How I Define Art

It is officially the last day of Art Every Day Month. Am I the only one that feels like this month just flew by? Seriously. I'm shocked that tomorrow is already December!!!!

But first, I would like to give a huge standing ovation to Leah for all the hard work she did in hosting this awesome blog challenge. The poor soul had lots happening this month, but she still found the time and energy to commit to an art every day practice ANNNND keep the posts going on her blog to support all of us participants. Thank you Leah---you rock big time!

But now that it's only hours from being over, what did I get from it? What will I be taking away?

Well, for one thing, even though I didn't make a whole lot of art---art is a constant in my life EVERY single day. Being an art teacher, writing this blog, and just the way I approach life--I feel is a big part of my art practice.

During this Art Every Day Month period I came to a realization that art doesn't have to always be on a canvas, or sit in a gallery, or have a price tag attached to it. Art can have many intentions and purposes in this world...and don't let anyone tell you different.

Ok, to be really honest, this is sometimes a hard pill for me to swallow. Sure, I can blurt it out and say this stuff to YOU Lovelies....but fully believing it...sometimes I struggle with that.

Why?

I could blame it on my art training. I could tell you all that money I borrowed in school loans went to building this insecurity, into creating a sort of elitism in my mind, into thinking only one way is the right way. Sure, I could use those excuses. I paid for them, didn't I?

But if I REALLY buy into that, all I do is keep myself from creating what my heart wishes to express. I keep myself from feeling that freedom and release that comes with picking up a paint brush. I keep myself from being true and honest and in the moment. I keep myself from the biggest part of me. I keep from simply being Creative Juicy.

So, do you really want to know what I learned from this challenge?

I learned that my art--how I define what art is to ME--has changed over the last year, evolved, turned into something I never expected. Such as:

I love my art journal. Like really love it...hence Art Journal LOVE!

I love my students and teaching and making fun artsy, imaginative, crafty stuff with them!

I love blogging and think of it as a major part of my art practice.

I love playing with video and incorporating it into my art journal experience.

I love that my art is a practice and not a profession or even a vocation!

I love appreciating art--and encouraging others to create and define what art is to them.

I love that my life--my CREATIVE JUICY LIFE is art as well.

I love that what I make is fully for me and I can share it if I want, but I don't have to.

What does Art look like for you? How do you define it for yourself? For your Creative Juicy Life? Please share....I would love to know!

Peace & Love.

A Change of Plans

In October I flew to New Hampshire to see a dear friend of mine get married. He is someone who will always be in my life, even though we live thousands of miles away--and hadn't seen each other in years. I sat on that wooden pier, snuggled in a winter jacket, watching as my friend committed his heart to a wonderful woman.

We find love in our lives, and then there's a change of plans. Isn't that how it always go? We will follow our heart....we will do what ever it takes...for love.

For that feeling of wholeness, of joy, we will let go of our plans and adopt a new, uncertain one, and maybe gussy it up as destiny.

I was suppose to fly back to AZ on that Sunday. But there was snow, and there were delays, and missed flights.

But I didn't fight it. I didn't get upset, or struggle, or start to bitch and scream like some folks did.

It's just a change of plans.

Instead, when the lady at the customer service desk told me that the next flight to Phoenix was the following day at 11:30 am, and I would be spending the next 15 hours in an airport terminal, I kindly asked if it was possible to fly me that night to Cleveland so I could sleep in a bed at my Mom's house.

Things worked out.

It was just a change of plans.

Each flight I took--which were a few more then expected, I sat next to someone who I ended up having an amazing, heartfelt conversation with. I got to go to Cleveland-- have dinner with my Mom (at my favorite restaurant: Johnny Mangos!) and stand under a tree as the golden, sienna Autumn leaves showered around me. I got to hug my best friend and sip a chai sitting in my all-time favorite coffee shop.

Because I looked at everything simply as a change of plans and didn't hold tight to what should have been, the Universe delivered me a delightful experience---and exactly what my soul needed.

