Find the Music of Your Heart: A DIY Mixed Media Project

The music of my artistic heart is mixed media. Here’s a diy post to show you how to make a mixed media piece using plaster cloth, pressed flowers, and rice paper. Texture a canvas with gesso and let dry. Then paint with soft pink and yellow ochre acrylic paints. Cut hearts out of plaster cloth and …

Kindred Hearts: Inspire, Delight, Sustain

I am a mother most blessed to have two daughters with whom my heart feels safe and my artistic spirit inspired. We are kindred hearts. Elya and Andy returned home last weekend and we snuck away to create in my art room. Andy painted masks… while Elya began a new painting… and I crafted my …

For the Love of Texture: 7 Mixed Media Tips

When I was a little girl, I loved all things soft and natural and feathery. Even though I’ve grown into woman skin, the little girl inside still delights in touching different textures. This is one BIG reason why I seek to explore and experiment with mixed media art. Mixed media gives me the opportunity to …

Deborah Keily Hanson: Pianist, Composer, Teacher

Meet the multi-talented Deborah Keily Hanson: pianist, composer, teacher and so much more! I play her music while creating because her unique arrangements inspire my creative muse. I first met Deborah almost twenty years ago when I returned from living in Europe. My children attended El Dorado where Deborah produced and directed over 20 musicals. I choreographed …

The Acrylic Painting of Artist Elya Filler

Today I celebrate an artist's recent success. An artist I've had the privilege of watching emerge since she was just a wee thing, my daughter Elya Filler. Elya began creating as far back as I can remember. She would escape into her room and get lost in making tiny books and writing stories about horses. …

Abide

Can you collect it, manna from heaven, and then nibble on nurture during those lean days of soul when life forces a rush through every moment? Camels have humps to store water for long walks through deserts, and we finger fullness of soul when we mull over photos of days gone by. So why can’t …

“Believe in your Becoming,” the Key to Creative Management

Perhaps the greatest challenge we creative eclectics face is to believe in our becoming. Sure there are messy workspaces to attend to, jam-packed lives that threaten to squelch our desires, and challenging skills to learn; however, the issue isn’t primarily a directional one but an internal one. READ THE ENTIRE POST...

“My Heart Song” Mixed Media

Here is a DIY lesson for creating a mixed media piece I titled “My Heart Song.” The piece was inspired by the wonderful women in my family and among my friend’s who nestle next to my heart. Their friendships bring an ending stream of comfort, wisdom, and encouragement. Begin by painting a 8″ by 10″ …

Destiny

Sometimes life’s circumstances whisk us away, up and into the air like leaves floating, always floating, directionless, lost, tumbling leaves of living carried by winds of change.  At other times, the backdraft of someone’s choices sucks us into circumstances that bat us around until we bruise in heart and mind. Even when winds of healthy …