By day, I'm a substitute teacher.  By night and weekend, I'm an artist.  But now that I think about it, I'm ALWAYS an artist...I just hang my artist's beret at various places throughout the day!

Today, I was subbing for one of the kindergarten teachers at our school.  During "circle time", we went over the calendar, weather, how many days left in the school year, etc.  Then we got to "what season is it?"  Well, the little guys immediately went right into spring...forget winter, they want SPRING!!!

I'm not sure if we'll get any more snow here in Meridian, Idaho (neighbor to Boise), because we certainly could, but I've gotta tell you - these kinders today are ready for SPRING!  "What do you do in Spring, that you don't do in winter?" I asked them. You should have hear them!  Excitement in their voices, they offered, "plant stuff!", "play basketball with  my dad", "ride my bike", "play in the rain!".  One after the other, they gave me their ideas for fun in the spring.

That got me to thinking...hmm....what am I going to do this spring?

Some creative friends and I just met this past weekend, to discuss the first part of The Artist's Way.  That's one thing I'm doing this spring...meeting with these fine ladies monthly to discuss one of my favorite books. Also, between now and the next snow (or summer, whichever comes first...you never know, here in Idaho!) I can take advantage of the little park down the street, and take some walks.  Also, I have a hankerin' to be making more mixed media pieces, so I'll get out my supplies and see what I can come up with for my Etsy site.  Oh!  And I'll create some more designs for my RedBubble site!  I already have several that I need my photographer (Kathleen Bowman of Shekinah Photography) to photograph for RedBubble.

Wow, looks like I have my own Spring Fun List!  How about you?  What are you going to do this spring?

"Second Chances"

     I read a quote by Scott Adams recently.  It goes like this: Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

     I don't know whether he was talking about art, itself, or life, in general.  But as an artist, I'll view it from the art perspective. I asked myself how many pieces of art I've made that I thought were mistakes. There were several!  And, because of the cost of the materials, I've kept those mistakes with the intent of one day reworking them with the hopes of ending up with something I feel good about. I figured, sometimes I need to walk away from a piece I'm creating, so that when I return to it I have a fresh perspective.  This always works, and I'm able to craft something worthy of keeping, something even good enough to sell.

     In fact, I recently took a canvas that was a "mistake", one that had been sitting off to the side for over a year, and told myself I was going to "fix" it.  And I did!  I'd looked up the submission themes for one of my favorite art magazines, Somerset Studio.  One of the choices interested me and I immediately pictured the end result of my submission.  But, what canvas would I use?  Ah-ha!  That "mistake" that was sitting off to the side, just waiting for some attention!

     Long story short, I took that canvas and reworked it to the point that I felt really good about it.  Next day, I was standing in line at the Post Office, waiting to send it off to Somerset Studio!  I have no idea whether they will like it as much as I do, but it felt really good to take a mistake and turn it into a work of art!

    Ah, the empty page.  Pure, white. Yet-to-be discovered words waiting to be stamped in ink upon the pulp which gazes back at me.
    Printed on my journal cover is "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you've imagined." Thoreau wrote that.
    The world of writing awaits me.  I am eager for the challenge. I am ready for the challenge.