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On seeing the human in us all.

April 24, 2013

Hello, my name is Tam. I’m a girl with feelings, happies, sads, annoyances just like you and generally, I’m fumbling through life just as you are. :) Why am I telling you this?

The other day I had a spare moment and absent-mindedly started browsing the intarwebs and I stumbled upon a public chat room on a ning site in which a few people were chatting. I think the people did not realise that the chat room was public and that anyone browsing (like me) could read their conversations because they were writing some things about other people (“high profile” online people in my circle of peers) that I assume most people wouldn’t simply share so blatantly if they knew anyone could read it. They were so blasé about it, as if talking about which shoes they did or did not like, rather than people. This was pretty shocking to me.

Then another thing happened just a couple of days ago. A Facebook acquaintance got the wrong end of the stick and thought I deleted a comment of hers (I hadn’t), she seemed upset in general. A lot of comments on my posts come through while I’m asleep (as I’m UK based), so I wasn’t able to attend to her being upset straight away (I usually do if someone is upset on a thread of mine; I care).

So when I woke up in the morning and looked at the thread I noticed she was upset and checked out her profile page to see if she was ok. Then, I was about to send her a personal message when I scrolled down her page and noticed she had written an angry post about me with stuff in there that would make most people hide in a corner and cry for a week; according to her I was narcissistic, constantly shared videos of myself singing, over-shared my ‘nauseating life’, loved being ‘fawned over my groupies’, produced crap art and a whole bunch of other quite horrible accusations and judgements I won’t elaborate on. So that was super fun.

While I was fairly able to look underneath all the judgments and see her pain and how this was *her* stuff, (when someone really goes overboard on judging you, it’s actually easier to see that it’s ‘their stuff’, lol, if the accusations are more subtle you can make it all about yourself more easily, so I have to thank her for that, ha), I was still blown away by how some people just seem to forget that ‘people you know online’ are people with feelings too. (I’m sure she didn’t mean for me to read it, she must’ve thought the post was protected, but even still, I wouldn’t ever dream of writing something similar to what she wrote about me anywhere about anyone, protected, public or private).

I know I live my life quite publicly and have acquired a fairly large “following” over time. (I put ‘following’ in inverted commas because to me each and every person who reads my stuff, or is part of my ning network, is an FB friend/ acquaintance, takes my classes, watches me on youtube etc etc is a beautiful, flesh and blood, alive with feelings and needs human being to me. No, I’m not always able to connect with each and every person personally, but I respect and love them all the same.)

Sometimes when you’re seen to become more ‘high profile’ (whatever that is!) or more successful, and have a larger network of people ‘following’ you, it triggers stuff in people. Sometimes it’s jealousy, sometimes it’s admiration, sometimes it’s celebration and sometimes it means that people forget that a ‘successful person’ is just like you; a person with feelings and needs who can hurt just like you.

It’s almost as if becoming more successful makes people feel that they have permission to bash you around more than they would with someone who is less in the public eye. It’s like that with celebrities. When you see what people write in the newspapers or online about celebrities it can be so mean and judgemental, like they’re not people anymore, but just some sort of public property that can be bashed about and judged.

And I’m not putting my success/ growth/ “fame” on the same level as celebrities (lol, I’m glad it’s not like that, I’m scared to imagine the ‘shit’ I’d have to deal with!), but Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Obama, Angelina Jolie, Eddie Izzard, Tony Blair, Me, You, The Homeless Person on Your Street and your Neighbour: all the same. All flesh, blood, human, with feelings, needs, sads, happies and ambition and dreams and hopes and inspiration and insomnia and whatever. We’re all just people, people. No better, no worse than anyone else. Human. And need to be treated as human, not as shoes.

The other thing I want to bring up is this. When you ‘follow’ someone online, however way you do it: FB/ their blog/ youtube, whatever. The only thing you glean from their lives is a mere snippet. Some people share more, some people share less. Even the person who shares deeply in depth stuff about their lives is still someone whose story is incomplete: you do not know them fully. There is so much more to a person than their online output. Notice how your own brain tries to fill in the blanks. The assumptions we make about others based on snapshots and snippets of that which they do share. And notice how those filled-in blanks are highly influenced by your own story, your own baggage, your own life choices. It’s what some people call ‘projection’. When we know only some stuff about others we project the rest and ‘the rest’ is very biased by you.

When someone triggers you, online or elsewhere, it’s a good idea to dig deep inside and look at what it is about you that is triggering you so much. I do it. Whenever I’m browsing online and someone or something somewhere triggers me, I don’t go to the next chat room bashing this person or thing about, instead, I look inward and I own my shit. Then, when I’ve identified what is up for me around that person or that post or that image, I empathise with myself and then, I actively send love to that person/ post or image that triggered me in the first place. This is how I like to make the world a more peaceful and non-violent place: by owning my shit and working it out. Sure, at times I go off on one and judge and blame internally, and still: I always come back to owning it. Why was this so painful for me? Why did that person trigger me so. What inside of me needs love and attention?

