Church of the Highlands Dream Center

Here is a copy of Pastor Chris' Blog regarding our new DREAM CENTER.
Photos of Peggy show her final touches during a recent meeting as well as the final rendering. We are so proud of our "award winning" artist who also just recently was selected to be in a national Pastel publication!
We love you Peggy!

Dream Center and Passion Offering
December 12th, 2008 by Chris Hodges
I’ve been doing ministry a long time - almost 25 years. And I have never seen anything energize people like this Dream Center project. And everywhere I go, people want to know details:

What is it?

What will we do there?

How can I get involved?

Here’s the story…

A few months ago Church of the Highlands was able to purchase two buildings on the same piece of property in the Woodlawn area of Birmingham - a 17,000 sq. ft. clinic currently being used by the Jefferson County Health Department (which they are vacating this month) and an old abandoned fire station (seen below).



Both buildings are currently undergoing some renovations and will open in the early part of Spring 2009.

The medical clinic will be used by Christ Health Center to provide Christ-centered medical care to the area. The fire station will become The Birmingham Dream Center.

The Dream Center will house the offices of the Church of the Highlands Outreach staff and become the staging ground for all of our outreach efforts to the city.

Our dream is to bring light to the darkness and hope to the hopeless. With our facilities located in the heart of Birmingham, we will have a hand-on approach towards serving the poor and disenfranchised who live in the area. Whether we are delivering groceries to families in need or mentoring kids after school, our driving force is to remind people that God loves them right where they’re at. As we reach out to those living in addiction, prostitution and other desperate situations, we will see the power of God move on their hearts and in their lives.

This Sunday we will receive a special “Passion Offering” over and above our regular tithes and offerings.

Everything we give will go to:

• Providing a facility for the teenagers and college students in our city

• Completing the Dream Center renovations

• Giving to other ministries that we partner with in the Birmingham area

• Planting 50 new churches in 2009 with the ARC.

• Special missions efforts in the darkest places on earth.

We’re encouraging everyone to pray and ask God what He would have you to do. Then plan - get together with your family or your own budget and decide what you will do. And finally participate - everyone do something and together let’s make a difference.

THANK YOU HIGHLAND ARTISTS

As we finished up the book CREATIVE CALL,
we also wrapped up a semester of newly developed friendships...
Throughout this fall we began weaving a support network to help us all in our endeavors in stepping out as a creative vessel for God.
We will not be together for a month or so, but
Here is a link to a great source to keep us all on track
SYLVIA GUNTER
(CLICK ON HER NAME TO GO THERE)

As we step farther into who we really are, we also set ourselves up for
opinions....attitudes about who we are becoming.

Just know that GOD knows it all, he plans it all for us and has brought us all together for a GREATER purpose.

We have so many great strides we have made...starting with simply
proclaiming "I am ARTIST"...
all with tiny baby steps along the way....
with hands held,
with vision shared,
with love extended...acceptance
of us each as we were uniquely made.

I thank God that he has brought each of the people in this group
into my life...

actors, writers, painters, cheerleaders, encouragers...

the positive spirit that lives within this group is something that
cannot ever be explained...

it just IS....and I thank God for it.

Blessings during this season that IS ABOUT HIM...

Let us not forget that our visual creations can do more than look pretty,
they can speak words, they can give meaning, they can feed compassion...

they can speak about who we are, as God's children.

My prayer for you this holiday season is that you will find a moment or two
to create....to unleash the gift inside you.

Blessings Highland Artists! And thank you for being just who you are!

See you in the Spring!

Allison

Melanie Morris

From the TGV

Provence, France

Acrylic on Canvas – 12 x 24



Melanie Morris is an award-winning painter whose work has been shown in galleries across the South and featured in numerous juried shows. You are invited to see Melanie’s newest paintings.



Fine Art in Brentwood Show

Friday, December 5

5:30PM to 8:30PM



Saturday, December 6

10AM to 6PM



Sunday, December 7

12PM to 4PM



Brentwood Academy

219 Granny White Pike

Brentwood, TN

www.melaniemorrisart.com

FINLEY LINK- ARTIST from Birmingham

Hello fellow artists!

I received a link to a friend's husbands website, and while I have known they were at Highlands for some reason it escaped my knowledge that he was an ARTIST.

So for some more inspiration, enjoy these works done in oil that take you to a different place and time....

