There were about 100 creative women at the Michaels Makers Summit and I wanted to get to know everyone. It was a whirlwind and that didn't happen. But there were many I did connect with. They made an impression even if the visit was short.
I thought about how that works. How and why does one connect with someone else you just met? One reason stood out to me - people shared their story. Sometimes I didn't even remember someone's name but I could describe them by the adventure, drama or funny experience they shared. It didn't have to be a big story it just had to be their story, something that happened in their life circle. Our stories help shape others stories. We remember them. Like these stories I heard this week... @phyllisadventures - who's works for whole foods and teaches kids to create (and inspired a young boy excitedly venture into cooking) and is taking her first solo trip down (or up) the coast after Michaels Makers Summit @gentrygygi - Her family watercolor business where they're all creative and she once traveled through my state and spontaneously stopped off at Missouri Star Quilt Company (near my town) and even though it was closed on Sunday just had to get out to walk around @ucreateblog - hearing her tell of her fave movies/shows and how when each one came up her eyes would light up and she'd say *that* was her very fave, so fun @melissmia - who loves her life and job of creating, traveling, having experiences all over and feels blessed that all of her loves (or at least heavy likes) came together @amyrobisondesign telling of her getting a new Shilouette and becoming a design contributor but seeing her amazing gift to be able to strike up a conversation with anyone, ask all kinds of questions and jumping right in with the sharing @kim_geiser_studios and her ready laugh, wanting to create poolside, her colorful bracelet and her awesome jewelry necklace stamped with "passion" that she seems to live by @idknowhowshedoesit - being so lovely, talking about her family, her name (Gloribell) being a combination of her mother and grandmother's names and sharing how certain brands send certain products (and @kim_geiser_studios getting them shipped to her house) that you'd never want to blog about @damasklove who shared her hiring story with HSN & American Crafts, how she works in the middle of the night, and seeing how she's a natural in front of the tv camera @hissyfit_inc - giving out "makers gonna make" felt patches and @blendingbybetty giving out pins, mine says "dreams", both making their little gifts themselves @crizza03 - how she encouraged Martha Forbes in class and helped set up her Instagram account (@theplaidlama) @prettyprovidenceblog - shared a story of someone she knows (she might not want me to say who) accidentally left their gun (conceal carry permit holder) in their bag as they went through airport security and ended up in jail @theartandsoulshop - being an admitted extrovert that was coming down with something and had to lay back (a hard thing for an extrovert) near the end and @idknowhowshedoesit, @thedesignconfidential, and my artist/christian friend for listening that first night to my story (the one I didn't intend to share and ended up sharing a few times) about Leila dying and learning what creativity means to me. So many more - @smiley_carolyn, @KsCraftShack etc etc etc but I must stop! All lovely women. See. Stories stick. They touch people. We remember them. So, share vulnerable. Share bold. Share funny. Share hard. Just SHARE YOUR STORY.
