Whoo Hoo!! I am to be officially "exhibited"

I received an email today congratulating me for having one of my submissions selected for the Paste-Up exhibit in June, at the Ayer Lofts Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts. Wow, I am so excited, I can't even believe it!! The piece selected is "For a Song" which I have a picture of, if you scroll down a bit. While I don't even know where Lowell, MA is, and I probably will not go to the reception or the show, I am just giddy that they liked my work!! Wow, thank you Jesus for this gift you have given me!! Here is a link to the lofts and gallery http://www.ayerlofts.com/gall.html.

If you want to check out last years exhibit, you can go to http://www.paste-up.com/ .

The Shack

"In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, The Shack wrestles with the timeless question ' Where is God in a world filled with unspeakable pain?' " William P. Young, Author

UNBELIEVABLE!! For anyone who has survived a tragedy, or just managed to survive the day, this book brings together God's amazing love for us, with the sense that you are truly watching a miracle unfold.

Those that know me well, know that I love to read. I read fast, and I read often. I am forever looking for the book that will speak to me on levels I never knew existed. This is one of those books. This book will show God's love in a way that I have never seen before, and I cannot recommend it enough. Plus, it is just a great story. Check out their website, and prepare yourself. http://www.theshackbook.com/

Least of These

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me' " Matthew 25:40

Greatest Rock and Roll Band Ever

My husband and I spent last night with the Black Crowes...my all-time favorite band. They were so amazing!!!! Blogger is not letting me upload the video, but I will try later. Such a great concert. It was at the Wiltern in L.A., and this band is freakin' amazing on a small club level. Well, actually they are great in any venue, but small clubs are my favorite. Here are a couple of pictures I took. Yep, we were that close!!!!!

Transparent Eyes

I took the eye and altered it in Photoshop, and printed out 6 different versions of it. This is what came out of the first two. It is collaged papers with a transparency overlay.

Eye See You

F0und a cool website that had a bunch of different artists and their personal work. One guy had a 40 second video on how to draw an eye. I must have stopped and started that video 50 times in 40 seconds, I am not even joking!!! But I am pretty happy with the results. It has been since high school that I really took the time to do anything with just a pencil and some paper.

Great Article

There is a great article in the March/April issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine. It is called "Collaged Affirmations", by Kelly Rae Roberts, and it is so cool. It talks about using positive affirmation to quiet the inner critic, the enemy, or just plain bad thoughts. Then, by taking those affirmations and putting them into your artwork, your art becomes much more personal. Then she had this great tutorial to try the process out. Here is my version of "Prepare for Life". I love Kelly Rae's simple features that she uses for her examples. I am not so good at the "real life" acrylic painting, and had a real hard time with the face on this one. But the childlike qualities of the image were pretty easy to do, thankfully. My affirmations are:

Prepare for life

You Matter

Never give up

I know what I am supposed to look like! (my favorite)

Ministry or Mission

Progress not Perfection

I have used some of her techniques in the past for backgrounds, and I love how she places her images, and the backgrounds themselves are really rich with color and textures. Ok, now off to the next fun thing!!

Gallery Submission

Well my friends, I have decided to submit 4 pieces for a showing at a gallery in Massachusets. I should hear back in the next two weeks to see if they liked the photos of the work, and then I send them the originals. The format is small collage, nothing larger than 17". The four I chose are (3) from a set called "Pink Bees". The name comes from, duh, the color, and the fact that I adhered most of the papers and embellishments with beeswax. The fourth is a collage I have posted before, titled, "For a Song". The pink ones will be for sale there, if they are accepted. The birds are coming home to me. Wish me luck!!!!

Pendant and Lost Heart