illustration friday. art # 26

The topic for Illustration Friday this week is Savour. This is the first thing that popped into my head.

thankful

I have been creating every day. Mostly. Some days maybe only a little. But that's not what I want to talk about today.
I want to give thanks.
I've posted this before, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and this post works for what I have to say.

That God loves me, deeply, faithfully, unconditionally, eternally. 

That Jesus provided a way for me to be reconciled to God. 

That God is always in control of all things. 

That God allows circumstances in my life to test me, strengthen me, prove me, and purify me. 

That I have been married for 17 years to the man God created me for. 

That I have a brilliant daughter who loves the Lord and is wise beyond her years.

That I have a son who is quick as a whip and sweet and loving. 

That my parents are still alive and married to each other 46 years. That they raised me to know Jesus. That they trusted me and were strict at the same time. That they are still there for me.

For my sister and her family. For my nieces and nephew. That things don't always go my way.

That God doesn't say yes to all my prayers.

For blue skies that take my breath away. 

For mountains that remind me of the Might and Power and Steadfastness of my King. 

For wind that reminds me of the Sweet presence of the Holy Spirit.

For clouds that remind me that some day my Jesus will be riding on one of them to come and get me.

For brooks and streams that remind me of the Water that quenches all thirsts.

For rain that reminds me of the mercies of God. 

For thunder that reminds me of the voice of God.


For the word Grace.
For each breath I take. I want God to receive each one as a Praise offering.

For the moon and the stars that remind me how small I am. 

For the steam on my tea that reminds me how fleeting my time on earth. 

For the wonderful, amazing privilege of Prayer.

For my wonderful friends. 

For God's Word. The sharp sword that wounds my flesh and heals my spirit. 
The Word of God. The Word who was in the beginning with God. The Word who became flesh. 

For my health, my sanity, my intelligence, my personality, my failures, my desires and dreams. They are what make me who I am. 

For my house and car and the clothes in my closet. For all of the material blessings that God has shared with me.


For these things and so many more, I give thanks

art #19

I've been creating, I just haven't been posting. Today maybe I cheated. I made these at Wordle.

art #15

My friend does beautiful Visual Prayers.
This is a similar idea, but I'm calling it a Visual Answer.

art #14

Yesterday I made art with words. I created a person, a setting and a situation. I'm not posting it, though.
This is the sketch I did today.
Helping Hand. We all could use one from time to time.

art every day #12

There is a site that sends an illustration prompt every Friday. Today's prompt was "burning." The rest of the inspiration came while cooking dinner. :D
I have no confidence in my ability to draw people. I want to fill in this space with excuses and qualifiers, but I won't.

art every day- poppies

I felt poppies were in order for the day.
The first one is just colored pencils.
The second one is watercolors, construction paper, and marker.
I included the photo I used for inspiration. I took it a couple of years ago at Glen Eyrie. Nothing I create will ever rival what God made. The ultimate artist!

art every day #10

It started out as a bubblegum sculpture. But it kinda took on a life of it's own, if you see what I mean.

this guy's art is astounding

I think it's astounding. What do you think? Look around his site, you don't want to miss anything.
Peter Callessen's art.
It's all paper!

art every day #9

We're having our first snow of the season. It's about time! It was nearly 80 degrees yesterday. Gotta love the unexpected to tolerate the weather in Colorado. Although, technically, it was expected. But anyway...

Because of the weather I decided to dig out my knitting. Seemed like a cozy project for the day. I'm not a very good knitter, though. It's taking me a while to remember what I'm doing. Thankfully, my son is easy to please. He won't mind the "personal touches."

art every day bubble gum

create art every day #7

I didn't feel like creating today. But I don't want to dork out this early in the game.
I grabbed my sketchbook without moving my lazy self out of my seat and made some dancing trees. I make dancing trees just for fun sometimes. They make me happy.

i love me some buttons

I think I figured out why sometimes I'm happy with my creative results and sometimes I'm not.

I'm happy with them when I don't have a plan. When I just start doodling, like yesterday, or decide I want to do something with buttons, like today, then I'm happy with what I get.

But when I have an idea of what it should look like, like the chicken or the wreath, I'm more likely to be disappointed.

It has everything to do with expectations. I shouldn't be surprised. Expectations cause of a lot of disappointment in my life. I'm learning (slowly) how to let go of them. Toss them. Give them up and just take what comes. Life is so much more beautiful and satisfying that way.

Buttons glued to card stock.

bird on a fence

Today I was study hall monitor at my daughter's school. I remembered to take my sketchbook, but forgot pencils. So, I started doodling with my pink and green pens. I like the little picture I ended up with.

Yes, you read correctly. I like it. :)

art of friendship

Today I created a warm and relaxing environment for my friends. I created a tea party. I worked on a lifelong project: friendship.

All the goodies were store-bought. The effort involved was minimal, but the rewards were great. I love my friends and I love providing a brief respite for them.

about being an "artist"

I have been doing artistic stuff a lot longer than I have been writing. Like, all my life. I've always enjoyed drawing and painting and cutting and gluing and squishing clay and all that.
I've only been writing about 4 years.

When I read something I've written I often think, "Wow. I wrote that? That's good! I like it!"

When I look at some art piece I've made I inevitably see only the mistakes and flaws and think, "Eh, it looks like I drew/painted/made it."

I guess I want my art to look like someone else did it. I also guess that the fact that it looks like I did it means that I have a unique style. It's just that to me, that style looks like a 5 year old.

But I had so many wonderful comments on the last post and I don't think people were lying. I think they meant them. So... it seems I need to figure out how to appreciate my own abilities in this area. I'm not sure how, though.

Seems this challenge is going to do me a lot of good.

Here's a wreath I made today with a form from the dollar store and some odds and ends I had stashed in a box.

today's art

The reason I'm posting these is because I really, really, REALLY don't want to.
It's part of my whole, "Get over yourself" plan.
This is my experiment with water colors, water color pencils, and markers.
Someday I want to learn how to use these tools satisfactorily.

In memory of Linda.

This writing a verse in the painting thing is an idea I got from Michelle Pendergrass who makes beautiful art. 

art every day

Last year I did the NaNoWriMo challenge. I wrote 50,000 words in November. It was really good for me. I turned off the inner critic, the inner perfectionist, and the inner rule-follower and wrote whatever came into my head.
I gleaned two stories from the mess that came out of that.

This year I'm not doing NaNo. I'm doing something called Art Every Day Month instead. The process will be similar for me, though. I'm just as critical and perfectionistic about my art as I am about my writing. Which is quite frustrating as I can never get things to look the way I want them to. I'm not a real artist, I just play one in my mind. ;)

Creating some kind of artwork every day is going to require that I put all that aside. The idea of random and carefree creativity appeals to me and terrifies me.

I know that this throwing off of the fetters will help me in my writing as well.

It's been a long time since I've been in an artistic groove. I'm looking forward to it. I'm declaring it a month of fun, unleashed creativity. Imperfect. Unedited. Free.

If you want to join in the fun, click here.

Today's piece is "Chicken."