Hi all!!!  I've been doing a little more drawing and thought I would share my latest girlie!

I can see problems but I still really like how she turned out.  I'm still not sure how and where to shade but that's why I keep practicing, right?

Thanks for looking!!!

Blessings,
Christine

My Living Art Journal

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been taking a lot of artsy online classes but I haven’t been sharing much of the art that I’ve been creating.  Today, I’m going to share a project I made for Christy Tomlinson’s Living Canvas class.

I am loving this class.  Remember the She Art class that I took last year (my artwork here).  Once again, I’ve made other pieces for this class that I haven’t shared!  I have learned so much from Christy about collage art that when I heard about this class I jumped in with both feet.

I truly believe that ART HEALS and this is what the Living Canvas class is all about.  Christy has teamed up with Art McCracken.  I’m not sure what is official title is but he’s a kind of life/business coach.  Each week, Art shares an exercise dealing with specific things in your life.  I’ve only worked on the first week, but Christy shared some art journaling (3 different pages) using at least one technique that she has never shared in one of her other classes.  The first exercise was to create your art journal cover.  This is mine.

I have made a couple of small changes since this picture.  I’ll share it again with you when I share my first page.  It’s currently in a drying stage with more stages to go.  I’ll be sharing it sometime this week.

The journal is a Visual Art Journal from Strathmore.  I love these because the have nice thick paper and are spiral bound so I don’t have to worry to much about adding bulk.  I used a lot of stuff laying around my room.  I used Studio Calico dp (from the Scarlet Lime mixed media kit) for the background.  The Embracing Change image is a card from GCD by Melody Ross.  The tassel and the loop fringe is from my friend Nancy from Linens and Laurels.  She has some beautiful trims on her site.  The flowers are Prima and most of the rubons are from Chatterbox, Melody Ross’ previous company.  Everything else is just from my stash, including the vintage bingo number!

Also, I didn’t mention on my McMahon Five Designs post last week that we are taking somewhat of a break this summer.  We will only be having two releases each month—the Breast Cancer Awareness image on the 26th of each month and a new image release the last Friday of the month.  That’s to give the design team and the illustrators a bit of a break for the summer.  The store will still be open and orders will be processed but we will not be releasing as many images.

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be tending my mom’s doggy this week.  Let’s hope that I don’t have fur flying around here!!!  Chloe and Cutie (mom’s pup) see each other twice a week when mom and I get together for art days so I don’t think there will be a problem.  Chloe will just probably eat all the food so Cutie starves to death!

Now, back to my art journal I go!

Blessings,

Christine

Courage

I don’t talk a lot about things going on within my family very much other than when I do things with them.  But today, I want to talk about my cousin, Gary.  He has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer that has gone pretty much to the rest of his body,  including his brain.  He isn’t even a smoker.  The doctors gave him a very slim chance of beating this.  He and his wife have more hope and courage than anyone could in a situation like this.

Shortly after the diagnosis, they traveled to Minnesota to go to the Mayo Clinic and get a second opinion and to get more information about the type of cancer he has.  This week, they Mayo Clinic sent the cancer “markers” to his doctor here and things didn’t look good.  Any treatment they would be able to give would only prolong his life and because of other medical issues, the side affects might actually kill him before the cancer did.

On a happier note, his wife recently fought a very hard battle with breast cancer and last week they preformed tests that told her she is six months cancer free!  That is truly great news in the midst of all of the problems.

So, this is a prelude to give you information about why I painted this and to ask you to please keep him and his family in your prayers.  A benefit for Gary has been planned for this Saturday with dinner, dancing and a silent auction and raffle.  My painting is part of the silent auction.  I’m also working on another canvas as a gift to Gary and Sue, his wife.

Gary has been pursuing some alternative treatment.  He traveled to a small town near here to an Eastern medicine practitioner.  I’m not sure what he does but they felt very good about what he did.  He has also been going to another Eastern medicine practitioner locally that uses pressure points and massage in the belief that the body can heal itself.  They will also be travelling to Malaysia to see a Shaolin monk.   He will be using herbs and his chi to heal Gary. 

As his wife said, Western medicine has already stamped Gary’s foot with an expiration date and so they are trying alternatives that have worked for other people.  As my brother said when the doctors gave him little chance of beating this, “They don’t know our family.”  We are fighters and I know that if anyone can do it, Gary can.

So I ask for your prayers in helping Gary get through this.  God has a plan; we don’t know what it is but we do know that we have to do everything we can before He proceeds with His plan.

Thanks so much!

Blessings,

Christine

Oh, I painted this as part of Donna Downey’s Canvas Create class.