hope you all had a bountiful, and wonderful thanksgiving! my celebration with family and friends was incredibly awesome and fun and now my weekend is filled not only with an abundance of delicious left overs but of painting as well. painting of hallways & bedrooms.

when my boyfriend first left me, i couldn't stand to be in my home. everywhere i turned i was haunted with memories of him. it was so bad that i was seriously considering moving to colorado near a friend. i endlessly quizzed her about real estate, jobs, schools, even colleges for months. i was so close to pulling up stakes here, but then i started sprucing up my overgrown front yard, fixing the picket fence, placing planters full of beautiful flowers and vegetables on my porch. then i started doing little things around the interior of my home, then painting. and now i have to tell you with all this painting and sprucing up i am in a whole new state of mind! it feels so good to have things looking clean and new! and those agonizing memories are now all in the past where they belong and i am working towards the future, building my dreams in so many ways!!

amazing what a coat or two of paint, along with self determination to live a grander life will do for your spirit!!

a few things i am grateful for: my beautiful children and pets, my incredible family and friends, all the lovely people who stop by and read my blog and look at my website, my art, veggie burgers, all my new art friends, nature, lazaris, the opportunity to grow and expand and love even deeper, chai lattes, comedies, good health, books, laughter and fun times!! I am truly blessed!! Thank you!

"gratitude incorporates both the heart and mind, and instantly paves the shortest road to happiness"

~Alan Cohen~

Chapter 6...how to earn and manage money

this chapter covered A LOT from earning and managing your money to diversifying your talents to pricing your work. i will definitely be slowly rereading this chapter as it really brought up so many emotions for me. it frightened me when she talked about no artist will ever make it just selling their art in a gallery and highly recommended getting a day job you like, preferably in the field of art. i also felt regret that this book wasn't around when i started all this, cuz just maybe i might have gone about this all differently. but then later on i felt enlightened and excited, knowing now that i need to adjust my course.

i keep telling myself that my past was my path to where i am today...no regrets just go forward with all this new information and start making better choices and decisions for myself. i am who i am today because of my past and i REALLY like who i am, the art work i am creating and my life! i feel extremely blessed to have had all the experiences/events/ordeals/struggles/adventures in my life... they've shaped and guided me! no regrets!

harley

HA! I actually made my deadline for harley last night and to boot i finished jenna as well! ohhh yeah...just high fived myself!!

i'm actually very happy with the way harley turned out, considering the obscure photo i worked from. with few details to work with, i started out by using the dirty end of a blending stick as a paintbrush to lay down pure tone. i then gradually built up the dark tones, making it velvety, adding fur details as i went. constantly going back and reworking it as i did both my mirror and camera check.

as i look at jenna now, there are a few minor touch ups i want to do before i call it complete. that's a whole other subject...when is a piece considered finished? when i look at some older drawings i have to resist the urge to go back in and do some touch up work. this is the big problem with being a perfectionist... at least in this area of my life! i scrutinize my drawings to death!

tonight i'm off to a Lazaris seminar... so excited to be going! and besides two soccer games i am hoping to get in a lot of drawing...the ideas and inspiration are just flowing for me right now, so i wanna stay in this groove as long as possible!

have a happy and creative weekend!

weekend update!

this is what a geek i am...i've been waiting excitedly for weeks to go to the show above, the core: art & design of the torso, because a few artists who's blog i follow, taken an e-course with, or have purchased their art work lately were all there in one place...how could i not go!! as i pounced on each artist ( christine mason miller, marisa haedika and pixie campbell) individually last saturday evening, i got to talk with (gush over) them regarding their art and blogs! They were all so incredibly nice, authentic and fun to talk with...now if i can only summon that kind of courage and enthusiasm when approaching potential galleries, there will be no stopping me!

besides stalking fellow artists over the weekend i also got in a lot of drawing. i actually finished jenna's hat, so have just a bit more to do on her face and background. i wanna include her as one of my entries for a competition on myartspace. speaking of which, i got some mind-blowing news over the weekend: We have added an image from your recent work on myartspace to our front page media window which shows interesting work from selective artists. We want to highlight excellent work such as yours on the site and the media window is a great vehicle for that. Congratulations! Less than 5% of all artists on myartspace get featured!! isn't that thrilling news?!! my heart just fluttered when i read it and then, i have to admit, i cried when i saw i was on the front page, cuz this means i am well on my way to achieving the success i have been chasing after for more years than i care to say!

for the next couple of days i'll be finishing up a challenging commission piece as the photo i got was so old that it's basically just a blur, so i had to fill in all the details. surprisingly it's turning out quite nice...i'll share it with you when i complete it.

until then have a creative and fun week!

Let's face it, no one chooses to be an artist for the money...you keep at it because you are driven to create and can't imagine doing anything else with your life. For better or worse, you know this is where you belong.

~Jackie Battenfield~