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Showing posts from March, 2022

March 2025 Procreate Designs

Looking back on the art I’ve been making for the past few months I’ve done quite a bit of digital work.  I started really delving into Procreate when we went on Vacation earlier this year, and I haven’t stopped exploring the possibilities since.   While planning for our vacation in late February and early March of his year I opted to take only my camera and iPad.  No knitting, no sketch book, no art supplies.  This was the first time I’d ever taken only my iPad, with the intent of creating art while on a vacation.  I had a plan to limit my supplies and challenge myself to only using procreate.  My plan worked, I learned a lot about procreate and I enjoyed to process.   The biggest thing I learned was how very freeing being able to sit on the couch or the porch at night with just an iPad and a pencil was.  There was no figuring out where to put supplies, or how to juggle a sketchbook on my lap, or being confined to the table.  The other bonus ...

Heart to Art Part 2 - We're Here

In my last post, I left off by telling you that I feel like I'm wrestling a two-headed dragon. If you haven't read part one, I'd encourage you to read this first . Over the last year, I've found the card-making world to be a bit stagnating when it comes to inspiration and sparking my creativity. Authenticity, or shall I say the lack thereof, has stirred up a lot of "what if?" thoughts. I've found over the past year I'm less and less interested in what the paper crafting industry has to offer me as a maker. There are of course a few exceptions, but overall, it's a bit flooded with what I would call "copy the mold" syndrome. That is not to say there aren't great products on the market and there aren't great makers making the things that make their hearts sing, it's just not making my heart sing anymore. This is more about me and about my desire to be more authentic and original. I've outgrown the industry I've so ...

The Thing About Trees

Trees are kind of fascinating. They're forever changing and evolving. Every Spring they put energy into new leaves. Through the summer they are beautiful and green, proved shade, and make music in the breeze. They evolve into bright vibrant colors of yellows, oranges, and reds in the fall before dying back and going dormant in the winter. All of this, only to start all over in the spring. Isn't that a bit of magic? I'm honestly not sure what the lure is for me to draw trees, but they're my favorite thing to draw. I've talked about my obsession with trees before. I feel called to draw them. I've drawn many trees in all shapes and sizes, and one of my trees is tattooed on a sweet soul's arm. You can read about that in my post Art, Not Tattoos. If I say the trees talk to me does that make me sound weird? There's really something about adding the black silhouette of a tree onto a beautiful inky or watercolored background. I enjoy getting lost in the magic of...

Heart to Art Part 1 - The Back Story

Change is hard. Growth is hard. Sometimes listening to your heart is even harder. As of late, I've been having conversations about making my work more sustainable. Why now? Why is this important? Why is this transition starting to come front and center after nearly six years? What do I mean by more sustainable? I'm going to unpack all of those things over the next series of posts. Why now? This is the biggest piece of this journey, and it's simply because I feel very called to create more original artwork. First, let me share a bit of the back story of how we got here. You might want a cup of coffee, this is gonna be a long one. In late 2015, after a brief stint in knitting, I picked my card-making hobby back up. By mid 2016, I started sending "happy mail" packs of cards to friends and family and donating cards to card drives and other causes. In 2016 I made 300 cards; they had to go somewhere. In 2016, I also started working with pen and ink again. ...