Time to Take the Pulse

My first book, The Pulse of Mixed Media: Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed, is now available for pre-order from Amazon.

Many months have passed since the idea for this book was formed and I am excited that the home stretch is now in sight. It will still be some time before I have an actual copy in hand but having it available for pre-order is one step closer. If you would like to get updates to your inbox regarding the book and the planned events surrounding its release, feel free to join my mailing list.

Technique & Tool: Chapter 9

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, the second project, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!
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Rebeca Trevino


My favorite tool is my cordless drill. I used to be a big fan of glues and adhesives. Today, although I still use glue and adhesive for some things, I find that screws work best for most things. And I pre-drill everything. My favorite technique is making gel transfers and using them in my artwork.
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Trudi Sissons


An eraser.
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Roseann Cazares


The one tool I cannot live without is masking tape. I can't get enough of it!
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JoAnnA Pierotti


It would have to be a sewing machine. My mom taught me how to sew when I was a little girl. Sewing is one thing that I have been consistent with throughout my entire life thus far.
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Kim Palmer


A sewing needle! Have you ever tried to sew anything without a needle? I could make my own paints or dyes, use plant fibres as thread, but a needle. Just give me one and save us both a load of colourful language and frustration.
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Paula Bogdan


I am beginning to rely more and more on what others might term "junk." I reach for the expired credit card/gift card to spread paint or to scrape it off. Corrugated cardboard makes the neatest marks, as does the bottom of a paper cup. A piece of wallpaper used to make numerous prints becomes a journal cover. The numerous bands my husband wore during his last hospital stay become journal fodder. Everyday life's "leftovers" make for great journal pages.
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Ange


A piece of stray cardboard or balsa wood, cut at the right slant. Mmmm, no really it would have to be the basic Chinese paintbrush my calligraphy teacher gave me 3 years ago. I will shed tears when the last bristle falls out of the shaft.
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Kesha Bruce


I am addicted to black sharpie markers. I write with them, draw with them; I use them in my under-paintings. It may not be a sophisticated are tool, but I use it for everything. I love the bold black mark.
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AnTonia Griva


My brushes and color in painting and my MacBook in life.
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Alicia Caudle


This is an ever-changing response for me as I vacillate so very much in my artistic focus on any give day: assemblages, paintings, collages, altered books, sewing, etc. Looking more at my art as a whole though, I would have to say paint, I think, because I can always find objects to assemble and paper to collage. A life without paint would be ever so bland!
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Next 'Techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, November 20th.

In the Studio

I have the pleasure of being part of a wonderful crew that will be talking about the book Inside the Creative Studio: Inspiration and Ideas for Your Art and Craft Space live on Wednesday, November 9.

The show airs on Mark Lipinski's online radio show and podcast Creative Mojo from 3 to 5pm EST. Joining Mark will be Cate Coulacos Prato, the author, along with 5 of the more than 30 artists whose studios were featured in the book. You can hear it live by going here and clicking on the 'Live On Air' button. During the broadcast, listeners can call in to speak with all of us. The show will also be archived and available at any time beginning a few hours after broadcast at this link. Hope to see you there!

Technique & Tool: Chapter 8

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!
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Holly Dean


In my work, I am forever experimenting with ways of combining art and word. My love of text and letterforms is evident in all that I create, whether expressed through calligraphy, typography or as pattern. I might write directly on the piece with a dip bib or brush, using acrylic ink or thinned-down paint, or I might choose to use the process of collage, transfer or hand-cut stenciling. Lettering may be obscured in layers of paint medium and imagery or it may be the focal point. In my work, it is often both.
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Theresa Plas


Sauvignon Blanc
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Bleubeard and Elizabeth


It's hard to limit my tools to one, because I use my paper cutter every day and my needle-nose pliers most days. But for painting, I guess my one tool I can't live without is my old faux credit card.
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Bonnie Clark


Collage
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Arabella Grayson


Crayons. Can't live without crayons. In addition to coloring with them, they remind me of the importance of play during the creative process.
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William J. Charlebois


Now that I am creating multi-media paintings, I'm finding out the many uses of gesso.
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Laura A. Pace (LA Pace)


My 24" curtain rod mahl stick. Works for most small canvas sizes when extended to various lengths, and can be closed down to fit on my easel or in my travel bag.
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marianne konvalinka


Currently, matte gel medium - useful for so many things - gluing, texture, layers.
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Lelainia N. Lloyd


In the last year it's been my sewing machine, with which I've been madly sewing paper for Remains of the Day Journals. Most recently, it's been my brand new Canon Rebel DSLR, which is helping me explore a whole new avenue of creativity.
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Dayna J. Collins


Well if I have to pick just one (a cruel limitation), at this moment in time it would be my wood-handled bulbous awl. I use it to draw into wet paint, to scratch and make marks into wood and plaster. I love how the handle fits in my hand and the many marks I can make with the sharp tip.
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Next 'Techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, November 13th.

