Dancing Crow

New website

2010-11-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

I have moved my blog to my new website. Please visit me at www.tselby.com.

Thanks,
Talisa

Affirmations

2010-06-24T12:09:00.001-07:00

Having grown up at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation, I can't think of Affirmations without thinking of Stuart Smalley.

However, I've taken two intense classes recently that both strongly suggest using daily affirmations as a tool. One of the classes suggested cards, which really appealed to my artistic side.

There was a suggested list of affirmations on the class blog and many fellow students shared some of their own affirmations as well. I used these affirmations as a starting point, then altered, edited and threw in a few of my own. I came up with a list of 22 affirmations to use daily.

I made the cards out of pastel paper using images from my journaling stash and stamps, watercolors, stickers, etc. This was really fun play. Because they were just for me, I didn't worry about the product, I just had fun with the process. I wrote all the affirmations in my own handwriting.

This project allowed me to get comfortable with my list. Essentially, making the list my own. I'm looking forward to trying these out! I'll report back soon on how the daily use is going.

Vacation Recap

2010-06-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we had internet issues while on vacation. Actually, it was too expensive. The nicer the place, the less likely they are to have free internet. What's up with that??

So, I'm posting now that we're back. We landed in Phoenix on Friday, got our car and found food. Then we headed out for Sedona. It was hot! Although the cacti and terrain were interesting - it was very brown.

Then, we turned a corner and the
view instantly changed. We had
entered Red Rock country.

Beautiful!

There were galleries, hiking trails everywhere, and we took a jeep tour with a cowboy while we were there. I didn't know that jeeps could climb rocks, but now I believe! Scary - and fun!

My hubby brought his GPS along, so we found some cool roadside stuff like the world's largest kokopelli! We also stood on the corner in Winslow Arizona on Route 66!

We went to Jerome on Tuesday. It is a really cool town perched high on a mountain! Lots of cool art and people. There were painters with easels set up everywhere!

On Wednesday, we rode the train from Williams to the Grand Canyon.
It was beautiful!

Ed visited the canyon when he was 16 and
was very happy to be back there again. He
told me that no words or pictures could
describe how it feels to be there.

He was absolutely right. There is an amazing
sense of place there - it's so immense! Not just
in size but also in time. You could almost feel
the eons of time that had passed by in
the Canyon.

This is us on the return train trip. We are already talking about our next visit here! We're definitely staying at least one night inside the park next time - hopefully at one of the historic lodges!

There is so much to do in Arizona! We were able to make a quick visit to the Heard museum in Phoenix before leaving, but there were so many other places we wanted to see and didn't make it to.

We didn't sit still long enough for artwork, but I did manage to start one sketch while at Oak Creek in Sedona. I know that this trip is going to the the inspiration for many pieces of art to come! Our whole family had a blast!

Packing for Vacation

2010-06-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

We're off tomorrow for the West! I can't wait! This will be my first visit to the Grand Canyon - and I've heard so much about it. Plus, Sedona and Jerome sound really cool, too. We've mapped out way more places than we'll make it to, I'm sure.

I always pack art supplies for my vacation - I've always been more creative when I'm not working. I usually pack them in this gigantic duffel bag since we normally drive to our destination.

This time, though, since we're flying, I've had to

narrow it down to just the basics - a handful of

watercolor pencils, some brushes, a tiny spray

bottle, a film cannister in case I don't want to

use a water brush, some scissors (don't worry -

this will be in my checked bag!), a ruler, a couple

of travel watercolor sets, glue sticks and

a couple of travel sized watercolor sketchbooks.

I take multiples of some things because sometimes, my nephews will join in the creativity. I love the idea of establishing drawing and painting as normal parts of a vacation. I carry the supplies with me sometimes on regular days, but I'm not as good at that as I want to be. Still, I really like that in most of my sketchbooks, you can flip to a few sketches that were done by my nephews. I hope to spend more time with my nieces this summer, so hopefully their sketches will be in there soon as well.

These are some of the things we did last summer. One of my nephews is quite the history buff - he did the WWII soldier. I'll share more pictures and artwork from the road next week. Happy Summer everyone!

Are you ready for an Adventure?

2010-06-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

Am I ready for an adventure?? On June 1st, I joined the ranks of the unemployed. I was lucky - the announcement was made the week before Christmas, but my term date was at the end of May. I had a lot of time to process my emotions and think about the future.

I was working part-time for the last couple of my 8 years there while working on building an art business. I did spend time in my studio - mostly organizing, painting walls, etc. I took lots of classes but didn't spend a lot of time developing the skills further at home. Plus, I increased my working schedule often to accommodate business need. I never really developed a focus or a routine. In retrospect, I used my real job as a crutch for not pursuing what interested my most and at the same time - scared me most!

