Kiigbo Kiigba, a West African Tale, collage

I have such fun making these collages and making the video of the collages is fun too.  His one is about a West African tale.  You'll have to see how I create these.

Agave Cactus Collage

I needed to make changes on the background of this cactus because it was just too close to the value of the cactus.  While doing that I added a few other elements, pictures and words.  It is so much fun making these.  Some one pinch me.  I have too much fun.

Collage of Susie

This is a sped up video of my collage process.  It's hard to watch it when it's in real time because it takes so very long to create one of these collages.  But I love it.  I love the process.  I love the ecology and the economy of repurposing old magazine photos, old calendars, and catalogues.  I was fun to create and mesmerizing to watch.  I hope you think so too.

Sharpening My Charcoal Pencils

My latest in charcoal drawing tutorials helps people learn how to sharpen the charcoal pencils.  Not as easy as you would think.  But necessary for a successful charcoal drawing.

Social Issues in Art

I read today that among other things, every small business should donate and advocate for some social issue.  The benefits, according to studies, show that consumers are 87% more likely to buy from a business that advocates for an issue that they identify with.  Of course it is only wise for every human being to take stands on important issues like, literacy, anti-bullying, anti-rape and sexual abuse, green ecology, endangered species, etc.  The article I read simply stated that if you make that stand and advocacy part of your brand, people will be more inclined to purchase your wears.

So what are you passionate about?  What issue makes you so emotional that you have to take a stand?  For me there are so many I have a tough time choosing.  Of course I am against domestic violence since my first husband was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive.  I still have marks, scars, chipped teeth and horrific memories about those 4 years, 7 months, and 28 days before I left him.  However I don’t make a great advocate in that area because the trauma still makes me shake when I am confronted.  I was brave enough to leave and take his gun so that he didn’t get a chance to shoot me as he promised he would if I ever left him.  Beyond that, I leave the advocacy to others braver than I.

My passion in art is children and children’s illustration.  So it makes good sense to me to be all about literacy in children.  I have always thought that is the reason for illustration: to encourage children to find out more of the story beyond the illustration.  In a world where movies take the place of books and video games are more intriguing to children than reading, I want children to develop the love of reading and literature that I have.  To do that with my own children, I read to them aloud every day even through their high school years.  Even when they thought they were too old and intelligent to be read to, they couldn’t escape from reading time because the story always pulled them out of their rooms to listen.  We also limited TV time so reading became better than movies.

One summer when my children were still pre-teens, I babysat/day cared for several children whose parents were friends of my mother’s.  I gave them swim time, art time and of course, reading time.  One of those children had to leave in the middle of the summer to stay at her grandmother’s house so she never heard the end of the book we had been reading a chapter or two each day.  Some years later, I saw her mother in the bank and she had to ask what the title of the book was because her daughter couldn’t remember and was dying to find out how the book ended.  Today that little girl (now grown with her own children) is a very dear friend on Facebook.  A few short weeks and she still remembers how I gave her the love of reading.

After my children left home to make homes of their own, I began reading to my young nieces and nephews whenever I visited.  They loved the books I chose and kept coming back for more.  After those nieces and nephews grew, I began to choose other children to introduce to books at my church.  I befriended several girls who were at the time preteen and decided to just be interesting in them and their life.  It didn’t take much.  I asked about their classes and their loves and their dreams.  I knew their birthdays and kept what they told me confidential.  It seems to me if more women befriended young girls and just spent the smallest of effort on listening to them and caring about them, we would have fewer teen pregnancies.  Girls just want to know someone cares.  Parents are great and not to blame, but girls reach a certain age and what parents say seems archaic.  But if a friend, aunt, mentor, says the same thing, instills the same values, they listen and treat the ideas and concepts with more respect.  It shouldn’t be that way but it often is.

It always seemed to me that if more older grown women took more young teens and preteens under their wing for just a few hours a month, a lot of things may be better in the world.  There may be less crime, fewer teen pregnancies, less bullying, more confident, self-motivated young people.