Happy Halloween!

Halloween is postponed here in New Jersey until Friday night (second year in a row that Mother Nature has interfered with trick or treating), but for the rest of you, Happy Halloween! 

Nathalie Kalbach's and Julie Fei-Fen Balzer's  Second Floor challenge this week was to use all six primary and secondary colors.  And Natasha May had invited us all to her Halloween party and asked us to come in costume.  I decided to imagine myself as a sassy witch, riding high on the moon.  I have to say that imagining myself like this was the "taking it to the second floor" part of my challenge, as well as creating this napkin design with only gouache -- no collage, stamping, stenciling, etc.

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Linking up to  Natasha May's Halloween Party, Creative Everyday, Anything But a Card (use the color black and this is actually a napkin design!), Second Floor Challenge, Paint Party Friday, and Show Me What You've Got.  Check out all the great creativity at these sites.

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has arrived in northern NJ.  We have been preparing for days, and now it is pitch dark outside, the wind is howling, and the lights are flickering.  I have had so many "stay safe" wishes -- many from friends I met through this blog and Art is You.  I feel well loved.  This is dedicated to all of you:

BE SAFE!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Fall Fearless & Fly Challenge 3

It's Challenge #3 for Fall Fearless & Fly over at Artists in Blogland.   Jane Davies is the guest artist for this third challenge and her work is amazing.  Plus, we have a prize of 6 Dylusions Ink Sprays donated by Ranger!  So hop on over!

Here are the 3 parts of the challenge, and links are due in two weeks - November 11:

Headline Prompt:  Triumphs and Defeats:  What do you see as your greatest triumphs or defeats?  What have they taught you?  Which have you learned more from?
Color Prompt:  Black and white
Quote Prompt: Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

This challenge made me think a lot about how most of my "triumphs" have been a direct result of some of my greatest "defeats."  I put these in quotes because life is a continuum.  Just like you never step in the same river twice, I don't think there are moments in life that can be designated as wins or a losses. 

The ending of my first marriage definitely felt like quite a failure, or defeat, for me.  But it began a journey that led to a very happy marriage and a second child.   When I was working as a lawyer, there came a point where I was told I would not make partner; this felt like a defeat.  But out of that was born an art career, running a local community theater group, and being able to be home with my first child - which was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had.  So who can say which of these experiences was a triumph or a defeat?

I think Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had it right -- triumph and defeat are not "out there," they are inside us.  Here are my finished pages.  I also tried to stick with the black and white as much as possible -- not easy for this lover of color!

And the winner of this watercolor:

is Dawn who wrote: Your watercolor is beautiful and I would be honored to win it!! I have liked your facebook page and am following your blog also. If you had a button I'd add it to my blog too! (Hint, hint)  I am also very excited about the second challenge. I have just taken a big leap of faith in beginning my art career and I have many thoughts that deserves an artistic home.

Dawn, I am working on a blog button!  In the meantime, please send your address to corspokoli(at)gmail(dot)com, and I will get this painting right out to you!

Leave me a comment below indicating that you would like to win one of my original paintings, and on November 11, I will pick a random winner for this 7 x 10" watercolor!  (Follow my blog and/or like my facebook page for extra chances and let me know in your comment.)  This is such a fun way to find good homes for my paintings.

Thank you for visiting, and can't wait to see what you do for Fall Fearless & Fly!

If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Linking up to Artists in Blogland, Mandarin Orange Monday, Inspire Me Monday, and Creative Everyday. 

Printables

I have started making some of my watercolor designs available as pdf files for download.   Just click on -- Use My Art - Seasons, and Use My Art - Everyday.  These are for your personal use (that is - not in products for commercial use or re-sale) in art journaling, card making and mixed media projects, and I'm so excited to offer them.  I will be adding to them daily -- you have no idea how much art I have created over the past 15 years of illustrating greeting cards and other stationary products!

One random commenter to this post will get to choose the printable of his or her choice.  Follow me to get an extra chance! 

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Linking to Paint Party Friday and Creative Everyday.