Small Works 2012

Four of my pieces will be on display at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences in  Small Works 2012, their annual juried exhibition. The show runs from November 4th through December 19th, with a reception being held on Sunday, November 20th from 4-6pm (please note revised date). LBIF is located at 120 Long Beach Boulevard in Loveladies, New Jersey. 

Technique & Tool: Chapter 7

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!
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Eric Adama


Paper. No matter what technique I choose, painting or drawing etc., I always add some paper, to create a texture, scratch or cut in it.
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Judy Shea


That would be any of my texture/stencil tools/techniques (that's too many, right?). I love using molding paste to push through the stencils and push any of my texture tools into creating a 2D look that can now be enhanced even further with many colored mediums.
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Martha Marshall


I keep my extra large Liquitex No. 18 painting knife close at hand and use it often when spreading thick gels and paints. It gives me a wonderful feeling because it's exactly like a giant frosting spreader.
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Patti Edmon


Scraps, gel(s), gesso and acrylics with which to create layered, textured backgrounds.
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Natasha White


I cannot live without my paints at the moment. I would even choose them over my morning coffee.
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Kelly Kilmer

My journal! It is my favorite place for self-expression.
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Donna Joy


I guess I would have to say my miter saw since I like to use wood of all kinds as my substrate these days. Everything starts with the first cut.
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Svetlana Spasojevic


Technique: Crackle technique. I like using different products to achieve crackle effects. Tools: Definitely Dremel!!! Sanding, drilling, cutting, engraving...
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Katherine Labbe AKA Miz Katie


My palette knife and a bottle of Light Molding Paste. It covers up all those little holes on the canvas that I don't like.
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Terry Rafferty


An eraser, LOL!
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Leslie Marsh


Since making books is my first love, I thought about the tools and techniques I use in my work: waxed linen thread, needles, paper... I thought about binding techniques. But really the one tool I cannot work without is my hands.
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Next 'Techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, November 6th.

APPetite

David Hayes from Clearer Reflections is sponsoring an online collaborative project aptly called 'Dave's Apps Recipe Book Project.' The brief is simple: share a photograph that was taken with and edited within an iPhone or iPad and share the recipe so others can 'cook' too. Head on over to his blog to see the links to all the participants.

My photo was edited using Grungetastic. With a name like that, it has got to be good.

Recipe

Take one photograph and add:

One scoop of Classic Grunge 3

A heaping teaspoon of tone & color adjustment

Two cups of border

A dash of abstract layer 

Grainy layer to taste

And to further whet your APPetite...

Your Blog, Your Way: Part 7

Seventh post in my series on Create Mixed Media.

Today's topic. Composition

Composition refers to the arrangement of the visual elements within a piece of art. Click here to find out how you can apply this concept to your blog.

Technique & Tool: Chapter 6

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!

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Pat McNally 

My camera!

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Dorothy Simpson Krause

The computer.

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judi sidonie tillinger

The camera in my iPhone. Any camera for that matter but the iPhone has become an extension of my, well, I.

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Sally Turlington

I couldn't live without my computer! Having access to my art and photos and being able to change color, size, etc. on a whim -- critical. Next on my list would be COLOR: my golden acrylics, my ink pads, my oil pastels, my watercolors, etc. I rarely do anything that doesn't have lots of color.

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Maude May

My iPhone camera (and glue stick).

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Terry Garrett

There was a time when I would never have said this but it's my computer. It's both a tool for altering my photography and collages and a window on the world.

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Dave Dube

The camera for composition.

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Marsha Jorgensen

Why can I never follow the rules and have just one answer? I cannot live without my computer/Photoshop and my collection of antique ephemera/pictures.

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Liz Hampton-Derivan

My camera.

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Susan Madden

The Internet. When I start feeling smug about the work I've done ("That's perfect!") I take the time to cruise through my list of Favorite Blogs. Seeing other people's incredible artwork has the necessary effect of deflating my ego balloon and forcing me back to the studio to eat humble pie and start over again. And again. And again. A bad thing? Of course not. Being totally satisfied with your art means you don't need to keep working at it. That means you stop making art and that is a bad thing. 