Lately I've been trying to practice the art of letting go again. Imitating the person I am when I travel (oh, how I love so much to travel!!!)....and I'm finding that the dreams I once had, have led me to a new destination. A new landscape. A new change of plans.

I'm so excited to start sharing these new plans with you come the month of December. Hold on tight Lovelies---things are really going to start getting Creative Juicy!

Peace & Love.

PS The Dirty Footprints Studio newsletter will be coming out at the top of the month as well...I always share a little something special in an email, and I would love to add you to my Creative Juicy List....please go HERE to learn more and to sign up!

I Promise Myself

Theo and I are having a bit of a moment.

I PROMISE MYSELF

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.

To make all my friends feel that there is something worth while in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best

and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of

others as I am about my own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the

greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile

to every living creature I meet.

To give so much time to improving myself that I

have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,

and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world,

not in loud word, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side,

so long as I am true to the best that is in me.

--Christian D. Larson

(I posted this little poem on Dirty Footprints Studio before...I think I'm going to make it a monthly habit...it's a great little reminder to come back to again and again.)

Peace & Love.

High Priestess of Intuitive Arts!!!

This is my friend Chris Zydel. She is one of the most coolest chicas I know. She has a business in California called Creative Juices Arts where she guides Lovelies through the intuitive painting process. Chris was interviewed HERE this week by Jamie Ridler as part of her Creative Living with Jamie series and it will leave you inspired!

Since INTUITION keeps showing up through my days this week...I thought why not end it with a little Chris Zydel LOVE...since she is, in my eyes, the High Priestess of Intuitive Arts!

Check out her LOVEliness:

Creative Juices Arts Website

Creative Juices Arts Blog

My Interview With Chris on Creative Juicy Life

Follow Chris on Twitter

Creative Living with Jamie Interview

(Dear Universe, I would like to take Chris's Painting from the Wild Heart workshop next year. Let's make it happen!! Ok, Universe!?!?! Got it!)

Peace & Love.

Remember Lovely

As you sit with family and friends, through possible bickering and packing up leftovers, through the pile of dirty dishes and the last bite of pumpkin pie...remember to take a moment to say thanks--to be grateful for YOU--YOURSELF-- for your beautiful heart that beats inside you--for your soul that possesses such beauty, such courage, such wonderful Creative Juiciness, for your mind that could orchestrate such a great event for your loved ones. Don't forget to give thanks to YOU today...and to remember all YOU do to make this world a better place to live in.
I am thankful for you.
You make Dirty Footprints Studio a special place for me to share and come back to again and again.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Peace & Love.

Listen

Yesterday morning, right before heading out the door for work, I put one of my Yogi tea bags in my travel mug.....and "intuition" showed itself to me once more.

Our lives are full of oracles.

Listen closely!

Peace & Love.

Practice Intuition

I took this photo of Hansel recently as we hiked up one of the mountains near where we live. I love it. I love him. I love the sunsets and beautiful sunrises in this beautiful state. I love that it is here I am fully becoming one with my intuition, one with my source, one with my truth.

I have something I really want to share, but honestly, I don't know how. I keep writing and deleting. Writing and deleting. Nothing is seeming to gel.

So instead of forcing it I decided to walk over to my book shelf, grab the first book I see, and randomly open it to a page--looking for inspiration. Here is what I read, and it is absolutely perfect! perfect! perfect!

Practice trusting your intuition or "that feeling" inside yourself. That very intuitive process is your higher consciousness in action, and if you ignore it, you are reverting to responding out of habit and to what you have been told for a lifetime. If you feel it within, and know this is the way to go, remember, this is the same process as if you wait it out, analyze it to death, and then go with the most logical choice.

An intuitive inner feeling is a thought. It is divine. It is you and you are it. Trust it--it is your basic human/divine early-alert system working. If you are afraid of it, or you want to hear from someone else first, then you are actually inhibiting that system from functioning, and you are teaching yourself to ignore it. Before long, out of disuse and mistrust, that early-alert system of thought or intuition will stop kicking in, and you will be responding to life according the wishes and demands of others.

