Creativity Boot Camp Weekend and a Rock Fairy Miracle...

Creativity Boot Camp Day 6 - Breaking Our Own Rules

Maegan encouraged us to think about ways to break out of the ordinary in our creative process, to break the self-imposed rules and routines that we can sometimes fall into.

I thought about how I can add in new elements to my art work, learn from techniques that others use and of course, try out some new tools every now and then !

I did some carving of some new little rubber stamps

on these little square pre-cut squares that I got from my friend Kriss's stash recently.

Then I used the stamps to create this little guy...

and glued him onto my art journal page for this day.

I also worked in our random prompt word for the day : Fluid.

I often feel like I am pretty fluid about what I do in my art making - sometimes too fluid. I don't always feel like I have discovered my style or even my medium yet...

I do like changing things up though and this Creativity Boot Camp Play is letting me do just that !

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Creativity Boot Camp Day 7/8 - Write it out...

Our fearless leader, Maegan encouraged us to spend some time with our inner artist and spill our guts onto some pages in our notebooks - a la Julia Cameron's morning pages or stream of consciousness writing. She suggested 45 min. but I just went with filling up three pages...it took me about 20 minutes...

I kind of wussed-out with using the random word prompts Maegan gave us on these two days.

Fly and Ornament just kind on made onto my pages...

Another thing that Boot Camp play inspired me to do was to use some materials that I don't always use and to shake things up a bit.

I actually found 5 goals that I had set for 2010 in the very notebook I did my writing pages in and I realized that I hadn't really achieved any of them and here we are in the 6th month already !!!

So this was the perfect opportunity to check off number 5 which was paint pieces on canvas rather than always in my journal so I would have some of my own art to hang in my house.

This morning as David had a nice quiet sleep-in, I got out the acrylics, the Golden Fluids, the blending medium and this 16X8" canvas, put on the mellow morning tunes, and got to work...



When I got here, I almost stopped. How cool do these bubbly lollipop shapes look ?



But I decided to go on with the vision I had in my head and give the circles faces.

There were lots of layers here. You may see it better if you enlarge it. They had green faces, then I added the purple and even some metallics.

I kind of liked them this way but something was missing for them to feel like they were mine...

You know it ! The black India Ink !!!

Did the line work with a broad tipped dip pen and now the lollipop girls work for me

And a piece like this can hang on a wall instead of hiding out in the journal which feels good.

I pushed myself a little, enjoyed the whole process of having this quiet time with myself to create and just seeing what would come.

Ain't being an artist grand ?!

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Finally, I wanted to let you in on a little secret worry I have been keeping.

About two weeks ago, David and I went to North Hampton to fill up my bucket of rocks for my Rock My World rocks.

When we got there, there were very few rocks to be found.

The beaches had taken quite a beating and sand had covered whatever rocks had been there.

I managed to collect about a quarter of a bucket but it was not like the summer before where the beach was literally covered with rocks of all sizes - where taking a bucket full didn't even show...

It made me wonder if this was a sign.

Should I stop taking those rocks at all ?Was Nature giving me a sign ?

Was it time to move on to something other than painting my precious rocks and find some other way to put my love out there ?

This weekend, David and I headed out to the Seacoast to see if we could find another beach with rocks, a new source for the Rock Fairy. I had decided I would make a decision about continuing the Rock My World project after our search.

Well, we decided to stop at North Hampton anyway, just towatch the waves for awhile, even though it was misting and gray...

here's what we saw and heard at my favorite NH beach...

The ROCKS were back !!!!

Now, I don't know if the State dumped those rocks there or what, but where there was only sand two weeks ago, there was an abundance of smooth and perfect rocks for the Rock Fairy !!!

It was a miracle !

Okay, maybe not a miracle, but I took it as a sign that I still have more work to do with these wonderful rocks of mine.

Not to mention that I had just created a special custom order for my friend Patti Digh which she provided as special memory keepsakes at her friend Celeste's funeral yesterday...

or

that my restaurant owner/chef friend, Tom had sent me a message while I was rock collecting that he needs a big refill of rocks at the restaurant...

Guess I am going to keep on Rocking It, Babies !!!

I hope you had a cozy and creative weekend.

Big Rocking Love to you from the Rock Fairy !