"Dancing Thoughts"

(unavailable.....4" x 6"....Mixed Media on 140 lb HP....Mounted on Masonite)

"My thoughts dance in rhythm to beauty." The quote makes perfect sense if the definition of dance is any kind of rhythmic movement applied to things other than physical dancing.

I feel as though I'm dancing from one table to the next in my studio between glass work, mixed media, oil paints and lettering. What can I say...except that I am easily bored!

In this piece, I began with a cropped section of pouring medium which is very reminiscent of marbled papers. For that reason I like to combine that look with old book pages and rice paper. I like to go back and forth laying down the text pages and rice papers until it all looks very well integrated.

And of course, I am experimenting always so I added more pouring medium on top of the text pages just to see what it looked like. (The jury is still out on that one.) And so it goes with the nature of experimenting. You simply must try a lot of different things in order to see all of the possibilities. Since art is a visual discipline, most of us need to see unusual combinations of design elements in order to decide whether or not to add them to our repertoire.

So my encouragement today is to look at a lot of art, do a lot of art, and you will eventually have a wonderful "artistic voice" consisting of all of those elements and textures you love. The important thing is to keep at it every day. If you work full time, it is much harder, but if you have a designated place, you will soon find yourself slipping away to that place for a small retreat each day. How exciting to have opportunities to be creative and share our gifting with others! And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.