I have requested that he come speak with us next semester about the "how to's" when you get to this level,
he has prints and travels around the country selling his incredible paintings.

BLESSINGS!
Allison
www.donnyfinley.com

STILL LIFE

At our most recent paint gathering...
we decided to do some still life painting...or not...

since we visited more than painted....(well, some of us, that is)
I have attached some inspirational arrangements for you to tackle during the holidays!

Palette Knife Painting with Melanie Morris

This week we got together at my house to watch our leader lead us in
PAINTING WITH A PALETTE KNIFE.

She turned me on to this one year ago and I have never looked back!
I LOVE the palette knife. As a fast painter...and one with little patience
for oil, it has given me the freedom to layer and layer in fast strokes...
throwing control to the breeze...

It is the "happy accidents" that propel the work to something deeper than
what we were intending...

take a look at some of these from the class!
The notes will follow in another blog...
A picture says a thousand words....

Encaustic Painting (with WAX)

Our latest Highland Artist session included Encaustic Painting: a messy rendition of WAXING...
on canvases, that is.

OFFICIALLY:
Encaustic painting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

A 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.For encaustic tiles see Encaustic tile
Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface — usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used.

The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used — some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment.

Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. Because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface.


We took melted colored wax and squirted it onto the canvas (some were already painted, some of the artists painted them AFTER the wax) and blowdried the wax, making it flow across the work before drying.

I had a ball with it, adding wax to my "WATER SERIES" paintings, giving them texture and sheen. It is definitely something I will try again.

Joan Ware and Kristen Drew had us flowing in wax from one end of the kitchen to the other, mixing up the wax, organizing it on a warming tray and keeping us flowing with medicine syringes (a great way to control where the wax goes on the canvas).

See the photos to see just how much fun we had!

Allison

Selling Your Work on the Internet

I have been experimenting with selling artwork online, particularly with Ebay and have had success, actually sold four paintings this way, one going to Washington State, one finding a home in Texas (just after the storm- so a bit nerve-racking knowing I was shipping in that direction), one to South Carolina and another in the Southeast.

I found the following article on the American Artist website which gives a great bit of detail about the process.

I am searching for a more economical way to sell online. A great plus is that I have had a gallery find me online, which now sells my work.

Blogger has a GREAT search engine, even the artists I write about on here say that my blogs come up when they search their name so a website here is a plus!

Hope you are having a great day and finding your creative spirit stirring.

Allison

The Internet Art Marketby Daniel Grant

A decade ago people questioned whether anyone would buy art that they had only seen over the internet—not in person. Now there are many online means of promoting and selling artwork, and many collectors go online before they head to their nearest gallery. Artists and their work are accessible on their own websites or through links from the websites of galleries, art organizations, and juried shows. Some artists offer artwork for sale on eBay and Craigslist or through one of the myriad mall sites (art-exchange.com, starvingartistsgallery.com, and originalartonline.com, among others). Blogs and YouTube carry artists’ words and pictures. Artists’ pages also show up on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Opportunities for exposure, promotion, and sales abound, but it is still the rare artist who can point to the web as the source of the bulk of his or her earnings. Louisiana painter Marcia Baldwin is one of those artists. Earning a living from selling equine and floral paintings on eBay since 2003, where she is known as M Baldwin with eBay ID mbaldwinfineart, Baldwin was able to reach her personal sales goal of $100,000 in 2005. “The key to selling on eBay is to keep producing,” she says, noting that she paints one or two pictures a day, seven days a week. In the course of a year, she sells as many as 500 paintings, with prices averaging between $289 and $500.

Selling on eBay is not free, and the expenses add up to approximately 40 percent of the gross, perhaps the same as the amount an art gallery would take. The expenses include a 17 percent commission on all sales, and $32 per artwork to list her paintings on the first page of a search (a typical eBay search under the category of “paintings” produces more than 100 pages and 10,000 offerings). PayPal, the online secure payment system for credit-card purchases, takes another three or four percent. There is also the cost of shipping the paintings to buyers (custom boxes, packaging materials, FedEx Home Delivery, and insurance), which averages $30 apiece.

Producing a lot and keeping the prices relatively low for an audience that is bargain hunting is essential for artists using eBay. “You learn how to make paintings quickly,” says Illinois painter Diane Millsap, who creates four New Orleans-themed paintings a week and generally sells between eight and 12 per month, averaging $400 to $500 per piece. Some of these bargain hunters purchase more than one of her paintings and recommend her work to others. Print publishers also have perused her offerings on eBay, which she says has led to print-licensing agreements.

