Today's "from me to thee" is: a lovely photographic stroll through my sister's website, Kathleen Bowman Photography.  I just took this tour and had a colorful, wonderful time looking at her images of flowers (my faves), wildlife (her faves), and just downright gorgeous landscape shots!  Go ahead and check these out.  Treat yourself to some beauty today.  "From me to thee".

     Those of you who know me and follow me on facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/LauratheArtiste/ know that I love artist Kelly Rae Roberts' view of the artistic journey.  I was just looking through her book "Taking Flight...Inspiration & Techniques to give your Creative Spirit Wings" and her introduction spoke to me.  Here's part of it & I hope it resonates with you as much as it did, me:

     "I am just like you.  A girl who is always learning.  A woman whose soul is vibrant with inspiration.  A creative spirit that is expressive and sensitive.  We are all connected, intertwining in this creative life.  It's because of this that I believe in the power of telling our stories - the stories of how we muster up our courage and leap and dance and breathe our way into our creative dreams.  This is how we learn from one another. How we inspire one another.  How we begin to finally see the potential and possibilities that live inside our hearts."

     I love that, and it's so true.  If this hit you in your own creative soul, I'd love to hear about it on my facebook page...would love to!

     Springtime means flowers!  I love the beauty of flowers, even though my lungs don't always enjoy them...it's an asthma thing.
     I enjoy using flowers in my artwork, and do so in a variety of ways.  It's fun to wad up a paper towel into a little rosette, dab it in a two or three colors of coordinating paint, and then made loose twists of paint onto the canvas, creating a delightful flower!
     Sometimes while out taking a walk, I'll collect flowers in my pockets (or, if I remember to, I'll take along a baggie w/me).  When back home, I press them in a phone book, between pieces of wax paper.  When dry, I them slip them into separate baggies w/a piece of lightweight cardboard, for support.  Those photo storage boxes from Michaels are perfect for storing them.  This method keeps them safe until I want to use them on a canvas....nothing like a beautiful 3-D accent to make your piece come alive! (I love it when a customer says, "wow...are those real flowers?!?"
     Another fun thing to do is to dry a flower on its stem & use it (gently!) for a bookmark.  (Sturdier flowers work best.)  It's also fun to dry them in books on your bookshelf.  They make a nice surprise for when you read that lucky book!
     One of my specialties, for which my artwork is known, is to creatively paint sturdy paper (I like to use cardstock), let it dry, and cut out flower shapes.  I then use markers and pens to add amazing, interesting details.  Sometimes I'll double them up, creating "double decker", stacked flowers.  These delightful, handmade flowers are then applied to my canvas.  If I want a 3-D effect, which I usually do!, I'll just bend the petals to make the flowers "pop" off the canvas!  The flowers can be placed along the sides of the canvas, as well, to create a nice wrap around effect to your piece.
     As you can see, I love using flowers in my artwork!  I'd love to hear how you use them in your work, at:
https://www.facebook.com/LauratheArtiste/
      Enjoy your Spring!

Hello friends,
     I visited my mom recently and had a fun time spending time with her. While chatting, she showed me a mail order catalog with pictures of her favorite chocolate (we'd been talking about our love for all things sweet!) Was the catalog a hint?  Well, it got me thinking about upcoming Mother's Day & I decided to (surprise) her with some of her favorite goodies.
     That led to my wondering what I could offer you as gift ideas for your moms!  Here is one of my designs (entitled "GROW") which you can find on my REDBUBBLE site; it can be made into a wide variety of goodies for Mom.  Travel mugs, tote bags, clocks, greeting cards, cosmetic bags,  journals/notebooks, even iphone skins!  Check out this and all of my other designs at:

     https://redbubble.com/people/LauraCLeMaster/portfol

Another "from me to thee" goody.  Enjoy!
(BTW, this piece was inspired by part of a work by Laurie Mika, as seen in Kelly Rae Roberts' book "Taking Flight")

