Play Big!

Detail of an Illustration (by Melani Grube) of a woman playing a very large string bass, a ribbon-framed corner and a flurry of butterflies emerging from the strings.

  How are you enjoying your Saturday? Let me encourage you to: Play Big! Work, rest or play, let’s put everything we’ve got into each day,  and we will make a difference in our lives and the world around us. Fiddle on.

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The Art of the Flat Lay

A flat lay of mystical images, color studies, patterns, handlettering, ribbons, gathered from a mood board.

  What is a flatlay? A flat lay is a photo of an assortment of items laid on a flat surface (thus, flat lay). The photo is most often taken from directly above the items. The surface serves as the background to the photo. The objects usually describe a theme, like “a day at the…

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Pen and ink portrait of Native American heroine Sacagawea with her infant son on her back. Blue ink and blue wash featured.

  Happy Mother’s Day! In developing a pen and ink portrayal of Sacagawea, one famous mother, I created a lot of “good try’s” (those images that didn’t make the grade). First off, I was working from my imagination, because there are no photos of Sacagawea. There is a painting of her with Lewis and Clark,…

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Creative Exploration of the Woman in the Red Beret

Detail from the flat lay for The Woman in the Red Raspberry Beret painting. Possessions shown include French poetry book, lipstick, iphone earbuds, eyebrow shade kit, sketchbook, pen, wrist bangles.

  Do you like flat lays? I love using flat lays as part of my art process. They help me throughout the process, before I start, during the creation of, and after I’ve finished the painting. (I also love flat lays for flat lays’ sake.) This flat lay told me so much about the personality…

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Woo Your Muse

Hand-lettered, "Woo Your Muse", on a white to light blue gradient background.

  Your inspiration for the week: Woo Your Muse. And unfortunately for me, this is exactly what I am NOT doing right now. Instead, I’m nose-deep in preparing my taxes. But I’ll have to write more about the muse, one of my favorite subjects, after I’ve recorded my 80 billionth receipt and got the whole…

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