Art Blog is moving in with Prairiesque.

It was so cute of me to think I would keep this updated regularly...

Please don't think I haven't been involved with art--in fact, I feel like I've been a lot more creative lately than I have for a long time.

I'm not going to ramble on here.  I DO plan on posting art.  But I've decided that it would just be best if I do it at my "other" blog, prairiesque.wordpress.com.  So check it out if you want to follow my art, OR my craft, or any thing else I blog about.  :D

I'm still around...

Wow!   Has it really been almost 2 weeks since I last posted here?  And only my second post, at that.  Thankfully, I actually have a good excuse, that being I have been sick and have not felt like doing anything, including painting, and I had hoped that my next post would be the beginnings of a painting...so anyway, now that I am recovered, I should be able to keep this updated.  Of course, this hardly counts as an update, so let me throw in a couple pieces of inspiration!   These are paintings that I'm currently loving...

Maze by James Jean.  Mixed media.

ESL by James Jean.  Oil & pumice on wood panel.

Immaculate Conception by Kris Kuksi.  Acrylic on Canvas.

(I have actually had the privilege of viewing this painting person and almost hate to share it in this flat, digital format you see before you.  There is a quality about Kris's work that makes it look like it's breathing--this work fairly glows when you see it in the real.)

Driftwood Heart 03 by Fay Helfer.  Pyrography, natural pigment, and pastel.

Prefix by Yellena James.  Acrylic on clayboard.

Sighs.  Next time I write, I will have some of my own work to share.  I mean it!

Sketches

 I've been making quite a few silly sketches lately.  I plan on beginning a "serious" project soon, but for now, I've been allowing myself to play because...well...I can!  Isn't that fabulous?  I love that about drawing.  "Mistakes" don't cost more than the price of some ink or extra pages, and unlike, say, brain surgery, no lives are at stake.  Either you make something amazing and bring joy to lots of people, or you can make total crap and turn the page and start over...if you want.

A longwinded greeting with no pictures.

I'm starting an art blog.  Perhaps you're asking, why?  (Or, perhaps you're not.  Most likely you're just accepting the fact without question...whatevs.)

BUT-- to answer the question that was probably not asked:  I'm starting an art blog to sort of get back into it all.  Art, I mean.  It seems that I sort of fell out of art for a while.  (Can one fall out of art?  Maybe one was never in art in the first place, if this is the case.  But that's for another time.)

Long ago, before I began creating three-dimensional, textile things, I made pictures.  And I don't know how it happened, but at some point, I just sort of quit making pictures.  I still had sketchbooks lying around, but they were always full of costume designs or knitting plans and not much else.  Drawing for the sheer enjoyment of it was no longer something I did, which is pretty pathetic and kind of sad to admit to.  My other creative pursuits could be called "art," and certainly I get immense pleasure from them, but they're just different from drawing and painting.  I can't describe that difference properly, so for the moment, I won't attempt to.

Anyway, I suppose this journal is sort of an exercise in encouragement, something I'm setting up that I will drive myself to tend to--the whole accountability thing, you know.  I plan to post my work and other people's work and musings and whatever I fancy at the moment, at least once a week, in the hopes that it will inspire me to continue growing and developing my art.

I'm a little ashamed that I allowed these things to drift out of my life, but admitting there's a problem is the first step, right?  So take my hand, and join me on this adventure.  Please?  I'll give you stuff if you do.  (Not really.  But maybe!  But probably not.)  Goodnight.