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Jacqueline Auvigne

My camera. It is my pure joy, I do it for me and my enjoyment alone. It's like a form of sketching for me, it keeps me loose, yet it keeps my eye sharp.

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Marie Otero

My computer (and camera - sorry, I know that is two , but they are inseparable!)

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Gail Pierce

A camera. Right now I'm in love with my Canon Powershot SX10is.

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theresa mARTin

Photoshop. I use it to scan in photos that I alter in use in artwork, and I use it to tweak and organize photos of completed art.

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Sarah Fishburn

At this exact moment in time, and subject to change in the future, because of the amount of digital deconstruction I find myself doing, my Mac.

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Corey Celaya

Too many to mention...this includes a camera.

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Next 'Techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, October 30th.

Doodle Sketchbook

Doodle Sketchbook: Art Journaling for Boys is the newest book released by artist and author Dawn Devries Sokol. I received a signed copy from Dawn and have had so much fun looking through the pages. 

Not being a 'doodler' and not having seen Dawn's previous book Doodle Diary: Art Journaling for Girls, I did not know what to expect from this book. My first reaction was that I loved the size (approximately 7" x 5") and the cool cover (splattered and grungy). As I flipped through the pages I discovered that this was a book to play with and play in. It briefly covers tips and tools for art journaling but the bulk of its 160 pages are for journaling. Every page has a different background and a different prompt. The reader is encouraged to follow the prompts and add their own art and journaling. As such, this book is in the style of Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal.

The book has a graffiti-like feel and the splatters and splashes of brightly colored, painted pages really drew me in. Examples of the journaling prompts include Doodle your Typical Day as a Comic Strip, What I Found this Week, Collaged Alphabet, and Scribble a Cityscape. The book seems to be marketed to children, and to boys specifically. Personally I think that this would appeal to both boys and girls. And, although some prompts are definitely geared toward kids (such as Fave Class Subjects), I believe that adults would also love this book as it appeals to the kid in all of us.

You can learn a lot more about Dawn by visiting her website or by listening to her podcast interview conducted by Rice Zachery-Freeman that was just released today.

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GIVEAWAY

One lucky reader will win a copy of Doodle Sketchbook, signed by the author. For a chance to win, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post by Wednesday 10/26. Please be sure to include your email address so I can contact the winner. I will announce the winner on my Facebook page on Thursday 10/27. Good luck!

The Monday Minute

I have converted. And there is no going back. The only thing I am wondering is what took me so long?! I am now the proud owner of a MacBook, an iPad, and an iPhone. And I am exploring the world of Apps. I would love suggestions from those in the know of favorite art and photography Apps. Feel free to name names in a comment to this post.

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Thank you to everybody who signed up for my giveaway of two copies of the first issue of Stampington's newest magazine Mingle. The lucky winners are Bridgette from Contemplating the Moon and Eileen from Art Saves Lives.

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Stay tuned for a book review and a new giveaway as part of The Book Guild later this week.

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I have begun to stock my Etsy shop with some of my new mini books. Use them as a journal to collect your thoughts, remember an event, make a list, or spill the beans. Fill one with your doodles and drawings. Attach one to a gift for a personalized touch. Pop it in your pocket and record your travels.  Many more will be added in the coming days. If you see one in this image that has not yet been added to the shop, email me and it is yours.

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And of course come back next Sunday for the 6th installment of Techniques & Tools, where the favorites of 11 more artists will be revealed.

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Technique & Tool: Chapter 5

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!
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Anne M. Huskey-Lockard

Good quality chalky gesso!
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Crystal Neubauer


I am and always will be a collage artist above all else. No matter what my artistic interests lead me to experiment with, I always come back to collage, or find a way to incorporate collage into other mediums, so the one thing I cannot live without is simply a jar of glue.
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Tari Goerlitz


Paper and pencil. Living in Germany, I estimate that I have access to less than 30% of the mixed media products that are all over the US and UK markets. At first I was really angry and jealous about this. Years later I think this has benefited me more than I realize.
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Darlene AkA HugGeR Wilkinson


I would say a credit card. I use them to create marks by cutting designs, scrape paint, and spread gesso and gel mediums. They are also great for making marks by using the edges of the card.
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Amy Duncan


I love using Elmer's glue for my paper decoupage work. I use a mixture of glue diluted with a little bit of water. I like how the drying time is very long so I'm able to place pieces exactly where I want them and also have plenty of time to smooth out the paper pieces so there are no trapped air bubbles. A close second is wax crayons - the kind children use. I like the uneven texture of color you can create with rubbing the crayon across an image.
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Adrienne "Dree" Berry