4 Comments
I had some ideas about how I thought the 50th Birthday Celebration would go but didn't know exactly. At first I thought I wanted to do 50 paintings of individual people. But, after seeing that you sent in more than one person per photo I changed it to 50 portraits or 50 faces in 50 days. (I said I'd be flexible.) That way I could paint couples or multiple people and still reach 50. I liked that change even though it wasn't my intention to begin with. So, I've finished 50 faces in 33 paintings. It's been a great challenge to do this. I've spent at least 125 hours painting these portraits. That's 12 and a half 10 hour days, over 2 work weeks, or painting day and night for a little over 5 days. I've done images I wouldn't have usually tried, I have images I can use for my portfolio, I've pushed myself to paint, and I got to celebrate with some fine people. Here is my last portrait for the celebration. I haven't done a self portrait in about 7 years. I don't much like to but I think I will every birthday, it's a great record. In the beginning I said that I wasn't giving the paintings to those who turned photos in. Actually, when I started I didn't know what I wanted to do with them. I just started and thought I'd figure out the details later. And, I've figured it out now. For those who participated and want, I will give everyone their painting with a couple requests. First, if you live far away and I have to mail the painting, go to my website here and pay for shipping. I'm doing a flat fee of $12.00. Your's might be less than that and other's will be more, this is so that I don't have to worry about a separate price for every single painting. This also saves me from spending a few hundred dollars on shipping; that wouldn't be much of a celebration for me to do that. If you don't want the portrait it won't hurt my feelings. I've been through some rough art critiques before so I'm pretty tough. Second, if you live near by, I invite you to my 50th Birthday Celebration to pick up your painting. It's an Open House type of celebration from 7-10 pm on Friday the 31st. (8567 NE Crouch Road) This way all the paintings are out of my studio in a quick time frame. Third, I'd like you to send a donation for a local Cameron charity, click here. I haven't decided between the women's shelter or the food pantry, or to split it. But, what we gather this week I will give. So, by Friday night you can make a donation ($25, $50, $75) here. I usually never sell a painting for less than $800 so this is actually a good deal. If you are totally strapped and can't make a donation the painting is still yours. If you didn't get a portrait but just enjoyed the journey and want to be part of the Celebration Donation you can help too. Just go to this link as well. So as the 50th Birthday Celebration comes to an end, I just have to say THANK YOU to all of you who were brave enough to send in photos and those of you who just liked seeing the new paintings. Either way, it's been a fun 50th birthday celebration for me. I hope it's been for you as well. Before you go you might want to check out this post. To continue the fun, there will be some collaborative, artsy experiences every Friday.
These are sisters. The photo I worked from wasn't the best and I think that the one girl on the left really had some teeth missing but I couldn't tell for sure. So, she got some teeth. Hope it's okay that I took creative license.
Nearing the end to the 50th Birthday Celebration. Tomorrow, I'll tell you how I'm going to wrap it up. Here's today's 50th Birthday portrait painting. Logan and Erica. I have a few things to fix on it but I'll do it when I get home. Having FHE at Leila and Sky's home right now. Hard to believe I finished this before 3 am. Nice.
Painting #27 for my 50th Birthday Celebration. The photo for this painting was sent in by Kathryn as a tribute to her friend who passed away this week after his battle with cancer. A thoughtful gesture and remembrance.
Here's today's 50th birthday celebration portrait. Dacia's darling baby. Loved doing it, some are so easy to paint.
Just to let everyone know, I haven't done the high res photos yet. It takes some work to do that and make it all the right color, etc. But, I will be doing that at some point then I'll send you the image. And I have some ideas about celebrating at the end but I'll tell you about that later. Time to upload images on to Shannon's Studio FB page. Read this post about how-to. 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.
Started late again with the portrait today. But it's done, minus Trudy. Sorry Trudy, I really wanted to do a male face since I haven't done any, that's why he won out. Trudy posted her photo on my Shannon Christensen Fine Art Facebook page if you want to see it.
Some of you are being a bit shy about uploading an image on Shannon's Studio FB page. Don't be. The worse thing to happen is that I don't get to it. That's it. So, read this post about how-to. My Sam sent this in. My portrait 8 of 50. The 50th birthday celebration goes on. Upload an image on Shannon's Studio FB page and read this post to be considered.
Here's yesterday's portrait a day 50th birthday celebration painting, posted this morning. You don't even want to know the kinds of hours I keep. A day means nothing to me. But, I try. I'll have to take another photo later, until then this one will have to suffice.
Here's today's painting, 3 of 50. Love this moment.
Also including a photo by photo of the paintings progress just for fun.Upload an image on Shannon's Studio FB page and read this post to be considered. Didn't think I should pull an all-nighter again so I started early. Though the night is still young so I reserve the right to change my mind. Here is today's portrait. Number 2 of 50. Does this count for 2 portraits? Upload an image on Shannon's Studio FB page and read this post to be considered.
