CURRENTLY PLANNING NEXT STEPS AS I CONTINUE FUNDRAISING FOR the Operation Sock Monkey Handbook for youth groups, schools and community organizations GENERAL STRUCTURE FOR WORKBOOK: • Sections • Chapters • Diagrams • Photographs • Resources IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING LIFE SKILLS [Source: Healing the Inner City Child] “Life skills” are defined as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behavior…
Category: Workshop
How-to: step by step drawing technique
Cultural identity project at Byrne Creek Secondary- Gallery #wheatpaste #chinamarker #paint
CULTURAL IDENTITY PORTRAIT PROJECT SESSION 6 OF 7, BYRNE CREEK SCHOOL GR. 8 Recall previous posts about this project: Does wheatpaste work on a ceiling tile? Session 2 of 7 Today we added final touches. 30 Grade 8 students did an extraordinary job on this project. The result illustrates that their true identity lies in connection,…
Cultural Identity Portrait Project Session 2 of 7, Byrne Creek School Gr. 8
No matter what the end goal, it’s witnessing, sharing and experiencing the creative process that drives me.
Does wheatpasting work on a ceiling tile? Hmmm…
I will be facilitating a really exciting Cultural Portrait pilot project at a local high school in a couple of weeks. The plan is for the 30 students to create a street art type ceiling as they explore self and cultural identity. The work is to go on those classic porous school ceiling tiles- you…
“Collages can help us all open up our creative and artistic sides to create a sense of peace…”
Sometimes we get can get lost in simply living life, raising our children, and our everyday responsibilities. We often lose our own identities and forget about the goals and possibilities that we have always wanted to reach. We ignore the creativity of our inner child, setting it aside as trivial and immature. Collages can help…
Some self reflection in my #DIY collage project!
Step 1. Get a square IKEA MALMA mirror. Step 2. Print out (actual size) 4 panels of my piece “Mirror.” (Click on the images for full size. Drag onto desktop, fiddle around with it!) Step 3. They are designed to be pieced together (overlapped) and mod-podged on the square IKEA MALMA mirrors. Step 4. Add your own glitter, paint, words,…
Mind maps integrate both right-brain and left-brain thinking. And you know me- I LOVE them!
Impromptu session mind-mapping with my dear friends, Evelyn and Reem today. So healing. I just love starting in the centre and working our way out. We don’t necessarily know what we are focusing on, but letting it evolve. Mind maps integrate both right-brain and left-brain thinking by capturing your stream of consciousness in a structured…
JOURNAL SERIES Part 5: REFLECTION: ANTICIPATION, PROCESS and AFTERMATH.
I am working on a new journal series to connect with my book Drawn Together- Maintaining Connections and Navigating Life’s Challenges With Art. I am a great believer in sharing my creative process! That is how Drawn Together was created in the first place- through journals and blogposts. As I build the journal series, I…
JOURNAL SERIES Part 4: REFLECTION: esteem heart
REFLECTION: ESTEEM HEART We are all faced with challenges, every day. Some may seem insurmountable. Some keep coming back. Sometimes we find ourselves in the most difficult challenge of our lives (as in my Dad’s stroke), and sometimes just getting out of bed is a challenge, Focus on 3-4 things that are blocking you, that hinder you,…
JOURNAL SERIES ROUGH SKETCHES Part 3: INSPECTION/HISTORY connections
I am working on a new journal series to connect with my book Drawn Together- Maintaining Connections and Navigating Life’s Challenges With Art. I am a great believer in sharing my creative process! That is how Drawn Together was created in the first place- through journals and blogposts. As I build the journal series, I…
Journal Series Part 2b: INSPECTION/HISTORY #roots #photos
I am working on a new journal series to connect with my book Drawn Together- Maintaining Connections and Navigating Life’s Challenges With Art. I am a great believer in sharing my creative process! That is how Drawn Together was created in the first place- through journals and blogposts. As I build the journal series, I will…
Journal Series Part 2a: INSPECTION/HISTORY #roots
I am working on a new journal series to connect with my book Drawn Together- Maintaining Connections and Navigating Life’s Challenges With Art. I am a great believer in sharing my creative process! That is how Drawn Together was created in the first place- through journals and blogposts. As I build the journal series, I will…
Journal Series Part 1: INSPECTION/PRESENT DAY #mindmap
I am working on a new journal series to connect with my book Drawn Together- Maintaining Connections and Navigating Life’s Challenges With Art. I am a great believer in sharing my creative process! That is how Drawn Together was created in the first place- through journals and blogposts. I am inspired by Austin Kleon‘s call to…
Where From Here? Creativity Workshop June 29, 2013!