Words of Wisdom

 

More of the chickies.  This time strutting phrases of wisdom I have heard or overheard:

• Labor is a craft, but relaxing is an art.
• Sometimes the most important thing to hear is what isn't being said.
• We have two ears and one mouth so that we will listen more than speak.
• Instant gratification takes too long!
• Procrastinate now, don't put it off 'til later.
• Resist temptation, unless you can't.
• You can never go wrong with black, except for sometimes.
• You can't chew with someone else's teeth.
• Just because it's worth saying doesn't mean it's worth repeating.
• You can't ride two horses with one behind.
• A half-truth is a whole lie.

Happy List it Tuesday!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Don't Just Dream It, Do It!

"Just by putting one foot in front of the other, you can climb any mountain."  Manorama  

 I got so many comments on "Embrace the Rain."  Thank you to everyone who left a kind word.  So more on this theme.  

First, I used stamped white gesso into this great gears stencil from StencilGirl:

Then I washed periwinkle, blue and white acrylic paint into it, sprayed it with water, and rolled a paper towel over it to lift off a lot of the paint.  You can see how the gesso did not grab the paint as well as the watercolor paper, and this created a cool texture.

 

I glued down some torn dictionary page scraps, and finger painted them with green and gold fluid acrylics:

I traced Balzer Designs' Blazonry stencil to create tops of trees: (I've also used this stencil to make surfboards!)

 Glued them down using some Glitz paper strips for tree trunks!

 

 Carved a cute chickie stamp, wrote out my text on card stock and cut it out, stamped and doodled, and voila:

Hope you like this plucky chick -- walking bravely to "Yes I Can, Yes I Will!"

Here's Samy talking to one of the ghouls in our front yard!  (Our house is really blue...)  Trying to get into the Halloween Spirit around here.

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Linking up to Mandarin Orange Monday (in honor of my orange chicky), Art Journal Cafe (handcarved stamp),  Inspire Me Monday, and Creative Everyday.

Embrace the Rain

A few blog posts and conversations met up with me in the rain yesterday.  I know -- that seems like a mis-typed sentence -- but bear with me.

Yesterday it poured here in New Jersey.  I was happy for the rain.  Then I have no dilemma about whether to do work in the garden or be in my studio.  The choice is clear!

While waiting for inspiration to strike, I checked in with Paint Party Friday -- and found these two posts and images, with were in such synchronicity with my day:

I LOVE this art journal page by Debbie in Seattle at Art Life Now:

The colors perfectly say rainy day, gloomy mood, stay inside. The expression perfectly says -- back off, beware -- I'm cranky!  And the way Debbie did the journaling -- sort of like a ransom note, perfectly suits the image and feel .  I like the way Debbie just embraced how she was feeling, and celebrated it.

This evocative image is from Tammie Lee at Beauty Flows.
In Tammie's blog post, she shares a beautiful poem about how sadness is a part of life, and it's important to accept the tears, as well as the laughter.


Both of these posts made me think about not just accepting, but embracing all of life's ups and downs, highs and lows.  Without the lows, are we able to appreciate the highs?  Maybe Eve bit into the apple in the Garden of Eden because life was so perfect, it got boring.  I know I've had the experience of going somewhere on vacation that seems perfect.  But after a while, it's a little too hot, or too windy, or the sand gets into my bathing suit, or the ice melts too fast in my gin and tonic, and before you know it, there's something to complain about.  We humans must need the bad times to really appreciate the good times.  

Thinking about this reminded me of a conversation I had with Judy Shea this week. 

I was sharing my exciting news about StencilGirl, and she told me she had been approached to teach an online class but was worried about saying yes to the offer.  Judy is warm, supportive and oh-so talented.  I have no doubt that she will be an amazing teacher.  But she had doubts.  I told her that as long as I don't think I'm going to hurt anyone, my philosophy in life is to say "Yes I can," and figure out the details later.  (Thanks mom and dad, for instilling this confidence in me.)  I'm happy to say that after our conversation, Judy emailed me that she had accepted the offer.  I'm excited to be her first student!  Just check out her blog post with a step by step tutorial about image transfers.