Artist websites present opportunities for sales to a far wider audience, foregoing the percentage-charging middlemen in the brick-and-mortar or online galleries. A website expands the artist’s potential to reach all corners of the planet, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to sales. Artists still struggle to figure out how to make their site stand out from the billions of others.

The answer is search-engine optimization—how to be found by someone looking for something online through a search engine such as Yahoo! or Google. A search on, say, Google for the general category “landscape painting” is apt to produce more than a million potentially relevant websites, with 10 results per page. Web marketers note that it is rare for anyone conducting a search to look past the fourth page, which means that the overwhelming majority of sites won’t be visited. They point to the use of unique and specific “keywords” as essential in elevating a particular site’s standing from back in the pack to the first few pages. When a website is created, certain keywords are written into the site’s HTML code to identify the content of the site, and these are also the terms that someone making a search would type in. There are ways to shortcut the process: Companies may buy advertisements on search engines (the ads appear on the page where the search begins) whenever certain keywords are used, and some purchase keywords so that their websites appear at the top of the list.

“Ads and buying keywords are a game for people with marketing budgets, because it can get expensive,” says Chris Maher, a website developer for artists. “It’s better to just incorporate good keywords—the more specific the better.” Maher notes that landscape painters might want to include the name of their studio, the town they live in, the particular subjects of their paintings, and other unique qualities of their work that might help browsers find their website more quickly and easily.

The algorithms of search engines also tend to give precedence to web pages that are linked to other high-traffic sites with similar content—popularity begets more popularity. One artist who has put this into practice is Linda Paul of Colorado. Paul has been making a living exclusively from website sales of her giclée prints and painted tiles since 2000, earning more than $200,000 in 2007. “I haven’t spent a cent on search-engine optimization,” she says, but she has promoted links from other websites to her own. “I’ve got 2,000 sites pointing to me right now.” Among her techniques are reciprocal links with other artists, writing blogs and articles on other sites, and promoting her work to print media that have their own websites.
The bottom line is that an increasing number of artwork sales are coming from the web. Even sites that don’t elicit sales are creating valuable exposure. And when you’re an artist, every little bit helps.

Read more Business of Art features.

Alabama Artist Colony

Melanie Morris attended the Alabama Artist Colony workshop at
Lake Martin this past week.

The link to their site is HERE: Artist Colony

We hope it gives you great inspiration.
Melanie will share some of her knowledge in an upcoming meeting.

She studied under Roger Dale Brown, a plein air painter from Nashville who also
happens to be a strong Christian with an incredible story.

He studied art in school, but "got a real job in an optical boutique" and after getting married, moved to California with his wife as she began studying art. He met a muralist by "chance" and began working with him.

He soon found his gift and set GOALS (one of our topics today that we discussed from the Creative Call...along with forgiveness :)). One of his goals was to paint 365 paintings that year (he finished 260) and create 100 studio paintings. He also had a goal of being in a gallery by that October. He was.

He has been painting about 6-8 years now and his work is nationally recognized.

Check out his website with a CLICK HERE

Thanks Melanie for sharing!

He also studied under Scott Christianson (CLICK HERE TO SEE HIS WORK)


Lesson for today?
Take time to learn from other artists...it can change your life.
I began painting with a palette knife 1 year ago this week after Melanie did a demo
(and began this blog 1 year ago as well on this, my annivesary week (Happy Anniversary Chad!))

Do something different. (Melanie introduces us to plein air painting)

Value Christian artists. There IS a difference. Don't we all want our work to express what we know about Jesus to those who don't know?

SET GOALS! Begin now with a plan for taking your art to the next level!

Find a GREAT group of like-minded friends and nurture each other until you all SOAR!

Thank you to my awesome creative call group of friends! I love you! Allison

Have a blessed week!

Printmaking

We spent a day learning about printmaking from Lorraine Mitchell, who learned all about it at UAB in art school.

With pencils and some fun,sharp carving tools, we created designs in blocks of wood, spread ink with fun rollers and printed everything that didn't move, including the dog!


Thanks for another fun way to stretch our creativity!

IN FULL SWING

We are in full swing with the CREATIVE CALL.

Here are some fun shots by the pool, as we dive into the creative talents
God has placed within each of us. There is such encouragement among friends, who
support you, encourage you and teach you.

We invite you to join us or any group and see what you can do!

