"Inocente"

Red Heart by Inocente

Did you stay up to watch the Oscars last night?  I have always had a tradition of watching the show.  It actually all started when my mom was pregnant with me!  She tells the story of watching the awards while she was counting the minutes between contractions on that night some 30+ years ago!!  Okay, I'm showing my age!! :)  Back then the Academy Awards were on the end of March, and always fell close to my birthday.  Now they are on in February, but I still never miss them!

Last night I was so inspired and moved by "Inocente", the film that won the Oscar for best short documentary.

Oh how I love this story....




Amazing, isn't she!!  When the film directors accepted their award last night along with Inocente, filmmaker Sean Fine shared a passionate plea for unity among artists and unwavering support for the arts in our communities.  “This young lady…was homeless just a year ago. She’s an artist, and all of you are artists. And we feel like we need to start supporting the arts. They’re dying in our communities…We need to stand up and help girls like her be seen and heard.” 

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When he said this I wanted to run up on stage and just hug him, not that I was there to do so, but I applaud him nonetheless!!  What a wonderful show of support for the arts and I believe this includes support for the arts in schools as well!  As an art educator, of course this is a cause that is so very dear to my heart.  I believe with the education budget cuts and higher focus on the state tests, the arts, especially the visual arts it seems, are being done away with at a high rate!  In fact, when I left my teaching job to move to another city for my husband's new job and have our first child, the art program in my elementary school was done away with rather than finding a replacement art teacher!

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We must continue to fight this!  We must stand up and fight for the arts in our schools!  Parents need to be the voices for their children!  Teachers and parenets need to continue to advicate for the importance of the arts.  It has been proven time and again that the arts have a significant impact on the success of student performace in all areas of education.  Here is a great article on the importance of art in child development as well as in academic performace. 

I hope you are encouraged to make a pledge to support the arts!  Expose your kids to the theater, museums, classes, and artists that you may know.  Support them in their passions, especially if they are showing a love for creative pursuits. 

God is the ultimate Master Artist.  He was the first Creator and what is so incredible is that He instilled in us the ability and gift to create for Him!  I'm so very thankful for this!!

"Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand."

Isaiah 64:8

If you would like to see "Inocente" the documentary, it is on Itunes and can be found here!!

Happy creating,
Jennifer









Hello 2013!!!

 

Happy New Year!!!

 

 

 

From my family to yours, wishing you a wonderful, blessed and prosperous 2013!

 

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank.

We are going to put words on them ourselves.

The book is called Opportunity

and its first chapter is New Year's Day."

~  Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Merry Christmas!!!

Hoping you and yours have a wonderful holiday!! 

"But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'"
~ Luke 2:10-12

Autumn's Palette

Fun in the leaves!!
 

Now that we are approaching the end of September, Autumn seems to be finally on its way.  Here in Texas it stays quite hot into October, but this weekend we are looking forward to rain and cooler temperatures!  I can't wait!!  I just love this time of the year and all that comes with it!  The amazing colors alone make me so happy!  I've got my fall decorations out and I'm enjoying my new Scentsy Pumpkin warmer and yummy fall scents throughout my home! 

My daughter's cute Halloween Painting from PWaT last year!

The Painting With a Twist studio is even getting into the fall fun with Autumn paintings like this one I taught recently!

 

 

 

I've also been having fun playing in my art journal.  I've been wanting to start Art Journaling for a while now and I've finally jumped in.  I just found an old book at a resale shop and began painting pages for the backgrounds. 

 

 

 

For this page I just sketched on the book page words and all. I love the texture and interest the words in the background create!

 

 

Next I used my Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels to add some color.



 
Finally I used water and my paintbrush to "paint" the oil pastels creating the colors of the tree. I don't think I'm finished yet. I'd still like to add some leaves with different types of paper.

 



Oh, I'm so in the mood to create some fun fall pieces!!  I want to paint pumpkins, and leaves, and cute little trick or treaters!!  How about you?  Have you been bitten by the "fall" creative bug?

Happy creating,
Jennifer

Healing

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My One Little Word for this year has been "heal".  After a tough and tramatic 2011 with our family facing unemployment, then a big move, and a death in our family, I felt I needed some time this year to focus on healing, resting, nurturing my heart and being kind to myself. 




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One of the ways I've done this is to work on nurturing my creative soul.  I've gotten back to the basics and have been taking some wonderful online classes from Christy Tomlinson, Junelle Jacobson, Gritty Jane, and Jeanne Oliver.  I've been sketching and searching and playing and trying new things!  I've been allowing myself to rest and rediscover my loves and what inspires me.  I'm working on surrounding myself with other, like minded, kindred spirits who can love, support and encourage me and I them.