--From the book You'll See It When You Believe It by Wayne W. Dyer

As much as it was no accident I came to this page...it is no accident you were here to read it as well.

Peace & Love.

Intuitive Guidelines

This is a journal entry I created in September at the Creative Dig Workshop.

Monday's at Dirty Footprints Studio is Art Journal LOVE day...but I'm sorry Lovelies, I decided to take a break from the movie making/Art Journal LOVEn this week. Instead, I will share with you a little Journal LOVE.

Generally, my piles of journals contain a lot of the same thing: me trying to figure things out--me revamping my day, mostly the negative stuff, and trying to make sense--sense of my heart, my mind, my behavior, other's behavior, this world we share. Writing in my journal brings me great clarity and sense of peace most of the time. But, I started thinking before I wrote in my new purple LOVE journal last night, that I want things to be different with this one. I want it to be even a bit of an experiment. An experiment in what happens if you consciously shift the focus of your attention.

So, as I sat with a cup of green tea and the setting sun, I let my intuition take hold of my pen and what the result was a list of guidelines for me to follow in the relationship with this new journal. Here are the seven guidelines I plan to follow as I fill these upcoming pages. I encourage you to join me in this experiment as well, and if you wish, please copy, print, and paste these in your own journal.

This is another art journal entry I created at Creative Dig during September.

Creative Juicy Journal Guidelines

1. This journal contains stories I tell myself to feel good.

2. This journal contains stories I tell myself that may not be my present reality, but I tell them as if they were, so the Universe will have no mistake on what it is I want. (Did you hear that Universe?!)

3. This journal contains only words of love, kindness, tenderness, and complete, 100% support to all I do, want to do, and dare to dream. This journal does not tolerate any less.

4. This journal is not for documenting any complaining, whining, and/or negative talk. This journal once was a living, growing tree--a tree that gave it's life for you to write your Creative Juicy Life in. By tarnishing the pages with negative energy is an act of great disrespect and inconsideration to the life it once had and now gives to you. Any words of negativity in these pages will result in further negativity in your own life.

5. This journal requires your sole soul attention at least once a day. Even a few sentences a day will supply you with the necessary nutrients needed to live a happy, well balanced Creative Juicy Life.

6. Remember that each kiss of the pen made on these pages is an intimate act between you and your beloved source in this world. Allow your stories and words to unfold in front of you as your Creative Juicy Life, not as a pure means to spark conversation or fill in as a blog post.

7. Take this journal with you everywhere. You never know when you might need it.

This art journal entry was NOT made at Creative Dig..but rather in October, when I was taking a bloggy break!

I hope you will use these guidelines as part of your own journal writing....if you do post them to your blog though, please be Creative Juicy and give a reference back to Dirty Footprints Studio.

Peace & Love.

One Page At A Time

Journal writing is an important part of my life. When I neglect the practice, things get a bit off balanced and my mind will have tendencies to spin like a break dancer from the eighties!

I tend to write in either expensive, leather bound, beautiful journals that you can buy at a book store...or just your ol' $1.99 hard cover composition book you can pick up at the CVS down the street! Usually, the journal I choose mirrors the new journey I feel I am embarking on. Sometimes I'll be writing for awhile in one journal, then switch out of nowhere. It's like my life has made a detour--a need for a new start---and I desire a new space to navigate from as well.

That's how I feel now. And, I'm not feeling expensive, leather bound, full of pristine loveliness for this new leg of my Creative Juicy journey either....I want something way more personal--more intimate to my heart, more rugged and ready to be loved. So I picked up a cheapy purple composition book last night and I covered it in tissue paper, the art piece from my work desk calendar that I spoke about HERE, and a title from an article I found in one of my old Yoga Journal magazines.

Now, we're good. Me and my journal are ready to take on the world. One page at a time.

PS The Dirty Footprints Studio newsletter is coming out this week!! I'm even including one of the most yummiest, delicious, not-so-good-for-you-but-who-cares, Thanksgiving side dish recipes that will make your friends and family love you 100 times more!! So sign up! It's free and is guaranteed to make you more Creative Juicy! Go HERE to learn more.