After all of the blog visiting and ruminating, I decided to embrace my rainy day. 

I pulled out a lot of neutral ephemera - pages from an old dictionary, paper and this fun little garland from the "Yours Truly" collection by Glitz, which looked like rain drops to me.  I NEVER use neutrals, and decided to do this in part because of the current prompt for Fall Fearless & Fly.

 I randomly ripped and glued down the paper onto my art journal:

And knocked it all back with gesso:

 I scraped on some Raw Umber and Titanium Buff fluid acrylics, and stenciled in some diamonds:

Added some tree trunks from a Metro Arts stamp, foliage using vibrantly inky paper towels I saved from ART is You, some washi tape, a hand-made stencil, doodling, and voila.  The scallop border across the top is also from the Glitz collection.  

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment.  I read and love every single one.  Hearing from you means the world to me.

What are you embracing today?

Good to Grow!

I met many amazing people at Art is You, and will be telling more about them as weeks go on.  One of them is Mary Beth Shaw, a mixed media artist and founder of the company StencilGirl.  Although I wasn't able to take a class with Mary Beth, I really admired her work and loved her stencils.  One of the coolest things about them is that they are designed by artists for artists.  We talked a bit about my licensing work, and when I got home, I sent her some patterns I had created and ... YES! I am going to be a StencilGirl designer!  THANK YOU to my roommate, Judy Shea, who brought me down to the Art is You trunk show after dinner and introduced me to Mary Beth.

Stay tuned, and I will give my readers a first peek at the new line as soon as it is ready, and also a giveaway of one or more of them. 

This great news prompted this journal page yesterday.  It started out with the lettering on white card stock because I was thinking about Julie's and Nathalie's second floor challenge.  I ended up cutting the lettering out, and then creating this page in my journal.  Here were my steps:

• Use my own handwriting to write "I'm Good to Grow."  To do so, I used Joanne Sharpe's "thick it" technique;
• use spray inks through several stencils and then mush the colors around with some water;
• tear stems and flowers and circles from old dictionary pages to create the beginnings of flowers;
• make some colorful collage pages -- reds & pinks, and greens -- using Jane Davies' scribble paint techniques;
• cut up these papers to make petals, leaves, and hearts;
• glue it all down with my favorite adhesive these days: Elmer's art paste - thanks to Cindy Wunsch for that tip!;
• Stamp around the page with a hand carved stamp from Julie Balzer's class at CREATE;
• Doodle around the flowers, leaves, and rest of the page with white and black fluid acrylics and a teeny brush;
• more doodling with white and black gel pens.

So happy to memorialize another chance to grow!

SCRAPPING THE MUSIC:

I hope you're still with me because Scrapping the Music has two amazing prompts up on it's page.  I blogged about the first prompt here.  The second prompt is to make art around a song that brings out the rebel in you.  After thinking about a bunch of my favorites, like "Devil with the Blue Dress," "Honky Tonk Woman," and Parliament's "Give Up the Funk," I chose Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca."  I love the latin beat of this song, the combination of Spanish and English, and the lyrics -- the describe a sassy, devil may care, lady.  It's fun to pretend sometimes!  I hope you'll join in this fun challenge!

We're almost at the end of the first week of the second Fall Fearless & Fly challenge.  Check out the links at Artists in Blogland -- the work is amazing! 

Linking up with Paint Party Friday and Creative Everyday, as well as the links above!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Why I Love Where I Live

I never EVER thought I would say I like living in New Jersey.  I was a New York City kid.  Born and bred in Brooklyn, New York.  I went to high school in Manhattan (to the High School of Performing Arts, or the "Fame" school), and then lived in Manhattan through college and law school.  When I got married at 28 and moved to New Jersey, I didn't even have a driver's license!  For months I rode around on a bicycle like Elmira Gulch in the Wizard of Oz.  But then, winter came, it snowed, and I had to learn how to drive!

