Running Ducks

There is a breed of duck that stand upright, tall and thin, and it runs that way. So, called "Running Ducks"! I made a series of cards of the ducks cut out of different papers. The finished card is coated with a glossy glaze that makes the card look like enamel, especially over frosty Lumiere paints. Styling these cards is ADDICTIVE!

Drawing Again!

When I was a preteen, I started drawing. I am, by natural urge, an "illustrator." I loved pencil, pen-and-ink, colored pencils, charcoal, anything I could hold in my hand like a pencil. I also always wanted my work to be photo-realistic. I was less creative than I was really good at reproducing any image I could study. I loved the exercise of cutting a photo in half and completing the photo by drawing the missing half. I also always wanted to do people, faces, and figures. I went to college with the original intention of being a fashion illustrator.

When I got in art school and had to start doing assignments that I wasn't interested in, I lost interest in art school. I switched from art to English in the spring of 1986. By 1990, I wasn't even drawing anymore. I did paint one portrait in 1996, and I tried to draw my daughter in 2000. Nothing else.

Now I am in a few trading card challenges that require images of people. I have been struggling over what to do, when suddenly yesterday I was DRAWING AGAIN! I was suddenly inspired by the cups of pencils on my desk and by the oh-so-handsome William Shatner a la Star Trek. (I love that guy! young or older) It feels good to do something original again, not all cut and paste and stamp and glue which I ADORE but this is different.

Of course, I'm never 100% satisfied with anything. I'm looking at the Shatner picture thinking, "That eye is too high, the nose is too small, the expression is not quite right, the white isn't bright enough....."

Back to work!

MommaBelle Loves Art!

The older I get, the more I need art!

When I was 18 and went off to Auburn University to study art, I was too preoccupied with having fun and hanging out with crazy artists to think about "art." Now that I am a wife, mom, Language Arts teacher, and farmwife, I crave time to do arts and crafts. I now have life experience, beliefs, passions, knowledge...all those internal forces that demand to be visualized!

My current addiction is "Artist Trading Cards." I am a member of ATCards.com, an exciting, friendly place for artists to learn, share, and grow, both skillfully and spiritually! ATCs are works of art on a 2.5"x3.5" canvas, any media or materials, as long as:
1. they meet the size designation (the size of playing cards or other trading cards); and
2. they are never sold, only traded.

That second rule is what makes ATCs so exciting. One is committed only to making, experimenting, learning...not trying to meet a market's demands or make an income.

So I thought I would create this blog to share what goes on in my mind and in my art as I create. If nothing else, I will be able to go back and read my own "art history." I think, too, that it will give my family a way to know me better, especially when my daughter is older.