Urban Craft Uprising - A creative Jugernaught

As I get ready for this weekends extravaganza of creative goodness. I started counting all that I have done since September to get ready for this opportunity.

• Paintings - 50 finished + one commission & two gift paintings = 53
• Jewelry - 44 prayer flag necklaces
• Pins - 25 for UCU Swag giveaways + 30 buttons + 40 zippity-doo-daa's = 105
• Sketchbooks - 1.5 in progress

So in a few months I produced 203.5 creative moments in my life... a blessing - OF COURSE! I adore my soul sister in creativity - Darcie! I can't wait for this weekend and hope to come home with just memories & some pocket money (hee hee)!

Urban Craft Uprising - check it out! SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISANS & SUPER COOL HOLIDAY GIFTS!

www.urbancraftuprising.com

Art is cool... live with it!

A rainbow of leaves in Fall

My lovely sister-in-law doesn't believe we have fall leaves in Rainy Seattle. Wow - do we ever this year. It has been a great year for amazing color. I went on quite a few walks with little man and snapped photos. I had the thought of trying to find the entire rainbow in leaf color. Enjoy!

Walking the Labyrinth

This year has been such an amazing year of spiritual growth for me. Do in no small part to my labyrinth devotional. I have been walking a beautiful labyrinth at St. George Episcopal Church in Maple Valley weekly since early spring. It has expanded my creative life and helped me leap my creativity into high gear.

My practice usually includes praying with a question as I start walking toward the center. I feel the Holy Spirit surround me and capture the answer to my question. I love spending time in the center in peace. As I head back out from the center I pray in thanksgiving and for my family and friends.

As it gets cold and wet I find I am trying to fit it in only when it is dry and sunny…. Then I had to walk when it was wet. Yikes – harder to not rush through and get back in the car.

Then I thought of Mary, yep the “on the donkey “Mary, a question came to me what was her path like? I found myself slowing down and pondering her path, I even began to hum Silent Night.

I will bring this walking meditation into all my holiday preparations and celebrations. It is a great pause in the swirl of the holiday season.

The If Project

"What If …. There was something that someone could have said or done to have helped you that may have prevented you from getting where you are now, what would it have been?"

A simple question asked to a group of inmates in a Washington women’s prison. Answered 240 times in essay form at theifproject.com. I heard from the co-founder and a graduate of the program tonight at St. George’s Episcopal Church.

It was an eye-opening experience. Seeing women who look like me, locked away, who have never been asked - how did you get here, what advice to you have for children, what would have made you path different? What if?

As I listened to these fabulous women speak, I thought about my own life, what if my path wasn’t as supported, what if I was not raised in the bedrock of my family, but instead on shakier ground. What if I had not married a kind, gentle and loving man? What if?

I was humbled by their stories and by their essays – what if? Please take time to look at the website www.theifproject.com. I hope to do some volunteer work with them soon.

The thing both Kim & Miss B came back to – was to listen to children, come along side and support them as a caring adult, show love, honest true love.

27 paintings varnished today

WOOP WOOP! I spent a fabulous painting day yesterday... at my dear friend, Darcie's home. We had a flurry of girls getting ready for overnights and homecoming. We set up for the day in the dining room and allowed creativity to blossom as we painted the day away.

As we get ready for UCU we needed to continue to produce paintings at a quick clip. We enjoyed our day. Today I varnished 27 paintings, put soup on for dinner, watched the Seahawks win and went to church! Wow it sounds like a lot and it was, but I feel great. As you can see, I had to use every available surface to dry these footies.

FREEMONT SUNDAY MARKET & MISSING CALENDARS

Darcie & I will be at Freemont Sunday Market sharing our wares. Yesterday we prepared about 50 substrates each for UCU & market season. It is refreshing to see a bunch of untouched canvases ready to splash paint on. We are working hard and loving it.

This is the thing - whenever you get moving on a project and start feeling really great about your progress - isn't it strange how life kind of balances out that excitement with HORROR? I have lost my daily planner and am totally unprepared for life without it. I have ripped apart a few places in my house, car, Jack's toys, and I am at a loss.

I am embarking on a Google calendar - I have friends who do their meal planning, family schedule & all calendarie things on Google. Pray for me... I am not the best at this I actually prayed this morning for guidance through this process (I am seriously concerned). I am also figuring out how to FLY with an electronic calendar.

Urban Craft Uprising

Woo Hoo! We did it - we are showing at Urban Craft Uprising urbancraftuprising.blogspot.com,

Yeah - Darcie!

Painting for Peace

St. George Episcopal Church is hosting an International Day of Peace Paint Out on September 21 from 9-4 pm at our Labyrinth. Come and bring your creative supplies (including works surface & chair), lunch and creative juices. Be inspired by thoughts of peace, labyrinth walkers & our cathedral of trees. We are located at 24219 Witte Rd SE, Maple Valley, directly across from the Lake Wilderness Elementary School.

The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") provides an opportunity for
individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on
a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to
coincide with the opening of the General Assembly.

