How or when did I realize I had a passion for the arts and crafting you ask? I don’t know exactly, it’s just always been a part of my life!
Everyone in my family is pretty “crafty”. We’ve always done crafts together, whether it was a holiday, dying eggs, carving pumpkins, making decorations or just having fun; crafting was something that pretty much was an everyday thing.
I used to spend mornings watching Bob Ross. He was my first real favorite artist. He always started right out with paint, no pencils, blocking in lines and shapes with paint right onto the canvas. He made his paintings come to life with a few happy little lines and dashes. I loved learning how to fix or accept a “happy little accident.” I always loved watching his process. I learned from Bob, that art can be whatever you want it to be, and there is no right or wrong.
From a very young age I was always encouraged to draw my own pictures, as opposed to coloring in the lines or tracing characters out of books. I mostly had lots of blank sketchbooks and pads of paper. I had coloring books too but I was always encouraged to draw it myself and make my own pictures, so I did! I filled up probably every piece of paper in the house. I was always drawing up my own story, much like my muse Bob Ross.
In middle school I started taking private art classes. This is when I was able to begin to explore many different mediums and challenge myself to new things. I was introduced to oil and acrylic paints, oil and chalk pastels, charcoal, watercolors and even clay. I was intrigued to try them all out. I can’t say I favored any one, I wanted to explore each medium and learn a new process.
Later on, in high school, I was accepted into a limited gifted and talented program which was through auditions and portfolio reviews. For an entire semester, I got to leave school early and complete the afternoon of studies at a local college. There, myself and other selected fellow art- nerds, were taught advanced visual art courses by college professors, distinguished artists themselves. These are the years, where I learned how to really think outside the box, or more abstractly about my art. My list of aspiring artists now grew to include: Warhol, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Pollock, Van Gogh… and the list can go on and on!
I continued the visual arts field into college. When I bought myself a film camera, I was eager to spend long nights in open labs developing film and processing prints, so I switched my major, into media arts and design. I took up graphic design for a short while but decided that wasn’t what I wanted to focus on. I didn’t enjoy sitting at a computer to create. Art to me is about the process of creating something, getting your hands dirty, making a mess, and exploring.
Fast forward, I became a preschool teacher’s aide and an elementary art teacher, I was never sitting, and I was always messy! I enjoyed helping kids learn how to hold a pencil, how to make lines, how to cut with scissors, how to NOT use an entire bottle of glue, how to read and how to play. More importantly though, I learned from them and it was fulfilling!
These days, I’m a stay at home mom of two that kind of stumbled upon a few deliveries of tape and I guess the rest is history…
Today, as Pro Tapes® Crafters Corner Artist, I find myself exploring yet another new medium, tape. Challenging myself here, once again, to think outside the box. A tape artist, kind of by accident, a DIY expert and hacker by trade. I get to share with you all kinds of wild and crazy projects and hacks to do with various tapes. I get to play, explore and find new ways to create with this new medium and I love it. Proving and sharing with you in these blogs, that art can truly be anything you want it to be, there is never a right or wrong.
Mostly, I love the impressionist style of art, but I love the bold color of pop art and I love the idea of blowing images up outside the frame spilling onto one or more giant canvases into abstractions. I mostly work in mixed media: collage, paints, ink, and pastels. Now I can add tape to that list! Below are a few Examples of my past and current works. other than what you see I do here on the Crafters Corner Blog with Pro®.
