I’m thrilled to announce that my ArtFire Studio is the featured studio collection this weekend on ArtFire.
You can see 12 items from my ArtFire studio in this collection here.
What’s really cool is this video montage of my collection featured on YouTube.
Many thanks to AndreaDesigns and the ArtFire Crazy Train Guild for this honor.
To view my entire ArtFire Studio, click here.
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
~Joseph Campbell
Promise me you’ll always remember:
you’re braver than you believe,
and stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.
~Christopher Robin (to Pooh)
Here are some fun and thought provoking blog posts and news headlines that I’ve come across in recent weeks.
Reframing Questions about Technology and Our Humanity: This is a great interview with MIT professor Sherry Turkle and Krista Tippet from OnBeing. How do you relate to technology? Are you addicted to social media? What about your kids? You’ll find a link to the broadcast in this blog post.
And be sure to read Krista’s follow-up post on The Path to Integrating Technology into a Meaningful Life
Snoop Dogg as the Opening Act for Jesus: Now this was not in Dan Brown’s book “The DaVinci Code.”
The World’s Strangest Museum? This is NOT why I want to visit Iceland. Makes me wonder if people there have a little too much time on their hands. I also wondered if Lorena Bobbitt has visited. (Remember her?)
Kevin Spacey speaks out for the Arts: Tuesday, April 5 was Arts Advocacy Day in Washington DC. Mr. Spacey visited Capitol Hill and gave a well received speech at the Kennedy Center in support of arts funding. Also check out his interview with Chris Matthews on Hardball.
Sarah Marie Lacy: Sarah is an online friend. In fact, we’re accountability partners. We send each other our weekly goals and check in at the end of the week to talk about how we’re doing. Sarah is a wonderful painter and this year she’s going to France to study at Studio Escalier. But traveling, studying and staying in France doesn’t come cheap. Check out Sarah’s story, her artwork and her fundraising efforts to cover the costs of this once in a lifetime experience.
Have an awesome weekend!
I’m a little late in sharing the good news, but better late than never. Besides, its a good reason to celebrate again.
Last year, I participated in Jennifer Lee’s wonderful online class The Right Brain Business Plan E-Course. This was the first business plan course that I took that actually clicked. Why? Because it paired my creative side with my planning & organizational skills. It made crafting a business plan fun.
If you’re a creative entrepreneur like me, I bet you go running for the hills when you hear the words business plan. Yet, you know that having a plan is essential to your success.
This year Jenn has put all this wonderful information into a book aptly titled The Right Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success The book was released in February through New World Library
I’m thrilled to share that I’m one of the 22 featured entrepreneurs in the book and my Right-Brain Business Plan made it in!
Through Jenn’s online class, and now her book, I was able to develop a vision for my business based on values that are important to me. Those values became the basis for my business plan. With Jenn’s guidance, I was able to identify and understand my perfect customers, make the leap into teaching, write financial goals in terms that made sense to me, and develop a sense of who my creative cohorts are.
You can read more about my business plan in this post on Jenn’s site: Spotlight on Amy A. Crawley
The other wonderful aspect of Jenn’s approach to writing a business plan is that I can pick up where I left off. When health issues became my primary focus late last year, I had to put my plan aside. Now that I’m feeling better, it’s time to revisit my plan, update it, and rework some goals. Having flexibility in your business plan is essential. It shouldn’t be a linear, static document.
So, what are you waiting for? The Right-Brain Business Plan has already been a #1 bestseller the Amazon Small Business Plans category. I highly recommend this book!
We had lovely weather over the weekend and it got me thinking about our vegetable garden. What delicious goodies do I want to plant this year?
Early spring planting is one of my favorite times for veggies. The ground is warming, the air crisp in the morning, and Mother Nature is waking and welcoming all her children to return.
With that as my source of inspiration, I decided to sculpt two veggie inspired heads:
Sweet Peas! There is nothing like growing sweet peas, picking them off the vine, and eating them right in the garden. (I think the third pea is a little alarmed by the prospect of being eaten right off the vine.)
Another favorite spring veggie:
Red leaf lettuce! Last year we planted red leaf lettuce, Bibb lettuce, and Swiss chard. Ms. Leaf also provided additional inspiration for a new focal disk. I haven’t quite worked out the design for the new disk though I’m getting closer to it. All will be revealed….eventually.
We have another vegetable in our garden that may be the source of another head later this week. This particular veggie is a perennial. We look forward to seeing it burst forth each year. Sweet, tender, and excellent raw or cooked. Any guesses?
My schedule is busy the next couple of days, so I may not have a new head to post until the end of the week. Until then, eat your veggies!
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The only journey is the one within.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
This little guy, I’ll call him Fob, was inspired by a networking discussion and how sculpting heads might transform into a polymer clay class.
On the one hand, it may be too early to even think about something like that because this self-challenge is supposed to be fun. On the other hand, the whole idea of doing this self-challenge was to wake up the creative muse and maybe she wants me to develop new classes to teach.
Fob is made from a Skinner blend, rolled into a log and shaped. Simple face construction, texture, baked, sanded, acrylic wash, and buffed. Fob is almost 3″ long.
Last week the cleaning company was here to inspect my studio carpet and to remove the water stains left by this winter’s ice dam damage. The thought of a cleaning company coming into the studio caused a bit of anxiety in me. This meant I’d have to pick up, pack up, and clean out the studio.
Arrrgggghhhh!
Here is a picture of my studio’s current layout:
Now you understand part of my dilemma. Like any good artist, I have a LOT of stuff. The thought of packing and moving artwork, books, tools, etc is enough to send shivers down my spine. Where are those fairy godmothers when you need them?
Well, I’ll save the fancy carriage and all for later….
Anyways, with a little “Bibbidi, Bobbidi, Boo” over a few days, the books were packed, artwork stored, and tables moved.
Soon the studio looked like this:
and
My studio was transformed into a nearly empty space. An empty space that now felt a little intimidating, like staring at a blank canvas and not knowing what to do with it.
Clearing out the studio has had its benefits. As I packed each box, I was forced to decide if I want to keep all this stuff. Sometimes, I would set aside some items before the box was packed. If not, I told myself I’d have to go through the box when it is unpacked and thin the art herd.
Since the studio is scheduled to be painted in the coming weeks. I can’t move everything back into it. Only essential items are allowed (and other things I’ll have to go digging to find them.) This too has been a good practice because I’m getting used to having fewer items out and around me. It opens more space physically and creatively. I know from past experience that the more cluttered my studio, the more cluttered my head, and the harder it is for me to be creative.
Here is my current, temporary layout:
This period between carpeting cleaning and studio painting is a good time to try some different layouts. It is a little too early to say whether I like this layout or not. I do like having my primary work table facing into the studio. Not sure about the L formed with the other tables. And of course I haven’t thought too much about the other floor lamps and stacks of storage drawers that are still hidden away and how they’d fit into this layout. (Or maybe they don’t and I’ll condense the materials.)
So here I am with a half finished canvas. I’m open to hearing your thoughts. Seen any studios that inspire you? If so, post a link in the comments section. Silly me packed my artist studio books & magazines.
Today’s head is “Walking on Sunshine.”
This polymer clay sunshine head measures approximately 3″ from sunbeam to sunbeam and is made with cadmium yellow clay, and then sanded, washed with acrylic paint to bring out the texture, and lightly buffed.
“I’m walking on sunshine, oh, oh, and don’t it feel good?”
Musings from the Moonroom 