Creative Friday #14 - Sharing My Journey As An Artist

It's Friday and you know what that means - it's time for Creative Friday! Today I am sharing the story of my journey as an artist. The road hasn't always been smooth and I could have given up but I didn't - I am stubborn and stuck with it.

I was in 6th grade and it was art day. Now let me tell you I loved art - my schoolwork was always covered in doodles. So today was going to be a good day. My class got to art and the teacher gave us an assignment of making a collage using the different materials she had on hand. I really enjoyed it until...

Until the teacher came around and picking up mine and a boy's collage, she very snidely said, "I like boys' art better because they use brighter colors than girls do". On another occasion, she attacked my environmental poster, making fun of it (my theme was "Trees Need To Breathe Too"). I came to dislike art day and especially that teacher.

From my covered bridge painting

Fast forward to high school. I was in a crafts class. Now let me tell you, this teacher knew how to encourage her students. I loved her. So much so, when she told me I should take Art so I could learn the basics, I did although I didn't really want to (previous bad experience). Unfortunately, Art was a blowoff class and the teacher was one with little imagination. He made fun of my "Butterfly Dragon" because that is not how dragons looked. Sigh.

"Don't Wake The Dragon" I just had fun with this one!

I became convinced I'd never be a good artist but I could be good at crafts. I made wooden Christmas ornaments and other wood things and it was fun. And yet, something burned within me. I wanted more. I didn't want to just copy someone else's design - I wanted to paint my own. I now know God was nudging me to become who He created me to be - an artist.

Croquet Holder from Trash

Dog Art On A Cart

My mom passed away when I was forty and something just snapped in me. I wasn't going to put off the things I'd always wanted to learn anymore. I took horseback lessons (such joy!) and then decided to try watercolor classes. Thus began my journey into becoming an artist.

"Garden Wagon" watercolor

I still had poor teachers that pushed their styles instead of helping me develop mine.

I really don't like this painting. This is one where I had to do what the teacher did and when I deviated from hers (what can I say -I didn't want a carbon copy of hers),  she got mad at me. So frustrating!

Then one day, a friend told me about a new art school that had opened up near me. "You should go try them out", she told me. Why not? I thought, so I called and set up a time to go talk to the owner. Best.thing. ever. John was encouraging and positive and completely put me at my ease. Finally through his teaching, I felt confident enough to call myself an artist.

"Midnight's Journey" First painting I did without tracing any images just
drew with paint. I was so scared but my teacher told me I could do it!
And guess what? I did!

Which brings me to now. What's next? It's a little scary thinking about working to become a thriving artist. But God is faithful and has put a wonderful mentoring group in front of me. It is just what I need at this stage. I'm excited even if a little afraid. (What if I fail?)

"Morning Meditation" I love the suggestion of this one -
meeting up with God in the stillness of a misty morning.

At the same time, wonderful KariAnne over at Thistlewood Farms invited me to be part of her book launch team #SoCloseToAmazing.  In it, there's a quote that has spoken volumes to me.

I'm not alone! God's got this. He's been leading me this whole journey: the mean teachers, the ones who didn't have the vision to teach beyond their style, the gifted, talented, and encouraging one who taught me to how to be an artist, and now this artist mentoring group. (btw - I did learn from each one in spite of bad teaching styles - well, except for that 6th grade teacher). I finally feel I'm on the right path and can truly become the artist God created me to be.

"Pushing Up Daisies" 

Here's to the next chapter in my journey. Tin Roof Studio is coming along nicely and will be ready by the end of the year. Then with God walking along with me, I will take the next step and then the next and the next.

Tin Roof Studio

And best of all? There's no failure - just lessons to be learned.

Thanks for reading about my journey. Next week, I'll have a painting to share with you.

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Quick Projects Around the Farm

We headed to the farm on Thursday to check on the bees and water plants.

I am happy to report the bees are doing well...it looks like new bees have hatched and all is going as it should.  And the plants are thriving and blooming (yay).

