Countdown to CREATE in Rosemont Illinois

I am really really looking forward to the CREATE art retreat in mid-August!  It has always been a dream of mine to go to an art retreat and be creative for days and days with other creatives.  When I first heard about the retreat I didn’t seriously consider attending but through a wonderful series of coincidences I am able to go!  I am going to try out as many new techniques as I can–who knows?? maybe I still haven’t found my passion.  I love paper art, mixed media art, bead stringing, embellishing, bead weaving, paint—yippy skippy!

My latest endeavor is joining the 100 days of art on the clothpaperscissors.com website.  I played catch up yesterday and made six pieces of small art–front and back and got them posted tonight.  My personal rule is that I have to use the bits and bobs and found items I’ve been stashing for a couple of years and all the left over bits of paper, ribbon, etc.   I was very excited about the prospect of doing daily small pieces of art until I sat down with the pressure of catching up and doing six pieces of art.  I realized that it was harder than I thought it would be.  A couple of the participants are giving themselves 5-10 minutes to do their daily piece and I realized I am not a fast creator!!  I had a hard time getting started.  I wanted to second guess every move and idea.  I kept thinking what the other participants would think about my creations when I posted them.  I am pretty new to the art world and I am so in awe of the artists who contribute to Cloth Paper Scissors and to enter into  the creative flow on the message boards on their site is a bit daunting.  I kept telling myself that with fear there is no creativity!  I had moments of the creativity flowing and then nothing–an ebb and flow.  I think I am going to develop a theme for the rest of the days of art.  This afternoon I went out to water my garden and picked more green beans, an onion, a jalapeno pepper and a couple of small tomatoes!  Who ever knew I would have such satisfaction and fulfillment for growing food.  I feel like it’s magic or something.  I plant some seeds and water every day and see tiny little green sprouts poking up in the rich dark earth and next thing you know I am picking an actual piece of fresh food–I LOVE IT!    Anyway–I am thinking I am going to use my garden and growing things as inspiration for my mini arts!  Speaking of that–I need to get creating tonight.  I am going to put my pics up even though I think my camera is shot.  It was getting iffy on our recent trip and now it’s like a fine gauze is permanently over the lens.  Camera shopping is definitely on my to do list.