To quote Miki Kashtan:

One of the core milestones on the path of consciousness transformation is the moment when we can fully integrate the radical awareness that our emotional responses to the world and to things that happen to us are never caused by another person. This awareness stands in stark contrast to our habitual speech, which states that we feel what we feel because of what someone else did. Instead, we learn, if we apply ourselves deeply to this practice, that our emotions are only caused by the meaning we assign to what someone did, and that meaning is generated from within us, not by the actions.

But mostly, I just wish that people remember that whoever you’re dealing with, online, offline, ‘famous’, local, whoever; we are all people that need to be treated with care, respect, love and understanding. And I want people to know that I’m just a girl with all the usual problems that girls have and I have ups and downs and lefts and rights and yays and omgs and glitter and broccoli in my life; just like you, just. like. you. :) I often don’t shower, have bed hair, wear dirty socks, drink too much carbonated soft drinks and can be a beautiful mess. And sometimes I shine and love my life and have epiphanies with rainbows and moonbeams and happy stuff. Me, you, them; we’re all connected and the same.

And sometimes, seeing how people treat people online makes me want to hide away, skulk, dim my light, just live quietly, diminish, grow quiet, be afraid. And then something inside me roars and says: No. No matter how much someone else is triggered and is incapable of owning their own shit: I will not hide my voice. I am here. I am here to stay. I will shine, share, be who I am and how I need to be, want to be. And I will continue to try and connect, even with those who attack. And I will retreat or disconnect in peace from those who insist on not connecting. And I will continue to offer what I have to offer to those who want it and I will encourage others to shine their light and share their voice as well. I’m not going to censor who I am. Hi! I am Tam. I’m here to stay. :)

Thank you for listening and being here. I appreciate you. <3

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Radical Wellness! Yay! :)

April 22, 2013

by Tam

Health, health & wellbeing, online art courses, radical wellness, uplifting

MAKE ART, GET HEALTHY!

Are you, like me, fed up with not being as healthy as you could be?

Fed up with making poor food choices?

Fed up with being an emotional overeater?

Fed up not committing to an exercise routine?

And do you want change all that?! (Yes?! Me Too!)

Then join this program and let’s get healthy together!

Using a comprehensive workbook (approx 95 pages), the transformative power of art, support through daily emails, meditation and an encouraging community of like-minded people, we will create health in our lives together!! YaY!! :-)

Registration now closed. I will run another Radical Wellness Course later this year :)

Watch the promo video:

Program/ Course Details

Begins: 20th May 2013

Registration Opens: 19th April 2013

Registration Closes: 19th May 2013

(You won’t be able to sign up while the course is running, it’s not designed that way)

Introduction

Hello, I am Tam and I want to get healthier! :) I work a lot on mental, emotional and spiritual health on my courses, but the physical side is always a struggle for me. I ‘use’ food for all the ‘wrong’ reasons and would love to change that. I’d love to begin using food for nutritional reasons only! I’ll be more specific: for many years, I’ve struggled with making healthy food choices. I’ve somehow conditioned my brain to think that food can be used as a great strategy to sort out things like: anger, sadness, depression, anxiety, tiredness and a whole host of other emotional states. It’s frustrating me that it’s so hard to overcome this behaviour and I’ve finally come to a point that I want to tackle this problem head on! This kind of behaviour needs careful love and attention to overcome.

I have had ups and downs, better and worse times when it came to managing this behaviour. Over the years, I’ve found a few things helpful:

Living a conscious and mindful life
Cultivating self-respect, self-love and self-empathy
Conscious planning/ decision making (meal plans and other)
Acknowledging self-empowerment
(I am the one making the choices)
Practising radical self-care
Being in touch with and processing my emotions

This program was created to help me become more mindful and aware of my daily behaviour, experiences, feelings and needs. I have found that by filling in this workbook/ journal daily and by doing the exercises as outlined I am able to make more life and health-enriching choices.

It is my hope that this program will help you too somehow!

Registration now closed. We will run another Radical Wellness later this year :)

This program has a different layout to my usual courses. See the schedule below to learn more about the exact schedule and layout of the course:

Week 1. Prep Week

In week 1 we’ll be preparing ourselves for the 28 days of implementing our health plan into our lives. Week 1 contains several information videos (talking ones, not art ones) in which I will be explaining how to go about filling in the daily pages. There will also be videos of myself and Gracie in dialogue and Andy too will provide some useful insights in some of the topics we’ll examine in the first week.

Specifically we will be dealing with the following topics this week:

Day 1. Reasons why we want to become healthier: your whys.

Day 2. Exploring limiting beliefs which may hinder your health plan and noting down current common behaviour/ responses/ problems that hinder your health plan.

Day 3. Thanking the body.