Inspiration for artists in Birmingham

I just visited a fun site

Click here to see a creative use of talents by a grandmother who has a passion for
photography.

visit the site by clicking here


Her link will also be added below!

Hope you find inspiration!

Allison

Creative Call To the Botanical Gardens

This week we began a new Fall Semester with our artist friends from the
Church of the Highlands.

We visited the Botanical Gardens to see the new show by Amy Crews.
Amy spoke with our group a few semesters ago with great inspiration (see archives)
We can't wait to start again, as we study Creative Call and discover what God has in store for us in new techniques, shows and inspiration.

Melanie Morris is leading the pack...

We hope these glimpses of Amy's work will inspire you!

Allison

A NEW SEASON BEGINS

We began our first meeting for the fall semester today and have a great group.

Forstall Art Center sent Ernie Elridge to kick off the meeting with coupons and announcements on some great classes.

Our own Melanie Morris will be teaching on Oct. 11, from 9-3
Acrylic painting Workshop

go online to see their schedule
FORSTALL ART CENTER

We will study the CREATIVE CALL and paint on alternating weeks so there are
no excuses! By the time the group ends, together we will create more than 5 pieces together...enough to pick one to enter the ENERGEN show!

Come visit!

CREATIVE CALL ON SUMMER BREAK

I have been missing my artist friends....

We have not met since May....
just about the time things wind down for the summer we are all reflecting on the heat, families, outdoor time...

looking for new subject matter....

I have spent quite a bit more time in my studio as my children are with their father for five weeks this summer....

I recently interviewed an incredible artist from Dothan who sells her paintings nationwide for tens of thousands of dollars.

Her inspiring story will be in an upcoming issue of Southern Beauty...so I don't want to spoil the story...but I will say, I was moved by her dedication
and share with artists...

she does not wait for inspiration....or seek motivation...

she enters her studio at about 7-8 pm....
she begins working....painting....planning...
and she paints throughout the night...with no phones..no distractions...
until sunlight...

and then she sleeps til noon...

I didn't ask her WHEN she began this schedule as I feel certain it might have been AFTER her son was grown...but the fact is...

her painting is SERIOUS....
her time there is SCHEDULED....
and her family respects that time...

I was amazed too that she TAKES PRIDE IN THE FACT THAT HER PEAK CREATIVE TIME was at NIGHT..

how many of us creative people begin with an idea at 11 PM (my peak time...at least it USED to be before a 3 year old...:) )
or are awakened with a story or idea at 3 AM (what IS IT with that hour anyway?)

and we apologize..or go back to bed...with a song that dies there on our pillow...
because it seems too UNUSUAL!

I challenge you artists...to EMBRACE THE ARTIST...
slip to the studio...get a pen light....

don't let the genius get away....

SAVOR your UNIQUE gifts that come to you in the dark....
and pick a night with a full moon...
drag an easel outside and GO WITH IT....

Then next fall when we RE convene...

We will have made another revelation...
not only are WE ARTISTS...but we can come to appreciate WHEN IT IS THAT WE ARE AT
PEAK performance...

gotta go...I feel a painting brewing up inside!

Blessings and I miss you TONS!

Allison

ENERGEN SHOW

This week we gathered our group and met at the ENERGEN show in Downtown Birmingham to support our fellow artistic role model..who is becoming "quite the famous character of the bunch" with an entry in the SHOW!

Hats off to Justine Rynearson (read last weeks blog for info on her "tips for fast painting")

Her painting is shown above along with a "mugshot of the group"
less Melanie..who had a flood in her basement! We missed you Melanie!

Justine Rynearson Demo

Justine did an incredible job demonstrating FAST PAINTING, based on a workshop by Robert Burridge. www.RobertBurridge.com

His incredible paintings make us "bright painters" glad to be alive. They are bursting with color and vitality...and would inspire a monkey to pick up a paintbrush!

Steps to take:
1) Determine the focal point, the STAR of the show.
Ours was a big yellow flower in a still life we set up.

that area will be the lightest, brightest or most detailed of the painting.

2) Determine the darks to be against the focal point
They will be also emphasized with color..
if the flower is yellow...the complement is purple (usually the color across from it on the color wheel) but the fun part about painting like Robert is that there is no "black and white"...purple is anything between red and blue (the colors that make up purple)...that can mean deep red/violet or it can mean bright, sky blue...

