I love going to estate and yard sales, also I love finding Thrift shops.  It is a passion that was started in the 2nd grade.  Mother and I attended a PTA meeting that was also a fundraiser.  There I fell in love with and purchase  a glass candle holder for a nickle, been hooked ever since.  I still have the candle holder and it has a mate that mother found years ago…….sorry I side tracked.  Anyway yesterday I visited an estate sale.  I only purchase few little things.  Some blue lace, few old photos and two old journals that was mostly blank pages ( I was more interested in the aged paper).  To my surprise those two journals were University of Florida (UF)  class assignments of a young Armenian man in the 1920′s.  He wrote of his life before coming to the USA.

Armenia

The recapture was so sad and I wonder why he only wrote of that topic.  This morning it came to me, that sad life of war was what he had grown up in and yet there was still a message of hope in his writing. I am not sure what I will do with these writting but feel that some how they should be presevered.  Monday when I go back to work at UF I’m going to do some research.

So what is the JOY of finding something so sad.  For me it reminds me of how lucky my family has been through the ages and the institution that I have worked at for 20 years is more that education and research but also give people a new life.

Thank you for visiting and stay tune to future discoveries of JOY.

So I’ve started a new online course Big Dreams Small Wonders and I’m having a slow start because my computer was down, however so far I like the class and look forward to the balance of the class.

Another resource I’ve discovered is the Somerset magzines.  These magzines are great, they have rekindled my love of old /vintage items + art.   So off to thrift stores, yard and estate sales and I’ve found some neat items that I will be photographing soon.  So stay tuned!!!

For those who wanted a reviewed of the “soul full” e-course.   Catherine Just is just fantastic in this course.  The content is a very good mixture of photography and spiritual thought.  The people she chose for interviews really enhance the over all experience.  My two favorite people were Don Miguel Ruiz and Sheri Rosenthal, mostly because I know Sheri and I’ve read all of Miguel’s books.  I highly recommend the class and following Catherine Just on her new website I know I will.

Soon I will be posting more photos….look forward to your visits.

Willene

Changing this website has taken me a very long time.  I will have to admit the learning curve was high and I still have more to learn.  If any of you are considering having a blog/website there are lots and lots of sites online to view and get ideas.  As this sites grows I will post links to blogs I personally enjoy.

During my research for making this site I discovered there are wonderful blogs by artist that are informative and encouraging.  I smile when I think about the supportive avenues available to everyone.

Soon I will also have an Etsy site to sell my heart art…..its just so exciting!!!!

So stay tune.

Love, Willene

I have always been amazed at the wealth of information available on the internet and thrilled with the many many available ecourses.   As an artist my heart glows with the available support to all stages of artist.  The communities of women artist on the internet is so wonderful.   As a woman artist I speak from experience these supports were not available when I was in my 20′s.   It is just nothing short of …….lovely.

More posts to come on my new ecourse.

What I Wish I’d Known Then

How many times have you said, “I wish I’d known then what I know now?” I say it (to myself) a lot, because I feel that I wasted half a lifetime waiting until I knew more before I took any action. I wanted to know everything there was to know so that I would save time and save face by doing it right the first time.

Turns out there is only one thing that I know now that I needed to know back then – you find the know-how you are seeking purely by taking action. Really. It is just that simple. In fact, it’s so simple we disregard it.

And here’s the golden nugget, an even greater bit of wisdom that I have acquired – when something comes easy to you, when it feels very natural to you, you try to complicate things by thinking that it should be harder than it is or that you’re missing something because, well, it can’t really be that easy, can it?

Yes it can.

Let’s take making art for example. It comes naturally. God forbid a toddler should get her hands on a mark-making device because, turn your back and, before you know it, her mark will be on every surface below 36 inches. We call it scribbling – this joy in making marks. It’s innate. It doesn’t have to mean anything, it doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be.

But what’s the first thing we hear in the midst of all this happy mark making?

“No!”

For sanity’s sake, our mothers, and later our teachers, reign us in and allow us to create only at the appropriate time on the appropriate surface in the appropriate location. What came naturally and easily now has rules. Add in several years of school and another innate need, to compare ourselves to others, and what came so free and easily to us gets tied and bound in rules, self-doubt and the need to know more. For many, most probably, the joy of mark-making never surfaces again.

If you are reading this most likely you have found the courage to make your mark again. Congratulations brave soul! But I’m also guessing that all that baggage tied to mark making is still attached. Perhaps you have even turned into your mother, allowing your self-expression only at the appropriate time on the appropriate surface in the appropriate location.

I don’t know about you, but I look longingly at photos of painters studios and breathe in the air of freedom that exists in these spaces. There’s paint on the floor, paint on their pants, paint in their hair and on doorknobs and chairs. That’s the ultimate in mark-making in my book. They are the mistresses of their spaces. It is a kingdom where mark-making reigns, where it is as natural and free as that day they took that first crayon in hand. For them it is still that simple.

Somewhere in between is the space you and I reserve for making our mark – be it on the kitchen table, bed or in dedicated studio space. The physical space, yes, but also the mental space. Where are you? Are you still in your head trying to think the art? What more do you need to know?

I had a conversation with one of my private coaching clients this morning. In our last call, I advised her to just play, to create, with no agenda in mind – no need to be perfect or saleable, clean or neat – and most importantly to not over think.

“It’s amazing what I can accomplish when I get out of my own way,” she said to me today. It doesn’t yet happen for her every time, but she’s had a taste of the child again and she knows she can get back to that sweet spot. Not by thinking about it, by reading more or by taking another class, but by doing. Spontaneous, joyful mark-making for no reason.

Add that to her years of experience and all of the other beneficial rules of art making that she has accumulated, and before she knows it, she’ll find her way to the sweet spot again and will create what she’s been looking for all along – making her mark on the world.

Here’s a playful exercise to help get you to that point:

The Sweet Spot

Materials:

Box of crayons

Piece of newspaper

1 sheet of copy paper (scrap is OK)

Scissors

1. Open the newspaper to its largest size.

2. Open the box of crayons. Smell them. Remember your first box.

3. Scribble all over the paper. Change colors or use one color. You’re in charge. Do this for a full minute or more.

4. Take your sheet of paper and cut 2 large Ls to make a viewfinder (see photo).

5. Using your viewfinder, find a nice little composition on your scribble page. This is your sweet spot. It’s OK to slide the Ls to enlarge or decrease your view until you find it. When you find it, trace it and cut it out.

6. Now click here to find the lesson in all of this.

Want to use this article on your website or in your own ezine?
No problem! But here is what you MUST include:

Lesley Riley, The Artist Success Expert, is the creative founder of Artist Success, Solutions for the Struggling Artist. To receive her bi-weekly articles on creating your own success as an artist, visit  www.ArtistSuccess.com.

Sooooooo tonight I submitted a photo to the Peace Project International.  It’s a project taking steps for world peace and I really support that concept. There will be 150 artist selected and each piece will be assembled into a collage that will be on exhibition in Southern California before traveling to San Francisco, New York and London.  Wish me luck!!!

Peace Project International entry

This post is the beginning of starting anew with my blog. Currently I am enrolled in a wonderful e-course by Kelly Rae Roberts(button below) The course title is “Flying Lessons”and I am really impressed with the information. The course addresses obstacles artist confront to develope our art and creating a creative business. One avenue to creating a creative biz is through the internet ie why I am changing my format on this blog. Stayed tuned…more changes are coming.
Willene Johnson, artist..photographer…writer.