Category Archives: crusade

Make It Your Own

May 22, 2009 By in art challenge, art journal, creative workshops, crusade, green pepper press, green pepper press street team, michelle ward, online workshop, workshop 15 Comments

While drinking my first cup of coffee this morning, my blog browsing took me to Michelle Wards Green Pepper Press Street Team Challenge.

This is one of my favorite challenges because Michelle is so inspiring and pushes the envelope encouraging others to do the same. I have been too busy to do much participating lately, but when I saw this challenge it so hit home with me that I had to take some time to answer it today.

Make it your own. I think that all artists truly long to do this. It is a process though. We see someones work and think ‘Oh, I love that, I want to know how they did it’! Sometimes through workshops or classes we are afforded a glimpse of the ‘how’ part. We then take that new found knowledge and add it to what we already know and slowly but surely our own ‘style’ evolves. This is the process. Michelle said the difference between art and crafts is the ability to ‘make it your own’. Are you wanting to make the product or learn the process?

This is what I so struggled with when I kept getting asked to do a ‘face’ class. I truly love teaching and sharing techniques and encouraging people along their art journey, but I really don’t enjoy teaching a ‘product‘ nearly as much. That is not to say that there aren’t times when that is the only way to do something. Short, live workshops lend themselves to that type of teaching. So while I am completely open to teaching my techniques, giving tips, guidance and encouraging the creative process, I didn’t necessarily want to see lots of little ‘Pam’ faces all over. They may tend to look like that at first, but through this process they will become more and more your own.
My answer to this is Pursuing Portraits. I want to share the joy of discovering your own face with you! I share all of my techniques and guide you on the process of finding your own face! It is a continuing process as our art is always evolving. The class is open ended so you will have unlimited access to the materials and can revisit the videos again and again, working at your own pace and discovering the joy of Making it your own!
P.S. all of the journal pages here have been either inspired by one of Michelle’s challenges or made using some of her wonderful stamps. Thank you for the inspiration Michelle!

Day 22 Crayons

January 23, 2009 By in art journal, crayola, crayon, crusade, pam carriker, zne 9 Comments

Do you ever smell your art supplies? I know it sounds a little weird, but I love the smell of gesso, paint, and yes CRAYONS. I love the smell of the artroom at school, that hint of tempra paint that hangs in the air. I borrowed my 7 year olds crayons to do todays challenge page. He thought it was funny that I was using his Crayola’s rather than my Caran d’ ache. He kept asking why I didn’t use my ‘fancy crayons’.

Day 18~Pink

January 18, 2009 By in angel, art journal, crusade, friends, pam carriker, pink 14 Comments

Pink is the color du jour. When I started this page, the pink was PINK as in Pepto Bismallish. I added the lady’s and then ‘knocked down’ the whole thing with some white. I was not at all sure what I wanted to do in the way of ‘hair’ for these women friends, so I decided to go pink with that too, and added some flowers for hair. I did my private journaling underneath and covered most of it, adding the ‘Think Pink’ to remind me of what is written underneath.

Day 16 Red

January 17, 2009 By in art journal, crusade, mist mawn, pam carriker, red, zne 8 Comments

What a perfect color for a RED letter day! I had to blur out the writing a bit as this page has journaling about things I’m not ready to share, but I just love it when things go together. I already had my page partially done when my red letter moment happened and I knew exactly what I would journal about. Keeping a journal is such a fun way to have something to look back on later.