Day 31: Show Off Time, Your 30 in 30 Review!

To all of the 2015 Fused Glass Sgraffito Drawing 30 in 30 Challenge Artists who have completed all 30 days of the challenge...

You have done what seemed impossible,

and your hard work has paid off!  

As Nelson Mandela said, "it always seems impossible until it's done". 

Mr. Mandela was speaking of peace, of course, but for those of you who have completed this seemingly impossible challenge will certainly relate to his wise words.  

 Your work is beautiful and you've improved so much during this normally dismal January.  

I applaud you in your efforts to learn a new skill and start the year off with lots of creativity and fearlessness about the unknown.

Now is the time to post your collage of the pieces you did this month so we can all see your progress!  

If you have trouble creating your collage, please look at yesterday's post for instructions on how to create one.

Although this is the 'official end' of this challenge, I think there are more plans in the works... It is going to be hard for me to just 'quit' when so many of you have given so much of yourselves to participate in this first time endeavor.

If you didn't get a chance to begin the challenge, now is YOUR  time for you to 'get busy'.  You can start at the very beginning and complete the challenges as you go.   To get the most from your efforts, start at the beginning and take each challenge in sequence.  Please post your efforts on the blog page by following the link at the end of each post.  If you would like to join the challenge you can sign up any time through Facebook by clicking the link.

Those of you who have participated, please keep working!  This is not the end, your journey in fused glass powder drawing is only just beginning.  I am sure of it.

I would like to thank this January's participants for your gifts of encouragement towards one another and for

'Playing nice in the sandbox'. 

It is absolutely COMMENDABLE that I did not have to intervene even one time to break up snarky posts and fix hurt feelings.   Hurray to all of you who have been SO AWESOME in participating while encouraging and helping one another without any BS.  I love that. 

You have all made this a project worth doing, and I can't thank you enough for being kind and encouraging  friends toward one another throughout this entire month. 

 That in itself makes it worth it to me to have begun this challenge.

Love to all of you!  ~Kelly

Add your 30 Day Collage Here!

Day 29: Nearing a Beautiful End

The End of our Fused Glass Sgraffito Challenge is near...

You have all developed into courageous sgraffito-ers, and I am so proud of your progress!

Beginning a challenge like this is difficult even for trained artists, and many of you have told me that your art and drawing experience is very limited.  See what you're capable of???  

YOU HAVE DONE WELL!

Today and tomorrow your challenge is to take a black and white "selfie" and create a glass powder self-portrait from it.  This is a huge challenge for all of us.  I personally have never attempted a self-portrait.  It's very uncomfortable for me to study myself in that way... 

to have a visual record of the way I view "me" is almost too much.  

Maybe that's why I have never tried.  This challenge is on the threshold of what I think I am capable of, both artistically and emotionally.  I think it feels like this for most artists.  

It's a real introspective.

  

It's comforting to know, that should I decide to dump my drawing later  

I'll still have a beautiful, perfect sheet of white glass.  Nothing to lose, right?

 After all, another drawing is jealously waiting to create itself there. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I want to tell you about the artist in the photo above, some of you may already be familiar with her.  Frida Kahlo once said,

" I paint myself because I am so often alone, and because I am the subject I know best."  

Aren't we all the subject we know best, but afraid to say it in a permanent way? 

 Maybe we don't want to see ourselves as we really are... read on...

Frida Kahlo was born outside Mexico City in 1907.  She contracted polio as a child, which left one leg slightly disfigured.  

At 18 she was involved in a very serious accident while the bus she was riding on had a collision with a street car.  She suffered a broken spine, ribs, collarbone, pelvis, and a dislocated shoulder.  

As if that were not enough, She also endured eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and an iron handrail pierced her abdomen which would leave her childless...


She spent three months in a full body cast recovering from her injuries, but still she painted.

Frida Kahlo wore long skirts most of her life, perhaps to cover her inability to look like she thought she should.

Although she lived most of her life in horrible pain, bedridden for months at a time, she painted anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nobody taught her to paint, she did it anyway.
The curious will always be curious.
The painters will always paint.

Keep working.  You are your own best teacher and 'talent' has so very little to do with anything...

By the way, I haven't even taken my 'selfie' yet and I won't be able to start this challenge until night time...

Add your progress here

Day 9: Apples and Ideas

Your tool arsenals are looking mighty fine!  There are some truly awesome tools being made!  I hope you're all feeling challenged, out of your comfort zones, and maybe just a little frustrated.  It takes some time to get your brain 'thinking backwards', and of course, exercise hurts a little.  If you're frustrated, keep pushing yourself!  It will be worth it, you'll see.

The first day of the challenge, I shared that I did not want to paint apples when I was first learning to paint.  I thought they were too boring.  Good thing that for today's challenge, you can be as boring or as exciting as you'd like to be!  

Your challenge for Day 9:  Choose any fruit.  Using your homemade tools, business card, sifter, and /or fingers, create a sketch of a piece of fruit. No paintbrushes.... no paintbrushes....no

Wonky Wobbly Street 4x6

It helps to have the real thing to look at, and it's a great challenge to translate a 3-D object onto a 2-D surface.  If you don't have a piece of fruit, you can resort to using a photo. (but you won't learn as much and that's taking the 'safe route')  You probably should get yourself some fruit, because Hey! t's part of a healthy diet.

