Being an artist: 100 Days of Painted Pages (#100DaysofPaintedPages)

I tend to make personal goals when the seasons change not on New Year's Eve. As the cool weather of fall blew in I felt called to start drawing and painting more often. This is what I did in high school and college and as much as I love, love, love working with fabric and sewing the pencil and paintbrush are clearly also part of who I am. 

So I pulled out the sketchbook and starting drawing. I focused on a theme on each page and tried to draw as often as I could! This is a little bit of what happened...

I'm also the kind of person that needs systems to help hold me accountable. Is that why I like the rhythm and routine of the Church year calendar so much? Anyway, I signed up for an online illustration class through Sketchbook Skool (that's correctly spelled :)). It was project orientated so we worked on designing a piece for the studio. Maybe you'll see the results in your mailbox someday. Until then here's a little bit of the process I walked through.

Now that I'm in the habit of drawing again I'm joining the #100DayProject. This endeavor has an official online community but is a free, global art project that anyone can participate in. If you want to follow along my tag is #100DaysOfPaintedPages. Using #CarrotTopStudioArt will do it also! I know it usually takes 21 days to make a habit. I'm wondering how i'll do with a 100 day habit? I am going to rest on Sunday's so it will actually be a bit longer than 100 days. I thought coffee was a good start and below is my painting for day #1. I'll let you know how it all ends. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Until then, see you later!

Book Review: The Whispering Cloth

Stories are told through art in so many different ways. We aim to create ministry stoles at Carrot Top Studio that are pieces of wearable fiber art that tell a story through their colors and symbols. When we read about the tradition of the Hmong people in Southwest China's story cloth we felt a connection to their artistry.

Our curiosity led us to finding this children's book, The Whispering Cloth written by Pegi Deitz Shea. The illustrations are unique because some are watercolors and others are photographs of actual embroidered story cloth. They were created by Anita Riggio and You Yang. The book follows the story of a young girl who works out painful memories of her childhood by creating art in her story cloth. She is slowly and carefully taught her skill by her grandmother. This is a book about survival of a resilient group of refugees. The main characters grandmother is an example of love and wisdom.

I'd recommend this book to anyone that works with refugees, is a refugee, or to be used as a story starter for an art project. Additionally I could see it used in lessons of learning compassion, patience and loving one another in a variety of educational settings. I remain grateful that God has given us art and visual connections to learn from, to remember by, and  to grow through.