A blog tour..!

I was recently invited by my wonderful friend Denise to take part in an ongoing virtual art tour. The purpose is to help artists connect with other artists and am very proud and happy that Denise asked me to join in! We have known each other for several years now and we are both designing for Cocoa Daisy. Denise is awesome in so many ways and I think of glitter, strength and playfulness when I think of her. Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of this tour Denise.

I am going to answer the following questions:
What am I working on?
How does my work differ from other work of it's genre?
Why do I write/create what I do?
How does my creative/writing process work?

What am I working on?
Well, there is a tiny problem here. For several weeks now I have been struggling with my creativity and I have only been doing a minimum of creating. It's a strange feeling but I'm trying not to panic, but to feel confident that things will change and that I will get back into the right mood again. In the meantime, I'm making plans for my garden and dreaming of pretty flowers and I guess that's a way of being creative too (even if it's mostly happening in my head and not so much in my garden...).

I have been longing all my Life to find the creative outlet that was perfect for me. When I came across scrapbooking in 2003, it was a pretty fantastic thing for me. I was immediately hooked. After a couple of years I started experimenting more and more with paint and other art supplies in my scrapbooking and somewhere along the way I discovered art journaling too. I started to draw and paint and I was pretty amazed when I realized that drawing isn't necessarily something you either can or can't do. It takes practice and when you practice, you learn.

So that is what I'm doing when I'm not in this strange period of not creating... :) I'm practicing, experimenting and learning. I'm trying to enjoy the process and having lots of fun along the way!

I love to mess around with paint and acrylics - this is an abstract painting that I made during the Full Circle online workshop with Misty Mawn, earlier this year.

 

I also made these drawings of my kids during Misty's class.

 

 

I love working with the Project Art art journaling kits for Cocoa Daisy and we've been going for an entire year by now! I had been doing lots of art journaling before this, but I had never been working so consistently in one journal before. I have loved seeing the pages being filled up in my journal. Here is a page I made using the April Project Art kit.

 

 

Below is another page I made using the same photo of my daughter as a starting point. The goal wasn't to achieve perfect likeness, but to have some kind of reference and to just play.

 

 

 

I also want to share one of my most recent scrapbooking layouts for Cocoa Daisy, using the June kit. I'd say that this is both clean and a bit messy and that this is a combination where I often find myself.

 

 

How does my work differ from other work of it's genre?
I am not sure it does... if it does I have not yet come to the point where I'm able to identify those differences myself. I love to learn and to experiment and like I said above - to combine the clean and simple with the messy. I know I am influenced by so many other artists and I just hope that I am adding a bit of myself too, into my art.


Why do I write/create what I do?
I think it's some sort of fundamental need inside of me. When I was young I wrote a million letters to penpals all over the world and writing was my main creative outlet for a long time. I tried to draw and I tried taking photos, but I never really thought I could do it. Today I am a lot more brave and I know that I can achieve so much more than I ever though was possible. I just need to let go of the fear... and I need to practice... :) Messing around with paper and paint makes me relax and gives me time to think.


How does my creative/writing process work?
This is different from time to time, but in general I am not planning all that much, but rather starting out and seeing where the project is taking me. I often change direction along the way and I try to learn to just "go on" instead of getting stuck. Sometimes though, I believe that setting a project aside for a couple of days can be a really good idea. When it comes to painting, I actually have very few paintings that are finished. I still need to learn to find my way of knowing when I'm happy with a piece.

I was also asked to choose three other artists that are an inspiration to me:

First out is Sanna Friedner. We met in the "scrapbooking world" a whole bunch of years ago. She is mostly into mixed media painting today and she loves colour (and so do I!). I totally adore the latest subject in her paintings - the elephants!

I would also love for you to visit the blog of Camilla Olsson. I am so inspired by her paintings and by the progress she has made. She is painting and painting and painting and I hope to some day paint and paint and paint, myself.

Next up is a cardmaker. I love, love, love Biggan's cards. They are often very clean and oh so clever and they are always so very beautiful! We met as we both design for the Swedish store Pyssloteket.

It would be wonderful if you stopped by and left these three some love!

Have a wonderful day!