Day 4. Planning your health, exercise, self care and food plans, some goal setting.

Day 5. Saying goodbye to unwanted behaviours/ thanking the unwanted behaviours/ writing a letter of love, encouragement, empathy and understanding to yourself before you start on your 28 day journey.

Week 2 – 5. The 28 day program: Implementing and Living Your Health Plan

During week 2 to 5 we will actually be living and practising our health plan. To support you, you will receive:

A 95 page workbook (also used during prep week) – in which you can fill in daily (and weekly) pages
5 x 5 minute meditations (to be used at the start of the day to help you ground)
Daily encouraging/ inspiring emails
1 Weekly art video (step by step) that explains a healing art journal technique
1 supporting PDF explaining the healing art journal technique
1 Weekly art video fast forwarded of a project I did that week

Art wise, we’ll focus on creating beautiful journal pages which incorporate some kind of healing/ feelings processing element. We’ll include fabulous artsy concepts into our journal pages like portraits, animals, whimsical characters, collage etc.

Both the art and health side of things are very comprehensive on this course!

Here is a little peek into the workbook! :)) –>

Printer paper for workbook and ring binder:

Please print out the workbook and put the pages in a ring binder. The workbook is best printed out onto slightly heavier paper than regular printer paper. I’d go for 90gsm and if possible, print the workbook out double-sided to save paper!

(The workbook is a lot of pages).

Paper (for Arting on):

A dedicated art journal. Start a new journal specifically for this program. The idea is that you’ll do all your emotional processing in this journal. Get one that has thick sturdy paper, preferably 140lbs in weight. I like hot pressed paper, but cold pressed or mixed media paper is fine too.

Paints:

Water-soluble crayons – Caran D’ache Neocolor II
Acrylic Paints – Daler Rowney/ Golden/ Winsor Newton
Golden Fluid Acrylics (optional)

Pencils:

Watercolour pencils: Derwent Inktense/ Caran D’ache Supracolor (optional)
Graphite pencils: 2b & heavier
Graphite crayons are fun but optional

Mediums:

Gel Medium: Golden or Liquitex I have both heavy and soft. If you just want to buy 1 go for soft matte. Cheaper gel medium to use as an adhesive: Daler- Rowney Impasto Gel Matt/ Golden Matte Medium

Collage:

Variety of patterned scrapbooking papers, magazine pages, book pages and photos.

Tools:

Brayer/ Palette Knives/ Scissors/ Rulers
Heat gun or Hair Dryer

Markers:

Aquamarkers Letraset
Posca pens or posterpaint pens

Inks/ Sprays:

Dylusions Ink Sprays
Daler-Rowney Liquid Acrylics

Other:
White Gesso & Clear Gesso
Gelli Plate (optional)Washi
Tape (optional)

Please assume that the list above is tentative and that you may need a few more bits here and there (although it’s unlikely I’ll suddenly come in with a new product!) or certain materials on the list might not get used. It’s also not always necessary to use the exact same materials as I list above. Certain materials can easily be replaced by similar or other materials.

So if you’re on a budget, don’t go mad buying lots of new materials.

This programme is not solely about weight loss. While in order for some of us to become health(ier), weight loss is a good idea, this programme was not written to focus solely on weight loss. Instead, the course is about an overall holistic approach to creating health and well being in our lives. A likely side-effect of achieving this is weight loss. I don’t want the focus of this programme to be weight loss only as I think that misses the point and is going to make it less likely for us to actually become healthier. Additionally, extra weight is (in most cases) a side effect of an unhealthy approach to food. You’ll agree that it’s much more effective to treat the cause of an unwanted something in our lives than the symptom itself. In this case, the symptom is ‘too much weight’ and the cause is: unhealthy living. So, let’s focus on ‘living healthily’ instead of weight loss and the weight loss will come too! :0)

I am not a professional nutritionist/ therapist or psychologist. This programme is offered based solely on my own personal experiences and learnings in life. If you suffer from an eating disorder like Bulimia or Anorexia (or other mental ailment like depression), this is probably not the programme for you unless you follow it with the support of an experienced therapist.

Though I would love to be able to support you on a one-to-one level, I am unable to do so due to time constraints and other commitments in life. So, if this type of programme easily triggers or upsets you, I strongly recommend you withdraw from the programme or only follow it while having the emotional support of family, friends or trained professionals.

Recommended reading and apps:

‘Eating Less: Say Goodbye to Overeating’ by Gillan Riley
‘Eat by Choice, Not by Habit’ by Sylvia Haskvitz
iPhone app for tracking calorie intake and exercise: NutraCheck

The video files are hosted on vimeo.com and can both be watched online and be downloaded to your machine. The video files will be in either .mov or .mp4 file formats. Both file types can be watched in VLC player or Quicktime which can be downloaded off the internet for free.

Your PDF files can be read through a variety of programs, the most common one being Adobe Reader.

