Saying you are an artist isn't enough!

So I recently fell in love, his name is Hobby Lobby and he has the most amazing assortment of artsy fartsy crap any sane artist would die for. I ventured in and got lost in HL and was introduced to a plethora of outlets for my never ending thirst for the creative and color filled! So this week I challenged myself to my first mosaic. Did all the research online and bought the goodies and got going, not blowing my own horn but toot-toot it turned out relatively awesome from my first try :-)

I fear you will take me beyond redemption, to the darkest place known to the soul. Make me unrecognizable to my kin, my friends and myself. Many hearts will break on our path to this distant land where only those willing to sacrifice everything for the other live. I fear you will take me beyond redemption but what I fear most is that you won't have the guts to take me!

Exploring Paint

Loving painting the way I do I assumed that I would LOVE all kinds of paint, boy I was wrong! Today I volunteered my time and services to an organization that is putting together a kids science museum in State College. They are starting everything from scratch so this morning when I went for mural painting (as per the ad) I was met by a huge empty room and a driven, eager group of people with shirts rolled up and ready to get dirty. I was then handed sand paper, a cloth and a step ladder and a wall. I spent close to 2 hours sanding the wall then was handed a rollermabob, a pan of paint and a brush. Excited to finally be painting I set off on my merry way to do what I love but to my horror wall paint defies all paint logic and any theories on the subject. The rollythingy took off more paint than it put on and so did the brush. Anyway I eventually got shown that i need to paint in a X so that I don't get the splotchy effect that I had become famed for, it started flowing a little faster and I kinda sorto enjoyed myself. Except for the couple of blisters and callouses I loved the experience of doing something practical with my art and hope that the experience seeps into my paintings making my work of better quality and technique. I will be going back to help with the second coat of paint and hopefully get involved in the mural work which I will post here. Projects like this one are encouraging and have pumped me with creative steroids (not actual steroids, stay in school don't do drugs) Anyway that's my bit for the day :)

Save Darfur | Creative Community

Save Darfur | Creative Community

We sat back and let it happen in Rwanda and it is STILL happening in Darfur on OUR time! I'm gonna start doing something about it...you? I will be dedicating my next couple of pieces to the Darfur conflict and similar human rights violation. If you have input or suggestions of how Ican go about this project please feel free to share.

The Evolution of Cita

Life is so dynamic, ever flowing, constant in change. I for one have always been resistant to change I can even go as far as saying I HATE change. I have been trying recently to accept that the only thing that is gauranteed is just that though...change change and more change. So in the spirit of being one with the ever fluid universe my life has been one big adjustment. So since my last post I have done so much that my life has completely been remodeled, retouched, and rewritten. First I left my art instructor, yes the foundation of most of the paintings here were with him but without resorting to name calling he was rather unpleasant and i do believe that I am better off without him and his negative energy. This is not only my first piece completely solo but also my first piece as a married woman :)

These are a few of my favourite things!

So for our first painting we had to bring three of our favourite things, compose and take a photo of them then paint it. I chose my favourite shoes as any girl would, a hookah pipe which was a gift from Caroline and a glass bead neck piece i got from Karen. It was so exciting to start painting but this was a struggle for me because it was here that I learnt that there is more to painting than laying colours on a canvas, there were different hues, shades, lines, surfaces and folds that need to emerge from the nothingness of the canvas. I do think though that what enjoyed most is the use of all the colours on my palette resulting in this explosion of colour!

Something for the birds

The quickest painting I have ever completed. I was done in two sittings, well actually the initial sitting was a session of throwing industrial enamel (black) then I took the piece home for some inspiration and to try find form...I got nothing. Six months later I grabbed the piece from my ironing board because I had nothing else to work on and took it to the studio. I set it down and viola! I found about six bird forms and highlighted them with pastel colours and I was done. This was for me the first time I felt creative as an artist because I wasn't painting from a tangible object. It is quite a brilliant painting and I did it with minimum painter's block so I LOVED IT! I will try and get a better quality image so that the brilliance shines through *giggles*