I said I'd post a portrait everyday, except Sunday. Okay, I have to clarify something. What does a day mean? This is tricky. There's the calendar date that changes every midnight. But, for most of us the day starts when we get up and ends when we go to bed. And most people do that around a general time in the morning and at night. Except crazy artists. Well, at least this artist. I too judge my day by the time I get up until I go to bed. I just don't go to bed at the normally accepted time. So, while you are thinking that this is Friday since you're waking up, I'm still on Thursday because I haven't gone to bed yet. Technically in my mind I am posting the painting on Thursday. Make sense? I had appointments and meetings yesterday that took me away from home most of the day. Then I didn't actually get home until 10 and didn't start painting until midnight. I finished the first portrait at around 3. I'm thinking you shouldn't wait up to see the painting because some days will be like this for me. Well, quite a few days actually. I finally quit when I started to fall asleep with my paint brush in hand. Honestly, there were 3 adorable photos that I wanted to paint. (I got a couple of emails that the blog or FB didn't see.) I don't know how I'm going to deal with wanting to paint so many. Anyway, here's the portrait I started with. It's terrible lighting and not straight so I'll put up another one when I can take a daylight photo. I'm going to end my Thursday and go to sleep now for a few hours. Hope you enjoy the painting. 7/13/12 Update: Painting in the morning and after a couple of paint touch ups
Independence day has been filled with parades for a very long time for me. The marching bands are what the Boyfriend likes best but my favs are the floats. I'm delighted and it's almost like being a kid again. I had another chance to do a parade float this year. Part of me really enjoys it and another part doesn't. It's a great creative DIY outlet that's a lot of fun but the uncertainty of how to do it and if it will turn out is a challenge. Some people think it will come together automatically because you're a creative and that it's no big deal, whlie others think it isn't going to work out at all. In the process, you'll swing back and forth like a pendulum. There's a lot of people web searching this time of year for DIY float building info. Last year's 5 Parade Float Quick Tips (found here) has been viewed and reused. So, I thought I'd share 7 ideas about parade float designing. Parade Float Designing • 7 Quick TipsSince the float this year had a fish theme I thought I'd play that up with the tips. #1 Fish for the Big Picture You're likely doing this for an organization of some type. Think of their purposes for wanting the float. What do they hope for an outcome? Are they interested in the process and having a lot of people involved? Or is it an outreach in the community? Or is it a tradition of fun? Or is it to show a strong brand? Whatever the reason, you should understand it. This float was about involving people in the process, name recognition in the community, and a Christian message. People: We had about 40 people work on the float Recognition: Passing out info cards & candy during the parade Message: Free to be Fishers of Men - Bible verse used as the message #2 Fish for an Original IdeaIt all comes down to having an idea. Sometimes that can be hard to do. One tip is to look for inspiration to borrow and then make it your own. Here are 2 inspiration images that I found. I liked the idea of dots and stripes. I thought that would be easy for our group of varying ages to do. I also borrowed the color scheme of the group of Nassos' fish. Here's how our fish turned out. We made them out of paper plates, poster board, & paper mache. Another idea I borrowed was from Helen Friel's paper work of an underwater scene that displays jewelry. I took her small version and went up in scale by a lot. You can see that ours doesn't look like Helens but that you can see the similarity of the borrow. I used foam core (instead of plywood) so that we could have many young people involved in the cutting and painting. #3 Fish for the LoveYou're going to be with this idea awhile. Make sure you love it so that you can hang in there with it. Nothing says failure like hating an idea. #4 Fish for SolutionsThings just aren't going to go 100% your way. Have that in your head at the start so when it comes up you already knew it would. Listen to others ideas during the process. #5 Fish till the EndDon't give up. Sometimes things don't look like they're going to work out, only to be proved wrong. Stick with it. Creativity is often messy in the middle. #6 Fish for HarmonyWith a big group, you're likely to have a wide range of interest and skill levels. To make it look good and like everyone worked together keep a 1) limited color palette, 2) repetitive shapes, and 3) easy to accomplish tasks. #7 Fish for the Wow!Wow them in some way. Surprise them with something a little different. Make it stand out - in a good way. For this float I had the whale shoot water out of its spout. The crowd loved it especially since it was hot. I left an opening in the top of the whale and had one of my kids sit inside with buckets of water and a pool water shooter. You can see him trying it out on a passing friend. During the parade he was hidden from view. The water shot up about 15 feet in the air. It worked perfectly. Hope these tips help you in your parade float madness. I don't know if I'll be asked to do a float next year but if I do I'll read through my own notes as a reminder but until then we'll say good-bye to float building.
