I made the call for contents of your purse on my Shannon's Studio Facebook page at the beginning of the week. (You should really "like" it and be a part of it.) Several people commented and many left a list. That's what I was looking for. It's part of a larger project that I'll talk about later but I needed to post this even though it's not done. 

This project is taking waaaaaay longer than I expected. I've been working on it all day and I started with the yesterday. I know it doesn't seem like much but believe me it is. 

You'll see by the text it's called, "Mysteries of a Mom Purse". It's a page with a flap and this is what it looks like closed.

And this is what it looks like opened. I took all the lists and tried to put everything listed into the drawing. I didn't have pepper spray and for the life of me could not find gum or hand sanitizer in our house, which I know we have. I find enough gum smashed into the floor. And at this very moment I realized I didn't put in the diaper. I've carried a diaper in my bag for so many years. I will remedy that. 

We used to call one of my purses, "the black hole" because it was so big and held so much stuff. I've since downsized since I don't have babies. Now, I need to do a count of what's in there. 

This is a close up of the front flap where I'm listing the people who contributed. (I just need to add Wade's name since he suggested 'weapons' if he had a purse.) I asked for their permission to use their names though they didn't know why. I may change it up a bit but this is the general idea. Thanks to all my Free-for-all-Friday friends you'll have to check what I added from your list. 

If you want to be part of the collaborative art projects then check in at the beginning of the week (monday or tuesday here or at Shannon's Studio FB page) to see what I'm looking for and check back Friday. It's that easy. And fun. 

Here's Free-for-all-Friday on Saturday. I didn't finish last night because I dated the Boyfriend instead. Hey, I have priorities. What I did realize is that I have to start FFAF on Monday otherwise life and dates happen. So, on Monday or Tuesday I'll post info for FFAF, that way I can work on it during the week and not wait until Friday. Have to learn as we go but I think that sounds like a good plan.

This is a painting that was started Thursday night at a meeting in which I spoke about education. In my mind, education is part of a larger formula...

Education is wonderful but put it with the addition of Experience and Enlightenment then you really have something powerful. 

Some of the ladies and girls added words they associated with Education. Then I added the words that some of you gave me online Friday. (Dang it! I just saw I misspelled humility. I do that all the time.) There you have it, our collaborative Free-for-all-Friday art project. 

Next weeks project - I need to know what's in your purse. 

Free-for-all-Friday tomorrow but you have to tell me what's in your purse today!

Free-for-all-Friday is here early this week. With a little help. I've wanted to try out what another painter does. He's Dave DeVries and he runs Monster Engine. He takes children's drawings and turns them into paintings. He asks kids to make monsters and then takes it to another artistic level. I'm not into monsters but love'd the transformative idea. To see what I mean here's some of his work.

Well, you can see where I'm going with this. One mom sent in her kid's drawings this week after I asked. I didn't ask for monsters because I didn't want to do that.  I didn't know what I'd get or how I'd do any transformation. I figured I'd just see what happened. That's what Free-for-all-Friday is all about - collaborative experimentation. This is nothing like I usually do but here you go... Eliza & my painting.

When I saw Eliza's drawing I just loved it. (Thanks Eliza for letting me experiment with your artwork.) It was perfect on it's own but I was excited to try this transformation out. I kept faithful to her drawing but added color and a story. I call the painting Me & the Moon - Our Midnight Celebration. Since I just ended my 50th birthday celebration last week this just seemed fitting. The photo's a little dark since it wasn't that light out this morning when I took it.

I kept the same dark color palette DeVries uses. The only thing I wish I did differently was to put a face on that moon. Which I leave the right to go back and do. This doesn't look like anything I normally do but it was such fun. I may have to try this again sometime. Do you think I should?

I got this photo early in the 50th Birthday Celebration and it surprised me that this one was sent in. It's not a high quality photo - faded and out of focus. Just a snap shot really but looking at it makes me smile because she loves it despite what it isn't. It makes me think of those moments when love is really good, despite what life is or isn't. And it's usually not the moments you think they're going to be that make you cherish them. So, I wanted to do this one even though I knew it would be hard to do, because I know that feeling.

Since it was a hard photo to work from I decided to make it a miniature. It's about 2" x 2". It makes it a little easier to deal with when there's a lack of clear detail. I don't think I've ever painted this small, and I've even tweaked it a little after this photo. But, this is the photo I'm posting until I take the for real photos of the paintings. 

50th Birthday Celebration • 50 Portraits in 50 Days. Painting 26.

50th Celebration portraits, here it is. 

This painting is from a photo I didn't even know was sent in. I didn't find it until I went looking for another one and stumbled upon it. I've been sent photos in a lot of different places and for whatever reason I didn't see this. I think this is such a cute one. It's pretty old, from a couple that was married 40 years ago, I think. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary last week. Being married that long you simple hardly remember a life without your spouse, at least for me. Anyway, it's the 22nd painting.

Oh, and apologizes for not posting a painting yesterday. It's not that I didn't paint. I did. I just didn't paint any portraits. I did the rest of the 17 temple box accents that I needed to finish. That story is here. 

Here's today's 50 portraits in 50 days. 

Here's today's portrait. It's the Boyfriend. I couldn't resist when he sent it in. I'm crazy about him and he's just so handsome!