Vision Boards is a great class for teens, adults, mom, professionals because it includes the areas of life that are important to YOU no matter your age or position in life.

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
- Jim Rohn author of One Year Success Plan

“By using this Vision Board you will be able to put the Law of Attraction into use in the most powerful way! ”
- Joe Vitale self-improvement author

Two days later I got a call from a lovely lady who works with a group of women who, although not in crisis or strife, wanted to incorporate art into their monthly meetings. We talked, they voted and I got the job! I LOVE IT when the Law of Attraction shows up in my life. I am now so grateful to be working with this amazing group doing visual journaling. In fact, it has inspired me to create a few new classes related to listening to your heart and following your dreams.

Visual Journaling is a class I already teach, but this one has a twist — a theme. Starting in two weeks, I will be offering a six-week journaling class in which we explore the night time dreams we have. We’ll work with personal and archetypal symbols to decode dreams. And, we’ll work with the daytime dreams we call goals and create visual representations of them that help to draw them into reality.

In Visual Journaling you will mix your inner feelings with cool art techniques to make your journal pages pop. The first class will be spent creating your own hand-stitched journal. Then you’ll track your dream memories and explore their meanings in class with dream analysis and interpretation of personal symbols. You’ll also bring your daydreams to life by creating beautiful pages that give attention to your desires and help make them into realities. Use poetry, quotes and writing with images and art to bring your dreams to life.

By now you know that I am always pushing the importance of creative expression in the lives of both kids and adults. For me, creating art on a daily basis is a goal that I try hard to maintain because when I make the time to do it, I feel happy. Making art calms my nerves, quiets the chatter in my mind and brings new insights and ideas forward. It helps me stay relaxed and be nicer to people in my life. I feel like I’ve done something productive and restorative at the same time.
I came across this little list in Legacy Studio’s website and I want to share it with you.
Did you know that by doing creative activities you will be…

Integrating the body, mind and spirit.
Providing opportunity for self-expression by bringing your inner world into the outer world of concrete reality.
Tapping into personal strengths in meaningful ways.
Developing a higher order of thinking skills including analysis, synthesis, evaluation and problem solving.
Connecting with your subconscious mind to discover, nurture and befriend your spirit.

I hope this inspires you to doodle on a napkin at Starbucks or make a sculpture in your mashed potatoes or take a class or start an art journal. It’s fun!

I love, love, love that creating SoulCollage(R) cards can ALWAYS bring a room full of women together. That’s what happened in today’s class. Eight women from different cities, different walks of life with diverse backgrounds and beliefs put all that aside and tuned into their intuition to create the most amazing cards.SoulCollage(R) is the most amazingly simple collage process in which you can create a deck of cards that represent facets of your personality. They can be used for reflection or daily meditation. They can answer life’s little questions and remind you that the answers are always inside. SoulCollage(R) can open your mind and free your spirit. And, judging by today’s class, they can make you smile, touch you deeply and send powerful messages.

View more of the great cards created in today’s class.

I am so thankful for all the changes. Just to name a few — I moved into a perfect new home, got my first dog, started my older boy in middle school (sheesh!), got serious about my art career, vacationed in Carmel and Mendocino, met wonderfully inspiring new students, met the bone marrow donor who saved my friend’s son’s life, made tons of changes in my personal life, and enjoyed friends and family. In 2011 I was surrounded almost daily by people who were so supportive of me personally and professionally and for that I am so very grateful. It’s all changed my life for the better.

In 2012, I am looking forward to a year filled with teaching, selling at art shows, creating lots of art and selling it at the perfect retail outlet for my style of work (anyone know a place?), and meeting the right people at the right time. It’s so exciting to start each day and wait to see what new opportunity comes my way. 2012 is the year of new beginnings, new hope, fun and exciting jobs and unexpected wonderful opportunities. Thank you in advance for making this a great year!

Paverpol is a wonderful fabric hardener that can be used to create just about anything — indoor art, outside sculpture, with canvas or mixed media projects, as a glue, and as a sealant for outside pieces. You can color it or paint it after your work dries. I shared some of the techniques for creating and draping a beautiful angel figurine with Paverpol stiffener. I’ll be teaching a class on Saturday, December 17, 1011 from 10am to 5pm. It’s $95 for the whole day. We’ll be making holiday figures — elves, Santas, agnels, fairies, etc. You’ll learn to make an armature (skeleton) for your figure, how to add form to it, how to drape fabric over the piece and then finish it off with paint and embellishment.

I hope to see you there.

http://www.stampington.com/artdollquarterly/

Anyway………isn’t this the coolest? The cover artist this month is Scott Smith and the article about him is called “The Ivory Hue of Bones”. His work is so creepy — reminds me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

By the way, the flower pictured above grows on a vine in Mendocino in early August. Does anyone know what it is? Isn’t it beautiful?

We always say time flies, but this summer really blasted past me. I was super busy for the last 6 months (and really super-duper busy the last 3) teaching the many wonderful people who came through my door thanks to Living Social. (In case you don’t know, this is an online company that offers one-day deals via email and I was one of their advertisers.)

I was fortunate to have almost 400 people respond to my ad and I was even more thankful to meet and teach all those the amazing kids and adults. One of those great people, Mike Armstrong, was strong-armed into taking a painting class and he painted the piece you see featured on this post. Great work Mike! I see the Virgin Mary, what do you see?

I also enjoyed teaching several one-day mask making classes — one of them outside in 100+ degree heat. I liked these classes so much I’ve decided to add them into my regular lineup of classes.

Besides teaching, the summer months brought visits to Yosemite, Muir Beach, Santa Cruz, Fort Bragg, Mendocino and Napa. In the upcoming months, I’ll be attending the amazing Sausalito Art Festival, the Sacramento Fine Arts Show and the Palo Alto Arts Show. Plus, joy of joys, I am attending the Art-Is-You conference in Petaluma, CA in September where I will be a student in Michael DeMeng’s “Cold Blooded Journal” workshop. I cannot wait! You can bet I’ll be posting great pictures from these events.

Thanks for a great summer. See you in class.

Here’s what you need to do………….find all the things on my list and post your answers in the form of a comment to this blog post. The person with the most correct answers wins. In the event of a tie, I’ll place names into a hat and in one week (By Friday, August 12 at 9am), I will choose a winner.

What do you win? How does 50% off any of my upcoming classes sound? Ok — get started!

1. How many different classes do I offer?
2. What is my astrological sign?
3. If you could see the entire picture, what is this a part of?

4.What is my favorite class that I teach?

5.  What artist gave me my inspiration– who got it all started for me?

6.  What do I like to do at coffee shops? — besides drink coffee.

Ok — good luck and happy hunting!