What happens in my life influences what I create in art…and seeing a David Cassidy concert last weekend had a big influence on this canvas! I adore the tone of his voice and the happy pop sound of his Partridge Family music. It’s infectious! So much that it is one of favorite playlists in the studio…as a bonus my teenager is so sick and tired of hearing it!
I started with a gesso’d canvas board…but it didn’t stay white for long! A full rainbow of paints, randomly stenciled through my Squares Layer Me stencil. Now the stencil wasn’t large enough to cover the whole thing but that was an easy fix since the pattern can be lined up and stenciled over and over and over to fill any size canvas.
Here are all the happy colors. What’s next? I wanted to capture a feeling I had from the concert…
David had a fantastic sense of humor and a genuine appreciation of the fans. One fan near the front (which wasn’t me…hence the blurry iphone photos), had an original album that had the song he was playing…so he played along and make a few comments about how much younger he looked then.
He is not 19 anymore but that didn’t diminish all the hands reaching up to him during the show. Near the end, I actually expected a frenzy of fans to rush the stage…which was surreal to see since I was one of the youngest fans there at 45…
All those frenzied hands reaching up for David Cassidy gave me the inspiration for a hand carved stamp…no pun intended!
This is the feeling I wanted to capture the most -the energy and the excitement that was flowing from the fans and being returned by David Cassidy.
There was way too much white space for me…so I added some orange and yellow.
Then some scribble journaling around the edges with a fine liner with ink to capture the joy from the concert.
Now this is where I made the judgement call to only journal inside some of the squares…but the more I think about it the more I want to scribble in each and every one of those. And guess what….since I made it I can go back and add to it any time.
Thank you so much David Cassidy for an amazing evening and all the incredible music you’ve shared with the world! 
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“What do you want to be when you grow up?” asked every grown up since I was 5 years old. What did I want to be? I had a different answer every time I was asked…or so that’s what the relatives told me. As I looked through old photos recently, I realized that all those things that I wanted to be as a kid I have incorporated in some way into my current life as an art adventurer.
I wanted to be an archeologist. And yes…it was probably because of watching Raiders of the Lost Ark…but it turns out that the film did not accurately depict what was involved in real archeology…patience. Now I get to be one any time I try to find things I have buried under piles of works-in-progress, stacks of Gelli prints, journals, and more.
I wanted to be a writer. Spelling was not my strength and this was back before the days of auto correct…but I don’t ahve to be able to spell a word to love it! Now I write this blog, magazine articles, and create stencils filled with words. Of course, I use auto correct and have my stencil designs proof read because…yes…I did have a misspelling that took way too long to correct after the design was all finished.
I wanted to be a musician. But it turns out I am a bit tone deaf and can’t really keep a beat. Both essential abilities when creating music as a career, or at least that is what the high school band conductor told me right before he handed me the auto tuner… Now I get to dance and flail my arms around the studio to 80’s music while painting. Music is my muse’s favorite way to inspire me.
I wanted to be an architect. I loved visiting places with amazing buildings that had a story to tell. Turns out architects do a lot of technical work and I didn’t like measuring and being precise. Now I get to build stencils of buildings and get to avoid using a ruler.
I wanted to be a teacher. I even got a college degree for that one and taught in a school for 10 years. But not as an art teacher. A 2nd grade teacher who learned so much from each and every one one of the children who reminded me of the importance of play. And yes, teachers get their school pictures taken too! Now, I teach art adventuring.
I wanted to be an astronaut. The fact that riding the tram across Kings Island as a kid freaked me out beyond belief was a big clue that I probably wasn’t comfortable with flying into space. Now I go star watching, travel to Comic Con conventions and go all fan girl about sci fi shows.
I wanted to be a fashion designer. As a kid, I created bohemian doll clothes with a touch of gypsy flair out of scraps of fabric and lots of pins. Even then, I had no patience for actually sewing. Now I get to splatter paint, intentionally and unintentionally, on my clothes. I’m still drawn towards fabrics but I don’t even bother with a pattern because I’m not going to follow it anyway.