Gesso. Whenever I screw up I can just cover it up and start over again.
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Mary Beth Shaw


Techniques and tools come and go for me and I will often be completely obsessed with a tool until I get bored and then suddenly switch to something else. So it is more a situation of the "Tool du jour." Right now I am stuck on Wood Icing, a texture medium that I use in nearly all my pieces. I haven't found any other medium that will do all the things that it does, especially the way it holds such a crisp line so that you can draw into it while it is damp or incise after it has dried. I use it throughout my painting process, in numerous layers, and also in my encaustic pieces.
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Jude


A pencil. For many years that was all I used. Anything else seemed like more than enough. Now I use watercolor and acrylic and ink and other stuff. Although you might not notice it, pencil is usually still in there. Wouldn't want to live without it.
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Loryn Spangler-Jones


Paint. Just the primary colors would be fine.
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Tracie Lyn Huskamp


The one technique I could not live without is using acrylic paints on bleached muslin fabric. Fabric is a perfect canvas, as it is much more flexible and strong than any paper and is an excellent material to use in collage art.
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Shayla Perreault Newcomb


Impasto. It's said that once an artist is successful they hire a team to do prep work and most of the painting for them. While I'd love a team to do prep work like stretching canvases and cleaning up after me, I wouldn't give up spreading that first, thick layer of white paint. While someone could do that step for me, the feel of spreading the paint on with my knife is meditative and relaxing. It prepares me mentally for the layers to follow and is a favorite ritual.
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Next 'Techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, October 23rd.

Studio in the Sky

Happy to share that my 'Studio in the Sky' is featured in the book Inside the Creative Studio by Cate Coulacos Prato. 

Inside the Creative Studio shares the art studio spaces of more than 30 artists and includes images, interviews, tips, and more. It is available now for pre-order on Amazon, where you can also preview the pages in the book. And if you want a preview of my studio, you can head to this post from my blog from August 2010.

Community Rules

Community rules. And by 'rules' I am not talking about regulations. By now you know how I feel about our community and the importance of the support that we all provide each other. I receive that from all of you every time I log on. But this past weekend, I experienced this in 'real life.' 

I attended Art is...You, the art retreat in Danbury, Connecticut, as a vendor at the Art Trunk. This was my first real experience at one of the big retreats. Even though I did not take or teach a workshop, I felt fully welcomed and immersed in this incredible community of ours. It was inspiring, surreal, exhausting, and invigorating...all at the same time. I had the pleasure of seeing many art bloggers that I had already met before, of meeting a new group of art bloggers that I had only known online, of getting to know many of my blog visitors, and of having the opportunity to meet many of the contributors to my upcoming book. There were too many people to list names...but you know who you all are. 

It has been said before, but get thee to an art retreat! It is an experience to remember, not the least of which is actually being able to meet all the wonderful people from all over the world we interact with everyday online. I am already making plans for next year!

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GIVEAWAY WINNER

Sending out congratulations to Andrea from Falling Ladies who is the lucky winner of Rice Freeman-Zachery's newest book Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat. Rice works overtime to create and foster a community among artists, bloggers, and authors. Her book is all about her experience visiting art retreat during a year-long, cross country road trip.

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NEW GIVEAWAY

The newest Publication from Stampington & Company, hot off the presses, is Mingle. Mingle celebrates the best part of community: gatherings, retreats, parties, and events. From small, intimate gatherings to large, artful retreats, Mingle invites you to join in the celebration with beautiful photography, descriptive writing, and creative tips. Stampington provided me with two copies of the debut issue which I am offering to you in a giveaway. Just leave a comment on this post by Sunday 10/16 to be eligible. Please be sure that I have your email address. The two winners will be announced on Monday 10/17.  

Technique & Tool: Chapter 4

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!

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Chris Miser

A must-do technique for me a lot of the time is gesso stamping and embossing under layers of paint so that the embossing is visible and adds texture and mystery. It can be done several times on the same piece and can look amazing if done with patience.

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Pam McKnight

e6000 glue.

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Art by Canace

I could not function as an assemblage artist without my trusty Dremel EZ lock cutoff wheel. Nothing is sacred once I've got that wheel in full gear. Buzzzzzzzzzz! 

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Marit Barentsen

Pens. Pencils. Markers...anything that writes! My work almost always has words in it. I can't do without the writing part! I recently got the opportunity to lay my hand on a set of posterpaint Sharpies (they don't sell those in the Netherlands) and I'm completely in love!

