Bloom True Experience

Funny how the little things like receiving a package can alter your whole week to a much better direction. :)
    
     On February 6th 2012 I was excited to be a part of a great experience. I was about to start my Bloom True E-Course with Flora Bowley. It was an early birthday gift to myself and I knew I needed this course not only to guide me in my art but also to reassure myself that even if it may be rocky at times my path in being an artist and knowing that within me is a real experience. I have to say Flora was the perfect instructor for that, to show us that not all the time do you always have to plan what comes out in your painting but to be intuitive and to learn from our own selves what we love and what we are drawn to and what grounds us.

     Since then we experienced another shift in our household. And emotional one. In March right after the class ended I ended up getting really sick off something I ate and had a very intense allergic reaction. My husband happened to be gone and thankful for a great friend to help bring me to the Emergency Room of our military post which was 20 miles away from where I live. The reaction was so bad that they actually had to cut my wedding ring off my finger or else I would lose blood circulation to that finger. It took a week to recover and even feel a bit normal then we got hit with the news not even a couple weeks after of my father in law passing away. Still sick and Bo finally being home we had to last minute rush to drive down to the Coast of Mississippi to not only attend but to also be part of the funeral. At that point my paintings should have been finished but it was hard to paint when your mind is not all together there and your are hurting both physically and emotionally. My journals then saw most of my work. It was easier to vent my feelings that way and to remind myself that this is all a part of life and at some point this gray area in our life will have to pass. 

     It is now May. Our schedules have been hectic with me finishing my spring college semester (which by the way I have a 4.0! A's in all my classes and rocked my finals) and all the events leading up to Nick's graduation. So to even have any time to my art work seems to be hiding in the corner. My paintings sit right in my living room to remind me to finish them, and believe me I really want to but the motivation was lost and I feel as that if I approach the canvas with the stress and negativity that has surrounded me lately, that I would just ruin the happy layers already on it.

    This morning the doorbell rang and sat at my doorstep was a package. Flora Bowley's new book that I was gifted due to being in her workshop had come!!! The excitement and the yearning to paint came flooding through me as I flipped through the pages of her book. I even made time today for some small projects and will leave reading the rest of the book before I head to bed so that I can have all those beautiful thoughts in my head to push me to work on more art tomorrow before my summer class starts tomorrow night. Thank you Flora for how you communicate with us through writings, your art and of course your personality and how you give us the confidence to just be who we really are. I am very thankful to all the artists whose workshops I have taken this year to do the same. It is that support group I never thought existed has really kept my head up and pushed me to keep on even if I only most of these artist friends online. One day we will meet in person.

     So here are the progressions of the two canvases I have been working on since the start of Flora Bowley's Bloom True class:

I have worked more on it since the last picture but have not taken any pictures of the progression. I was going through one of those moments where I was frustrated and stuck. But now with her book in my hands I hope that her insight and guidance will once again put me in that perspective to create and with that have what will be the end result to the two canvases. :) Again thank you to Flora Bowley. If you want to know more about her and her work here is her blog: http://florabowley.typepad.com/
and website:   http://www.florasbowley.com/
Go take a peek she is a very talented and awesome artist. :)

Spring, Jewelry, and Journals

I was so happy that spring came early this year. It was March when we were starting to have mild and warm weather already. I guess that could also stem from our winter not being so harsh this year. The temperature was getting warmer and buds started showing up on trees. My rock garden grasses came alive and my Azalea bushes started blooming. Then all of a sudden after some rain a cold front came through. We even woke up one of the mornings with frost on the ground. This then kept me from buying more flowers to pot because I didn't want them dying but I was just happy everything was still blooming and turning green despite the chilly weather.

Rainy days in spring give me the chance to re-organize. My art room so badly needed that since I had neglected it the last weeks. There was so much happening in our household and hurried trip down to the Gulf Coast for a funeral didn't give me much time to just create. So when I had the chance I redid my art room to accommodate a beading table again so that my new pieces can start materializing. I found this vintage inker's tray at a antique shop and knew if I left with it I had to make it functional.

I found a way.......and made it into a functional piece. I cut up one of my velvet pads for jewelry and put them in the spaces after I cleaned the tray so that I can store my semiprecious stones, copper,silver finding and pearls in plain sight. Right now it is still a work in progress putting what I need in their correct spaces. It sits right by the table I will be doing most of my work on.

With a new organized space it sparked the motivation to go through and inventory my glass jewelry and upload to Etsy sets for sale so that I can make room for newer pieces to come. Here are few examples of what is in my Etsy shop.

