Oh, baby. Let's make beautiful art together.

Now that I've found you, I can't let you go.

I don't normally post product reviews but I bought this marker yesterday and it was love at first doodle. I was just in awe. And what has taken my breath away?

The Montana Acrylic Paint Marker - Extra Fine. 

Expect pictures of our beautiful art babies very soon.

Throwing clay in church

For most churches having an artist paint on stage during a service is a special and unusual event. But at The Stirring, it's just a typical Sunday night.

In the nine years that I have attended The Stirring, we have never had a ceramic artist throwing on stage. To be honest, I didn't think it could be done. There's the potter's wheel to lug up onto the stage. How could you see anything? Wouldn't it be messy and noisy? Years ago, I had even consulted with a couple friends who are potters and they agreed that it was not practical. 

Then along came Ally Guscette. She asked me if we'd ever do pottery on stage. I told her all the reasons we couldn't. She kept insisting that she could. So a little dumbstruck and amazed, I found myself scheduling The Stirring's first guest ceramic artist.


I still had my doubts as I stepped into the sanctuary last Sunday. But as you can see everything worked out perfectly. 

My beautiful artist's assistant, Katie, took a few shots for me (in addition to helping me carry in my supplies and set up). I chose to have a painter on stage in addition to a ceramic artist because I wasn't sure that we could get a camera angle on her. Again, things worked out better than I thought and we could have probably just had Ally up there working. But it is kinda neat to have two artists on stage.

Please come join us Sunday July 29th and/or Aug 5th at 5:30p as we throw some paint and clay at The Stirring.

I am an Artful Mess

So we do these creative exercises at work occasionally. Recently we were challenged to create a label for our personal brand. Something that embodied our personality, traits, and style.

Here's my quick creation. I'm pretty happy with it. It's a combination of doodles and paintings that I have saved on my computer. If you've been to my house, neat and orderly is not my thing. I am an artist and since I'm not married, no room or table is off limits to art making. Every so often the art studio erupts in a fury of creation. It pours out of its confined space and every room has an easel or table full of art. I feel creation needs a little chaos to grow.

Even when the house is in order, there are corners of clutter - little collections of art supplies, mail, or receipts. Stuff I need to get around to going through, filing or trashing.

So that's why I feel like an artful mess. I'm a little messy and a bit of a mess. I don't have a neat and orderly plan for my life. I've had some troubled times. Some spills and tears. But like a good painting, it's all coming together into something beautiful. I'm a messy work in progress. And I'm totally happy with that.