The Impact of Steve Jobs

                 Steve Jobs 1955-2011


With the death of Steve Jobs on Wednesday there are tributes all over Twitter, Facebook and the net. Many of us feel saddened at such a great loss. There are very few people on the planet who were not affected by his life. I felt that I needed to add my thoughts to the mix.


I think that most of us know that Steve founded Apple, gave us Mac computers, iPod, iPhone, iPad. I never realized that he started Pixar too.  Where would animation be without Pixar.   The reason we have all these wonderful fonts is because Steve loved calligraphy. I am grateful for that.  For me it isn't that he did all of these things but it is more who he was as a person and the philosophy that he espoused.


So many of us artists talk about the same things, following your dreams, think out of the box.  We are all saying the same thing.  Here was a man who followed those ideas with gusto and encouraged us to do the same.


Here is the TED talk aka Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford University.  If you have seen this before watch it again, it is that good. Then save it and watch it in those times where you doubt yourself.


Here are a few favorite quotes attributed to Steve.


Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle."    I love this, never settle keep searching for the thing that makes your hearts sing.   

"Have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. "   I so strongly believe this that I wear a necklace that says Follow Your Heart. Its a reminder in case I forget.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”  


This innovator and creative visionary will be sorely missed.

Creative Whirlwind

I truly believe that I have been on a creative whirlwind.  Granted much of that is due to taking Remains of the Day and Layered Expressions, two classes by some very talented ladies. I think its more than that. I have taken other classes and often not completed all the exercises. Sometime its attitude and willingness to put in the necessary time, to let go of expectations, to finally to be able to go that extra mile. To that space where you really start feeling like an artist. I feel like I have arrived there and its a fabulous place to be.

My first pages in what I am calling my grafitti journal. I got the idea from an issue of Art Journal Magazine called My Summer Journal.  In the article the person made a journal in a class and it was all about Summer.  I thought it would be fun to do one for all the seasons. Since its Fall that is where my emphasis lies.  I always admire those pages that are simple and have handwriting on them. Kind of like graffiti.

So I took old book pages and sewed 3 pages together for each of my pages, I am not going to bind the pages until they are all done.   I sewed some things down, and glued and stapled others.  I want these pages to be ones that can been done quickly.

On this page I went through fall colored papers to start off this page. I spent just a few minutes on this one too.  I am liking this fast journaling.  You pick a few things and then you're done.   The paper in this journal is really old and yellowed and its almost like that become part of the design of each of the book.




The beginnings of my cardboard journal that I am making in Katie's class. The covers are cardboard and so are all the pages.  What fun this will be .  More on this on Friday. Can you tell I have been having a blast in this class.


CONTEST WINNERS for my 500th post giveaway were chosen by random number generator.


Poetry Girl - Artella
Anka - Zine by Samantha Kira
Andria - Artful Purpose Zine
Codyrachel's irises - Card Collection
April Cole  - Sketchbooking

Would the winners please send me their addresses so I can get their winnings to them. Thanks to all who entered.

Using Encaustic Wax

This is my set up to do encaustic wax,  I am using a melting pot and a quilting iron, I also used a heat gun. The wax took quite awhile to heat up. This was my first try at this technique.

The original painting before wax.






















and the painting after wax, the color seems so much richer now.  Oh I love working with wax.

My collage in process using the magazine pages and nevrDull.

The second phase, it is not really that blue, the color is more subtle.

This closeup is more the color. Now I need to figure out what I will do next. I think I will look at it for a few days and see what emerges.

Sunday Sketches

The official Sunday sketchers was cancelled today due to Sophia's loss of her father.  I had already done a sketch so here she is.  Have a great day.  I am off to watch the Packers, I'll be spinning some yarns so something creative will happen with all the sitting.  I have new art to show you tomorrow.

Lots of Experimentation

Ah its Friday already, just where did the week go?

This is a collage I made in my Strathmore WC journal. I chose 3 main elements, a person place and a thing, I like to think that the lady is looking down that long railroad track to her future, to the unknown.  The crow is their as her guide, to help her make that first step, to know she is not alone.

