Hello dear friends...bet you think I fell off the face of the earth, didn't you? I practically did I have to admit. I feel like I totally lost a month or two of my life actually and in some ways I did. I have been so distracted lately on something I never should have been distracted with in stead of creating art, I almost created a mess of my life. I did find my way back here and there....but I forgot what matters most to me and that is my kids and my art....so now that the distraction that almost sucked the life out of me has been removed, I started to create again...and teach...and plan for future teaching adventures, and get up in the morning and paint and be happy about it.....it's amazing how someone or something can do so much damage in such a short time. If I only knew then what I know now...but it's neither here nor there....what is a head is the future and I can see that there is a lot of light in the distance, I just need to walk towards it again with the same sense of determination and motivation I had a couple months prior.
The first picture above features some of my new style of GRAFFIT Sweet HeARTs (my original style was featured in Cloth Papers Scissors back in 2009 but they've grown up now and are even more special and unique!) which will be featured at one of my evening classes at
Create in New Jersey! See good things are ahead!
More good things....we had a blast at my class at Swank in Southern Pines, NC during my Valentine's Day class "Sweet and Shabby HeARTS" we got our hands dirty, made unique wall art and had fun.
As an artist, there are many things you can |CHOOSE to do with your career, and one of my main goals in my profession, my passion, my love...is to share that passion with others and pass on the power of creativity through uplifting and happy art.
Art can Save....I'm reminded of that constantly.
It has saved many time and time again
It will continue to save...if you let it.
Life gets messy sometimes. Very messy. But the mess can be cleaned up...it can be washed off and life will go on even if you have to start over again, and again, and again...(thanks for that reminder JS).
Thinking about it....looking at these hands I see now that the mess is there for a reason....eventually beauty is created from getting our hands dirty and going through the hard parts.
Even when we think it may never come together and be what we envisioned....if you forge through and get past the mess....there's beautiful, beautiful things waiting for you at the end.
I'm trying to live and breathe my words. Things did get messy for me this month. But I woke up recently form the tangled webs of nonsense that I let pollute my life and started
Painting my Life Happy.......
Truthfully I never stopped being happy during this period of distraction. In fact, I was probably happier then I have been in a long time. That illusion though was a false illusion...kinda like eating a hundred chocolate bars and loving every minute of it, but that indulgence doesn't feed you...in fact if you let it it could even poison you and that which you thought was so good was in fact so bad.
And then you are in a daze because of the sugar high and make decisions you wouldn't have normally because you are almost transported into someone that you aren't and someone that would normally have known better. Damn sugar, its so evil...LOL
Coming down from that sugar high i have been on so to speak i want to kick myself and kick myself a million times. Instead...I painted. and painted...and created some really wonderful things. I need to do more of it.
But I need to do it and keep moving forward, know that getting messy is part of life, and walk into the light with one eye opened at all times. Enjoying the fruits along the way but do so without the blindness that I had before.
I know this is a little riddle like...its only because i want to share somethings but in a lot of ways it's all to painful to really talk about.
I just want to tell myself and anyone else that cares to listen, I'm back...and I'm better than I have ever been before.
There's no stopping the forward movement now. I can guarantee you that!.
God works in mysterious ways...I was chatting with one of my best friends about the circle of destruction i was in....crying my eyes out.....and really only holding on by a thread...i had told her that I dont even think I can paint anymore and I have ruined everything by this whole choatic event (to me)....and then I got another phone call beeping in.....and it was dear Frances from Splash Festivals to tell me that I had won a poster contest for the
Dunwoody Art Festival!!! So I will be the featured artist for the Mother's Day weekend show in Dunwoody Art Festival with this painting of mine.
The title of it is Goodness Rules.
How ironic? Just when I thought I would have to give up and could barely muster the strength to go on....the phone calls came in...the emails that were sent to me later the next day during another week moment of mine came from a friend I hadn't heard from in months....and she sent me a chain mail message that normally I dont read and don't pass on but I read it that day....
And it said these words:
God has seen you struggling with something. God says its OVER. A Blessing is coming your way...
Again.. a message i needed to hear....and then I got a text from another friend shortly after that...saying she had been lifting me up in her prayers.
I'm listening now. I understand......I can go on and the messy part is over. I can mend. I can take back what was lost and move on.
In the end....HE is watching over all of us..and sees all. I take comfort in that.
So today I write to you after a long break and want to tell you to
create even when you don't want to.
Reach out to your friends and family if you can because they will hold you up when you can barely walk anymore.
Have faith that life does go on even when you stumble and fall. You can get up.
Paint your life happy. That's what I intend to do....please join me.
All my best, Jodi
*****
Be sure to stop by my
Etsy shop to see whats new and in the shop this week!!
Celebrating Artful Gathering 2012 Online Art Retreat,
Open for Registration!
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I tend to use lines, cross-hatching and dots to fill those spaces that others aren't speaking to me.
Come...take a look at snippets from my artsy week :)