I ended up not having to water - a storm blew in Thursday evening and we got an inch of rain. Afterwards the weather was just gorgeous with perfect temperatures! And check out the sunset - isn't it so pretty with the sun gilding the edges of the clouds?

The next morning dawned sunny and cool The mowing got done,

 And I planted plants in the new front bed in front of the guest room. Looking forward to those growing and softening the edges of the rain drain.

I placed the little tractor in the flowerbed - when the plants grow up around it, it will look so adorable among them!

I also got a couple of smaller projects done.

One of them was redoing the small metal table we use out on the back patio. I'd painted it yellow a couple of years ago. Here's what it looked like shortly after I painted it:

But now the paint was starting to peel and I was rather tired of the bright yellow. It didn't go with anything I had.

This time I painted it red. Love the way it turned out! hm, I forgot to take a picture of it.

I put the tiered cart with dog art in place of the school desk on the back porch (it looks great there). Oops, I forgot to take a picture of it in it's new spot. Blogging fail again!

The next project I took plenty of pictures of - The telephone junction box stuck out like a sore thumb along the garage wall. (I guess the electric meter isn't all that pretty either but it doesn't have a pole going down into the flowerbed). What can I use to hide it?

Let's see...I have several old fence pickets; I have a new Ryobi circular saw; I have Bruce to show me how to use the little circular saw. Sounds like I have everything I need! So with Bruce's guidance, I cut supports and the pickets to size. Then Bruce used his new Kreg pocket jig to put the supports together and I nailed the pickets to them.

An old garden fork head screwed into the pickets hold my cute chalkboard sign I picked up in Canton.

Isn't it wonderful? I like how it hides the telephone box and gives the flowerbed a focal point.

(I still need to put the supports on so it will stand up straight. )

Plus, I got good practice using my circular saw!

Soon it was time to head back to the city. But that's ok. The kids were taking me out for Mother's Day Saturday night and we were honoring my mother-in-law on Sunday.

I'll see you soon, sweet B Farm!

Linking up here:
Vintage Charm Party
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Creative Friday #11: Dog Art On A Cart

I've been behind on my Creative Friday posts...been doing a lot but nothing worth blogging about. Today, however, I have a makeover for you I think you'll like!

Once upon a time (last year), I found a metal tiered cart at Canton Trade Days. I paid $12 for it which was a bargain considering most I've found have been $35 and up. It had been painted an ugly mustard yellow color and they painted over the rust plus the chrome legs. (Can you say a bad paint job?)

It's been sitting in the garage waiting to be made over - last year we had a very rainy and cool spring (every time I wanted to work on it, it rained) and summer was too hot. Then other projects took over and it languished.

Finally, I pulled it out this past weekend so I could work on it. I sanded it to get rid of the raised areas caused by rust, flipped it over and sanded the underside, then I took paint stripper and slathered it on. Yuck -  stinky, gloopy mess. But the mustard yellow is gone.

I used aluminum foil and vinegar to tackle the rust on the legs - the rust was pretty bad as you can see.

It took a lot off although I wasn't able to get rid of all the rust stains. 

And amazingly the red factory finish didn't come off. It's a bit faded and distressed with pocking from the rust but I like it so I'm not going to repaint it and make it shiny and new looking. 

That done, it was time to give it some (more) character. I wanted a cute graphic so using a graphic dog advertisement I saw on Pinterest,

source

and my dogs as models I came up with my own take of a dog ad.

"Good boy, Buddy!"

"Look up here, Herbie"

A quick sketch gives me my image for the dog ad:

Using carbon paper, I traced the words and image onto the cart

traced the lines with a black paint pen,

and started painting. Here it's close to being finished- just need to add details:

 After the paint dried, I went back to add details. Where the paint looks more black, it is actually still wet.

After it was dry, I added a clear coat of spray paint on all parts.

I'll be taking it to the farm this week to use out on the porch. I love the faded look of the red paint with the distressed areas - then there's the border collie/hot dog art.

Too cute!

Buddy and Herbie approve!

"Now, where's our hot dog?"

I'm sharing here:
Vintage Charm Party
Coastal Charm Show and Share
Make It Pretty Monday
Talk of the Town