I have decided to take my art business seriously now. My sweetie has set a deadline of September to show some real progress towards my goals. I've spent the last couple of months in some deep soul searching work. I am finishing up my business plan, my strategies, my skills development plan, and (probably for me) most important - a time management plan.

By the way, the painting in the photo was done in a class with Chery Baird at Spruill. She is one of my favorite teachers!

I'm back in blogland and I'm ready for a really fun ride!!

2009-08-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

Wow - has it really been that long?? It's been a busy summer! We took a vacation with my family in July. Then I got a new computer and have been moving over to it for the last month. I also did a ton of work for an art project at my day job - that doesn't happen very often. (I've taken pictures of it, but I can't post anything until after the contest it was done for is over.) We have also been cleaning out our house for a big yard sale in September. No closets were left unscathed!

I did do a project for Michelle Wards GPP Street team blog http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/ to "knock yourself off". I just started "for real" art journaling recently - but I've kept sketchbooks, and "play" books and idea books for years.

I did this page a few years ago at the beach. I always take art stuff to the beach. I get inspired there. My nephews both like to do art with me, so I try to take a variety of stuff. I took construction paper, school glue and scissors for playing around with cut outs, and we had a blast. We also used newspapers - they are always readily available when my Dad's around. Actually, I think I had more fun with the cutouts than they did even - I continued doing them when I got back home.

So, this time, I did an art journal page using the same general shapes. I started with similar colors and I used cutouts as well.

Since the original was done at the beach, and we had just gotten back from there, I used the beach as my inspiration to finish up the page. I really like the way it turned out.

Being in the Flow

2009-07-04T12:15:00.001-07:00

I am doing a lot of art journaling lately, and trying to be "in the flow". That has led me to think about when I've been there in the past.

The best time I can think of was when my niece was visiting - 5 or 6 years ago, and we went down to the studio to play. She was probably around 11 or 12 then, didn't know what to paint and was very hesitant. I encouraged her to just start, and ideas will come.

To encourage her, I started doing the same thing myself. I used my paints without fear because I was just playing! I found that painting today and hung it in up in the nearly finished studio, just to remind myself - that's what I want my art experience to be.

I have to think about the process - not the product. There have been so many times:

I've hesitated because I was afraid that what I made wouldn't be any good
I didn't use art supplies I bought because I wanted to "save" them for when I was really good
I got frustrated and set a project aside because it wasn't turning out the way I wanted
I stopped a couple of steps into a painting because the next thing I did might be "wrong"

I have now made a promise to myself to do the art, make a mess and keep going even if it's bad.

I've got the mess part down - And I'm having fun!

2009-06-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

My first post - yay! No more lurking.

I have been working hard on finishing my studio for the last year. I've decided it will never really be finished, and I'm not going to keep pressuring myself to "get everything done". I realized I was keeping myself blocked - I had to finish the list, but I really didn't want to do the things on the list, so I procrastinated until I didn't go down there at all.

After much creative therapy reading (I'll discuss those in a later post), I've decided to enjoy the process of what I'm doing - with a focus on finishing - not perfect - just finished - small successes. So, I made some tags for my glass shelves.

I've been thinking about these for a while. I saw a post and a magazine article by Deryn Mentock at somethingsublime.typepad.com - she made these beautiful earrings with looped and twisted wire, words cut from books, and epoxy. They were gorgeous leaves attached to the sides of a larger bead. Anyway, I thought I could adapt the idea for my labels.

I twisted copper wire for hours! I twisted, looped, and twisted again and couldn't get any of them compact enough to make a label. Then, I remembered my stained glass supplies. Since it was copper, I used my soldering iron and lead free solder to attach the ends of my loops together. I made a jig from a piece of 2x4 and a couple of nail gun nails that I snipped the end off of. Next time, I'll take the time to sand the top of the nails - I got a nasty scratch on the back of my arm when I reached across the top of the jig.

I switched to a more fireproof surface for soldering after the first few - I didn't want to burn down the house. I cut decorative papers into the same oval shape and stamped and distressed them. I used packing tape transfers for the words (NF and FUS denote fusible and non-fusible). Then, I attached both peices to the sticky side of some packing tape and added the epoxy. When they were set, I cut away the excess packing tape. I used decorative tacks to attach them to the slots of my glass shelf.

I love the way they turned out. I was going for rustic - kind of like the labels on those old locker baskets. I think I got it. And, the interesting thing is that I did get some work done on my list items as well while I was waiting on things to dry. I also did some work in a couple of art journals I have going. It was a good weekend!