Healing Art

This post is about something more serious... something more purposeful and meaningful than what I've shown thus far. In response to the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, a fellow artist felt the call to find a way to offer support. Jessica Brogan, of In Search of Dessert, wanted to make 26 inspirational card decks... one for each family who lost a loved one. She put a call out to anyone who wanted to help, and I was honored to answer.

In this creative journey, I was assigned a quote to place onto each of the 26 cards that I altered. Once finished, the cards are sent to Jessica, where she will place one of my cards into each of the 26 inspirational card decks, and in turn, send them on to the families. Each family will receive a deck full of 30 cards, each individually altered by an artist who added paint, glitter, fabric, love, positivity, healing energy, compassion... whatever the artist had to offer.

My original thought was to simply document my process to show here... but it became an overall healing journey for me instead. I have kept myself quite removed from the situation as a whole... I don't read the news... I don't watch the news... I pretty much live in my own bubble. I thought I was doing a good job of keeping my heart guarded from the "what if's" in relationship to my own kids... basically... I didn't think I was as impacted by the event as I turned out to be... and creating these cards helped me face the reality of our reality head on... while there isn't much I can do to help from here, I can make art for them. So, I made art.

First, scrounge around the house looking for random cards! Next, use mod podge to glue them to scrapbook paper that I found at a garage sale. I would have just used gesso to create a blank surface, but I ran out and was too lazy to run to the store before starting. Did I mention that I don't have much patience either? When I want to do something, I want to do it now.

Cut, cut, chop, chop.

Since I wanted a blank surface (more or less) for the other side, I decided to cover it with book paper.  A friend of mine makes purses out of vintage hardback book covers and gives me the inside paper (score!), so I just raided my stash.

I found this book full of stories for kids and I thought it would be perfect.

Using the mod podge again (do you see that huge gallon of it? I bought it from someone on craigslist! Double score!!), I glued the paper to the other side of the cards and cut each one out when they were dry.

Now for color. I decided to start with stencils and used 4 different colors of spray paint. My oldest son walked into the room when I was spraying and became very concerned for the safety of his siblings. He warned them not to walk into my office because they could DIE because spray paint is a DRUG. I'm not sure where he got his information from... but ok! Sounds good to me :). Haha!!!!

Then I added circles of color using this piece of metal from a scrap yard that my friends at Makeshift Accessories gave me.

More texture! I used stamps (from the thrift store and craigslist) with brown & black ink pads and also rolled a candlestick (thrift store find) through ink to add the honeycomb design. I ended up breaking off the outer layer of the candle, but it still worked as a flat stamp.

I didn't want to do too much to the back of the cards because I liked the transparent nature of the paper, so I used a heart stencil (craigslist) to add some love.

Now for the words... my quote was "Tears soften the soul, clear the mind and open the heart and we are shedding them with you." I wasn't sure how I wanted to outline the words though. I could use a black paint marker and blend it in (top left), or a pen to draw sketching lines around (top right) or a gray paint marker for a more subtle blend-in (bottom). After much debating, I went with the sketching lines... I felt like it was more personal in some way. 

I signed each card and voila! They were finished.

In these cards, I send out love, love, love to all the families who were affected by the event. 

Progression of a Painting

I made a painting for my husband for xmas, and my mother liked it so much that she wanted me to make a similar one for my daddio. This time, I decided to track my progress. It's interesting how far a painting can go from start to finish. I used a 16x20 wooden wall decor piece that I bought from a thrift store (my biggest painting surface yet!)... and I tried to track my progress, but there was a lot that was painted over, and painted over, and painted over.

Phase 1 - After covering the board with gesso, I added a base coat of green, yellow and blue. Next, paint drips!! I have so much fun adding different colors all around the board.

Phase 2 - Color some modeling paste and use a doily as a stencil. Hmm... let's add some white dots around the blue circles... and a blue arc.

Phase 3: Eh... not liking what was going on in the upper right corner and the center of the painting... so I'll just paint over it again. I do like the heart with a stenciled design inside though and the lower blue circle. Let's try a flower at the bottom.

Phase 4: The flower is a no-go. I repeat, the flower is a no-go! I'll just cover it with some metallic paint and add a smaller circle next to it. More paint drips in the middle!!

Phase 5: I add some black dots and squiggly lines around the modeling paste... some more metallic paint to the upper right side... and some circles around my circles.

Phase 6: Not feeling the black dots, so I added some white dots, which I wasn't feeling either, so I just painted over it all with blue paint. Hmm... how can I make it all more cohesive? The black pathways should do the trick... and hearts. Lots and lots of hearts.

And... voila! After many, many phases I am happy with the finished piece. My parents really like it too, so that's the important part. Sometimes it's hard for me to see the light at the end of the tunnel when I get frustrated. What I need to do is remain positive and know, know, KNOW that it always turns out well in the end.

Art fun!

The other night, I was working on a custom order when my son begged me to paint. I knew that if I started to paint with one child, the other 3 would want to as well. It was all or nothing... work or play... You would think the decision would be an easy one, but what if you consider your work to BE play?? It was more a question of "should I make a huge paint mess that I'll have to clean up to make my kids happy?" Ok... I guess the the decisions was still an easy one. We painted :).

I wanted to try my hand at making my own stencil. We used my go-to cardboard... cereal boxes! V traced some shapes on his piece. He ended up making a mask instead of a stencil, which I tried to explain the difference, but I'm not 100% confident that he understood what I was saying.

I decided to go for circles. I traced different sizes randomly onto the cardboard.

Then I cut them out with an exacto knife... which is not very much fun (fyi). My hand was cramping by the end... and it's a lot harder to cut out circles out than you might think!

After I gave myself a nice little hand massage, it was time to test out the new stencil! V used a spray... Uh oh, did you see that? We've been spotted!! The influx of children is about to commence!!!!!

Turns out that the spray made the cardboard a bit wet and soggy-ish. Hmm... I wonder if a coat of mod podge would create a barrier?? Oh, and I am using my new craft sheet underneath. What do you know... it really works!! It protects the table and is easy clean-up. Superb!

Patience is not a strong suit for me... so let's use a heat gun to speed up the drying process. Do you notice the price sticker on the heat gun? That's right baby... it was a thrift store find! Score!!!!

Enter the munchkins. Now it's time to really get down to art fun time. 

It's really quite an eye opening experience to paint with my kids. I love the wild abandonment that they use when painting and creating. They truly just try one thing after another. "Will it work? Who knows!! Let's just give it a try!!" I really need to follow their lead and paint this way.

Here are some finished pieces. We used paper, greeting cards, sketch book paper... whatever was in arm's reach. 

I just love the picture of the heart that loves "too much things." I mean... he is a heart after all, and is made for love :).

Here's my finished art journal page (it was my first one!). I made a heart stamp out of a piece of cardboard box, then I glued it onto the page. You can see the lime green circles in the background that I made with my new, homemade stencil. 

Bottom line, I'm so glad I painted with my kids!! These are the things that memories are made of... not working to fill an order. And like I wrote at the bottom of my page, "Creating frees the soul." Amen me... amen :P.