IT IS YOUR PAINTING..USE WHAT YOU SEE!

Of all of the messages..the most important is to be loose!
Even in dipping your paint..put the paints on the floor..use a long brush,
straight arm..and reach down...use loose strokes driven with your full arm extended.

Justine uses a messy orange range of tones that she selected from her color wheel that was created by Robert.

The formula is : spice, spice, dominant, complement

This day she picked...yellow as the dominant..
and the complement being between blue and warm purple

She arranges the colors in the tray in a similar arrangement. He uses tubes of
pure color..no mixing..the mixing is in picking what the eye sees.

"And don't forget, every painter needs good music", Justine told us.

We listened to Justine's Shane and Shane.

After blocking in lights and darks, you have to determine how the light hits.
She used a huge brush to put in the darks...using the complement of yellow..
a dark purple..and since purple is made of red and blue (always thinking here!)
we use that splash of red to add SPICE and throw in some bright blue...sky blue perhaps...

YOU CAN'T MESS UP...IT'S ACRYLIC...ACCORDING TO JUSTINE...
NOTHING GESSO CAN'T COVER UP AND THEN YOU CAN START AGAIN...

HOW REFRESHING!

And Robert also uses his hands...
His wife markets his work and sets up workshops....
he paints and paints and paints..
starting with little exercises (shown of justine's)

Robert does these "little gems" every day.

We also did studies of how the light comes into the vase and where it goes
out...AH.......SO MUCH TO LEARN!

Take our still life...and try your own!

The Highland Artists.

Cultural Alliance- DETAILS

I have gotten a few request for info on the Cultural Alliance Workshops.
These are great opportunities to learn more about how to progress to the next level as an artist.

The first was turning passions into profits.
MARKETING YOUR ART

1) You represent your art, do so ON PURPOSE.
2) Renew contacts with gallery owners, other artists, media, editors.
Keep your name out there... NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK

All of the most current projects I am working on were from just talking to people.
Shannon Lindsay, Publisher for Southern Beauty, was looking for a writer...she asked one person in our group, she gave them my name, and she asked a friend of my sister's for a name...which was mine (as my sister told her also about how I love to write) and there it was..she had heard my name three times. We talked, I gave her some work for a couple of issues and now she has asked me to be Editor of the SOUL Section.

The publication, Bay Monthly, in Mobile was looking for artist submissions, my friend, Susan Willingham (also an artist) passed me the email address and I submitted. My painting will be in the magazine just as I am having my paintings featured at a local Interior design shop (Merrill Miller's Interiors- Orange Beach) and in a hot new fashion boutique at the WHARF. This helps THEM as they are mentioned in the magazine for free in my credits section AND it helps me..as they are glad to have my paintings there this month.

WIN -WIN...it always works.

The writing of the book for Birmingham Sketchbook
also came about in a similar "word of mouth" way.

So keep your channels open- in both directions.
As the author, I have also been given the opportunity by the publisher to market the book, set up book signings, etc. In doing this, I have offered for all of the artists to be a part of these signings, so that they too can propel their scope of influence by sharing their artwork and contact information during the signings.

We also have a core group who want to do shows together.

In becoming a serious artist, we need to be good, according to the workshop, at describing what we do.
1) Create an elevator speech...a few sentences to tell what you do and why..capture emotion.
2) Create an artist biography- written
3) Artist statement- What you do and WHY
published articles, clubs, awards, shows, committees

Determine your AUDIENCE
Know their demographics
Price point your art
Know how to reach your audience

Surveymonkey.com has incredible info. You can send them a picture of your art and they rate it, tell you what they like, don't like, how to price.

Attract Sales
at Galleries, Gift Shops, Art Shows, Hosting your own show at your home or business.

At NABO, Natl Assoc. of Business Owners, show there..think outside the box!

When SHOWING:
Have prices at different levels
Create an emotional connection
Show who you are
Have things to keep people in your booth (coloring for kids?)
Be REAL

Printing:
HAVE A BUSINESS CARD..with your art on it.
Brochures, postcards...get your pictures out and let them speak..
in your emails...
Portfolios..picture books...do a professional look
Thank you notes with your paintings

Online Print Resources
Vistaprint.com, kodakgallery.com, shutterfly.com, snapfish.com, evite.com for invitations are GREAT ones.

Keep these simple

Have a website...blogspot is So easy...www.blogger.com
you have no excuse!

Use your name as a logo..on letterhead.. consistent on cards, etc.