Always make sure that your flash player is up to date as out of date flash players can cause some of the videos not to play correctly or at all. You can update your flash player here.

For browsers I recommend you use Firefox, though Chrome and Internet Explorer work fine too.

To download the video files you need to have a high speed internet connection (broadband). If you don’t have a high speed connection you can stream the videos online (or the downloads will simply take a longer time).

Can I download and keep all the materials? Yes you can. You can download the videos and watch them at your own pace in your own time, over and over.
Do I have to participate in the healing/ health exercises? You don’t have to, but the main focus of this course is creating health, so you would miss out on a huge element of the course if you didn’t take part. It’s cool though if you only want to join in on the art exercises.
Do I have to upload my work? No. Uploading work and interacting/ giving feedback is entirely optional.
Will I get a DVD for this course? No, DVDs are not included on the live course.
How long will the videos and PDFs be available for? Until the end of December 2013.
Can people continue to sign up throughout the course? No, as the program is very specific and because the course is likely to bring up quite a bit of emotion, registration will close before the course starts. I will run another few sessions of this program later in the year.
Can I get a refund half way through the program? No. Refunds can be given before the course starts but not when the course has already started.
Can I share the videos and PDFs with other people who are not on the course? No. If your neighbour or friend wants to take part in the course, they have to purchase a course space themselves as should you. Please do not share the course videos and PDFs with anyone else.
I don’t know how to download the videos, can you help? A description of how to download videos is given alongside every video posted. If that description is still too confusing you can email me and I will try to help you. Please note however that detailed advice and lessons on how to navigate IT cannot be offered. You will need to have basic IT knowledge to be part of the course.

I hope you’ll join me on this exciting journey. Let’s art ourselves healthy, yay! :)

Registration now closed. I will run another Radical Wellness Course later this year :)

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Let’s meet and have artsy fun together!! :-) – Call of the Wild Soul – Art Retreat with Tam and Erin

March 25, 2013

by Tam

art retreats, art workshops, call of the wild soul

Imagine a space where you can be yourself, connect with like-minded women, bask in the beauty and energy of a mystical place and make glorious art for 3 days …

… wouldn’t that just be wonderful?! :)

I know right? Awesomesauce and awesomeballs all mixed into one experience! And guess whatsies? YOU CAN HAVE THIS EXPERIENCE! With me, good old Tam and the beautiful Erin Faith Allen too! :) We are going to be teaching art classes in Glastonbury on a wonderful 3 day retreat, and we hope you will come and play with us! :)

For more information and to register now click here:

www.callofthewildsoul.com/glastonbury-england/

The Details

Rainbows, unicorns and awesome little sparkly things will all be part of it! ;)

Where will we be gathering?

Glastonbury (UK) … also known as the Isle of Avalon … also known as the Heart Chakra of our planet. The energy of Glastonbury is pure alchemy. You arrive, you become enveloped in pure soul magic, you leave a new person with new layers of yourself revealed. That’s what this retreat is all about: marinating in hardcore earth magic, and unleashing new facets of you in land which has been a place of pilgrimage for thousands of years.

Glastonbury is layered with myths and legends: Glastonbury Tor, Wearyall Hill, the Abbey, the healing waters of the Chalice Well, the Holy Grail and King Arthur, Saint / Archangel Michael, Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and other saints and luminaries.

Wouldn’t you just love to crack open your art supplies here, and see what pours out?

Join Tamara Laporte and Erin Faith Allen for this epic three days of exploring feminine mythologies within while anchoring into the power of one of the most potent energy vortexes on our beautiful planet. You don’t want to miss this!

Over three days you will spend one and a half days with each of the two teachers. Your days will be split between time in workshop space, and time exploring the mythical and lore-soaked landscape with your tribe of wild women.

Class & Teacher Info

As women we often sacrifice ourselves to people and the world around us, at times forgetting ourselves and appreciating who we are. We gloss over what we’ve contributed to this world, how important we are and what a difference we’ve made. Really, we are all super heroes in disguise. It’s time to take off our costumes and let our super powers be seen. During our time together, we will look at and reconnect with our positive qualities (our super powers). Through dialogue with other women (while exploring the lands of Glastonbury), we will uncover and look at what we’ve done in life that was life enriching for ourselves or others. We will honour our super powers by incorporating them into our art works represented by using words, colours, shapes and form.

Technique-wise we will create a ‘paint over collage’ piece which is a beautiful method that lends itself well to getting in deeper touch with self. The technique allows for symbolism, spiritual connection and transformation as well as learning more about mixed media layering, collage composition and basic portrait drawing and shading.