Peace & Love.

Art EVERY Day's Like Monday

I have one of those calendars on my desk at work that each day has a new piece of art on it. Here's Monday, November 16th--a drawing by the Rococo artist Francois Boucher called Head of a Young Girl. I love it so much that it's been Monday all week!

Peace & Love.

What's Happening in Studio 307

This past week in Studio 307, the fourth graders and I have been exploring and expressing the beautiful Arizona landscape we call home through ART!!!!

First we watched a fun little power point that I, Ms. H., put together, so we could learn the names for many of the cool cacti we see in our environment every day.

Can you tell the difference between a saguaro, a barrel, a beavertail, an ocotillo, a claret cup, a totem, and a cholla cactus? We can---& if you click on each cactus name, you will be able to identify each one too!

Each young artist chose their favorite cactus and broke it down into simple shapes and patterns, and then used fun, juicy oil pastels to create a funky drawing. From there, they picked up the brush and began to paint over their drawings to create a watercolor resist effect!

As you can see here on one of my art bulletin boards, the fourth grade kiddos also created an Arizona sunset drawing using chalk pastels and construction paper.

Exploring your environment with your own kiddos can be a great way to grab some inspiration and start creating some fun art time together!! Why not search what plants are native to the region where you live, either online , at the library, or by actually getting outside for a hike. Look for the simple shapes these plants make and start to notice nature's love for pattern. But most important--don't be afraid to play with color and have fun!

Happy Creative Juicy Living!!!

Peace & Love.

To Be More

There I am on August 4, 2009 when I decided to declare HERE on Dirty Footprints Studio that this was the official beginning of my Creative Juicy Life. Go take a glance at how I declare with great confidence that this would be my last year teaching at my school and that I would be using this year to define what a Creative Juicy Life looks, feels, and unfolds like for me.

Here I am now a little over three months into my Creative Juicy Life adventure. I'm sitting at my desk in my beloved Studio 307 at school. My hair's a little longer, my skin is a little less tan. I still got that strange head tilt thing going on when I take a photo....and well, I feel different. Real different.

Lots can happen in three months.

Lots can happen in three minutes--especially when you teach in a nutty elementary/middle school!

When I started out, I thought the answer was to work harder, push harder, make things happen. Get somewhere--do something--be something BIGGER, MORE CREATIVE, MORE JUICY!!! But something switched...something came to me, and I found a new direction.

That's where I'm at now.

I've stopped working harder. Stopped pushing. Stopped trying to make things happen.

I've started to watch how things naturally come to me when I relax into what is.

I've started to watch and learn from how children hug. They never do it subtle, but rather approach with arms wide open, and nestle into the softness of who you are, and stay there as long as they can--until you let go.

I've started to hug my life like a child. Stretching my arms wide open as I rise each morning. Rubbing my nose deep into the sweetness of my day. Savoring the moments until time tells me to let go.

My Creative Juicy Life is changing. It is becoming something I never anticipated it would. I'm finding things are more Creative, more Juicy when they are more simple.

Peace & Love.

Pure Joy

I can't help it....hit play on this video...this is exactly how I'm feeling right now!! Will you join me and get off that chair and dance!!!!

Peace & Love.

Great Ideas!!!!

There is so much yummy stuff out there on the internet when it comes to art journals, creativity, art, and making pies!!! (Oh, how I could go for some pumpkin pie right about now!!!)

Just yesterday I learned about Whitney Ferre from Creatively Fit from the awesome blog: Lisa's Art Journal. Whitney created the above video that I highly suggest you check out. She gives us a glimpse into her totally Creative Juicy art journal full of paper weaving and a very sweet mandala. (I'm a huge sucker for mandalas!!!) She also scans around the studio and we get a look at her inspiration board which is a total artist necessity if you ask me....and I love it when she talks about how she screwed up one of her journal pages...but didn't go nutsy about it...instead, she realized that this was a place she had been before and just worked through it.

Excellent advice for all of us!!!

Peace & Love.

Pretty

Today is Art Journal LOVE day here at Dirty Footprints Studio.

