My Creative Journey

I've been doing some reading lately, trying to figure out how God wants to use me and my art. John 7:18 has been heavy on my heart. I don't want to pollute my creative journey with my own pride and ambition, but it is a continual battle. My church has recently begun a very loose Visual Arts ministry. I sooooo appreciate our Worship Minister's approach of encouraging both the visual arts and the artist, but without generating a list of expectations or goals. I don't know yet where I am going on this journey, but I am content to keep reading, experimenting and exploring until God reveals His plan to me.

If you're interested in checking these books out, you can click on the following titles and be taken to their descriptions at Amazon. Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts by Steve Turner, Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts by Philip Graham Ryken, The Heart of the Artist by Rory Noland, 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One: Creating a Life of Meaning and Influence by Shawn Wood, and The Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice by Julia Cameron.

One of my recent tasks in Julia Cameron's book was to write the following statement: Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong. She even suggested to "calligraph" the statement! I know the statement may seem self-indulgent, but one of the main thrusts of her book is for artists to realize how much they beat themselves up with negative thoughts. She reminds her readers that God loves artists.

Well, that assignment led me to create another piece. My alarm is set to Moody Radio, and one morning I awoke to the reading of Isaiah 45:3, "And I will give you the treasure of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which calls you by name, am God." I just loved that! Treasure of darkness. Riches in secret places.

I don't often like being in a dark, confusing place in my life (never, actually), but to know He is ahead of me and has already prepared the victory...well, the just gives me great comfort.

I feel as though I am approaching a crossroads in my life - as an artist, parent, Christ follower - all of my roles are changing and need re-evaluated and updated. Everything is kind of up in the air right now. I have always been a Type A - listmaker, and it is a challenge for me to be patient and wait for the dust to settle on this chapter of my life.

Calligraphy Class Giveaway

Would you like a chance to win a free online calligraphy class?

Then hurry on over to the very talented Martha Lever's blog by 8pm EST, October 1, 2009 to enter. Just leave Martha a comment on her post by clicking here. Good luck!!

Flourish Friday - September 25

I love doing white calligraphy on black paper! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will try to do a real post next week. :-)

Flourish Friday - September 18

As you may know, I love to make the circular designs that I learned in my guild's 2005 workshop with Pat Blair. I call them mandalas. I think I enjoy making them so much because the design possibilities are endless. I decided to keep a record of all the different elements I could incorporate into my mandalas. Keeping a record like this is something I learned from Barbara Close. I've taken two, separate workshops from her. Although the workshops were very different from one another, each time she had us keep a record of the techniques or variations we were learning. If only I would do this record keeping more often, because my memory is like Swiss cheese! I quickly filled the page with different ideas, and I could easily do more - and should!

I normally do mandalas that start in the center, and then I pull the strokes out toward the edge - like spokes on a wheel. These mandalas are different, and I think I will start calling them wreaths instead. I would like to do some very large. These are only 4 inch squares.

I have uploaded more mandalas and wreaths - and even some squares - over at Flickr. You can check them out here.

Go add some flourish to your Friday! :-)

Flourish Friday September 11

Thanks everyone for your kind comments yesterday about the Trust In the Lord piece. I updated the post for those interested in the embossing. Proverbs 3:5-6 is a treasured promise! It's one of many promises I hope to letter. Yesterday, I played and flourished around a bit in my Moleskine journal - The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Happy Flourish Friday!

Trust in the Lord

I always get myself into trouble when I only rule a baseline for italic lettering. I need a waistline too (what girl doesn't want a nice waistline?!). I started off just the size I wanted, but by the end I had slowly but surely increased the lettering....

height. sigh....

UPDATE: I did the embossing by cutting out my lettering from a piece of bristol board, and then blind embossing. Check out my April 29, 2009 post about it here.

Flourish Friday - Wedding Calligraphy

Now that all my niece's wedding invitations have been mailed, I can show you! I apologize for the glare on some of these photos, but that's what gold does best - sparkle and shine.

I used my B6 Print Gocco. As you can see, wedding calligraphy can quickly overtake my studio. I love it!

I ran out of drying racks, but had to keep printing while the ink was wet. I had to arrange the envelopes so they could dry but not smear.

This is the finished invitation suite.

This is our invitation after we received it in the mail. The ribbon my niece found matches perfectly. Her fiancee found a post office (finally!) that would let him hand cancel all the invitations. They used vintage postage stamps. Do you see that our envelope has "Letters Mingle Souls" as one of the stamps? I love those little, extra, custom details!

Now, my only question is....where did the time go? I know she's 23, but when I look at her, this is what I see! Love you Taylor!!

Happy Flourish Friday everyone - enjoy your weekend. (Holiday weekend in the States!)