Tamara (also known as Willowing or Tam) is a mixed media artist, illustrator and art teacher who loves making a mess and has an unhealthy obsession with brayering paint. Her work can be described as “mixed media folk art”. It ranges from whimsical children’s illustrations to a more stylised fantasy art. Love, mystery, innocence, hope, spirituality, kindness and self-connection inspires her. Her paintings contain healing themes, uplifting messages and inspirational poetry. She believes that the act of creating art can be a catalyst for healing and personal growth. Her classes contain self development as well as learning art techniques. Deeply passionate about helping people get in touch with their creative fire, she would love to help YOU get in touch with the artist in you! www.willowing.org

Thousands of years ago, Woman was equal. She was respected and seen in all her strengths as mother, daughter, sister, leader, priestess, goddess, grandmother. She was wild, full, empowered, wise, and free. Then the patriarchy came, and life for women began a long descent into darkness and inequality. Things are beginning to look up … the Big Wild She is rising again.

Through a mixed media collage self-portrait we will unleash our Big Wild She. Through intention and artmaking ritual we will access our layers of forgotten power and vow to intimately know and nurture these vital aspects of our womanhood.

We will spend our morning exploring a mythical and ancient site in Glastonbury, and return to the studio to create a mixed media collage self-portrait that reflects our experience in the landscape and the new revelations of the Big Wild She that we, as 21st century women, still are.

Erin: An artist and empath, Erin experiences the world on a supernatural level. She makes art to understand herself and the planet she lives on. Feeling the strong and undeniable presence of universal woman-ness, she actively conjures feminine story through words and pictures. Her work conveys the delicate dance between light and shadow, and she believes we must know our depths to know our heights: we must howl in wild stark exposure at the moon in order to know true bliss in the glow of sun. Erin’s art has been featured in numerous publications, and hangs on walls around the world. www.erinfaithallen.com

Retreat Information

The Daisy Centre: The retreat will be hosted at the Daisy Centre in the heart of the village, with a mix of time in the onsite workshops, and out within the environs of Glastonbury. www.daisycentres.com

Schedule: Our time together will begin at 5pm on Thursday, July 4th and close at 5pm on Sunday, July 7th.

Once you have made payment you will be sent a link to download a PDF with greater detail and information. In the meantime, if you have any questions, or any issues making payment please email Erin at callofthewildsoul {at} gmail {dot} com.

For more information and to register now click here:

www.callofthewildsoul.com/glastonbury-england

I SO totally hope I’ll get to hang out with YOU there! :)))))))

Lots of love, big hugs,

Tam x

♥♥

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This and that and winner of the give away!

March 19, 2013

by Tam

art journal, family, mixed media, original mixed media art

Hello the world. :) Today, I parallel parked my car. Booya. I know this might seem like nothing to you seasoned, experienced and kick ass car parkers, but to me that is a big deal. So there, it’s worthy of mentioning or indeed celebrating, which I did with chocolates. :-)

I’m also shaking my fist at mercury retrograding. Not sure if it’s indeed the cause for all the havoc, mayhem and Britney spears emails in my inbox about weight loss, but if it is: I’d like it to stop retrograding and start calming-thefork-downo-grading. Enough chaos and emotional turmoil already Mercury, thankyouverymuch.

You know, I love my life with children, but in the last month or so have really been struggling with them too. Dylan is high energy, Elliot is high energy, put them together in room and it’s high energy + high tension while all I want, all I NEED is some quiet time. I re-read this paragraph and understand that it doesn’t read as bad as it sometimes can be, but let me just say: exhaustion, screaming, shouting, door slamming and big crying sessions have been involved. (Before anyone jumps in with advice: no thank you, lots of love and empathy however: yes please). :)

Anyway, we keep plodding along and of course; it’s not all bad, but I do feel that having children should be advertised with more reality and less romance thrown in there. It should say: “oh yes, having children is wonderful, they’ll delight you and make you stare in awe at their cuteness and growth, but you’ll also completely lose any semblance of self, won’t ever sleep properly again, will be sucked dry of any energy, you will rarely shower, your hair will go greasy and clumpy and you won’t be able to find a quiet moment alone ever again. It’s just hard you guys. However way you raise children, super nanny style or hippy breastfeed until they’re 8 style; it’s seriously hard stuff. Not for the faint-hearted. Not for anyone who values their freedom and sanity and personal hygiene.

And of course, then there is also this:

There is so much fun and beauty. And there is so much hard and terrible. And sometimes, often, the balance is off. I want a bit more fun & beauty and a lot less hard & terrible. But working on it. I know this time is the hardest time and this too will pass. :-) Thanks for listening, the world, you are a good listener! ;)

In other news. Behind the scenes I’m preparing for new online courses (some mini, some full on courses) and alsoooooooo; art retreats and in-person workshops! :-) Very excited about all of this, I feel electrified, in fact! Would you like to come and meet me and have in person tuition? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to meet you tooooo! :D

I’ve not had a lot of time to art lately, but when I catch bits here and there I mosey about in my journal. Here are some snippets of some recent pages:

Those should really be posted in reverse order but I can’t be bothered re-arranging them sorry mah babies. :-)

Ok and lastly, I have the winner of the Jane Davenport Stencil give away! :) There were 137 entries and number 121 , Susan Sanchez won! Yay!!! Please contact me with your email address! Congratulations Susan! :)

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Blog hop love – Jane Davenport Signature Stencil Series :)

March 7, 2013

by Tam

art hints & tips, art journal, art tips, blog hops, mixed media

Hello friends! Wow, lately it’s blog hop central over here! I love getting involved in testing out new products, giving out shout outs to awesome artists and shops and share with you how I create my art! :) (If you’re a supplier of art supplies and ever want me to demo them for you or be part of a blog hop, do email me! (willowing AT gmail.com).

So without further ado! I was invited to be part of a blog hop to show off the fabulous new stencils produced by www.artistcellar.com. These specific stencils are the ‘Artistcellar Signature Series” designed by Jane Davenport! Jane is a good friend of mine, a fabulous artist and also teaches on Life Book this year! Her lessons are SO super popular. :) Her lesson went up only 2 weeks ago. :) (Just a reminder that you can still sign up to Life Book – there is enough time to catch up!)

Anyhoo, I personally love her art too and was delighted to hear that she had some stencils out. You get 4 of them in a pack and they feature faces and facial features in her style that you can use and play with in your art journal (or in a painting). The cool thing is that even though the designs are clearly and recognisably Jane’s, when I started working over the stencils, I found the faces came out ‘me’ looking. :) So you can still make the faces really your own and not be too worried that the face is ‘too someone else’s style’ if you know what I mean!? :) I did a little video of the process below.

BTW!

Artistcellar are giving a way 1 set of the stencils to one of you!

If you want a chance to win, leave a comment below telling me why you’d love to own a set of Jane stencils!

(Give away will close on 14th March 2013 – Winner announced on 15th March 2013)

Here are the other artists taking part in the blog hop, do check out what they’ve done with the stencils! It’s fun to see how everyone else is using them! :)

Sunday 3/3 – Artistcellar (www.artistcellar.com/wp)
Monday 3/4 – Teesha Moore (www.teeshascircus.blogspot.com)
Tuesday 3/5 – Jeanette House (http://www.jeanettehouse.co.uk/blog/)
Wednesday 3/6 – Dawn Sokol (http://www.dblogala.com/)
Thursday 3/7 – Tamara Laporte (www.willowing.org/blog)
Friday 3/8 – Effy Wild (http://effywild.com)
Saturday 3/9 – Kass Hall (http://www.kasshall.com/)
Sunday 3/10 – Mindy Lacefield (http://www.timssally.com/)
Monday 3/11 – Jane Davenport (http://www.janedavenport.com/

And if you have the stencils and you’re doing some art with them do leave a link to your blog post in the comments too! I’ve love to see how you use the stencils! :-)

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Essence of Angel – Free Art Tutorial

February 28, 2013

by Tam

art tips, paint over collage

Essence of Angel“Dance When You’re Broken Open”
(Rumi)(Original SOLD) (Prints for Sale Here)

Hello my creative comrades! I had a total art block for a while and was uhming and ah-ing over what to do. So one morning I was looking through my own flickr account and came across some of my ‘paint over collage’ paintings and felt inspired to do another painting like it! And I’m so happy that I did because this painting might well be one of my favourite ones of mine ever! I documented the process so you can try it too.

If you want more in depth guidance on how to create art like this; I run a mini workshop called: “Collage, Paint and Soul” which you can sign up to here (clicky clicky) if you want! :)

But for now here are the progress shots with instructions of how I made ‘Essence of Angel’. :) Hope you enjoy and if you create something in response, do link to your blog post in the comments, I’d love to see your work! :)

Step 1. Create a pleasing to you collage. I used a variety of scrapbooking papers/ book pages and magazine papers. Choose a face from a magazine over which you will paint another face later.

Step 2. Use clear/ transparent gesso and go over your collage. Let dry. Once it’s dry, paint over the face and add extra things like hair or crowns or whatever else to make the face your own.

Step 3. Continue building up the layers. Add colour with watersoluble paints/ crayons/ pencils to the background. I also brayered over the background and continued to build layers.

Step 4. Continue building up your layers and add interesting elements to the body element (or other depending on your design). I added a bird, a big hand, a house/ castle and some butterfly wings at the bottom of her body.

Step 5. Once you are happy with the entire piece, add quotes or lyrics that you love to the background. I used Rumi quotes. I also added little doodles like hearts, stars, moons, suns etc. :)

And here is the final painting (again, ha):

Hope you enjoyed seeing the progress shots and remember that if you want to get more in depth guidance on this technique, sign up to my mini course (super affordable) here:

1 Space on Collage, Paint & Soul

(self study group)

£14.99 GBP

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Art Doodle Love – it’s so awesome!