I have also been working in my handmade journals which I learned from Msity Mawn in her Open Studio workshop and filling them up with not only her assignments but also visual journaling from Judy Wise's Journal Workshop. I am still in the process of making more handmade journals so I can travel with them. So here is a peek at some of them and what is inside.

Well the rain is coming down again. At least it is watering our grass. We were busy today picking up Nick's tuxedo for Prom and other tidbits for his senior events coming up and still working away at my last homework and finals for my classes. This month has already flown by! Trying to savor every minute that Nick is still with us on the last weeks of his senior year. So with that I will close with a slide show I received of his Senior pictures from a great and talented local photographer Kirstie Goodman with pictures of Nick around our historic downtown Elizabethtown. Enjoy and have a beautiful night.


http://video214.com/play/FlncWZJXrp2fdx2f6jkQlA/s/dark

Hello!! I am back!

April 21, 2012
Hi,
I hope everyone has been having a great start of the year. I know it's practically halfway through. I can't believe it is already April! Our family has not only been busy as usual but so much has hit us that I honestly wasn't motivated to write about it, but spring is in the air and hope for new beginnings or a brighter future is in the horizon. Hopefully little by little I can get you all updated.

First things first with the family...

Boys have been succeeding in school. Both went to State for wrestling and had a great season. It was emotional for me knowing that Nick's last match at State was going to be the last time I ever see him wrestle and it was the last time he shared the mat with his brother. Nick is graduating this year and we are so proud of him because he was awarded a scholarship from Western Kentucky University. All the hard work of keeping outstanding grades and actually making school important paid off. Jared is also doing great and is looking forward to his senior year. I am proud of both of them for still doing well despite all our military moves and all the events that have impacted our household from Bo's deployment to deaths in the family.

Boys at Ft. Knox Invitational (Nick took 3rd, Jared took 4th)

Regionals-Nick took 3rd and Jared took 4th both qualified for State.

Our 2012 State Qualifiers

Good luck collage made for the boys.

Our Family at Spring Wrestling banquet 2012

Our 2012 Central Hardin HS Varsity Team

Boys and their Coaches.

Nick's Senior Collage

Collages I made for the Coaches.

This March a year and a couple days to the day of celebrating my Mother in Law's anniversary my Father in law passed away. It was very emotionally for us and I know hit Bo hard, that is now both parents gone. We rushed down to the coast to make sure all was done right for the funeral and to be a part of it. I didn't think my kids would be pallbearers this young but I know they were proud to carry the casket of a wonderful man. The only thing that gets us through is the thought that he is now with Mom, but that doesn't mean we do not miss them both dearly.

The last picture the boys took with their grandparents.

We will miss you dearly Dad. Charles Coffell Sr. 8-19-1942 to 3-24-2012

Updates on me..
I am still a busy Mom. Making collages for our seniors and handing Cd's to the kids of pictures I take throughout the season. I am still going to college to attain my certification in the billing section of the health field and will continue on to attached that degree to my Bachelor's working towards my Master's. My night classes are late at night online due to taking the classes from University of Alaska Southeast in Sitka but I make it work and carry a 4.0 right now. I will actually be ending this semester in less than a month and starting a new class in May for the summer.

Besides all that I have been busy taking online workshops! I started the year with Misty Mawn's Open Studio and I am still working through some of her assignments. She was such a breath of fresh air and such an inspiration. The workshop itself was filled with such supportive and creative people that I wish one day we can finally meet.




I then went on to take Flora Bowley's Brave Intuitive You Workshop and was immersed and so taken by not only Flora but her work and her approach to painting. I am still in the middle of working on two of my canvases and will be sharing my progression soon.




Then I just ended a Journal workshop with Judy Wise who not only showed us great techniques but was my lifesaver when we traveled to Mississippi's Gulf Coast for my Father in law's death. Without my journal I probably would have lost my sanity. LOL! Now it is a common daily ritual to write or visual journal everyday.



I have more workshops in the near future and excited because one of them will be working with jewelry. :) I will be sure to keep you posted on those. I am very thankful for the internet when it comes to these online workshops because with my lifestyle right now I can't travel to every retreat so being able to do a workshop in the comfort of my own home has been really nice.

Well I will not drown you with all this writing, I will slowly share with you all my art progressions. :) I am happy to be back and look forward to a better rest of the month for my family. We have so much to be grateful for and so many positive things in the near future to look forward to.

Bo and I April 2, 2012

My handsome guys.

I hope you stop by and say hello. I sure have missed coming on here.