I made you another little diddy about.....being Pretty.

Don't forget to pick up your Art Journal and give it a little LOVE!

To see some past Art Journal LOVE please visit HERE.

Peace & Love.

Inspire

This man completely inspires me to be a better teacher....a better person.

Peace & Love.

Art That Makes You Melt

Here are a few of the snowboy and snowgirl flags that my 2nd grade kiddos created.

You can see these young artists hard at work HERE.

I love how each has their own personality. (Personalities that one might wonder about for some!)

This is how Art is part of my Every Day this month!!!

Peace & Love.

Mr. Prana

Ok. I know I promised my kiddos work from yesterday's post HERE....but, sorry....you'll just have to wait till tomorrow---I couldn't resist writing this post!

Yesterday one of my darling first graders was so super proud of his drawing above that he danced around the class showing everyone.

Mr. Prana.

Do you know what prana is?

In Yoga it is the word that best describes the life energy that moves us--that breathes through us. Actually in sanskrit the word prana means breath.

I LOVE THIS!!! LOVE IT!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT!

Though, I did ask him about his drawing right before I shot a photo of it, and from how he was describing it, I think the word Prana is actually suppose to say "piranha".

But I like it better this way....and think there is some deep meaning here for all of us. Just not entirely sure what.

Last, while we were having fun drawing in first grade art class....I joined them. Pictured above is one of my diddys---done in crayon, watercolor, construction paper, tissue paper, and tempera paint. We can start classifying this kind of art as a new genre: elementary school mixed media!!!!

Finally....I did some ART for Art Every Day Month!!! Yay!! It felt fabulous!

Peace & Love.

What's Happening in Studio 307

Look closely...these kiddos are using SCRAPPERS!!!

For Art Every Day I thought I'd share a little of what's happening over in Studio 307--what I affectionately call my classroom in the K-8 school I teach art at!!!

Kids love snowboys and snowgirls!! ESPECIALLY Arizona kids!!!!!!!

These photos show the beginning of winter flags they are creating for the annual Winter Program the Music teacher and I put on each year. She does all the music stuff...and I work on props and costumes with the kiddos. The second grade is singing a song about a winter parade and they will actually be parading through the auditorium holding their adorable snowboy/ snowgirl flags that they started here.

Why start now though--when Tofurky Day is even 2 weeks away of marking the beginning of the holiday craze? Because that's the part of being an art teacher sometimes. Where I teach I have a crazy schedule where I see one group of kids for 9 straight days, then I don't see them again until two months later. Yeah. Nutty! So I have to squeeze it in now...I won't see these kiddos until 2010!! (January, that is!)

The coolest thing is that each flag shows the darling personality and spirit of the young artist at work. Come back to Dirty Footprints Studio tomorrow to see some of the finish pieces...you'll just melt!

Peace & Love.

A Traveling Art Studio

I need to clean the Dirty Footprints Studio. It has become a total disaster. Not good.

I use the studio for art making, yoga practicing, computer surfing, impromptu dance parties, and hanging out. I love my studio!! It has a great huge closet to keep everything in, a juicy red rug that I do all my creating on...and in one corner is a set of great windows where I keep an alter--a constant reminder that this room is sacred.

But creating has been at a minimum lately in the studio.....and I know alot of it has to do with the mess that is building up.

So, I'm making another Art Every Day Month pact here (my first one was that I would buy guitar strings and start rocking out again!!!).....I AM GOING TO CLEAN THE STUDIO THIS WEEK!!!! I am going to wipe the dirt, get rid of the clutter, and organize my stuff again---to make room for a plethora of paint drips, charcoal dust, and a new round of sticky mod podge spills!!!

Just because the Dirty Footprints Studio has been less then par, doesn't mean I haven't been creating! That's when my Dirty Footprints Traveling Studio comes in handy (pictured above)!!!

