Filling the well, or in this case - the fountain

A couple of years ago I reached the conclusion that technically my progress in art was only going to move forward at a certain pace in spite of all effort I made to hurry that along. I decided to look deeper at things I could do to enrich the art and it all boils down to the thinking process that begins before pencil ever hits paper (or stylus hits tablet). It's ALL about creativity. But how to develop that? There's loads of ways really but I am always seeking ways to further that along too.

A friend in my critique group recently recommended The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron (thanks Kathy!) I have enjoyed the book but am going to have to postpone the full 12 steps until I don't have quite such a deadline/childcare burden going on. One of the things it teaches is to make certain you re-fill your creative well. In skimming the book I discovered a few things about ME that I hadn't been paying proper respect to. I have always made stuff. As a kid my folks didn't have the resources or time or patience to provide me with all the raw materials I wanted so I had to scrounge for it here and there and use my creativity to put it all together. I still do! I need to do this, it is a part of what makes me, me. It re-fills my well.

On Sunday I got the idea to make a fountain from a random comment my husband made about our old turtle tank pump. Monday afternoon I had a fountain! I re-purposed (Macgyvered) everything in it. I got a ceramic frog a few weeks ago from my favorite garden store, had a cast aluminum turtle trivet from the flea market at the fairgrounds, three flower pots and a saucer, and the turtle pump! It is fantastically wonderful to sit next to and I can see it from my kitchen window. Other things in my house: my headboard is an old coal room door, I pierced the bottom of a lamp shade and put all my old dangly earrings around it, we have an old cigar store humidor that I put a stained glass window in and a string of Christmas lights - sparkly!

This totally blows up my skirt! More importantly it fills the well.

This rooster in my backyard blows my skirt up too, but I didn't make him. He's doing his best to encourage the grass to grow.

Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure Online art auction

I am honored to have been asked to contribute a hand painted snowflake to Robert's Snow, an online auction to raise money for cancer research. This year my snowflake is titled "Luck & Hope". The Cricket is a symbol of luck; the Ladybug of hope. United anything is possible - even a cure for cancer. Please stop by Robert's Snow at the end of August 2007 to see the rest of the marvelous snowflakes painted by illustrators from around the world. Bidding will begin in November.

Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure Online art auction
November through December 2007

Own a piece of art from your favorite children's book illustrator while helping to fight cancer. Participate in Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure, a unique fundraiser for cancer research. Since 2004, this online auction has raised over $200,000 for Dana-Farber, and with your help, we can continue this holiday tradition in 2007.

"Robert's Snow" is a children's story about a mouse not allowed in the snow. Children's book illustrator Grace Lin wrote the book, which was inspired by her husband Robert's battle with Ewing's sarcoma. After the book was published, Grace gathered artists from all over the children's book illustrating community to create special snowflakes to be auctioned off, with the proceeds benefiting sarcoma research at Dana-Farber. These snowflake auctions became known as the event "Robert's Snow."

Harry Potter Hoopla!

My husband Tim Lee did this digital illustration poster page for today's News & Observer.

Jennifer Morris Totally Rocks!

She's an awesome author and illustrator. She's smart and funny. She's cute too. And she's the winner of this year's Don Freeman Memorial Grant in Aid from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. If you haven't seen her work, look here. If you want to read some great tutorials on digital art and find out what's up with Jenn, look here.

From her upcoming book If A Monkey Jumps Onto Your School Bus, Pleasant Street Press. Fall 2007

Happy 4th of July

Summer's been a-whizzing by. My time's been spent doing the All-American pastime of driving to baseball practice, car-pooling to the pool, motoring to camp, and work, work working whenever I'm not drive, drive, driving. I am going to start working while driving soon since the car knows the way by now.

Here's an illustration I did for today's Life, etc. section front of the Raleigh News & Observer. Yeah, so my husband works there. Is that nepotism? Whatever. It was fun to do, fun to see laying on my driveway this morning. Watch out for the car - it forgot today's a holiday and it's on it's way to swim team practice.