Another "from me to thee" offering!  Since my REDBUBBLE site is up and operational now, I'm excited to let you know about some of my goodies that will make the perfect Mother's Day gifts.  Does Mom love her coffee?...how 'bout a travel mug w/one of my unique designs?  You may also select a throw pillow, iphone skin, studio bag, clock, frameable print, or tote bag.  Options galore!  Check out my designs at:  http://www.redbubble.com/people/LauraCLeMaster/portfolio

     It's springtime in the Treasure Valley, Idaho.  While driving to work today I was delighted to see all the brightly colored tulips alongside the road, popping up out of the soil with such enthusiasm.  Other types of flowers are doing the same, and although I don't know their names, I still enjoy them.  Some pink crocuses even surprised me the other day by greeting me as I stepped outside my front door.  There they were, waving their bright, kelly green arms, smiling up at me with their pretty little bloom-faces...such a delight.
     Don't you just love flowers and all the fabulous colors they come in?  I'm inspired:  maybe I'll do a series of floral canvases...I do have a huge, heavy box FULL of blank canvases and canvas boards, after all.
     I hear my worktable a-callin'.

     Do you like to journal...whether it be written-only, or art journaling?  I sure do.  I love to write in my journal, even though I haven't found the time lately.  I've filled so many journals over the years that I couldn't begin to count them.  There are boxes of them, all filled up, off getting dusty somewhere. Some were store bought with elaborate covers, some came to me as delicious gifts from people I love, some have the prettiest of bookmarks attached, some I even created myself, but they're all FULL!  Full of my hopes, my dreams, my ramblings, and my daring, brave goals.
     Lately, life has been sooo biz-y with valid, important things that I've ignored this just-as-important, tiny little inner tug I've been feeling.  My sweet little inner artist has been gently pulling on my creative hem, asking me in the quietest of whispers (she very polite and doesn't like to holler) "Mom, don't you think it's time to start writing again?"  Sad to say, I've chosen to focus on my biz-iness and have repeatedly ignored. her.
     Well, today I felt a jolt - more of a hard jerk than a polite tug, really - on the hem of my artisticness.  (I just made up a word)  I even heard that polite little inner artist give a great, big uncharacteristic YELL:  "HEY!!!, are you listening to me!?!?!"  Oops!  Nope.
     So, just now, I went and hunted down my "next" journal. (it took some hunting!)  I bought it some time ago & only recently found it in storage, where it's been since I moved four years ago.  I'd bought it because of  the quote on its front:  "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!  Live the life you've imagined."  Thoreau said that.
     Well, I have dreams.  I'm usually a pretty confident gal (although I've been known on occasion to suffer from the affliction called FEAR).  And I'm moving forward with my new online art biz (thanks to the help I'm getting from my new ecourse from Kelly Rae Roberts:  "Flying Lessons:  Let's Make Your Creative Biz Soar!").  I am, indeed, moving toward living the life I've imagined.  And you know what?.. I'm oh soooo glad you've come along with me on this, the journey of my exciting, new, creative life!
     Hey, I think I'll even go write about this in my new/old journal!  Do you have one?  C'mon, let's journal together!

     Happy Birthday to me!  An hour ago I turned...nevermind how old.  Not a glass of water big enough to swallow that pill!  But wait a minute...what is a number, anyway?  Society and Hollywood would have us believe that the best numbers are in the lower range, and when those digits get up to a certain point, look out!  BAM!  Honey, you're TOO old! And the moment we glimpse our first wrinkle in the mirror, we are dooooomed!
     What's wrong with our culture?  When did we start believing that life is only good until you hit 30?  I regret to say that when I was in my 20's I started to buy in to what "they" told me.  That I had to look this or that way, wear these clothes but for Pete's sake never THOSE clothes!  I didn't act on what "they" told me and everyone else to do ...but I caught myself thinking I SHOULD do all "they" said I should do.
     I should be saying "forget Hollywood, what's wrong with ME?"  I bought into all those lies for all those years. Whenever I looked in the mirror I told myself I was allll wrong. I believed that I didn't measure up because I was this and not that.  That I wasn't this but was that.  Oh brother.  All that wasted time worrying about what other people thought.
     I read this somewhere:  "wrinkles are merely memories of where smiles have been."  I love that.  My mirror tells me that I have smiled a lot in my life.  And I like that.  Poo on vanity.  I'll take wisdom, insight, and friends I've known more than 40 years.
     OK, in the spirit of REAL vulnerabilty and honesty....here goes.  I am now 60 years old.  Eegads.  That didn't even hurt....too much!.
     Happy Birthday, Baby!

