Frustration!

I'm now in the middle of the colored pencil class at the Arboretum. I absolutely LOVED the pencil class, and experimenting with portraying textures with graphite. But I am completely out of my league with colored pencil.

Our assignment this week was to use colors other than black and brown to reproduce the textures on the seed pod in the picture. It's a very cool looking pod, and my camera doesn't even do it justice. But that funky little thing in the back that I drew is my feeble attempt to recreate at least some of the texture of it. I have class tonight. I can't wait to see how the other students did. (I'm not sharing this at the class!) I'm glad I can do other art stuff, because colored pencil is not my thing!

Inspiration

It can be very frustrating to have a week (or longer) where everything you do just doesn't turn out the way you want it to. But if you persevere, eventually you are rewarded.

This piece was a long time in the making. The word "hope" was done as a cut paper piece a couple of weeks ago. The paper behind is some "paste paper" that I did several years ago. And it took me a long time to find a quote that conveyed hope and also fit in the space.

It's a good thing that it all finally came together, because I'm submitting it for an art show at our library, and the submission deadline is three days from now! Perhaps both perseverance and a deadline are necessary for a project to come together.

Playing with Walnut Ink

It's been several weeks since I took Julie Wildman's workshop on working with walnut ink. It was great fun to play with this new medium, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. This is the first project that came out that -- at least that I am willing to share here!

I love the quote because I often feel chaos inside -- the path isn't always clear, and I am journeying with others whose chaotic lives often intersect with mine. It's good to know that out of confusion, hope can be born; out of lostness, a sense of community. God provides dancing stars in our times of chaos and distress.