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Evie Zaccardelli

Painting layers and then scraping back to reveal the hidden.

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Pam Carriker

A pencil, that's it. Give me a pencil and I'll be happily entertained for hours.

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Marcia Beckett

Watercolor paints. I love to paint translucent layers.

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Denise Aumick

Being a somewhat fickle artist, this answer can vary at any given time depending on the medium I am working in, but I would have to say...modeling paste.

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debi lynn designs

Mine is actually "materials" -- metal, crosses, turquoise, leather. Sorry, has to be these four because these are my "branding"! But, if I had to decide on a tool, as a jeweler it would have to be my beading needles, as a mixed media artist -- tar glue.

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Barbara Kleinhans

My assortment of painting and palette knives. I have a favorite in the group so I'd be particularly sad if I no longer had that one.

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Cathie Parreco


It's called Lil' Chizler. My first one was a gift from the technician who installed window tinting on my car and he used it to tuck and smooth the material over the glass. I use it for so many things -- spreading glue, burnishing, scraping, scoring, folding, etc. It's edges are rounded and gentle on any surface I am working on. They are inexpensive and last forever.
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Next 'techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, October 16th

Destination Creativity

When artist, author, and all-around-amazing-person Rice Freeman-Zachery asked me to be part of the blog hop for her newest book, Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat, I jumped at the chance.

I know that when the subject of creativity comes up, Rice is a pro. And her two most recent books, Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists and Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art, are among my most favorites. 

Rice and her husband the Ever Gorgeous Earl took a year out of their lives to travel across the United States to attend a series of art retreats. Their experiences are shared in this book as a way to bring the creative energy from these retreats to your home. But this book is so much more than just a personal travelogue. Five step-by-step workshops from well known artists are shared. Stories from retreat attendees are highlighted. Photos from each retreat are included to better present the experience. And Rice shares tips to help anybody start a small workshop retreat in their hometown.
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I asked Rice to share a personal anecdote about the book with the readers of The Altered Page:

"I've written about this before, but it's such a huge deal, and so key to the reason I urge people to attend art retreats, that I have to mention it. At Art and Soul in Hampton, we stayed at the Embassy Suites, and in the evenings they have the Manager's Reception, where you get free drinks and bad-for-you snacks for a couple of hours each evening. It was great because it gave people a place to meet after their workshops -- you didn't have to go to your room all by yourself because you knew where to find everyone.

One night there were a couple of us sitting around talking, and someone pulled out her journal, and we asked to see it. She passed it around -- I think it was melanie Testa. Then someone else pulled out their journal -- Jill Berry, I think -- and then we all started showing what we were working on. More people pulled up chairs. I was stitching; others started drawing. Then someone started talking about magazines and editors and then books and publishing and possibilities, and we shared information and contacts and wrote stuff down to remember. It was like suddenly there was this community of people who were interested in the same things you were interested in -- stuff nobody in your hometown would care about at all.

Things like this happened at other retreats, and opportunities and ideas arose -- just like the very best communities, where you introduce each other to your friends and share recipes and power tools. For someone like me who lives in a really isolated-from-other-people-like-me place, this was just the best, bar none. It changed my life, believe it or not; now, when I'm at home and far, far away from all these fabulous people, I know they're still out there, still interested in the same things, still doing amazing stuff. It makes the world seem so much warmer, you know?

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GIVEAWAY

To celebrate the release of this wonderful book, all of the participants on the blog hop are hosting a giveaway. To win a copy of Destination Creativity, please leave a comment on this post by Tuesday 10/11. It's that easy. Sorry to say that people with addresses outside the United States are not eligible. Make sure I have your email and look for my announcement of the lucky winner on 10/12.

Please visit all the stops on this blog hop to learn more about the book and to sign up for more giveaways!

Monday, 10/3 - Melanie Testa

Tuesday, 10/4 - Seth Apter

Wednesday, 10/5 - Mary Beth Shaw

Thursday, 10/6 - Carla Sonheim

Friday, 10/7 - Lisa Myers Bulmash

Saturday, 10/8 - Melissa Manley

Sunday, 10/9 - Deryn Mentock

Monday, 10/10 - Jen Cushman  

Questions and Answers

I am the Featured Artist of the Month on Billie's Craft Room, a wonderful blog from the UK that regularly features art tutorials, book and product reviews, artist interviews, free downloads, and more. Sending my thanks out to Billie for giving me the opportunity to be interviewed and to showcase my art.