Churchill's Wisdom

     Churchill once said "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."  If you're like me, you've tripped and fallen a few times in your life.  I really don't like to think about those times, or think of myself as a failure but, according to Churchill, the key is to keep up our steam...to pick ourselves up after falling, dust off those knees, and keep going.  It's important to keep looking forward to where we want to go vs. concentrating on where we just fell.  I've actually benefited from my failures when I've thought about how I can do things differently next time I'm faced with a similar decision, situation, whatever.
     As an artist, I've also found this to be true.  I try a new painting method for a background on a canvas that doesn't work, or I try out a design that's maybe a bit different from my usual style.  I've even tried participating in certain art fairs that I doubted would be a good fit for my work, and later thought "eegads, I'll never do THAT again!".  But that's the point, isn't it?  I'll never do that AGAIN.  I love that in the workroom, or in life, we can learn by our mistakes.  We can look at the canvas of our lives and reflect on how this or that may or may not have worked in the best way.  And we can move forward with that in mind, making better, more informed decisions based on what we learned from our failures.
     Churchill knew what he was talking about..

Hello creative friends,
     I went to my physical therapist yesterday (recovering from a fall @ work).  He twisted me into a pretzel to stretch my back & I must have said ouch because he asked "sorry, does this hurt?"  I told him "yes, but it's a 'good ow'."  My muscles were being stretched in a way they weren't used to being stretched.  I've been in such pain lately that my body instinctively tightened here and pinched there, in an effort to accommodate my injury.  So, when Brett twisted me, I said "ow".  It was good for me and, in a way, felt good.  But it was still an "ow" because those muscles weren't used to being stretched like that.  Not in the correct way.
     In a similar way, my art biz is stretching my creative muscles.  At times, they pinch.  At times, they say "ow".  But sometimes, they say "ahhhhh, that's a good 'ow'!"  They're learning to move in a different way and are being stretched.  I'm learning.  I'm growing as an artist.  As a businesswoman.  It sometimes smarts, but, overall, it's a really good stretch...a really good "ow"!

try this one!  https://www.facebook.com/LauratheArtiste/

OK, I'm finally catching up with the times.  Thanks for bearing with me as my computer learning curve improves!  Just learned how to (please don't laugh) insert a link to my art biz facebook page and vice versa!    https://www.facebook.com/LauratheArtiste/    Feel free to congratulate me with all the sincere enthusiasm you can muster!  Woo-hoo!

Fear is our friend

     Edvard Munch said, "Without fear, I never could have accomplished all I have."  Anyone out there in artist land ever experience fear? ...in regards to your art biz?....in regards to any area of your life?  I sure have!
      I read another quote somewhere that says something about how courage is feeling the fear and going ahead and doing it anyway.  When I think back over my life, I can remember times I've done that....just taken a really, really deep breath, prayed "OK, Lord, help me do this!", and then just done whatever it was.  As a Christian, I rely greatly on God's help & strength to do things that scare me, but at some point it's simply up to me to just DO IT.
     If you've been reading my blog, you've heard me talk about how, although I've been an artist for many years, building an online presence terrified me.  Why?  Well, I'd told myself (and everyone else) for years that I was incompetent when it came to "technical things"...i.e. computers!  I honestly believed I didn't have the capacity to learn what was needed to make my online creative biz a reality.  Also in one of my previous posts was the story of how my art biz mentor challenged me to "remove the 't and realize all you're left with is CAN."  Wow.  So simple, yet so impactful.
     I so appreciate your coming along with me on my journey!  There is much I've yet to learn on this social media trail, but once I got over my fear, the size of my monsters dwindled considerably. Thanks for your companionship as I walk along...nice to know you're all out there, urging me on up the hill!  I'll keep you posted on my progress...and eventually I'll learn how to post photos on this blog!  Won't that be nice?
 

