California Bound!

Tomorrow I am flying to Irvine, California, for CREATE.  I will be taking 3 classes at the retreat, all from Alisa Burke.  She is a mixed media artist whom I discovered a few years ago at the first CREATE event in Chicago.  She is a prolific blogger as well as an inspiring artist.  I'm so excited about taking classes from her as well as spending time with my best friend.  4 days of art, fun, food and endless conversation are in my future.  Who could ask for anything more?

-christina

Finding my "Thing"

I love astrology.  I think it’s fun, fascinating and often freakishly accurate.  But that’s just me.  I had my chart read recently and I was told that people like me (Virgo in 10 houses) usually have something that they are intuitively good at.  A gift, of sorts.  The astrologer asked me what I thought my gift was.  My response was, “I have no idea.”  So here I am, well into mid-life, and I don’t know what my gift is.  I am sure that I am creative and I feel like that part of me is an undiscovered land where I can find joy and fulfillment.  So I want my gift to be something creative.  That is where I plan to look.

Which brings me to the search for my artistic “thing.”  A few years ago I thought that beading might be my thing, but that is not the case.  Beading was fun but not fulfilling.  I am drawn to creating metal jewelry, but not compelled to really explore that arena.  My “thing” should definitely be compelling, pulling me forward to discover new techniques and to improve my skills.  So I am turning away from jewelry and looking in another direction. 



nojhan, flickr.com



I really like working with paper.  It seems to offer so many possibilities.  I also want to learn about color.  So that is my focus right now.  Paper and color.  Hopefully something special will come from my experimentations because every woman needs to find her “thing” someday.

-christina

Welcome

Hello world. My name is Christina and I am starting this blog to document my current journey.  I think that a person takes many journeys throughout life.  I hope that I have successfully completed a few of my journeys.  The one I am currently navigating is the journey from “crafter” to “”artist.  It is difficult to even define the difference between art and craft, but I feel that I am not an artist yet.  Hopefully I will know when I finally get there.

While growing up I participated in many creative projects with the help of my mother and older sister:  cross-stitch (loved it), knitting (hated it), crocheting (mildly rewarding), sewing (frustrating) and a brief love affair with the Ronco BeDazzler.  As an adult I had many happy years of scrapbooking and then spent a fair amount of time and money beading.  None of these filled my desire to be truly creative so I have embarked on a focused effort to become an artist.  My current medium of choice is paint and paper, but I am still exploring.  I don’t know if I have found my place yet.

Future blog posts will contain my thoughts, my struggles, my successes, some photos, and hopefully guests posts from friends who love art.  I know that I am not the only one on this journey because I have met people like me at art retreats, bead shows, and in everyday life.  I try to gain insight from everyone I meet and now I have a place to share my insights with others. Or maybe this is just a place for me to organize my thoughts.  Who knows what this blog will become?

I’ll be back soon.

-christina