But I've come to love where I live, and here's why:

• I'm only 15 miles from New York - so I can go "home" anytime I want to.;
• Glen Ridge is small -- only around 6000 people.  Everyone knows everyone's business, which is sometimes what I don't like.  However when something bad happens, everyone comes together;
•  the town is very pretty -- many different styles of homes, wide sidewalks, pretty gardens;
• both of my daughters were born here;
• my block is great -- wonderful families and I love my house and garden;
• it's only one hour to our lake community, Pine Lake;
• we're only 20 minutes from Newark International Airport so traveling is very easy;
• we're 1 hour from the beach -- the Jersey Shore!;
• I'm less than one hour from all of my immediate family;
• the neighboring towns have great restaurants;
• I've made wonderful friends here.
• great parks, nearby hiking; fun town events, lots of trees, and my town is famous for its gas lamps!

An example of the town banding together - sadly:  Last Tuesday, a high school senior died of an accident.  The town has come together for his family and peers in the most loving, supportive way.  I did not know him, but I knew his stepsister and many of his classmates.  I created this artwork for his family:

The text uses lyrics by Linkin Park, which I found through Scrapping the Music's current challenge. 

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Linking up to List it Tuesday at Artsyville.  

Fall Fearless and Fly, Challenge 2!

Headline Prompt:  Taking a Chance:  When did you take a chance or a leap of faith?  How did it turn out?  What did you learn?
Color Prompt:  What color do you like least? Use it!
Quote Prompt:  "Don't refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase -- that's what wild geese are for." Anonymous

This challenge was extremely sensitive for me.  Twenty years ago, I made a very difficult decision to leave the life I had created for something very different.  It involved leaving my marriage, and changing my one year old daughter's life forever.  But it was something I had to do, not just for myself, but for her.  Once she was born, keeping up the pretense of a seemingly happy marriage became untenable.  My decision involved a huge leap of faith -- taking the chance that I would be able to create a new life for us, and the difficulties my daughter would face growing up a child of divorced parents would be outweighed by the benefit of having a brave and independent mother and a happy home infused with creativity.   Looking at my amazing daughter and all she is, I know I made the right decision.

This canvas memorializes my journey -- the three different houses represent the stages of single motherhood, a new marriage, and having my second child.  The heart in each one is my beautiful oldest daughter, whose life, laughter and love sustained me and carried me through.

Ronda Palazzari is the guest artist for this challenge at Artists in Blogland.  I hope you'll visit AIB.  Ronda's work is amazing!

And the winner of this watercolor from the last Fall Fearless challenge is... 

Deepa Gopal Sunil!  I have emailed Deepa for her snail mail address.  

Here's my giveaway for challenge #2!  If you would like to win this 6.5 x 9" watercolor:

- please comment below (and let me know you'd like the watercolor -- I don't want to send it to someone who doesn't really want it!).  For an extra chance to win, "like" my Facebook page.  For an extra, extra chance, follow my blog!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Also linking up to Art Journal Cafe (I used my pinky finger as a stamp!), Creative Every Day, and Mandarin Orange Monday!

Why Not Today?

Just a thought...

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

How will you seize the day?

Don't Be a Debbie Downer

Remember Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live?  No matter how happy the gathering, she had bad news or negative feelings to share and would bring down the mood of everyone around her.   I have come to realize that I'm a Debbie Downer when I come home from being away.  My husband and daughter are so happy to see me, but then I point out what wasn't done properly while I was away, and just kill the good feelings.

 

I'm really not sure what it's all about, psychologically, but I don't want to do it anymore!  True, my daughter might not have bathed while I was gone, or had any fresh fruits and vegetables, but in the grand scheme of things, so what?  True, she watched TV instead of doing her homework, and stayed up past her bedtime, but in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter?  My husband is supportive of my going on art retreats, or to hear the Dalai Lama speak.  He does his best, and even though it's not exactly how I would do things, in the end they are both safe and sound, and so excited to see me.  In my absence, my daughter made her lunch for school each day, got herself ready in the morning so she could get to school on time, and helped feed the animals.  So why not point out the positive?  I will try to improve this aspect of myself.  I hereby promise!

By this art journal page, may it be so!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

If you have a quality that you would like to exorcise, share it here, and by your commenting, may it be so!