   All of life is about process, isn't it?  Learning, doing, growing.
   Yesterday I moved some furniture around in my little cottage & discovered a treasured book by Jack Canfield, cocreator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  This treasured book by him, however, is The Success Principles, How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
   Inside the cover I'd written "Summer 2005", when I purchased & first read this terrific book.  I don't know how many times I've gone through it, but for several years since buying it I began in January, reading and putting into practice many of the lessons I learned within its pages, marking it all up & making notes in the margins.
   Just now I read something in the introduction I'd like to share with you...a "from me to thee" goody.
   Canfield quotes Henry James: "It's time to live the life you've imagined."  Gotta love that!  Then Canfield writes: "....any change requires sustained effort to overcome years' worth of internal and external resistance. Initially you may find yourself getting very excited about all this new information.  You may feel a newfound sense of hope and enthusiasm for the new vision of your life as it can be.  This is good.  But be forewarned that you may also begin to experience other feelings as well.  You may feel frustration at not knowing about all of this earlier....."   He goes on.  "Just take a deep breath and realize that this is all part of the PROCESS (caps mine)of your journey.  Everything in the past has actually been perfect.  Everything in your past has led you to this transformative moment in time.  Everyone - including you - has always done the best they could do with what they knew at the time.  Now you are about to know more.  Celebrate your new awareness!  It's about to set you free."
   WOW!  And again I say, WOW!
   I'm entering a new realm of being an artist, although I've been one for years.  I'm excited about my journey, even though, of course, it's taking longer than I'd like to get to, as Canfield says in his title, where I want to be.  I want to replace my day job income NOW.  I want to have a bigger art making space NOW.  I want, I want.  But today, I CHOOSE to celebrate this new phase of my journey, and invite you to come along with me as I learn to walk it!
   (I'd insert a photo of Canfield's book here if I had learned to do that already...bear with me as I catch up with the times! LOL)

       I don't know about your process as an artist, but mine seems to be this:  I see something that puts a tiny little idea into a tiny little pot a-waaaay back on the stove of my creative brain.  Then a song on the radio may give me an idea which goes into that same tiny little pot, which is now starting to warm.  Next, I may have a minute as I wait for an appointment - or a red light to turn green - and I suddenly just HAVE to grab pen or pencil and jot or draw another ingredient for that tiny little pot...which is now starting to simmer.  There's no time frame on when this pot of ideas will actually boil into a clearer gist of what I want to create on my next canvas...like any process, it takes as much time as it takes.  Sometimes a few moments, sometimes several months, but most of these little pots of ideas do eventually boil into a great idea.  That's when the fun really starts!
    And if your process is anything like mine you may find, too, that great ideas somehow manage to take on a life and direction of their own once we sit down and bring them from the little pot out onto our canvas, work table, kiln, etc.
    Art.  Process.  Life.
    Welcome to mine.  I hope you enjoy my sharing.

Baby Steps

     Baby steps.  That's how we learn to walk & it's how I'm learning to get my creative art biz off and running.  It's been slow going because of my technological "challenges".  I wanted to use the word "impairment", but my brother-in-law said that sounds like a disability.  Enough said.
     My business mentor says I need to get over myself (my paraphrase) and remove the 't and all I'll be left with is CAN.  Good stuff.  Next, he says, all I have to do is ask myself HOW can I?  Just the kick in the artistic backside I needed.
     So, Baby Step One: I got over myself & told myself I CAN do it.
     Baby Step Two: I went home from our meeting, got online, and actually figured out a few things for myself.
     Baby Step Three:  (I call this one Perseverance.)  For me, it's doing what the Nike slogan says:  "Just Do It". I have to give my sister credit here for being my patient Help Line when I can't figure something out, but it is exciting to see my fear of computers lessening and my tech abilities growing.
     I don't see myself running anytime soon, but I'm learning how to do the HOW CAN I? walk.
     Baby steps.