Courage, Perseverance & a GIVEAWAY!!

cour·age

ˈkərij/

noun

the ability to do something that frightens one.

per·se·ver·ance

ˌpərsəˈvirəns/

noun

1. steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

I have decided that these are my words for 2015.

So far, they have been a good choice for me.

How, you ask?

These words have helped me in at least two areas in my life already this year: my art & being on the Board of my daughter's elementary school PTO.

Let's start with the PTO aspect of my daily life…

Springtime is just around the corner & while for some that means warmer weather, flowers & longer days, for those of us on the PTO Board, it's time to focus on our biggest school fundraiser: The Boot Scootin' Boogie. We are going into our 18th year this May & we are chalk full of new & exciting ideas! But introducing new ideas to an event entrenched with tradition takes courage & perseverance because some of these parents that have older children, have been coming to these events forever & some don't like change! But we are soldiering on & so far, the feedback is positive.

On top of the new ideas aspect, I am also the "leader" of a fabulous group of parents who have stepped up to represent their classrooms & gather items for their live auction baskets at our Boot Scoot. They too are showing courage & perseverance in asking for donations all over the place! Kudos to them! I have to be a strong voice for them & continue to keep a positive attitude in helping them achieve their goals. It's been quite fun & rewarding so far! If you're local & would like to come & support our school, it's going to be quite the shin-dig!!

Now on to the art in my life…

As you may have seen in my last post, I am gearing up for a Spring Enrichment art class at my daughter's school beginning in a couple of weeks. I absolutely love teaching my passion, but I still get nervous about it - even with kiddos! I think I worry that I won't teach the steps clearly enough & it'll be a disaster! But so far, in you year or so of teaching at school & my home, things have worked out splendidly! Just gotta have courage that the kids will be able to do all the steps!

Clips from the 3 canvases the kids will do in class

Then, last week, I was having lunch at the local bar & grill (The Spur of the Moment) & was lucky enough to be there when the owner was checking in. So, I mustered that courage & asked her about using the restaurant's large back room for a "Paint & Sip." I was shocked to find out that she has had several patrons asking for such an event! YAY!!! We are hopefully going to sit down in the next couple of weeks & plan it all out! I am so excited for this venture as it will benefit us both! My students will hopefully enjoy the project, while spending money at the bar & then maybe they will want to come to more such classes there or at my home studio. A win, win, I believe!

Lastly, I have put myself out there again - my art that is.

There are two shows going on simultaneously here in Castle Rock…

The first one opens tonight at the art guild's gallery - Art on The Edge & the theme is "My Favorite Things." Artists were asked to submit their favorite work for the exhibit & while I love the pieces I entered, they are not my favorites because the gallery has a stipulation that you cannot show a piece that has been seen in the area before, so I wasn't able to enter my big blue "Beyond" piece since it was in the National Arts Program exhibit at the library late last year. It's all good though! I was just happy to be accepted with these three pieces:

($$ denotes that this piece is for sale. If interested, please email me at rvoth@estreet.com)

House in the Field 18x24 $$

House on the Hill #1 12x24 $$

Pavot (Poppy) 12x36 $$

The other show is a regional juried show called "Romancing the Arts". I was over the moon for getting accepted to this one & even more thrilled with the curator's words of encouragement: 

"I am very pleased to let you know that your 3 pieces, "From Within," "Aspens in  Fall" and "La Cathedrale," have been accepted into the 11^th annual Romancing the Arts Exhibit. This is, by and large, a very creative and competitive show. I’ll be excited to see your work in person."

Wow! Who doesn't want to hear something like that?!! This show will hang at the library for the month of February with an opening reception on Feb. 2nd & I am so excited to see all the work side-by-side! If you are local, I hope that you will come either to the reception or stop into the

Phillip S. Miller Library at 100 S. Wilcox St, Castle Rock, CO & browse the exhibit.

Aspens in Fall 36x48 $$

La Cathedrale 18x24 $$

From Within 16x20 NFS

So, in between fundraising & painting, my 2015 words have turned into somewhat of a mantra: "have courage & perseverance & dreams your will come true!"