Tropicana Punch

Here are two sketches: one fruit, and a wonky wobbly city street, along with my alcohol ink entry for Day 9 of my other painting challenge.  I made the pear awhile ago, but I did use only the business card to make it.  No sifter!

Add Your Link

Day 7: Tool Time

Tool Time Starts Today! 

 I hope everyone has survived the 5 minutes x 5 sketches challenges.

You'll definitely have more than 30 sketches by the end of the month.  Sneaky! 

The discoveries you've made in those short minutes will serve you well~

Your posted work has been outstanding, and it's only been a week!

We are glass artists. We are tool crazy.

Tools are nice, and we want all of them. (don't we?) 

You've probably noticed that there aren't really any pre-made tools specifically for drawing with powdered glass.  That is a good thing, because it forces us to be resourceful and inventive when it comes to the tools we use to create imagery.  

 I recently watched one of NBC's Dateline Documentaries about the weaponry being fashioned in prisons by very creative and resourceful prisoners.  Knives made from Jolly Ranchers melted in foil left over from dinner. Filed down toothbrush handles and bed spring pieces become serious weapons.  We can stay on the outside and fashion some serious tools to play with in our glass adventures.

The Challenge for Day 7 (and Day 8)

Select well among old things, and make a tool.  It doesn't have to be changed from its original form, but it could be.  Perhaps you have something in your junk drawer that could be useful?  The only rule:  Your tool cannot be a paintbrush... NO PAINTBRUSHES!!!  
noooooooooo paintbruuuushhhess.......

Use your tool, along with the business card, fingers, and/or sifter to make your entries for Day 7 and Day 8

If you have a blog, tell us about your tool and post a photo of it along with your work!  I can hardly wait to see what you all come up with.  Here are my entries for Day 7,  A quick glass sketch and an alcohol ink painting for my other challenge :)

Testing another 'sunrise' piece.  I added color and it's in the kiln...

A Tulip-y Flower... go away winter!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy New Year Everyone!

We've made it to another year!  Happy 2015 to all~

I love the 'freshness' that a new year brings.  I get excited when the hustle of the holidays ends and a bright, shiny new beginning to a whole year of possibilities lies before me...  Here's a little story:

Two years ago (as a New Year's resolution) I accepted a challenge to paint 30 small paintings in 30 days.  The challenge was offered by artist Leslie Saeta, and I was pressured by my painter friends to give it a try.  Here is a little background info... I did not care about oil painting.   In college I painted what I would describe as a 'whopping total of two complete failures' using oil paints, and I never wanted to use them again.  As an art major,  I thought I should automatically be good at painting, but I'm telling you that I mean it when I say 'complete failure'.  Fast forward an undisclosed number of years...  I gave in and decided to give it my best shot, even though I knew I would hate it.

The first week was torture.  I,  (being me, of course) chose the most difficult things I could think of to paint.  A yellow fire hydrant on a violet background.  lights and buildings reflecting on wet pavement.   bicycles. backhoes and orange barrels buried under piles of snow.  Those things interested me.  Painting apples did not. Strike one. (apples are easy) Trying to paint the subjects I wanted to paint with this peanut buttery disaster of a medium made me mad.  Strike two. (I got mad).  After the first 4 paintings...Strike three. (I quit).  I was so frustrated!

A few days later I 'un-quit'.  I was determined to finish my 30 paintings even if every one of them sucked, because I wanted to be a better painter.  In all, it took me 45 days to finish my 30 paintings. The timing doesn't matter.  What does matter is this:  The things I learned in that short time by experimenting on my own and forcing myself to practice amounted to so much more than I ever expected; and the speed at which I improved could not be matched by taking a painting class.

This year, I've invited glass friends to join me in a similar challenge.  We'll be working to complete 30 fused glass powder sgraffito sketches in 30 days.  Many do not have experience using glass powders, but have accepted the challenge feet-first.  I know they will improve by leaps and bounds over the next 30 days!  Surprisingly, there are currently 376 glass fanatics from 9 countries who have accepted the challenge as I write this.  It is going to be so cool to see everyone's work, and if we all complete the challenge, we will have created almost 11,000 works of art in just 30 days!

You can follow our progress each day here on my blog, and check out the artists' web pages and blogs by clicking on the photos they will be uploading each day.  Of course I'm doing the glass challenge, but I am also participating in the painting challenge once again, with alcohol ink paintings (call me crazy and maybe I'll break out the oils).

January 1, 2015 Challenge is to create a sketch using only glass powder and your fingers.  They're your best tools!

Glass Sgraffito Sketch Day One, fingers only!

Sunny Morning Aspens, Alcohol Ink Painting,  5x7
Start bid: $20

Artists: Upload your Day 1 sketches by clicking the 'add your link' button at the bottom left.  Choose a photo from your blog, Facebook, or instagram page, or upload one from your computer.  If you have trouble locating the image URL, try using CTRL+click on the image, then choose 'copy image address'.  This should give you the image URL. If you have problems, check the Facebook page for the Fused Glass Powder Sgraffito Drawing 30 in 30 Challenge.  Happy New Year!

An InLinkz Link-up