On the last day of 2014 I stated that I would be back the next day to provide my ‘bucket list’ for 2015. Well, here it is January 5th and I am late. Why? Uh . . . because I was tired from the holidays? Actually, I still haven’t created a bucket list for the year although I did decide which ongoing art e-courses or challenges I wished to participate in this year (the short list, since new ones come along all the time). Most of these are focused on art journaling and most are new to me even though I was aware of many of them last year. If you are interested in any of them, I have provided a link to the website or blog where you can find out more:
* Life Book 2015 (LB2015) created by Tamara Laporte at www.willowing.org/life-book-2015. This is a year-long mixed media course with weekly in-depth and bonus videos and PDFs taught by 25 well-known artists. It is a paid class but is well worth the price of about $120 USD since so much quality material is provided and you can download and keep all videos and materials. I have taken her free on-line introductory course but LB2015 is new to me.
* The Original Documented Life Project (DLP). This is a FREE challenge/workshop created by five artists at Art to the 5th Academy. Last year the challenge was created as an art journal/weekly planner using a Moleskine planner. This year it is set up to create an art journal only with an option to add in planning information. There are monthly themes, weekly promps, and weekly videos from one or more of the artists. Find out more here: http://www.art5academy.com/the-studio/the-documented-life-project-free
* Painted Paper Paradise (PPP) is a paid abstract watercolor/gouache workshop created by Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow Art. It is a follow-on to her Watercolor Playground workshop which I took late last year. I really hope to get more comfortable with watercolors this year and Tammy has a knack of making learning fun and easy. Find out more here: http://daisyyellowart.com/workshop-directory/ . She has other workshops on that same page that are free of charge and are a lot of fun to do. Last summer I participated in her Index Card a Day (ICAD) challenge and had a blast. Check her out!
* Book of Days 2015 (BOD), Volume I, Everyday Beauty is a 12-week art journaling workshop (paid) created by Effy Wild, one of the artist instructors for Life Book 2015. This workshop will be focused on finding beauty in your daily life and environment. There are weekly videos and PDFs that can be downloaded and kept forever. She also has a free ‘boot camp’ workshop on how to create your own canvas journal from scratch. It’s worth watching and her blog is worth reading. She is a very honest and generous person who started out in art journaling like many of us (no fine art training) several years ago. Find out more here on her blog: http://effywild.com/
* 21 Secrets (Spring 2015) which is an online, downloadable e-course taught in eBook form by 21 talented artists who provide their own secrets and techniques for art journaling. I almost took 21 Secrets last Fall but got busy with other things. This e-course is the ‘baby’ of Connie (Hosvika) Solera of Dirty Footprint Studios who started this twice-yearly workshop five years ago. You can find out more about this workshop that starts April 1st here: http://www.dirtyfootprints-studio.com/2008/05/21-secrets-spring-2015.html
Since my dance card is booked this year I decided NOT to participate in Journal52 this time around. However, if you are looking for a free weekly art journaling workshop you should really check it out. Chelle Stein is the creator and she provides her experience and art journal techniques to a very large group on FB (more than 1300 people) each week. For more information go here: http://journal52.com/
I’ll be back later this evening with my first art journal spread for the year, created over the last two days for the Documented Life Project. In the meantime, I hope you have set some creative goals for yourself and work to keep creativity in YOUR life every day!
Ain't No Ninny 