February 12, 2013

by Tam

life book, mixed media

Hello groovy art gang! :)

The awesome Dawn Devries Sokol has a new book out called ‘Art Doodle Love’. It’s a wonderful book which is created to inspire and encourage you to create! It’s filled with colourful pages and inspiring prompts. You can make art and doodle on all the pages. I’m completely in love with the book and Gracie (my fabulous assistant) saw it too and has already ordered two, one for herself and the other for her 11 year old daughter.

It’s a really great book for delving deeper into yourself and connect with yourself through the prompts and the art making. I highly recommend this book! :) Watch me play in it, I am drawing bunnies lately:

Want to see what other fabulous artists are doing with the book, take a look at this blog-hop list: Feb. 2: Pam Carriker, http://www.pamcarriker.com/blog/
Feb. 3: Samantha Kira Harding, http://www.journalgirl.com
Feb. 4: Aimee Dolich, http://artsyville.blogspot.com
Feb. 5: Jane Davenport, http://www.janedavenport.com
Feb. 6: Carla Sonheim, www.carlasonheim.wordpress.com
Feb. 7: Tracie Lyn Huskamp, http://www.thereddoor-studio.blogspot.com
Feb. 8: Tammy Garcia, http://www.daisyyellowart.com
Feb. 9: Carissa Paige, http://www.carissapaige.blogspot.com
Feb. 10: Mindy Lacefield, http://www.timssally.com
Feb. 11: Dina Wakley, http://dinastamps.typepad.com/
Feb. 12: Tamara LaPorte, http://www.willowing.org/blog/
Feb. 13: Jill K. Berry, http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/
PS. Dawn will also be teaching on Life Book this year! Did you know you can still join? It’s not too late! Come join us and learn from an amazing group of talented teachers!

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Dear Elliot

February 12, 2013

by Tam

i love elliot

Dear Elliot,

You probably thought to yourself that you were not going to get a birthday letter, seeing that you are the second child and much of what we did for and with your brother passed you by in the chaos of a 2-child household.

There a pros and cons to being the second child dear Elbie, yes, your life is documented less, you didn’t get a grand birthday party for your first year, but we as parents are also a lot more chilled about child-rearing which means you get a lot more freedom to explore and be who you need to be. Relaxed parents, means relaxed and happy baby. :)

And no matter how much less time I have to video your every move, the love I feel for you is the same as I feel for your brother. The love Elliot, it’s so big, it’s like 3 galaxies x a million rainbows with fairy dust, magic rainbows, baby bunnies, chocolate fountains spewing glitter and daisy petals. Something like that, but than bigger. The love for you and your brother: it can’t be contained.

So, let me tell you about you beautiful boy. You are kind of a miracle, I don’t say that as most parents do. I mean to say that conceiving you naturally (as we did) was highly unlikely! Your brother came to us through IVF and when we were planning on getting him a sibling, we went to the IVF clinic discussing another embryo transfer and you were apparently already making a little house inside my uterus! The chances of that were so small dear Ellie, so imagine that: you are truly a miracle! :)

Your first year, well now; you. are. a. riot. Not sure why, but for some reason you have wanted to do everything fast, soon, sooner, early on. At the tender age of 3 months old, you were fed up of ‘just lying about’ and started -with great frustration- to try and roll over. By 4 months you had the rolling over thing down pat. But merely ‘rolling over’ was boring, so crawling came soon after by 5/6 months you were crawling and at 7 months you were pulling yourself up already. By 9 months you walked. What’s going on with you that you are in such a hurry? ;) You even started growing teeth early (well, earlier than your brother, that is)! Your first tooth arrived around 7 months! Oh also: your first actual smile – I swear – lit up the room at like 3/4 weeks old! They all say that those smiles are not ‘real’ but I’m sure they were social.

You have the most gorgeous smile and twinkle in your eye, you are headstrong, you know what you want and you want it NOW or better yet: yesterday!

Awesomely, your first word with any kind of meaning was ‘heeya’ from ‘Old MacDonald’. Your brother’s first word was ‘heeya’ too and it’s now making me think that we either sing that song too often, or you both will pursue a career in farming. You are now able to say the full phrase from the song like so “heeya, heeya hoooo”. When you say ‘hoooo’ you purse your lips into a perfect little ‘o’ pulling the funniest face. You’ve also starting ‘baby talking’. You’ll point at something and then say something to the effect of: ‘daddaaa wadindoooow?’ With proper intonation and everything. You are so ready to talk and you think you’re already actually talking, it’s just not our language quite yet. It’s magical though, the sounds you make. Like bells.

Dude, I love you so much, but you have got to sort out your sleep behaviour. I thought your brother was an atrocious sleeper in his early days, but you, you are a disaster. You’ve had nights where you slowly drove me to the edge of insanity by waking up between 12-15 times. Seriously; not funny. You’ve reduced it down to about 5 to 7 times at the moment which is a great improvement but still considered a legitimate form of torture so please: stop. I don’t want to go down the super-nanny road.

