Happy New Year and Confession

First of all, let me wish you all a new year full of good health, love, and happiness.

If you read my challenge of September below, I was supposed to have been one of the participants in my challenge. I thought it was one of the best challenges I have ever come up with. I couldn't wait to get started, and started I did.

Now for my confession. When I was a young child, my mother bought me some science books that incorporated Disney characters throughout the book. I would open these books, grab my pencil, color pencils and papers, and draw the characters. I would get lost for hours doing this. That was the memory that came to my mind when I came up with this challenge.

Alright, so what happened? Well, I decided that I would do this again. I grabbed my toddler's favorite book and started sketching. I drew the characters but was stumped on what to do about the background; then... I saw our designer, Kathleen's, artwork. (Click on her name to the right to see what she came up with for this challenge.) Oh my goodness! I was awed by her artistic abilities. It was at this point that I froze. I looked at my drawing and just couldn't get past the background. I knew I had to complete it, so I just grabbed a bunch of watercolor pencils and started "coloring." I ended up with a mess. At this point, I was left with no other option but to start over. However, the holidays came, mixed in with some extra work, and the project was forgotten.

I have to say that I am disappointed with myself for having compared my abilities with someone else's and letting it shake my confidence in my artistic skills. However, I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who has experienced this at one time or another.

What am I hoping you'll learn from my confession? Something which I knew all along, but for one instant forgot; we should never compare our artwork to others', but instead see the beauty in all. We all have our own artistic talents and styles and that's what makes altered art such a fun form of art.

Will I follow through on my challenge; how could I not? Sometime in the near future, I will complete my artwork and share it with the world. :-)

Note: Kathleen, in the end, you helped to inspire me. :-)

Drawing With Children (and adults too!)

When I was a little girl, one of my most favorite pastimes was drawing. I LOVED art! It was one of my most favorite subjects in school. When I had my son and knew I would be homeschooling him, I was very excited about the prospect of instilling a love for art in him. Although my son does enjoy looking at artwork, unfortunately, he does not share my love for creating artwork.

In the latest issue of Altered Arts, Jeni Calkins wrote an article entitled, Teaching Mixed Media & Altered Art to Children. This brought back to light my desire to teach my son how fun creating art is and how it's one subject he doesn't have to worry about getting any wrong "answers" (since we all know that there is no "wrong" in art - it's all in the "eyes of the beholder").

I found a book entitled, Drawing with Children, by Mona Brookes. I haven't read the whole book yet, but in skimming through the pages it talks about how anyone, children and adults alike, can draw, you just have to know the five basic elements that can create shape. The examples in the book of artwork drawn by children as young as two are amazing!

When we create altered art we tend to use the artwork of others, whether it be rubber stamps, paper, etc., but why not do this instead? (Okay, can you tell a challenge is coming up?) Create a piece of artwork that only entails artwork created by your own hands. Let the words be in your writing; let the art be drawn by you; only use embellishments made by your own hands.

To help spark your creativity, I'm putting this challenge up to our design team members and asking them to post their artwork on their Altered Arts blogs. Let's see how creative we can all be. Oh, and Cyndi, let's see what you can create too! What about me??? Well, I suppose it would only be fair to have me do the same.

Deadline: November 3. (I work better with deadlines.) :-)

Let's create!

-Clara

The Packages Are In! Design Team Search

It's that time again - our new Design Team Search. This is always something worth looking forward to - to see the creativity of various artists. Although I have received packages, I have not opened one yet. In order to be surprised, I want to wait until the actual day of judging.

It Must Be Summer!

Ahhh, the first day of summer has finally arrived. As I read the dates on our blogs I realize that we have been pretty quiet lately. I know for me summers tend to be more busy than any other season. Being a homeschool mom you would think that the school "season" or school year would keep me more busy than my summers, but that is not the case.

Having a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old means spending a lot of time outdoors taking advantage of all of that Vitamin D that the sun provides. It's funny how before having children I hardly ever spent much time outdoors during the week, but my how that has changed.

What season(s) do you tend to find yourself to be most creative? Obviously, summer is not my most creative season, fall and winter are. Spring, all depends on the weather. :-)

-Clara

Hey Subscribers - I'm Inviting You To A Meeting!

Hi subscribers! Guess what? It's time for us to brainstorm ideas for themes and/or article subjects for Altered Arts magazine's 2009 issues. Yes subscribers, I did say "us" - I am officially inviting you to this meeting.

Take this opportunity to share your ideas. We've heard from our designers, but now it's time to hear from you!

Now you do have a deadline. You need to get back to me with your ideas (either via email at clara@alteredarts.com, or you can post your ideas here) by May 7, 2008.

Can't wait to get your inputs!

A Masterpiece!

I have the March/April 2008 issue of Altered Arts in my hand, and I have to say that the cover artwork, as far as I'm concerned, is a rare masterpiece. Rare in the sense that I have never seen anything like it before.

As the Managing Editor of Altered Arts, I view artwork for each individual issue many times over; I see it in its scanned or photographed version; I see it in person; and I see it in its printed form. This is the case with the March/April cover artwork as well; so you would think that by now it would not have the same effect on me as it did when I first saw it. This is not the case. I am still "Wowed!" by it.

And guess what?! I have a surprise - one day this masterpiece could be yours... You'll have to keep coming back to my blog for more details at a later date.

Altered Arts E-Magazine - It's Finally Available - FREE!

Well, by now those of you on our email list should have received an email stating how you can download our new Altered Arts E-magazine. If you have had a chance to download and view it, share your thoughts about the e-magazine with me. Either email me directly at clara@alteredarts.com or post your comments here.

Folks, this e-magazine is FREE. If you haven't downloaded it yet visit www.mailboxmuse.com to do so. You will be given a coupon code which you must input in order for it to show up as free. If by chance the coupon code does not work, put "pay by check" and then DON'T send in a check - - the e-magazine is FREE! (Did I say that already?)

Hope to hear from you.