May Peace Prevail On Earth

www.stgeorgemv.org

Georgetown Farmers Market

How can you not be inspired to eat local when you see this amazing bounty stacked up.
A detailed image of our booth
Woo Hoo it was a fun day.
Rugs & paintings and labyrinths... Oh my!

We are so excited to hit the Farmer's Market scene. Darcie Saunders & I are partnering for a few shows and loving it.

One of my rugs! It is sold... I started it as an Olympic Challenge. Could I hook this larger rug in two weeks of watching the Winter Olympics on tv... the answer - nope, but close! It took me three.

Part of the 30 for 30 (30 square feet of painting in 30 days) Love it's Seattle Vibe!

A domino necklace...

3 Little Birds... Painted on a cupboard door. I hooked some vintage buttons to it around the frame.

It is all about creating for me - so here are a few pictures of my latest stuff & some oldies but goodies!

Workshops ~ South Hill Studio Fall 2010

Loose & Juicy Workshops

(water media – acrylics, watercolors or inks)

253.347.3036 cole@woohoocreative.com

@ South Hill Studio 14206 86^th Ave E Puyallup, WA 98373

Tuesday’s 10 am – 3 pm $20 bring your lunch

Create your own Stamps Sept 14 – Foam, carving, & found objects. A day of making art to reuse again and again. Time to play!

Mask Making Sept 28 - Stencils, masks and using them in layers to create depth and interest in your paintings

Frisket Oct 12 - A chance to work with it in a new ways. I love to work with it in layers and then layers by using many tools to apply it .

Spraying Paint Oct 26 - Oh Yeah – it’s a party. Use stencils and masks to create a great looking and interesting forms and shapes in your work.

30-4-30

A fellow artist (Darcie) and I decided to do something drastic to get ready for a summer of creativity... 30 sq. feet of painting in 30 days. These are the pictures of getting ready for the project. I am now done and loved the experience! BTW - 30 is a lot.

The process of getting ready -

1 - Started with large lumber sheets

2 - Cut them down to 1 ft square & sanded them

3 - Covered with two coats of Golden's GAC 100

4 - Then we got to painting

SUM OTHER ONESIES! YO!

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy Onesies!

Tagging a Onesie! Baby Bling

I started with a blank onesie, Tulip Fabric Spray Paints and various masks (hand cut craft foam, a flower taken apart, peace sign craft) I also put a layer of mat board (I had it laying around) inside the onesie to protect the back side

Lay out the masks to keep the whites

I start with my lightest color & work with quick sweeping action to get an even coat

I sprayed this diagonally with a rainbow brite theme. If your spray lifts one of your masks just skooch it back in place

I removed the masks gingerly while still wet and flipped them onto my journal and took prints with the paint left on the mask... so the mask became a stamp. If using a acrylic mask you can flip that onto another onesie for a positive print. Another variation can be achieved if you move the mask once you spray one color - move your mask - then spray another color. You should have a great image in a new color!

Have fun creating... and yes I did this and another onesie in 15 minutes... not including dry time!

Glitter

Wouldn't the world be a happier place with more glitter in the world? I just found a glitter pen (at Fred Myers - it is an elmers pen). I played around with it and loved the look. I also have quite a few loose glitters that I have mixed with gloss gel medium to keep it a little cleaner in the studio. This is a great trick for glitter fests with the kid-lets.

Spend 15 minutes creating today!

Transparent Love

Sunday I went to Dan Smith and saw a two-hour demo by Traci Bautista! Wow - it was amazing seeing her in person. I have been a fan of her book, Collage Unleashed, for years. Yes - I have a tiny crush on her!

This morning I ran up to my studio first thing and started to create. I had a couple of artist trading cards I had been working on and transparencies from my sketchbooks & found out something that worked great.

1. Start with one of your original sketches from a sketchbook. Make a transparency copy (I went to Office Depot & copied about 10 books worth of sketches).
2. I cut out one specific sketch & used oil paint markers to color the back of the transparency.
3. I used my sewing machine to attach it to my artist trading card.

I have used transparencies in the past but didn't love the results with them strait over a textured background. I love it with the pop of oil paint marker color behind the black sketch lines of the transparencies above! Woop!

Thank you Traci for the inspiration and new tips. Dive in and spend 15 minutes creating.

I'm Back!

Hello ~ I have been trying to do it all... and doing none of it well! I know no one else has this problem.

So what changed - Baby Boy (now almost two) started sleeping through the night, I met some fabulous Mom's (Go RCC Mops) & one of them introduced me to the FlyLady! Check her out... She teaches you how to FLY by cleaning and organizing your home to make it easier to live.

She helps you bite off a little at a time, so you can change your space in small ways that make a huge difference. I have moved 240 pounds of stuff out of my house in the month of March. Literally - doing organization 15 minutes at a time (with the loving help of my Momma!)

I am FLYing to Create. In honor of how I like to learn & the FLY principles - I am using this blog to provide you with small (less then five steps) bite-sized projects to get you in the studio & painting! WOOP! Stay tuned...