Why do I love crayon rubbings? Is it the historical significance that brass rubbings played in medieval times?  Is it the memory of first grade making leaf rubbings? A little bit of those but the biggest reason is crayon rubbings are immediate gratification.  No waiting for anything to dry.  The only prep work is taking the [...]

I want to be a detective, live in a castle, have a conversation with Matisse, get out of a thorny situation, spend the afternoon at the fountains of Versailles, and travel an unpredictable path.   How do I know I want to do all of this?  Whatever floats around in my head comes out in my art [...]

Making a mess is all about discovering what can happen.  Sometimes, it’s more mess.  Sometimes, it’s something I love.  The fun is I never know which it will be when I start playing. This wood panel began with layers of texture.  No goal, no plan, no direction – just a mess of textures.  Those mica flakes [...]

O.O.P.S.!  I put way too much paint on my palette for my last project.  Not a mistake.  Not a fail.  It won’t be wasted because it is just an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly for more play with stencils! I even turned this one into a free Spark of Art-spiration…so you can play too!  You can [...]

Time for a little home renovation, mixed media style.  I bought 5 gallons of house paint in the colors of the rainbow, grabbed a Gel Press monoprinting plate and started printing right on the walls.  Yes, I did it directly on the wall.  Slapping it right against the wall makes the most wonderful thwap sound! [...]

It’s the start of a new year, so that means plenty of introspection on what I want to make a priority in 2017.  I would love to make everything a priority and do it all.  But there is a reality that there are only 24 hours in a day so picking a word, or two, [...]

When does the muse show up and inspire me? After I have started.  It’s as if starting is her invitation to join me so that means I need to start. No matter what it is, the important thing is to just start. I grabbed plain old cardboard from a shipping box as a place to start [...]

O.O.P.S.ville is a wonderful town, after all there are no mistakes just Outstanding Opportunities Presenting Suddenly.  This art journal page started with the leftover scraps I just couldn’t bear to throw away from cardmaking with gel prints. Living up to the name of this town, plenty of OOPSies were a part of this process and of [...]

Sometimes a few minutes is all you have to play and that’s all I need to make an OOPS, an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly.  Being an adult can take up most of the day, but I have to have a bit of play for my sanity.  Just a few minutes of play with the art supplies keeps me [...]