Did a little project. Don't let the word little fool you. I was asked to paint accent lines and leaves around a laser etched design of the Kansas City LDS Temple. On 15 gift boxes. In one night. Got them in the evening and finished at 4 in the morning. Yeah, that's how I paint. The boxes still need another layer of sealant but my part was done. Well, except that there are 15 more coming sometime soon. Though I don't think the turn around will be that much of a panic. I hope. Do you do projects from the heart, that your head says, "What?"
I'm surrounded by wonderful people. Last month was a Cultural Celebration that 3 of my kids participated in. Several adults had a very short amount of time to teach about 80 kids song and dance routines. No easy feat! They were to join about 3000 other kids in the performance so knowing the moves was extremely important. These people put in tons of time besides what they regularly do daily. When people do things like that you've just got to thank them. I couldn't think of a better way than sharing a "love note". It's a jar with little notes from all the kids who participated tucked inside. There were 4 people that I did 3 Love Note jars for (2 people are a couple). I'm always looking for gifts to give so I thought I'd share with you how to do it. This is adaptable to any occasion. Directions
It was actually super easy to put together. I know this because I bought the stuff 2 months ago and waited until an hour before I needed them to actually put them together. (I guess I like stress.) So, not only is it easy but it's quick too. Who can you give a Love Note to?
I'm not obsessed with Shatto Milk Company. Really. Though it might seem so since I've painted their packaging, buy their products (yum), my kids work there, they sell my prints, and we just had my daughter's wedding reception there. Other than that there is no connection for me. Well, except this last weekend I spent the day painting there for their Family Day on the Farm. Yeah, except for all of that, there is no obsession. Right? Anyway. Here is a slide show of the painting i did. I haven't painted like that, at a public event while people pass and talk while you paint, before. At Shatto they do a lot of farm related things that day and I was there to add a little something different to their farm. I thought it would be fun. And it was. I'd do something like that again. Do you have a company you obsess over? Click here for what I've learned and share from doing demosChildren's Charity Auction, Wings in the City, will benefit St. Louis' BJC Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Care program. The butterflies were unveiled in October 2010 and will emerge again in May 2011 to be auctioned off. There are over 50 of these giant butterflies that you can see here. Here's a photo just so you can get an idea of the size of these beauties. Artists used bits and pieces of maps, jewelry, gems, game pieces, beads, pennies, photos, hockey pucks, mirrors, buttons, legos, and mosaic tiles. A creative bunch. Here's a close up of Diane Katzman's piece. And there is a butterfly from Mary Englebreit Studios (she is the honorary artist for the event) that has already been sold for the children's charity benefit. Click the image below to see all of the other entries. Makes me want to get artsy with a butterfly. Or maybe just bid on one. Maybe you want to as well. What would you put on your butterfly? javascript:; I was wondering how Galleries were going to move forward with technology and develop new biz models to meet the changing ways that people move through life and leisure. American Art Collector is putting one way out there - Gallery Show Online. It says "September 2010" so I am assuming that it will change each month. And it represents many different Galleries from across the country. Very interesting. You go to their Gallery Shows Online main page, there are 22 shows to see. When you click on one it takes you to a window that opens with a flash of silhouettes with drinking glasses as if at a gallery opening. Also, it has the accompanying gallery exhibition background 'noise' . It's a surprise but it's not annoying because it quickly fades to silent so that you can see the art in solitude. I viewed a few of the "shows" and I think you might like it as I did. Enjoy. (Update: Links no longer work) javascript:; It was an exciting end to the workshops - A Youth Art Exhibition. The kids did great and got the experience of
personal art making to the culmination of public art sharing. Some of the youth even made sales on their artwork. We've seen those time lapse videos of plants growing from seed, seedling, to full grown plant in a matter of seconds. It's a fascinating peek into a slow process. Reality is that a plant takes time to grow. It also needs the cooperation of all the elements at play. Every member - seed, soil, sun, water - doing its part. Up until now, you've been the sole supporter of your seedling efforts of art exploration. The next step of The 10 Steps of an Emerging Art Collector is - Acquire Art AlliesThis week requires the involvement of others. Art Allies. People who will help tend your art ambitions. There are reasons why other's contributions will increase your intentions and be of benefit to them as well -