**GIVEAWAY**

Do you have words or a mantra that get you through tough times? If so, I would love to hear what they are!

Leave a comment here or on my Facebook Page & if you are a local, I will giveaway "admission" to my next class - either at The Spur of the Moment or in my home studio!! 
(Giveaway closes on 2/7/15)

Catch-up Time!

As usual, time has gotten the best of me & haven't been back here since, *GASP,* January 18th! That's ridiculous! Needless to say, I've been busy! Here's a little snapshot of some of the artistic things I've been up to these past 4+ months…

 Remember these from my January post? I taught a class with 15 students to raise money for the school. It was great fun & I'm pretty proud of being able to teach 2 separate canvases in  a little over 3 hours! They did amazing! (got so busy, we forgot to take pictures!)

In between fundraising, I have been working in a large journal on the first 12 weeks in the Donna Downey 48 Weeks Workshop...

(The 2nd semester has started, but I haven't quite finished the first 12! Thank God she has lifetime access to her courses!! LOL!)

At the end of March, I was honored to be asked to teach a class for my daughter's 2nd grade teacher's daughter's Sweet 16! She chose to do the owl canvas above…

Collaging on our trees

My class owl

We're "owl" artists

In between all of the above, I have been working on my first commissioned piece - a 48x48 mixed media poppy canvas for a friends stairway landing! (Sorry, only a peek, because I don't want her to see it yet.)

Very hard to tell, but the flowers are made from 7 Gypsies tissue paper

In addition to creating whenever I have the chance, I have recently signed up to be a Thirty-One Gifts consultant! If you have no idea what Thirty-One is, you are missing out! They make wonderful purses, totes & organizational bins!

Cute Summer prints ready for a picnic!

Feel free to visit my website & browse the catalog! Contact me if you want to have questions, host a party to earn lots of free stuff or place an order online!

(Here)

I think that's it for now!

Hopefully it won't be so long before my next post!

Cheers!

What's in store in 2014...

Lots & lots of things keeping me busy lately! So much so that my art has kind of taken a back seat! But all that is going to change this year & I am super excited about it! I have big plans for myself & my art in 2014!

First of all, at the very end of last year, I decided to leave my "post" as a member of the Altered Pages Design Team. It was something I had been struggling with for many months, but felt that I needed to do so in order to focus more on my art. Jean (the owner) & all the team members are so very talented & I look forward to lurking about to see where their talents take them this year!

So, on to what I've got planned for the year so far…in no particular order!

TEACH more classes
TAKE more classes
MAKE more art to sell on Etsy & other places
Get to know some new friends better
Join the Castle Rock Art Guild
Enter some art shows
Publish more work in magazines
Learn Spanish
Travel to New Mexico & Peru
Organize my home
Get healthy
Help out at The Magpie's school fundraiser & PTO stuff
Cherish the heck outta my hubby, daughter & my family & friends!
& probably a million other things I can't think of right now!

I've already gotten a jump start on a few of those things:

In February, I will be sharing my passion with some 8 year old's at my very first kids b-day party! A friend from Denver asked me to come up with a "sunset & tree" painting to teach to the 7 girls at the party, here's my take:

I used a pretty abstract tree stencil from Stencil Girl but I think the birthday girl wants one more realistic. So I am either going to find another stencil or we will just draw the tree during the party. I was so flattered they asked me & hope it leads to more parties with kids!

In addition to that gig, I will be hosting my 2nd "Mixed Media Mama's" in my basement in February as well! No sample yet, but I've got a few ideas to share with them!

I have also begun work on my first "commissioned" piece…remember this painting?

 Well, my good friend Loretta bought that one from me!

hanging on her dining room wall!

I feel very blessed that my friends think my art is good enough to hang on their walls!

 My other good friend Rebecca also wanted that painting, but we decided it was too small for where she intended to hang it…so off to paint one similar but larger (4ft x 4ft)…I started it the other night:

It's beginning to look like it might be a little more dramatic! Plus, I feel that I am growing so much as an artist, that I can't wait to see how different it is from the first one!