Website resources:
godaddy.com (can handle purchases of your work)
facebook.com (create an audience)
askartie.com ***the one by the cultural alliance..great for local Bham area
google adwords
monstertemplate.com
smallbusiness.yahoo.com
cheapnames.com
10-domains.com
etsy.com- can upload work for sale
muserefuge.com

to name a FEW.

Cafepress.com does t-shirts and mugs of your work.

Copyrighting and watermarks are suggested.

Publicity:
Donate to auctions
Trade with other artists, barter
Buy small ads in publications

P/R is free advertising.
Create events for better sales.
Get exposure.
Calendar listings of events.
Write a press release. Arts editors in the papers, local mags, newspaper.

Consult with Stephen H. Craft, PHD or others for info on setting yourself up as a business. You may be ready for credit card machines, tax withholdings each month for sales, forming an organization...and NOT in that order...

so get serious about what you do and WHO YOU ARE.
You are a unique work of art YOURSELF...
treat yourself and your art that way!

Above info from seminar by Cultural Alliance
led by Michael Bell and Bradford Kachelhofer, The Modern Brand Company, LLC in Bham.
www.themodernbrand.com


Grants are available and deadline for applications are due May 16, 2008 for
Crafts, Media Arts, Visual Arts, and Interdisciplinary for 2008)
2009- Dance, Theatre, Literary Arts adn Music)

So write them at grants@cultural-alliance.com
or go to the website activeculture.info
to get detailed information and forms.

TIPS FOR GRANTS WRITING:
coming soon

Top Events in the Southeast

There are some fun things to do as Spring Approaches and you begin to get the "fever" to get out of the house.

I found a great website with the Top 20 Events for the Southeast, which seems to be full of good information.

Happy TRAILS!
And while you are out there...get some motivation to capture some of it on film or on canvas!

Allison

TOP EVENTS IN THE SOUTHEAST

STILL LIFE

This past week we did some painting!
We set up lights, fruit in bowls, flowers in glass jars....
and visited with friends in the same seasonal rut...

The delight was that we were doing it TOGETHER.
For years I would look at my easel, those clean white canvases,
and I would think about painting,
I would talk about painting...

but this day...
WE PAINTED!

I attach a few shots of the still life setups and encourage you to get out your brushes or pencils and JUST DO IT!

Allison

Cultural Alliance- A Great Source for ARTISTS

Today I spent the day with fellow artists, who are looking into the methods behind the madness of becoming a FULL TIME artist.

While everyone does it differently, the Cultural Alliance here in Birmingham has incredible resources to provide information to artists of all kinds. From visual artists and performers, to graphic designers and literary artists.

I have taken advantage of two of the many seminars offered throughout the county, and best of all, they are free of charge. (thanks to a grant from the Appalacian Regional Commission. info@arc.com

I attended the seminar entitled, Turn Your Passion Into Profits! during the monsoon of a storm a month ago at the Hoover Library, which was presented by Stephen H. Craft, Ph. D.

He provided insightful information on everything you need to know about creating a business to a room full of potential small business entrepreneurs who did not let a few weather warnings get in the way of their ambitions.

Today I attended Marketing Your Art, with Michael Bell and Bradford Kachelhofer with THE MODERN BRAND COMPANY.

It was an informative and inspiring look at yourself as artist.

It will be offered three more times before March 8 and provides insight on branding, website creation, determining your market, Print resources, and ideas for publicity and public relations.

Attendees are encouraged to use the website www.AskArtie.com

and artists can post their information there for FREE as well, where they have created an extensive database of artisans at your fingertips.

There is also a new website that offers a wealth of information about what is going on in the artist communities state-wide.

If you are an inspiring artist or just LOVE THE ARTS...

it is the place to go to find the most current shows, exhibits, theatrical events, courses, classes and art related activities! If you need more information, go to www.activeculture.info

Be prepared to get out your calendar! You won't want to miss one of the events!

Written by Allison Puccetti Adams

www.allisonpuccettiadams.blogspot.com

Challenge Yourself!

ROBERT BURRIDGE has an incredible website,
perfect for those of us who are creative, and feel it bubbling up inside of us,
but haven't quite figured out how to get it out.

The link to the site if here
http://www.robertburridge.com/index.html

It speaks for itself.

So sit back and soak it all in.
And when you get finished...
vow to do a painting THIS MONTH....
Then next week...vow to do one a WEEK...
Then on the following week...go for two...a week......
and when you feel the creativity flowing..
try ONE A DAY!

