What do you do when you’re uninspired?

I know every artist has times when inspiration just isn’t there….or, it’s there, but the cares of life overshadow any creative impulse.  The recent death of my mother and other challenging circumstances have found me in that place.

And yet, I am an artist.  To not create feels like being absent from my very self.  To not create means that the darkness wins…and I’m not about to let that happen!

So, without much enthusiasm, I took advantage of a New Year’s Day sale and signed up for a series of mixed media workshops by Christy Tomlinson.  I decided that I could go through the steps and learn some new techniques.  It wouldn’t require inspiration to follow directions and make something.

6×12 canvases covered with base layer of collage papers

It took me three days just to get the base layer on these three canvases.

The next step was to add some paint and pattern to the backgrounds.

The 3rd canvas only has a layer of watered down Golden High Flow Acrylic at this point.

It did thrill my eyes to open a jar of Primary Magenta and start mixing color.

Christy Tomlinson’s She Art Workshops are all about creating whimsical girls and giving them inspirational phrases to convey a message.  To be honest, I’m not very good at following directions.  In the middle of the first tutorial I felt the need to do my own thing.  Rather than following Christy’s lovely instructions, I wondered how it might work to interpret images from an old Chanel fashion book.

A dress photo from ‘Chanel, The Couturiere at Work’

Trial placement of collage figure

For the figure, I’m using book pages from my pre-1900 copy of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.  It was one of my mom’s favorite books, and I purchased this copy a couple years ago.  It seemed like a special way to honor her memory.

That’s as far as I got today, but it felt great to start working again.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Wishing you a day filled with inspiration and joy,

Melanie