I am honored and delighted to be be working with my dear friends, Jennifer Lyons and Nancy Kirkpatrick on a new creativity workshop series! Our first workshop: WHERE FROM HERE? JUNE 29, 2013! Do you long to connect with your creativity, rekindle your passion, fuel your purpose and evolve your career but do not know where…
Big-vision visualization #mindmaps inspired by #rightbrainbusinessplan
Recall my journey with visionboards, mindmaps using: My previous posts: For I dipped into the future… Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes. Making the task more me Right-brain entrepreneur Jennifer Lee is a certified coach, writer, artist, yogini, and the founder of Artizen Coaching. Before pursuing her own passions full-time, she consulted for…
Say Yes to Saying No- new book by @LeslieFierling via @InfluencePub! #drawtheline
Last July, I had the pleasure of being in same the InspireABook workshop as Leslie Fierling! She is a dynamic, inspiring, dedicated, focused, no-holds-barred individual. I learned so much about finding my voice simply by spending time with Leslie that weekend. Since then I have witnessed her transformation to author and I am loving calling her…
“Where white is black and black is white, I won.” #graphicnovel study #crowskull
When Crow was white he decided the sun was too white. He decided it glared much too whitely. He decided to attack it and defeat it. He got his strength up flush and in full glitter. He clawed and fluffed his rage up. He aimed his beak direct at the sun’s centre. He laughed himself…
Maybe you mistook me for an angel… #graphicnovel studies and research
Sometimes, the truths that we hold to be fixed in our culture develop a fissure, which widens into a crack, and as we watch, the mirror shatters shard by shard, until nothing is left but fragments of the prejudice lying in disarray at our feet. – Patricia Pearson, Perceptions of Female Violence and the Vocabulary…
… the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul… #graphicnovel study
It rasped her, though, to have stirring about in her this brutal monster! To hear twigs cracking and feel hooves planted down in the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul; never to be content quite, or quite secure. – Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway MOLLY- the graphic novel —
Regarding Molly- importance of working titles and “acting as if…”
As I experiment with marrying text to illustration in my graphic novel, I am working from the end backwards, creating a working title and promotional mockup. Acting as if the book is completed, the project feels organized and allows me to create a skeletal framework on which to flesh out ideas. This framework can then…
The dissonance of text and illustration. Study for #graphicnovel #Molly #BabesintheWoods
MOLLY- the graphic novel —
Shame. Study for #graphicnovel
Recommended reading: — MOLLY- the graphic novel —
I, in fleshy tomb, am buried above ground. Study for #graphicnovel
— Encompass’d with a thousand dangers, Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors….I…in fleshy tomb, am Buried above ground. – William Cowper MOLLY- the graphic novel —
The Babes in the Wood study #graphicnovel
The Babes in the Wood [1] My dear do you know, How a long time ago, Two poor little children, Whose names I don’t know, Were stolen away On a fine summer’s day, And left in a wood, As I’ve heard people say, Poor Babes in the Wood! Poor Babes in the Wood! Oh! don’t…
Take Off the Amber, Put Out the Lamp #graphicnovel #research
Take the day. Immerse. Forget everything else. Read. Sketch. Cocoon. Trust the calling. Today’s resources: Jamison, K.R. (1999) Night Falls Fast- understanding suicide, Vintage Books: New York, NY, USA Malooof, J., ed. (2012) Vivian Maier- Street Photographer, powerHouse Books: New York NY, USA Appignanesi, L. (2007) Sad, Mad and Bad- women and the mind-doctors from…
These three hours that we have spent.. two shadows went along with us… #graphicnovel photoshoot w. @RickLegalPhotos
Recall Photoshoot Dec 3, 2012: A Lecture Upon the Shadow Here are some MEGA TASTY treats from Rick Legal. As an artist/researcher/behavior evidence analyst, these photos fill every cell of my being with joy! It is wonderful to allow a fellow artist the freedom to do his work within the context/limits of a vision. Extraordinary….
A Lecture Upon the Shadow: an evening of collaboration on the #graphicnovel with @RickLegalPhotos and co.
A LECTURE UPON THE SHADOW. by John Donne December 3, 2012 was an evening of collaboration as Jocelyn Louise and Jay Fisher recreated 1947 and main characters from my graphic novel as they were photographed by the extraordinary photographer, Rick Legal, and as the entire process was documented by photographer and colleague, Nancy Kirkpatrick. The book will include…
Naked Ladies Naked Ladies Naked Ladies, by Lynda Barry (Real Comet Press, 1984)
Recall my obsession with my superhero, Lynda Barry. Well, the obsession rages on, fueled by the newest addition to my collection: OMG. It’s spectacular. Each page is a full-page playing card illustration of Lynda’s exploration of female body images. Along the bottom of each page runs a classic Lynda Barry storyline. Charming, funny, tragic. It starts…