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I'm really looking forward to jumping back into my art making and creating now.  I feel like I'm ready to dive back in and create like hopefully never before!  I hope I will in turn continue to heal, grow, flourish, thrive, be strong in my life, and in turn encourage and nurture others!!

Do you have One Little Word that you've been processing, living and nurturing this year?  I'd love to hear about it!!

Happy creating!
♥ Jennifer




Summer Lovin'

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Summer is in full swing here at our house and boy do I wish this was my view!! :) We aren't at the beach, but the kids are home from school and we are trying to survive the hot Texas heat with fun activities to keep us cool.  It is nice in the evenings thankfully, and we've been able to grill and play on our new swing set!  Super fun!!!

I decided one thing to do this summer to keep us busy is to start doing some art journaling!  I'm altering an old book I picked up at the used book store and my kids are having fun with the Smash books from K&Company.  I found an awesome online class, Kidding Around 3, for them to take through Big Picture Classes that provides a journaling prompt daily.  They've been having a blast with it and it is a great way to get them creatively documenting their summer and practicing their writing skills!!  If you are interested in joining us, registration closes tonight at 10:00pm PDT, so hurry on over!!!

Are any of you avid art journalers?  I've been wanting to try my hand at this for awhile but have had trouble finding time.  How do you fit your art journaling in and still balance your other art creating?  Those of you with young kids at home for the summer, how are you keeping them busy so you can get some creative time in?  I'd love some ideas and tips!!

Happy creating,
Jenn

You Make Beautiful Things....

Wooden cross in the prayer garden at our church

Happy Belated Easter!  I hope your holiday was wonderful and an amazing celebration of Christ's special gift of love and saving grace!  Our weeks have been full and busy.  I can hardly believe we are already halfway through April!  My, how time truly flies... 

I've been super busy creating the past few weeks.  I had the privilege of doing my first "live" painting during the Easter services at our church last week.  What an exhilarating, scary, but amazing experience it was!!  It was most definitely all God!  I prayed He'd show up and He never let me down!  It usually takes many hours to complete one of my artworks and when I was first approached I was thinking there is no way I can do a piece during the 3 to 4 minutes of a worship song.  But shortly thereafter, the ideas starting rolling and I knew God was speaking and gently pushing me to step out of my comfort zone!

 I knew I'd have to do a lot of the background layered work before hand.  The idea was to create as I usually do with multi layers of paint and collage elements but then leave some dramatic finishing touches to do while painting live.  I had to work larger than I normally do which was a challenge in itself!  I decided to use two (one for each service) 40" x 60" canvases.  Here is a peek at my process:

First layer of paint; getting rid of that intimidating blank, white canvas!

More paint (white blended into the center)

Both canvases in my studio

Collage papers

Placing collage pieces

Using matte medium to glue collage pieces down



A closer look!

I use found papers, scrapbooking papers, tissue paper and what ever else I can get my hands on in my collage work! 



Layering more paint and design elements



Notice the darker elements are around the edges and the lighter elements are in the center.  There is a reason for that....!

More layering

Here I'm adding actual bible pages from an old bible as collage elements

I love to tear my collage pieces!

My next step was to create a mask in the shape of a cross.  To do this I just tore poster board and taped it down with painter's tape onto each canvas.

My last step was to paint over the crosses to make them less noticeable. I also painted the outlying areas of the canvases a mix of black, dark crimson and red. I payed close attention to the edges of the crosses, making sure they were painted well and made sure some of the darker colors blended off into the surrounding background.

Now I was ready to paint live at the Easter services!!  I gathered up my paint, brushes, some printing supplies and a small cup for water and put them all into a black box to set underneath the easel on stage. Here is what happened next.....

Our worship pastor chose the song "You Make Beautiful Things" by Gungor and put together a wonderful arrangement that actually gave me around 8 minutes on stage.  It worked beautifully!

The paintings illustrate the separation between our sin and the saving gift of eternal life that Christ provides us with through the cross.  I wrote the words death and sin on the cross before pulling it off and revealing the pure, clean, softer colors underneath.  Hopefully the paintings share the true meaning of Easter with each viewer!



Close up after revealing cross



 

Me with my painting!! :)

I still need to add a few finishing touches to the paintings.  I always see areas that I feel need more layering or something else added.  I think I'll add some of the words from the song lyrics as well!  I'll post photos of the finished piece soon.  I think one will be on display in the church for a bit and then I'll put it in my Etsy shop.  The other one has already been requested for purchase!  Super excited about that blessing!! :)