, one by one. Each collage is unique and beautifully presented. They came from Germany, New Zealand, The United Kingdom, Belgium, Bulgaria and the USA. I’ll get them all scanned in and share some with you soon.

Collage artists often tend to behave like squirrels or pack rats, gathering all kinds of materials and storing them away for eventual incorporation into their art work.”

~Gerald Brommer

Does that sound like you? It certainly sounds like me!

The collage above is a new one of mine in my on-going experiment with abstracted figurative art, loosely based on my interpretations of tribal art. I have several more in process, awaiting resolution. I find it interesting to push and see just how abstract they can be and still read as a figure.

Sometimes I am asked about collage and techniques. If you are interested in collage I recommend the book Collage Techniques, A Guide for Artists and Illustrators by Gerald Brommer. It was published in 1994, and has fabulous examples from artists I admire including Katherine Chang Liu, Peggy Brown, Fred Otnes, Kurt Schwitters, Edward Betts, Alexander Nepote and many others.

Obviously, the newest techniques for digital collage are not discussed, as they hadn’t been invented yet. The topics Mr. Brommer discusses apply no matter your approach, including materials and techniques, subject matter and design. To learn more about the book go here.

Artist’s statements intrigue me. They are an important piece of graceful promotion of your art. I have discussed one of my favorite examples at my other blog, Create Your Best Life Coaching.

Have a great week everyone!

Individual Expression

…there was a long time when I wasn’t completely satisfied with what I was doing…not that I didn’t think each collage was good, but they didn’t have the message…finally, when I felt I had the message, then I thought, okay, now.

~Hannelore Baron

Making art is like a conversation for me. As I work I converse with the piece and the piece converses with me. I hope to communicate my message through the work.

If I am lucky the work tells me what it needs. Once the painting or collage is complete, I hope the conversation continues between the work and the viewer, and on some level between the viewer and the maker.


Sometimes that awareness of the message, the conversation, can distract me from the elements that go into a work of art. The techniques, the design and the craftsmanship remain important, and I must remember that part too.


I’ve been trying to move to another level with my work, one with the message and the craftsmanship equally expressed. I have tried a number of ideas and approaches to my current subject matter. Each experiment has been worth while. I think I have found my direction, although I’m at the beginning of this series.

We make art because we have to! We have no choice but to express ourselves visually. We share our visions, our sensitivities, and our compassion. We share our agony, our wrath and our frustrations. Through our art we lay ourselves out on paper for all the world to see. When we exhibit our work, others can explore and experience our beliefs, our reactions, our biases, our loves and our spiritual beings. It takes special people to share themselves with others in such personal ways, and such people are called artists.

~Gerald. F. Brommer


These two small studies are satisfying to me. I can work from this place. The working title for the series is Story Line. The concept is solid and I know the message, at least at this initial level. More may be revealed to me as I work.





Mr. Brommer goes on to say of course our products have something to do with technique, decoration, craftsmanship, design and subject mater. But these are merely tools that help us create more effective art…help us communicate more articulately. What we express visually is what is within each of us, for that is the foundation and purpose of our art. We express reactions; we help others see more differently or more clearly; we assist in the recognizing of relationships. We explore visual dynamics and report on human events. We decorate surfaces and we express unbounded joy in the very act of creating. We create because it is an essential part of our lives. We cannot help but be artists…Regardless of the media, styles, size or subject matter, good art is determined by the quality and effectiveness of sincere visual expression.

Let’s Visit a Studio in Denmark!

I feel like it’s time for another studio visit. The “build your own studio” project here is moving forward – lots and lots of sanding going on. I understand when that is done, the primer can be sprayed. Then I think there will be something to show you. For now, it’s just a lot of dust.

I want to share with you the studio of Danish artist and architect Line Juhl Hansen. Line’s work appeals to me because of her strong use of shapes, her use of line and the space she creates in her work.





Line shares her studio space with another artist, graphic designer Sidsel Gaustadnes. With Line’s permission I am reprinting parts of an article from Boligliv magazine, only in English.



“In the heart of Aarhus, a short distance from the harbour and the heavily-trafficked approach roads, a small oasis of charm and character lies hidden. Surrounded by old mews and apartment blocks are old industrial buildings and workshops… this place is called “Kærlighedsstien”, and for a couple of hundred metres it is reminiscent of a calm breath of air in the middle of the city traffic. In No. 7, the artist and architect Line Juhl Hansen and graphic designer Sidsel Gaustadnes have their base in one of the old workshops – Line with her paintings and Sidsel with her graphic design company, Spagat.”




“Line has worked as an established painter for a number of years and is represented in some of the country’s leading galleries. With her delicate sense for graphic design, Sidsel has created graphic identities for companies for several years. When art meets design a really special vibe emerges, a vibe the two women invoke in both individual and shared projects.”





Line’s blog is in English.




I have been following her work for a while now. Line tells me she has a book of her work that will be available soon.




Line also has work on Etsy and she holds workshops in her lovely studio.




Looks like fun! Thanks Line, for being part of this series on Artist Studio Visits. More of the article, in English, is available here at Décor 8 blog.

For more about what I have been doing go here.