coming back

It has certainly been a long time. I would love to have a great excuse, but illness and being overwhelmed at the end of the nine weeks, seems to be it. My kids have been working so hard despite my lack of enthusiasm. I hate it when you don't feel good and no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to shake it. I am working my hardest to get over it and get back to being super duper art teacher!

So today my plan is to get some student work up and to show you all how very busy we have been!

Addiction

I will admit it, I am addicted! Pinterest is my new favorite thing in the whole world, or at least on the Internet these days. If you haven't been there, try it. And you shall soon be an addict too!

Sister School

So recently I sent out a request on Twitter and even a couple emails, but have no response. I am looking for a sister school art program. I would love to hook our programs together and share what we do. If you are interested, send me a note on there. How much fun would it be to brainstorm and share ideas and artwork! We don't care how far away you are!!!!!

Brain-Freeze

I don't know if anyone ever has this happen, but sometimes I simply feel uninspired. I have artistic brain-freeze. I search and scour the Internet for new ideas for my kids. Some great project that will wow me, and little miss negative Nellie (that's me) looks at them and thinks, "well that is just about the ugliest project I have ever seen", or "already done that." All kinds of things. But, nothing just hits the spot.

Today is one of those. I have been scouring and scouring and can't find anything truly cool to try with my kids. Sooo, if you are out there and feel like you might want to share with me, I am all for it! Bring on the ideas, I need them!

Advanced Art

Right now the advanced art students are working on a second portfolio piece. This particular project is open subject matter and open media. In the words of my four year old... we'll see.

OIL PASTEL PORTRAITS

Imitation

So, outside of school my very good friend and I have a wedding decorating and coordinating business. I love my job, but I also enjoy this new venture in my life as well. I get the chance to use my creative side by designing and arranging new venues for special events. I am always planning a party, how fun is that!

We work so hard to come up with creative and exciting ideas for the people we work with and for and because of that, by word of mouth, our business is very productive and exciting.

Brainstorming for us is getting together and hitting Jo Ann fabrics or Hobby Lobby and doing a little visual shopping. We also do a lot of Internet reference as well. But one thing we are so proud of is that our ideas are our own. It may take us a little longer, but then our clients get a one of a kind event and things turn out great!

I understand that "imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery" however when someone imitates you or your work, sometimes it is a bitter pill. We have had that happen to us recently, and I am not sure how to take it. I know it shouldn't bother me, that it should make me feel good knowing that someone else enjoys our work enough to reuse our ideas. However, when it took us a while to come up with things, it is awful tough to be OK with it. My other concern is that when we feel we give our clients that individual personalized event, we turn around and see someone else giving their client our same event, it isn't so personalized anymore.

I guess my thoughts are if you are going to be a in a creative business shouldn't you be able to be creative enough to come up with your own ideas or at least make them your own by alteration? I don't know, something to think about.