The weird thing, my little love, is that, though your sleeping behaviour drives me utterly bonkers, when you’ve woken up again for the umpteenth time and you latch onto the breast once more and my lips touch your soft little hairs and I look at the blissful little look on your face I am irrevocably sold on you. It’s impossible not to love you, no matter how often you wake up.

You have a slightly unhealthy attachment to my electric toothbrush. When it’s bath time and we both go into the bath room, you’ll see it standing there. You start pointing at it and baby-telling me that you want it and then (baladaaabuddhaa blad da da?), when I give it to you, your little fist grips it like it’s the holy grail. You then sit in the bath with it for the entirety of the session (still with iron fist around the toothbrush) and then, when it’s time for bed and I take it off you: all crazy hell breaks loose. You are both devastated and inconsolable at having to give up the toothbrush. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the perils of life and the terrible things that can befall all of us human beings, but parting with a toothbrush wasn’t one of them my sweetheart. ;)

Elliot, you are perceptive beyond your age, have a great sense of humour, a strong will and a beautiful energy about you. You have a big love for your big brother, you call him ‘daa-daa’ :-) and you too love being with and dancing with your daddy too! I am devoted to you little man, I’m so honoured to be your mama. You make our little family complete.

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Art Bomb! ;) – New Painting & Prints for sale.

February 4, 2013

by Tam

mixed media, original mixed media art

Hello fabulous people!

Here is a quick one with some new art I’ve not been able to put up yet, finally I have a moment! (Having an assistant seems to be paying off!)

Elephant & Roses

Original SoldPrints for Sale£13 GBP(+ £3 shipping)

Animal Friends

Animal Friends Original Sold Prints for Sale £13 GBP (+£3 shipping)

Watching over You

Watching over You
Original for Sale 12 x 16″ Created on: hot pressed watercolour paper 140lbs Materials: watersoluble crayons, letraset aquamarkers, graphite, acrylics paints£99 GBP (+ £10 GBP shipping)

Watching over You Prints for Sale £13 GBP (+£3 shipping)

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Being Brave – A journal page healing technique.

January 25, 2013

by Tam

art journal, art tips, free techniques, mixed media

Hello my amigos. It’s been a while! Let me summarise the past couple of weeks in short; We moved to an awesome house out in the country side. I hired a fantastic assistant to take some of the pressure off good old me. My little art business is esploding and making people’s lives happier. And the babies continue to be a handful! Life Book 2013 is thriving, people are buzzing with creativity and I’m bursting with new ideas for courses, projects, paintings and psssst; retreats! :D Life is awesome and I’ve also been down, struggling with my usual demons which I won’t go into right now as it will take some time. :)

Anyhoo, let me share with you what happened today, I was brave! I received an unpleasant email and felt really triggered. As much as I know and have the tools to process feelings healthily and properly, my default response to unpleasant feelings is to grab a bag of cookies. It requires energy, awakeness and courage (in my case) to take a moment, stand still, feel my feelings and then process them, instead of just defaulting to cookies. So that is what I did today (feel them, not default them, ha!). It’s a much healthier way to deal with stuff this way. I always endeavour to use this method more than the cookie one (but often fail dismally, ahem, but nevermind, today I didn’t which is what I’m focusing on! ;))

This is how I do it, hope it’s helpful for you too!

STEP 1. First, sit down, notice your body, start internally naming how you are feeling eg: ‘anxious, worried, sad’ and/or ‘a heavy feeling in my stomach’ etc.

STEP 2. Take any kind of pen and your art journal. Start writing down the same feelings. Don’t worry about making it legible, in fact, scribble and write your feelings over the other scribbles/ writings too, this way the writing becomes an interesting texture layer later. I forgot to take a pic of this stage, but under the gelli plate print layer you can see the writing:

STEP 3. If you have a gelli plate (which are awesome) do a few prints over your writing. Draw patterns onto your gelli plate after you’ve added the paint, then print.

STEP 4. With an old credit card apply some more bright colours in desired areas.

STEP 5. I wanted to include a face. Drawing is a bit easier over gesso and I wanted a bit more white on my page, so I added some gesso with the same card to the page.

STEP 6. I sketched my portrait.

STEP 7. I added more details and built up the shading.

STEP 8. With a white posca pen, I wrote down the needs underneath the feelings I was feeling earlier (ask yourself: ‘why am I feeling this way?’ In my case: I needed acceptance, love, care, compassion and ease). I scribbled the writing down deliberately so that the writing wasn’t very legible. I like for the writing to be part of the texture and art rather than it being something to read.

STEP 9. I added a photo of myself that conveyed the feelings/ mood I was in and collaged some papers under and around it. I also added some washi tape on the page (loooooove washi tape).