This was a little experiment with some new tape I bought recently. After I laid down the greeting card I covered in clear gesso. It gives you a gritty service that you can write on and it takes charcoal really well.

In class we are doing experiment with NevrDull and magazines.  This is so much fun. NevrDull is a wadding polish that you use to rub off the ink.

Some of the part of the pages turn out great and some don't, which doesn't matter since I'll be cutting them up for collage.

Underneath the paper I am putting stamps, embossed wallpaper and other textured items. I even used embossing folders. I have been scouring the house looking for more texture ideas. This was a picture of a towel.

I love how these flowers now sort of look like people.

These were jewels and now they look really cool. I could play with these all day.

 I plan to work in the studio today on several projects and then on Saturday to take part in Massive Action Day Its for writing but I imagine you could use it on any project. I don't plan on doing all 8 hours but I do plan on spending some time on getting some serious writing done.  Check it out and join us if you can.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

In my household I will have to share that we are a little obsessed with Laini Taylors Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I have been following Laini Taylor for years, just love the way she writes. I loved her mid grade novels Blackbringer and Silksinger, and then she wrote the Lips Touch:Three times which was a National Book Award finalist.  We've heard her talk about this new book from its inception and are so excited its finally available.

 We had pre-ordered the book through Amazon but found the book at Barnes and Noble way before its release date. So we had to take a picture.

A couple days later our package arrived, Sarah carefully opened it.

and here it is the long awaited book.

Oh look there is another copy, yes we each had to have our own copy. In reading Laini's blog all this time we followed her journey through her pre-pub tour and was amazed at all Little Brown, the publisher was doing for her.  Sarah's comment at the time was, I think her book will get a cardboard cutout.  Very few Young  Adult novels get this honor.

and  later that week we saw this.  Yes, Sarah had gotten it right.

So now you may wonder does the book live up to all the hype.  Oh Yes it does, its fantastic.  I finished it on Wednesday, gave it five stars on my Goodreads review.  If you never read YA novels I recommend giving this one a try. It really is that good. You can also head over to Laini's blog and read the first five chapters of the book.  Just click on the link in the sidebar. I know you will love it.

500th Post Giveaway

Its my 500th post for this incarnation of my blog and I haven't had a give away in a while so here's the bounty. There are a series of zines, a magazine a book and a collection of cards to be used for collage. Instead of giving all this to one person I am going choose five winners.

  First we  have an issue  of Artella's magazine which is full of great articles.

A zine by Samantha Kira-Harding  aka Journal Girl which includes a  interview with Robin-Marie Smith.

A zine by Gina Armfield, with several interviews and articles on Art Journaling.

A collection of cards that will be great for collage in art journals or paintings.  You get at least twenty cards and a few envelopes, plus I may throw in a few extra collage items.



And last I've got a copy of sketchbooking the book by Barbara Stetcher.

So what do you need to do to win one of these, just leave a comment on this post and I will pick a winner on October 5th,

More Art from Layered Impressions Class

I have a couple more pieces to share from the Layered Impressions class I have been taking

This mermaid was done on a wood panel I got at Michaels.  I started with molding paste and then added pastel,  a mix of marble dust and gel medium.   The I drew her with a graphite crayon, I used a stamp as the model for her. I painted her in fluid and heavy bodied acrylics.  I added a little stamping too. The scales were drawn with a micron pen.

This piece was created on a 12 x 12 piece of watercolor paper. First the collage pieces were laid down.

Then I added some pan pastels in several areas  and then a thin layer of gesso over the entire piece.

Then I used acrylics to change some things and highlight others.  I added more collage items and more gesso and paint.

Additional finishing was created with colored pencils and my black stablio pencil. My inspiration for the piece was the bond between me and my dog and how I felt when he came home after he had been lost for a day. I used images of portals and home and a weather vane to show him finding his way back to me, his way back home.

I am so loving this class.  Katie's teaching style is laid back and I love that.  The other artists are all supportive too.  What a great time I am having.