Today, it was back to work at 8:00 am to sit and listen to some ladies from the ISD talk to us about 6 traits writing. I really love writing. It was one of my favorite subjects to teach when I taught 4th/5th grade several years ago. But now that I teach art, its not really something I am going to be able to use. So it was a long day, and sometimes seemed like such a waste of time. The ladies who presented were actually pretty good with the material. They did a lot of interactive stuff with us, and heck, we even got to play with play-dough for one of the activities, so I really can’t complain too much. Right before lunch, I started getting kind of tired, so to keep myself alert, I drew the Tradewinds tea bottle that belonged to the teacher sitting across from me. Didn’t feel comfortable pulling out my journal though, as I was sitting pretty close to the presenter, so I drew on my handout, hoping I wouldn’t be noticed too much.

I mentioned I was working on some art goals for 2006…Here they are:

1. Draw in my journal everyday
2. Write in my journal everyday
3. Redo my website/blog
4. Make more books – maybe to sell
5. Create an altered book – or maybe redo my Italy Journal as an Altered Book Journal
6. Spend more time creating
7. Spend less time on the computer
8. Get a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook and fill it with paintings
9. Keep a travel journal of our entire trip (4 days) to Florida
10. Learn how to use my new camera better
11. Do 2 larger works of art that could be entered into shows
12. Enter work into 1 show
13. Regularly get together with artist friends to feed my creative spirit
14. Catch up on scrapbooking
15. Paint Sam’s sideshow banners

Marian asked me to comment more about Waterhouse’s work and about altering his artwork…
Actually, I had never even heard of Waterhouse prior to signing up for this swap and I know very little about him as an artist. I signed up for the Artist Trading Card swap because he is a painter and after I looked at some of his work on the internet, I thought it might be a fun swap so I joined in. I am not in the habit of altering other artists’ work and trying to pass it off as my own, in case anyone was wondering. The intentions here are purely to have fun and be creative…which I think I accomplished. I did not come up with the theme for this swap, but I know the person who did, and she chose Waterhouse’s work because she loves his paintings, and she wanted to see what other people would do with them. If you want to know more about artist trading cards, check this link. I hope that answers Marian’s and anyone elses questions.

Tonight I worked on some ATCs again…finally. They are for a swap called Altered Waterhouse… John William Waterhouse, that is. It took me a while to get into it…but here are my favorite three. The first is from his painting, Narcissus, the second, The Crystal Ball and the third, The Lady of Shalott. These atcs were really fun to make, it was good to spend some time being creative again.

Happy New Year to all of you! I have been working on my goals for 2006, to be posted tomorrow. So until then…