Patches of old memories, and a blank canvas for new ones...

Hey Everyone - Happy Friday, Happy Spring, and Happy...snow...?

"Find Out"

Artist's Talk...

I had a wonderful time giving my artist's talk yesterday at the Beechwood-Blue Gallery - thank you so much to everyone who came!  I'll be talking more about it, sharing fun pictures, and I have a youtube video of the talk too - I'll be posting about that in the next few days, so stay tuned - it was a wonderful time!

More about this in a later post!!!

In the Studio...

 I decided to do some more spackle work, so I had a blast finger-painting and smudging the plaster all over this little canvas.

I decided it would be a good place to just display one inchie.

I love how vibrantly this painting turned out.  It's on it's side, sorry 'bout that.

(The pink is supposed to be in the top right corner, like the sunset)

What really made the colors pop was adding a touch of glitter and embossing powder that sunk into the crevices of the spackle - very cool.

I tried to add a very tiny amount when I was creating this. The background was so vibrant that I didn't want to detract from it.

This inchie I used was one I had made a very long time ago "Find Out Now."

(Sorry for the glare, but that's how it looks right-side up!)

I am also getting very crafty for the wedding lately - and let the three month count-down commence!!!

I have always been very into fabric - especially felt.  As a child, I used to LOVE playing with felt boards - I'd take that over a Barbie any day!

Felt Boards!

I had tons for every theme you could think of - fairytale, under the sea, spaceships - I loved the idea ofo something tactile, where you could tell a story.  I think that's why I love murals made of fabric too, like beautiful tapestries, quilts, etc.

A beautiful folk art mural I found on Etsy

Just for fun, I used to play around with making my own fabric patches.  I would come up with a story and divide them up into frames, and then create little scenes on each patch.

Of course I didn't have patience to learn how to make a quilt, so this is what you get with a glue gun... One, day, Eventually, I'll learn!

So anyway, I want to get as artsy and hands-on as I can with this wedding - since I only plan on having one of these once in my lifetime!  I decided that I wanted to be part of creating my chuppah.

What is a chuppah?

The chuppah is what you get married under in a Jewish wedding.  But more importantly, check out these beautiful things you can do with a chuppah:

Here's some beautiful ideas...

And these are certainly creative ideas for a chuppah...

But you can really go in any direction - depending on the season of course.  These are some chuppahs that I think are gorgeous:

But since I do want to add my own personal touch to everything, I decided to really personalize our chuppah.  Around the top of it, I am designed fabric patches - each patch is going to have a memory I have with Brandon on it...so this is what I've got right now:

Brandon and I playing music together 

Celebrating Christmas

Bowling

Doing home improvement stuff

Cooking for Passover

Having Adventures in New York

Our famous "Chopped" parties!

Ballroom Dancing together

Going to his favorite pizza/beer place

Seeing my brother Matt play at the Apollo Theatre

Hibachi night!

Brandon teaching me to play pool - man it's hard!

Us as two halves of a heart :)

In Nashville, when I was honored with the Great Comeback Award

Disneyworld!!!

Celebrating 4th of July together

I'm very excited to see how the chuppah will turn out!  This way, when we get married, we are celebrating our old memories together and also making way for the new.  We enter the chuppah as two, and exit as one...

And the best part is...

 
All these fabric patches are memories that I'll have forever...

In my mind, in my heart...


 And on my chuppah!!!

 

“The best time to love with your whole heart is always now, in this moment, because no breath beyond the current is promised.”

-Fawn Weaver

These patches are made of felt, buttons, and three years of wonderful memories with Brandon.  I feel so blessed for the memories we've made, and, just like my "Find Out" inchie art this morning, the most wonderful part of venturing down this new road are all the things to "find out..."  in this awesome land of uncharted territory...

I hope to be painting many new canvases in every aspect of my life.

Have a wonderful weekend, folks - I'll see ya tomorrow!