JOy Stuff!! The Art of Noticing. A new online class 🌼😀🌿

I would love to share with you my favorite ways to celebrate delight in our everyday lives. Working in my JOy Stuff sketchbook has opened up a whole new way to make art, move my hands and soak in appreciation. It has been a wonderful addition to my world and gets me off to an artful, positive and grateful beginning to each day. The best part, other than that it is fun, is the way I feel connected to the things I love!

Come join me and our super supportive, fun-loving online community as we draw, paint, write, make paper with a Gelli Plate and play. 😀 We will collage and create delightful pages and fill them with meaning. And we will extend our gratitude to others by making tiny thank you notes to love letters and more. Let’s create a joy based and portable art studio in our sketchbooks.   Starts October 3rd! Click here for more info! 

With loads of JOy!

 xoxo Lynn

 

Which is more fun? Making things with our hands or sharing them? Do you have a favorite?

summer fun, making painted rocks and leaving them out in the world for anyone to fine and enjoy

Wow! This is a bit like the chicken and the egg question….making art seems to the the answer……..because it is always fun and it seems to come first…….. But when I think about it, many, many times when I first feel that pull to make something, (which is very often, in fact I feel “cranky” if I go to many days without moving my hands) I find myself most excited about making something for a friend or family member. It may just be a sweet little card or note to say thanks for something thoughtful that happened, or its a birthday, or just a random playful act that was inspired by something funny that happened with a certain person in mind.

I don’t know about you, even the days when I am not sure what to make next, getting my hands moving by making something for someone will start the entire process and away we go!! Art mAking ensues!! As much fun as the actual making of things, is the joy of the moment when you share it!! I love that part too!!! I guess its just a delicious cycle.

I have also found great joy in sharing the “how to” of moving our hands, through teaching. It’s just another way of sharing art and encouraging others to find their voice in this glorious game of creativity. And the sharing that goes on in class is truly one of the most enriching and satisfying things of all. As a teacher I have found that we all learn so much from each other. The dynamic of sharing is multiplied!! It is always astounding how much I learn when I teach and how incredibly generous and giving everyone in class is! The atmosphere of encouragement and the willingness to help each other experience that great basic joy of creating is so enriching!

So I encourage you not only to move your hands 🙂 and remember that there is no wrong way to do anything!! In my mind its always only a layer anyway so you can’t really mess it up….which is very freeing! So let yourself play and make things and share them! Post them! Give your work as gifts! Have a gallery show! Do an outdoor show! Do an online show! Blog about your work! Enter a contest! Sell your work!! Make sweet things and leave them out in the world anonymously! There are tons of ways to share what you make! And Bravo to you for the bravery and brilliance to do both! I think the two things, making art and sharing it, go hand and hand! A perfect circle!

painted stick!

sending love!!

xoxox

Happy day of Thanks!

Quite simply, we all have so very much to smile over. Dear pals, beautiful sky’s, fur people, painting, color, laughter, fresh air, singing out loud, swings, water, dancing, chocolate, cooking, harmonizing, playing outdoors, learning, funny stuff….and that is just the tip of the iceberg that is a list of great things to be thankful for!
oh, and I love you!!
make stuff and enjoy as much as possible!!
XOXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXXOX
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOURS!!

I am so grateful for:

Golden fur breaths of morning slobber, the feel of a brush in my hand, the sky, the smudged line of my #3 pencil, my touch as it explores everything, the smell of a loved ones neck, sunshine, every pale blue I have ever met, song birds, wood floors on my feet. Making or listening to music. Soft grass and wind, the first sip of a cold beer on a Friday night, words, friendship, laughing so hard I cry, covertly relishing profanity, iced coffee, meeting new people, singing, sugar and foosball.

How about you??

Take a second.

This is a fun, fast way to put you in the moment. It’s a good place to be. 

I was just thinking about the phrase “take a second” or “take a minute.” So, if we take a second, then what are we going to do with it?  Hummmmm, I guess it’s up to you. 

xoxoxox

enjoy it. 

remind me tomorrow I want to write about purpose.

Hello world!

 

 

thanks for visiting my blog

Greetings and salutations.

 

 

Howdy and hiya.

And, as my old phone message used say, hello, hello, hello!!

Here’s the deal: I like stuff. and by stuff, I mean just about everything. Really. So many things to notice, celebrate, react to and appreciate.  Today’s thing has something to do with tenacity.  As many new bloggers might tell you, getting a new blog up can be a bit of a stretch. Lots of choices, themes, templates, images, fonts and formats. But here it is. I started hours ago, and even with header number 23, which is just ok, I am off. It will get better, and smoother and creamier.  Since I am an artist…. I like brownies!!! haaa, my husband just walked in with a HUGE brownie and dagnabit, that puppy is GOOD! I have no willpower, but we do enjoy. That may be a bigger theme. Enjoying! Now we are talking. What did I enjoy today?

1. several good, loud, round, full laughs with my friend (and today, slightly hormonal) Jamie 

2. smiling at 2 orange dogs. Tally for ball throwing: 125,364. Tally for tall wagging: 18,297,473,930,234.  

3. smelling chicken cooking with spices and ghee.

4. reading with small, white and grey striped, one eyed, purring cat on lap

5. iced coffee with my friend Larry aka Fred    

6. learning about a cool collaboration coming up with artist Anna Tomczak                                    

7. making a bank deposit (the more of these the merrier)

8. getting this blog up, finally!!

9. planning a trip to do a workshop in Kansas City.

10. and all the people, traffic, chit chat and Dancing with the Stars in between

sending lOve!

xoxo Lynn

p.s. and remember, as my friend Dale Jarrett sez: Bacon is the candy of meat.