I get emails often from Creative Juicy Lovelies expressing that the THING keeping them from living the artist life their heart longs for is that they lack space. That's when I tell them about the Dirty Footprints Traveling Studio! You don't need a lot of space to make art--to art journal--or to get those creative juices flowing!! Noway!!! You don't even need an old Samsonite traveling case--but it sure makes it more fun!! For years, before I fell in love with my baby blue suitcase I found at a thrift store, my traveling studio was an old tool box I picked up at a garage sale. Anything you can keep some supplies, a plastic table cloth, and a few trinkets that inspire and remind you that your present space is sacred is enough to constitute for a sufficient traveling studio. I know the wonderful Leah at Creative Every Day has a little traveling studio she keeps in a picnic basket---how stinking cute is that!?!?!

So....don't let poor housekeeping, lack of room, or a small studio apartment keep you from creating and living your Creative Juicy Life!! Decorate a cardboard box, ask Granny if you could have her old luggage, dump your hubby's tools into a garbage bag and claim the box as your domain, or simply spend the weekend cruising the aisles of your near by thrift store. Your studio is waiting for you...your life as a working, Creative Juicy artist, is in your grasp!!

And if you do get a new Traveling Studio...or already have one...I'd love to hear about it. Share!! Share!! Share!!......please.

Peace & Love.

Don't Believe

"Don't Believe What They Say"

This is a recent diddy I created in my beloved Art Journal.

No video for this one. Just me, my thoughts, and the truth of my paint brush.

I'm going to be honest here.

I used to be a huge reader of blogs. Every morning I'd sit down with a long list of my faves and catch up on the daily musings of my bloggy friends and those that I admire. I'd leave comments and even carry on the conversation further sometimes through emails.

But, in March, I took a two month computer break and left the whole bloggy world behind.

I realized in that time that the world...the bloggy world to be exact...still carried on without me. So, when I decided to return to Dirty Footprints Studio, I dropped my morning bloggy ritual for a running practice instead.

Now, every-so-often I get on those blog surfing kicks again....but the same thing seems to happen, which prompted my bloggy break in the first place---INFORMATION OVERLOAD. And not just information overload...TOO MUCH Creative Juicy ideas, inspiration, self-help-this-&-that, gorgeous images, and fantastic things others are doing. I start to find myself comparing myself to these awesome individuals. I start to pressure myself that I should be doing something else--expressing something else--even sometimes believing something else--just because what I am reading and seeing seems to make such a connection with me.

The problem is that we have too much information at our finger tips. Too much.

I believe it's necessary, for me at least, to limit what I take in. Even if what I am taking in IS all fantastically Creative Juicy...I still need to limit my intake. It's kind of like a smoothie. A real fabulous smoothie has just the right combination of ingredients to make a delicious treat. If you throw in all the fruits and veggies you got sitting in the frig--yes, it will be full of nutrients, but no, it won't make your mouth and your senses come alive like a smoothie should.

So, that's kind of the story behind this art journal page I posted here. I don't need to believe all the wonderful ways of living, of creating, of being super-duper-awesome is right for me. I can take in a little--play around with it, meditate on it, and reflect on how it can enhance my own life....but when it comes down to it...my Creative Juicy Life is perfect and precious and worth the time and space to just live it, breathe it, and when I fancy to---share it here with you.

Peace & Love.

Release My Heart

Here is a little Art Journal LOVE to begin your week.

For those of you new to Dirty Footprints Studio, you can check out past Art Journal LOVEn HERE.

I have been recently nominated to win the Best Video Blog award...could you be ever so LOVELY and drop a vote for Dirty Footprints HERE!!!!

The info you need to leave in a comment is:

Dirty Footprints Studio

http://www.DirtyFootprints-Studio.com

http://feeds.feedburner.com/DirtyFootprintsStudio

Your support is deeply appreciated.

Peace & Love.

Time of Gratitude

My blog, Dirty Footprints Studio, is a complete labor of LOVE. So when a fellow blogger acknowledges and honors my work with a blog award it deeply touches my heart. This week I had the honor to receive two blog awards and one nomination, and I am truly grateful.



I would like to thank Alex, who is a very Creative Juicy homeschool'n Mama who writes two very lovely blogs: Serendipity and My Create Corner for passing this award on to me. She is also an Art Every Day Month co-hort and I'm loving every thing she's doing!!!

