Ceramic Painting + Art Journaling = Bliss!
As you probably already have figured out, I am obsessed with anything and everything art related. I am an artist, but when people ask me what kind of artist I am I have a hard time answering. I am a painter, a scupltor, a potter, a ceramicist, a woodworker, a maker of mosaics, a furniture refinisher, an art journalist, a polymer clay artist, an interior decorator, an art quilter, a jewelry maker, a Zentangler....I'm sure I forgot to mention at least a few things. But, what I love to do the most is to combine any and every one of the above art forms into something new and different.
I love 'being into' so many different things because I never get bored or run out of ideas for projects. And it seems like I come across something new that I want to try on a daily basis. For instance, a year ago I had never really worked with low fire ceramics or painting with commercial glazes on bisque. Since I got my job at iLoveToCreate®, though, this is a huge part of what I do. My head is exploding with design ideas and product combinations I want to try at any given moment. Any unpainted bisque pieces I come across at work don't stand a chance against me and my paint brush. In fact, my boss has to calm me down quite regularly and remind me that my job here is to be a ceramic product salesperson, not a painter (although to my delight he has been letting me work on some non-sales related creative projects with my new BFF in Fresno, David Hoff, Duncan® product expert and ceramic painter extraordinaire. I may even be travelling around the country to teach!). But I just love it. And I'm hoping that my excitement about all of this ceramic painting will inspire other people to want to try it, which will in turn increase sales....therefore I really am doing my job! But I digress....
The other art form that I have been obsessing over is art journaling. I have always been an admirer, but I have a hard time keeping up with it. I'll do a few pages and misplace my journal. I'll find it a year later and do a few more pages then forget about it. But that all changed during a recent trip to NJ for a work trip. I got stranded in the Chicago airport for several hours and went to the bookstore to kill some time. I happened to come across a Moleskine blank journal with watercolor paper pages in it, which was great because I had just recently bought a pack of Peerless Watercolors which I happened to have with me. I bought it, headed to the bar for a glass of wine, and journaled for hours until my flight finally left. I went from being miserable about being stranded at the airport to as content as could be, doodling all my cares away.
I am so glad I found this journal. I travel quite a bit for work which means I spend a lot of time in airports. I always bring my watercolors, journal, Micron markers and a aqua brush pen with me and pass the time making art. It's pretty fantastic.
Anyhoo....now that the new year has rolled around, I decided to give myself a little bit of a challenge. Since painting ceramics and art journaling are my new favorite things to do, I am going to start combining the two. I'm going to make a series of 52 plates, one for each week in 2013, as a way to document what happens in my life this year. Of course I will share each one on my blog for you to see. I'm really excited about this project and can't wait to get started on the second one!
Here is my debut piece which states my New Year's resolution for 2013...'I resolve to do one thing every day that is good for either my body, mind, or spirit'. It will hang in a prominent place in my house so I am constantly reminded of it. Now I should have no excuses not to keep this resolution instead of abandoning it in the first week like I did all of the others I've ever made. It has been 8 days and I've stuck to it, so things are looking good!
This project was made with a Duncan® OhFour® Bisque plate, Cover Coats®, French Dimensions™ and Pure Brilliance®.
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