It's Time To Play

Here is an invite to play a game of round robin. This is a new game for me that I found through Karen Tessandore, one of the creative ladies from the art nest retreat. She found it from Julie Thompson, another one of the incredible creative ladies from art nest. Here is how it works. The first three people that post the comment "I want to Play" here on my blog will receive a package in the mail that contains an artsy gift handmade by me. The package will arrive sometime in the next couple of months. It will be very special in hopes to brighten your day. What you need to do in turn is pass on the giving by posting the same round robin idea on your blog and send out some creative goodies to three other people that want to play too. Please remember to make sure that I have your mailing address (if you don't want to post it here leave me a comment on my web site http://www.carynduncan.com/ on the contact page and it will be privately sent to my mailbox.) Have fun and play!

Happy First Day Of Spring

A big warm welcome to the first day of Spring. What a pleasure to sit outside while eating my lunch. The birds were singing and it was warm enough in the sunshine to venture out with just a long sleeve shirt and vest. Oh how I am so ready for warmer weather and the change of seasons. I had fun with the little ones at the preschool making spring watercolor landscape paintings. They are so cute and say the sweetest things. Then I headed over to the studio and had an amazing day in sales of my paintings and prints. Selling my artwork is always like frosting on the cake. It is so heartwarming when people come in and fall in love with my work. When others show their true appreciation its such a boost to my spirits. Plus now I have the room to make some new art to fill the empty spots on my studio walls. It also planted the seed that I need to work on my marketing so that I can make purchasing my artwork a little more accessible. Time to revamp the web site and submit some articles to a few of my fav mixed media magazines. Spring is definitely the time to spread my wings, branch out and say YES to new adventures in an ever blossoming artistic life.

Avoid Botox Cut Bangs Self Portrait

I did a silly thing, I cut bangs to cover up my wrinkles. It's my botox solution. I don't know what I was thinking. The impulse was brought on by sallow looking winter skin and the desire to look youthful at the age of 40. This first words out of Brian's mouth "You don't like bangs." I used to wear them as a girl and they do make me feel kind of girlish. Hair grows, that's the beauty of it, always changing. For now I'll just embrace the new look and wait until my next hair cut to see what my stylist says. Lesson learned: embrace life in all stages. It always has something new to offer. Flaunt it with style and sass and enjoy!

Working with Kelly Rae's 3 Second Rule and a Journal Page Dedicated to Kate's 13th Bday!

Last week while teaching my art journal class, I was demonstrating Kelly Rae's three second rule for creating a patchwork background. I struggled with the whole 3 second rule during the art nest retreat. I am so used to carefully choosing my colors and patterns of paper that I incorporate into my work. I was amazed how Kelly could just randomly grab a piece of paper, tear it and paste it to her background in just about 3 seconds. Her results were beautiful!

I went into the art nest retreat with the intention of placing myself in the roll of the student, not the teacher, and tried my hardest to follow the instruction. So I did best to let go and just randomly pick my papers. My end result was not all I had hoped for. I seemed to cover most of my patterns and images with paint.So I knew I needed some more practice with this technique. Much to my delight, my results here brought to life a background that I decided to use to dedicate to Kate turning thirteen. When I was finished I had a beautiful background with a birthday cake image still left glowing through a transparent layer if colorful paint. Next came the words to share how wonderful and privileged I feel being Kate's mom.

So here is to life as a mom of a wonderful person who turns 13 today on Friday the 13Th. I am so lucky and blessed share a journey in life with you Kate. I love you sweetie!

Back From the Art Nest

Wow what a week, I returned home this past Monday from my trip to the art nest in Utah and my head is still spinning. It is so hard to jump back into the real world after having three full days of making art and having all our needs taken care of by Julie and Candice, the two amazing women who put together our cozy nest retreat. I entered my world during the tail end of the big snowstorm we had here on the east coast. It was so wonderful to be back to my home, even though I was enjoying the early spring like weather with pansies planted and tulips budding in Salt Lake City. I have never felt such home sick feelings as I did during this trip. It really made seeing my sweet Kate, Brian and pets so emotional for me. Today was the first day that I actually felt like I could start breathing again. Brian, Buddy and I went to Kingman farm for a lovely cross country ski. Then we returned back home and sat on our front porch to enjoy some down time in the afternoon sunshine. I took some time also to download my photos from the art nest and posted them on flickr. I feel a bit more grounded and ready to process my whole experience from the art nest. I am looking forward to sitting back and creating in my art journal tomorrow to put down and release what I learned about myself from this whole experience.