Now, these awards always have a catch.....this one requires me to share seven things you may not know about myself. Ok....here I go.....

1. I have been terribly, horribly sick all week.
2. My middle name is Pauline.
3. My toe nails are painted a deep burgundy.
4. I love getting pedicures!
5. My bathroom is a mess.
6. Last night I had a dream that I took a train to get my hair cut, and when I got to the salon it was filled with my seventh grade class that I teach art--and they were all trying on jeans. Yeah--what the?!?!

For this next award I would like to thank Paula- Buenos Aires from the super cool blog Happysnappy In the Jungle----a chica after my own heart!!! Muah! Paula is totally rock'n the Art Every Day Month challenge also--ANNND--she's an Art Journaler as well! For this award I have to give one word(ish) responses to the following....

1. Where is your cellphone? charging

2. Your hair? messy

3. Your mother? far

4. Your father? memory

5. Your favorite food? avocados

6. Your dream last night? bizarre

7. Your dream/goal? COSTA RICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8. Your favorite drink? smoothies

9. What room are you in? studio

10. Your hobby? reading

11. Your fear? snakes

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Costa Rica

13. Where were you last night? bed

14. Something that you aren´t? male

15. Muffins? scones!

16. Wishlist item? Flip

17. Where did you grow up? Ohio

18. Last thing you did? type

19. What are you wearing? pajamas

20. Your TV? off

21. Your pets? lounging

22. Friends? awesome

23. Your life? Creative Juicy

24. Your mood? calm

25. Missing someone? Andrea

26. Vehicle? clean
27. Something you´re not wearing? socks

28. Your favorite store? none

29. Your favorite color? purple

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? yesterday

32. Your best friend? Hansel

33. One place you go to over and over? school

34. Facebook? Twitter!

35. Favorite place to eat? home

Last, I would like to thank the poet ...Paige from the blogs 365 Views by Me and Paradise Valley 2...Hell's Mountain for nominating Dirty Footprints Studio for the best Video Blog Award over at the 2009 Weblog Awards! This is so Creative Juicy exciting!!!! Thank you.

Luckily I don't have to do anything for this one...except wait and see what the judges decide! Ha!

Last, I know this is the time I am suppose to pass these wonderful awards on to other fabulous bloggys.....but, I hate to single out just a few....so instead I would like to take this opportunity to point out the link on my navbar above that says "cool chicas"...if you brush your cursor over it, you will get juicy creatives, soulful yogis, and past interviews. There is where I keep a list of very inspiring bloggys and each of those Lovelies are deserving of these awards and a trip to Hawaii. Unfortunately I can not provide the latter.

Thank you so much to EVERYONE for supporting Dirty Footprints Studio and for help making my Creative Juicy Life so much fun!!!

Peace & Love.

Creative Juicy at its Finest

Vincent Van Gogh is one of my all time, absolute favorite painters!!

His work is absolutely juicy, juicy, juicy!!

And everything he paints is emotional, moody, revealing, spiritual.

Who is one of your favorite painters?

Peace & Love.

(All of Van Gogh's images were borrowed from HERE.)

Art is My Practice

Have you heard the fabulous interview yet with Fabeku Fatunmise on Creative Living with Jamie Ridler? OMGoodness!!! I looooove this interview! You have to listen to it---and all the great interviews Jamie did...including the one she did with me HERE!!!

But this interview really hit home with me. Fabeku--who is all into sound and healing sound and good stuff like that, had some great little nuggets of Creative Juicy Wisdom. Things that he said really resonated with my own Creative Juicy Journey!!

One big thing he talked about is how CREATIVITY IS FOR YOU!! And I loved how he referred to art making as a "practice"...because to be completely honest--this is how I feel about my own art and creative journey.

I paint all the time. But I rarely--and that is even being generous by saying that--post my art for sale on my Dirty Footprints Etsy Shop. That's NOT why I paint...or create...or spend so much energy on Creative Juicy ventures. There's something else at play here...certainly not monetary.