I had big hopes of going to a workshop with Donna Downey at her studio in North Carolina this Spring, but with Nick climbing Mt. Rainer again in March & then another BIG climb in June/July to Peru (which I am tagging along for a little bit (SO EXCITED), but more about that later!), we decided that it was best to forego that venture. 

BUT...

The thing that has really got me pumped up about my art in 2014 is that Nick let me sign up for a YEAR long (YES -A WHOLE YEAR!!!) online class with Donna Downey!!! {This is an early b-day present from Nick! Thanks honey!}

The class began last week & even though I am still waiting for my big art journal to arrive, I just HAD to get started, so I pulled out an old journal & began…she even featured my work on her blog this week with some of the other students! So COOL!!!

I love taking online classes because I can watch, rewind & watch again until I feel comfortable with the techniques being taught (AND, Donna Downey has created her classes so that you can actually DOWNLOAD them - They NEVER expire!! Worth every penny!)! 

Another great thing about online classes is the community of artists you meet through Facebook. I love that we share our opps-moments, our tips & our triumphs with each other throughout the course of the class. I have made many wonderful "friends" doing these classes & hope to meet  a few of them someday!

I loved the technique she taught us so much that I just had to try it out on a canvas yesterday…

"Gypsy Soul"

Wow! I'm exhausted just writing all that down!

Oh, and I hope to get back on my WIP Wednesdays this week as well! So be sure to check back in later!

That's it for now!

Cheers & thanks for stopping by!

She Was a Nurturing Soul

Hello!

Thanks for stopping by today!

This month for the Altered Pages Challenge (Starts on Monday, 4/8) we were to work with some of the great Bird Collages Jean has. Here are some pictures of the canvas board I did.
(You can read a little bit about the products I used on the Scrap-a-Teeny Blog where the official "challenge" post is located!)
I've been reading & playing around with Suzi Blu's "Mixed Media Girls" book & decided to give one a try...I'm really proud of how she turned out!

"She was a nurturing soul"

As you can see, she's very dimensional with lots of texture!

I even decided to list her in my Etsy shop...I plan to make more! Many, many more! In all shapes & sizes!
She was too much fun to create!

Cheers!

Please Pick Me! I'm going through a mid-life crisis!

Dream Big Business Art Journal Class by Traci Bautista

I have been drooling over the amazing workshop event that is The Creative Connection for over a year now! After seeing what it was all about through the web last year, I knew that I wanted to attend it this year! But alas, money is tight & time is running out!
So, I am blogging about this for two reasons - first & foremost - because they TOLD me to blog about it to get 5 more entries to WIN 2 FREE PASSES for the weekend event in September & second of all, that's what we bloggers are supposed to do, right? Right!

There are several reasons I want to attend an event like this one...
One is that we (my mom, sis & I) have been struggling to be found in our little online/Etsy biz & I believe that this type of event would be an amazing learning tool with all of their panels throughout the weekend to teach me how to discover & fine tune your goals, & market our wares better through Etsy, social media & more!

Second, I think I am going through a mid-life crisis! {My husband is smack in the middle of his! HIS vice? Mountain climbing - not just ordinary hiking, but roping in & climbing crazy stuff with snow, ice & NO oxygen! He's off to Ecuador in December to climb 3 (YES, THREE!) 20,000+ peaks!!}
MY mid-life crisis is so much more tame! I want to CREATE ALL THE TIME! I want to either go back to school for some art training or I just want to try new art techniques NOW! So, this event is the PERFECT venue for this because I can dabble in any number of mediums for a fraction of the cost of actually going back to school! And, learn from those that I already admire for their passion & work! And, it's all in one weekend!

Thirdly,  you get to meet with all these artistic "celebs" that have made their artistic passion their careers! Imagine asking those that you admire most, "how'd you do it & still have a life?" Their insight could be such a powerful tool!!

And last but not least, all the AMAZING loot they giveaway & what I am sure is to be a lollapalooza of a market place to shop in!!! I had already figured a good amount of $$ would be set aside for that if I were to go!!

So, it they were to pick me, I would be ever so humbly thankful for the enrichment it will bring to my mid-life crisis!! Wish me luck & keep your fingers crossed for me!!