Creative Cycles

It seems like I am never tied down to one artistic technique. You know how lots of artists have that signature "style" or craft that they just do beautifully? It seems like I haven't found that for myself yet. Not to say that my work hasn't evolved since I began collage work four years ago, or that I haven't found any one thing that I really connect with (like art journaling), but my creative process always seems to go from paper art to jewelry to card making to scrapbooking to...well, whatever else it goes to. Like the past few days, I've been finding myself wanting to make jewelry, which I haven't done much of in the past nine months or so. But hey, if that's where I feel inspired, that's what I'll do. I still have a ton of my little glass pendants, so maybe I'll work on making complete necklaces/bracelets out of them.

And on a side note, I've been trying to keep up with Stampington & Co.'s nine billion publications, all of which are fabulous. The one I bought most recently is Somerset Home, which details a bunch of home crafty projects that are just superb.

The other one that I've been reading is Artful Blogging, which is a new publication that features artists' blogs, tips, techniques and hints for how to keep an art blog.

This magazine has articles by "emerging" artists (ie., people I don't see regularly in Somerset Studio magazine) Patty Van Dorin, Michelle Ensminger, Tracie Lyn Huskamp, Andrea Singarella and many, many others. I highly recommend grabbing a copy.

Go out and make stuff! I'm off to bed.

On what I've been up to

It seems that when I start to sell art, I start to create based on what will sell, not what I consider to be my artistic truth. Then I realize what I'm doing and feel awful, and start expressing myself "naturally" again, therefore stopping any "production for sale" process. UGH! So many other artists seem to have found a very comfortable balance between personal and business art, and I'm having a tough time of it. I guess the solution would be to just keep on working on what I've started, and be patient. I don't want to make things that look machine-made or mass-produced, but I'd also like to get my stuff out there. I need to keep taking creative risks, and use what "works" in what I sell, right?

Other than that, I'm loving my brand new copy of Somerset Life, which, ironically enough, features an article on creative blogging, interviewing Corey Amaro, Michelle Ward, and Hanne Matthiesen. Also, Amanda Belle Nolan has written a fabulous article on paper cone gift wrapping and display--have I mentioned that I have 3 or 4 of those lying around? Anyway. Check it out, I picked up a copy at Barnes and Noble.