When I was in my twenties I used to show my art work regularly in galleries. I was always a bit surprised when one of my pieces would sell for hundreds of dollars. But what would happen is that I would start to limit myself in my creativity...because something weird was snapping in my mind like a whip that would force me to stick to those types of paintings that were selling for the big bucks.

Then, when I started to take my teaching more seriously--my ideas and beliefs about art changed drastically. I no longer was worried about galleries or finding representation or having a polished artist statement. I became more attracted to the spiritual, metaphysical, historical even, aspects of art...and how art can shape life....and how art can heal.....and how art can make you happy....and how art can form community....and how art can be pretty and wonderful to live with.

I stopped practicing art...and started making my art my practice.

Since then my practice has evolved. And listening to this interview with Fabeku only confirmed my recent longing to pick up my guitar again. At one time music was just as important to me as art.

I think it's time to revisit an old friend.

This is my promise to myself....a little Art Every Day Month pact I'm documenting here!

Peace & Love.

Bad Art is Human...Good Art is Human

Raise your hand if you have ever done any of the following:

• Made a bad meal.
• Made a wrong turn while driving.
• Wore the wrong shoes.
• Mailed a letter with out posting a stamp on it.
• Called someone by the wrong name.

I'm sure you've done one of them...if not all, at some time or another in your life. We flub up, make mistakes, and do silly-mindless things all the time. We're human. End of story.

So why do we beat ourselves up when we make bad art?

Why do we doubt our skills, abilities, intentions to be creative, dreams to be an artist--just because we threw some paint together that looked more like road-kill then a gallery masterpiece?

We don't quit cooking breakfast just because we burnt the toast!

We don't go home crying that you'll never be able to drive again because you turned north on 75th avenue instead of south!

We don't write long-winded, soul-searching journal entries because we wore high heels to an all-day outside picnic near the beach!

We don't cry late at night that our dreams will never come true because we received a letter back in the mail asking for correct postage. Well, maybe sometimes this happens...but you get my point, right?!

Last, have you ever doubted your heart just because you called your neighbor Betty instead of Betsy?

Same thing happens with our creativity. We slip sometimes. We have off days, bad days, days we think we should be painting, when really we should be sitting in meditation under a mango tree. We have days that we force it. Days that we copy others and fail--when we thought it would be so easy. Days that we're feeling too ambitious. Days that we forgot to eat breakfast.

So my dear Lovelies, who are new and even seasoned veterans to this journey called Art....remember to be kind to yourself...loving to yourself...and to have a sense of humor every time you face another bad piece of art. In the big picture of the Creative Juicy Life...that bad painting you are crying about is just a burnt piece of toast...and like my mother would do-- just scrape off the black part, add a little butter, and deal with it!

Peace & Love.

Scrappers

Here is a peek into a series of paintings I have started working on.

They are each painted on wood!

AND.....each painting sits on a foundation of what I lovingly call scrappers..and, I must add, none of these paintings are finished yet!

Here is my own personal box of scrappers!

And, for those Lovelies that attended the Creative Dig Workshop this past September, they got to create some Art Journal LOVE with some scrappers I brought for them.

What is this thing you call "scrappers", you ask?

Well, as you most likely know, I teach K-8 art...and sometimes I have kiddos that are unhappy with their art work...so, first we discuss what it is they don't like--and how they could change and grow from this in the future. Then instead of throwing it away or giving it to their great, great aunt Hattie--we put it in a box lovingly called "Scrappers". This is a place students are encouraged to go through regularly to use pieces and parts of pieces for collage, multi media, and any kind of paper sculpture we may create. The fun part too is that there are many times I will hear a student exclaim in pure glee "I can't believe someone put THIS in the scrappers!!!" --and instead of turning the bad art into a piece of their own---they actually keep it and take it home.

I love scrappers....for me, I take alot of the kids scrappers and cut them into squares. I've started attaching them to board and using them as a foundation for my layered paintings. I've even started creating some paper quilts as well!

So...once again.....bad art shows us that it can really be a good thing!

Peace & Love.