There are a few ways (and probably more) to do this. The basic pattern is
Tweet ItHave a Art Tweet Tuesday that involves tweeting the link of some art related event, article, or image. Short and tweet. Here's another - Art ExchangeSomething like a What-do-you-think-about-it Wednesday lunch bunch. This could be virtually or an actual lunch visit. Have everyone get 2-3 art images of styles they like. Tell who the artist is and why they like it. Summed up. Yet another - Blog SwapDo a Blog Swap Saturday email exchange. Everyone can find 1-2 blogs (or websites) that have to do with an artist or art and pass it along to the group. Simple. The InviteI've even tried to make it a little easier for you by including text for the invite. I'm on a quest for my inner art muse (or geek, freak, heart, smarts, etc.) As in collecting art. And I would be pleased if you joined me and a few others on this exciting art adventure. Here is what it would entail - (insert your plan) Let me know if you have any latent art ambitions that can become part of our group. Art Journal Write it down -
Date Night Idea- Invite friends over for French bread, fruit and cheese. They bring cheese and an art book they are intrigued by. Share talking about the artists and art. And the food. Tweet me what your group of art addicts are up to @studiogal I am participating in the BlogHer 2010 Art Auction as a contributing artist. Each artist was given a blog post from one of the finalists of the Voices of the Year. I was given Jessica Bern of BernThis.com's blog post as the inspiration for the artwork. (The painting will be auctioned off - in a couple of weeks online - to raise money for the Gulf Area.) Here is a part of the post I was assigned. "I wish there was a “Biggest Loser” for bloggers. I would love to have Jillian and Bob hanging around my house day after day yelling at me: ...WRITE!!! DO YOU WANT TO SUCCEED?!! DO YOU?!!! THIS ISN’T A GAME, THIS IS YOUR LIFE!!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!!! Every day, I’d go and get “weighed” in except I wouldn’t be judged by the pounds lossed but by my number of page views and how many people retweeted me on a daily basis." There were several considerations I have when doing a project like this. First, the art composition has to connect with the content (Jessica's blog) while still being able to connect with others (art collectors.) Then, the art has to be in the same vein as the article. This was interesting for me because Jessica is a humor blogger. I am not a humor painter. So it was a challenge. You can't force funny, it just doesn't work. And to force a funny painting is even tricker, especially so on your first time. So I didn't go there. Instead I went for playful, along the same line as funny. And finally, I wanted to add my own genre to the artwork, which stories, symbols or secrets. Jessica supplied the story. And here is some of the symbolism - Let's start with Jessica herself. I didn't want to be too literal while including her but I definitely wanted to have her in there. So I went with her name as she does in her blog - Bern This. There is a match and the burned edge of the paper. She also uses bread on her website as her logomark so the burned edge of the paper is a bread shape.
Then there's Jillian and Bob from The Biggest Losers. I used plumb bob's to represent them - weighted, finding center, 'bob". Also, in the post there is reference to their personalities. For Jillian, Jessica wrote that she would "look me deep in the eyes and whisper in her therapy voice..." representing a calming influence. Which led me to leave her in a calm, motionless position. And she writes for Bob, "...he tends to express himself better physically..." so it made sense to me to put him in motion. There are the numbers for the weight that goes down and the page views and retweets that go up. The numbers are all under 365 (except the year 2010) to represent the days of the year. The idea being that there needs to be a consistent, even daily, effort to writing or working on any goal. And the white numbers being the potential of the writing days ahead. And the magnetic, refrigerator numbers and checkerboard pattern representing the playful, game-like, fun nature of humor writing about life. There are other little things but the real secrets to this painting are the ones other's will 'read' into it and the view that they'll disclose. Feel free to share your secrets about the painting. Update: Watch for the speed video of this painting coming soon. |
Shannon's Studio
Archives
March 2023
|