stop collecting art supplies and start creating art

I’ve started going to a scrapbooking class with my 12 year old. It’s not “art” but it’s more than I was doing before. It’s only once or twice a month, so it’s not overwhelming. It’s in someone else’s space, so I don’t get distracted by other tasks. A lot of the other scrappers seem to be all about buying pre-made paper kits and assembling layouts designed by other people. I am more about gathering my own ephemera and making it up as I go along, learning about various techniques and tools as I go. I’m determined not to get sucked into buying lots of fancy supplies, since there are loads of things I can do with a scissors, adhesive, and some paper. Baby steps.

A while back I joined an Altered Art discussion/swap group on YahooGroups. But I didn’t understand the vocabulary half the time. When I quit the group, the moderator asked why, and when I explained that they were too advanced, she said they were starting a beginner group to teach basic techniques. There are 3 of us and 2 moderators, and they just assigned our first ATC swap by the end of June. An ATC is an Artist Trading Card – a business-card sized piece of art that you swap with other artists. I can do this! Baby steps. I actually USED something from my paper collection!

Last week, my 13 year-old said, “I feel sorry for you, Mom. I get to go do all these cool art classes and stuff, and you don’t have any creativity at all.” Then she realized what she said, and hastily amended it, “You know, in the art way. You are other kinds of creative, I am sure.”

Argh! I have no time for art because I’m too busy earning money to buy your art supplies, you ungrateful urchin! Not to mention feeding and clothing you. Humpf! I have more creativity in my little pinkie than… well, it’s not a contest, now is it?

But this past weekend, I was chaparoning at the sleepover I planned for her church middleschool class. She wanted more social time with them (rather than religious education time), so I had 5 girls and 3 boys overnight for games and movies and stuff, with another mom. We wanted to include an art project. The minister had just been to an “art and spirituality” workshop, so she wanted to come in and show the kids some art meditation techniques she had learned. (Snicker… she thinks the words “mediation” and “teenager” can be used in the same sentence.)

The first thing was to put on music and “let the music lead you” to just apply acrylic paint to paper, where we will later look for “emerging forms”. She started with Bach on the boombox, but that was quickly replaced by the kids with some sort of headbanger nose, alternating with some sort of hiphop noise… no one could agree on what to play.

Meanwhile, the other mom and I were painting away, since WE never otherwise have time when we are not supposed to be doing anything but painting. I was not unhappy with my first attempt, and have it taped it up next to my desk. I have to clear the crap piled on top of my scanner so I can get digital images of my “portfolio”. Snort!

We also tried a technique where we put blops of paint on the paper and used stiff cardboard to draw it down over the rest of the paper to see what forms. I had a lot of fun with color and made 3 or 4 of those. Used the wet cardboard as a sort of print block and made patterns that looked like the foam on waves. Reminded me of Hokusai’s famous Great Wave. Well, just a little.

Ha! I made more art than the pack of 13 year olds wallowing in their pools of sloshing hormones. So there! Pbbbhhhttt!

Now I just have to figure out how to keep that going at home. Or I will have to go to a lot of teen sleepovers. ::Shudder::