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For Keifer

Monday, February 18th, 2008 by Alyice

Keifer is a 15 year old boy with multiple handicaps, one of them being that he must see everything close up. He watches DVDs on a small player that he holds in his hands as he pushes his face close to the screen so when I began work on his canvas, I had to keep that in mind. For Keifer, less was definitely more.

When his beloved Lady Beasley died last year, it was heartbreaking for the entire family, but even more so for Keifer. She was more than his pet; she was his companion and best friend.

When I began creating this collage, I had every intention of doing it as a mixed media abstract painting, but after painting the background an entirely new story came to life. I could just envision Keifer sitting under a tree with Lady Beasley by his side. And so, the story unfolds…

You can’t tell by the way I took this photo, but the photos of Lady Beasley and Keifer are three dimensional. I made several copies of the same photo, then layered them with raisers. Once I painted the tree, I used Diamond Glaze to hold the beads in place and then placed a few drops of alcohol ink over the beads. I sealed the entire canvas with decoupage paste.

Keep Creating

P.S.

Keifer loved his canvas. Keifer has this gorgeous smile that lights up the entire room and I was honored to be the recipient of such a smile last night!

Posted in The Canvases | 3 Comments »

Art Teaches Us That Mistakes Happen

Sunday, February 17th, 2008 by Alyice

I’m doing art again and I am loving it! Once I get passed the negative self-talk, it’s rather refreshing and fun. I find that I am enjoying the process and if something doesn’t work out the way I want it to, I can just redo it. I like that. I like the idea of being able to fix my mistakes and I like how it reminds me that not everything is set in stone—that mistakes happen, and changes can be made, and that sometimes, the changes we make because of those mistakes actually makes things turn out better than they would have in the first place.

I am going to try to create something every single day. Whether it’s creating a canvas, painting patterns on paper, altering jars, taking photographs for future projects, crocheting, or scrapbooking, I am going to commit to a minimum of one hour a day to actually “creating” something.

In fact, today I just finished a project for a teenager who lost his dog. I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow when I upload the photo…

Posted in Artist's Life | Comments Off

What Steals Creativity?

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 by Alyice

In December of 2007 I discovered that I was ready for a new adventure and that I no longer had the desire to spend my days hidden behind a computer screen with no social contact and no creative outlet. Writing had been good to me, but it was all I knew—that, and running the business side of things. I had spent so much time chasing after the next pay day that I had very little time to be creative for the sake of being creative.

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I wanted to finally grab hold of my creative side and make things happen with my photography and my art. But I soon discovered that I had pushed my creativity aside for so long that it had become stifled—smothered under the pressures of life and hidden even from me. Too afraid to venture out into a world of the unknown, too afraid to try and fail, to afraid to give myself creative license, too afraid to start over again—so afraid that I withdrew back into a familiar place; a place I spent years building.

Would I ever find the courage and determination to move forward with my plan? Or would I continue to allow life’s little obstacles to stifle my creativity? Those are questions that have plagued me over the last month and a half.

Every once in a while I would pop my head out from behind the computer screen to read an article, to study a technique, to try my hand at being creative, to dream about starting a new adventure. But those doubts and fears would creep right back in and I’d find myself withdrawing once again to that familiar place behind the computer screen.

What’s stopping me? I’d wondered. What’s preventing me from allowing the creativity to flow again?

I had every reason to believe that stress was the culprit; after all, I’d had nine years of very intense situations manifest themselves one after the other. And with a recent bout of Bell’s Palsy, stress had finally brought me to my breaking point.

But then I read a very interesting article by Douglas Eby about the psychological affects depression has on our creativity and it all clicked. So many deaths in such a short period of time, so many losses with each state-to-state move, so many life and business adjustments, it was more than stress. It was depression.

Life had taken its toll on my creativity and it is time I fight to get it back.

Today I resolve to get back in touch with my creative side by releasing myself from the bondage of stress and depression and committing to a minimum of one hour a day to being creative—or at least making an effort to be creative.

And who knows, maybe by making time to be creative with no expectations of selling the piece, no expectations of receiving rave reviews, and no expectations of liking the piece, I’ll find myself again. And in finding myself, I should be able to let go of the stress, the anxiety, and the depression that linger from time to time.

Posted in Artist's Life | 2 Comments »

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