Even if we fall short of our goals, at least we are moving forward!

Happy Painting!

Books to Inspire the Creative Spirit

Some of the original members of the group wanted to have a study that went along with the concept of our group meeting to develop our creative talents. We discussed a book called "The Artist's Way", by Julia Cameron and wanted something similar.
Julia is a poet, playwright and novelist and takes a new age approach to spirituality.
She has written books about Finding your Voice, Renewal and Transformation. While I have read these, I felt I was missing something. There was a "motivation" that seemed to be about MYSELF. (something I quite frankly didn't mind when I read it six years ago..but for some reason, God had sent me digging deeper)

When discussing what we wanted to use for this group, we all wanted something to follow that would help us to grow together spiritually, so that our inner gifts could be developed to worship God.
The Artist's Way included quotes and motivations from individuals as well as from many other religions. It is certainly a good book, but it was not what we wanted for this group as our motivation was to grow closer to God and to nurture what Jesus wanted for us.

We came across the perfect book,
The Creative Call, by Janice Elsheimer.

We used this book as the basis for our bible study for two semesters.
We now are reading, If you Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat.
I will post frequent reviews as we make it through the chapters and based on our discussions.

We also welcome your posts and comments here.
We are all here to learn, to improve our walk with God, and in a desire to please Him, share our talents and passions with the world.

Welcome and Happy Creating!

The INVISIBLE BALL

Hey Gals!

You are invited to the first Annual Invisible Ball
in honor of Valentine's Day and Art.

Every day this week, you can get all stressed out about what you will wear, you pick out a fancy outfit, decide you don't like that.....

Total up just how much you WOULD HAVE SPENT ON THAT NEW OUTFIT...
don't buy it, cause the "ball" is in your mind...

(aren't the decorations spectacular? Can you believe how "all out" we went!)

NOW put the money you would have spent in an envelope, combine it with that of our friends...

and we'll buy some art supplies to deliver to the place of our choosing
as a little Valentine's Day Happy!

Happy Valentine's Day.
Al

Amy Crews

Amy Crews joined us for a meeting of the Church of the Highlands small group who are official ARTISTS.

She shared with us her journey, in the things she did to make ends meet while dreaming of and then pursuing her passion as an artist.
All along the way, she clung to the thought that "God is in control", when she worked as a bank loan specialist to pay the bills, when she was laid off from Southern Progress.

But through it all, she saw God in it....the severance package that allowed her to pursue her study of art in Atlanta full-time...which helped her validate this "hobby" into a researched, dedicated career endeavor. She had gone 11 years without pursuing her art and because a lucrative door had closed, she was able to go through a more creative one.

She saw God in the timing. As she had just expressed to her boss through tears, the guilt of not being there with her child who was then one, the bottom dropped out around her, and whether by God or by coincidence, she and many others were sent home in the name of "profit margins". From that time on, she was a stay at home mom, something guilt didn't allow her to do when she was in career mode, but God helped push her into the door that said, "GO HOME!"

And that is what she has done. She has been able to be home with her children, Hamilton, now 7 and Sally, who is 4.
What a blessing to be a creative and productive mother who can be home and nurture the valuable developmental years of a child, not to mention TWO!

Because of her leap of faith, to listen to her heart, to hear her calling (which at the time she kept denying because she knew she couldn't "really" be an artist), she is taking the steps, day by day to see that God continues to help her give back to the world through her hands.

God took her hands and had her paint words across the walls of a client. "All I have needed, thy hand hath provided". There is was, in black, the first time she felt God had spoken to her through her hands. Her emotions were strong that day in her friends living room, on that ladder. It was then that she realized that God had not and would not let her down. She and her husband had cut back to one salary, but God had still provided. She had seen it first hand.

And God continued to wipe out the blackboard that Satan had written in her mind that she was "not an artist" but a "laid-off person" and with the help of a neighbor, her work began to sell. She entered shows, dragged her work from place to place, and again it sold. And as God does to confirm our paths, he sent people from her very company that she left, who had no idea s he had worked there, and THEY confirmed her as an artist by asking her to put her work for sale in the "Southern Living At HOME".

Had they seen her work if she had not done those shows? Only God knows, but because she stepped out in faith, God was there.

We can all prosper from the lessons.

In everything she creates now, she tries to find a meaning as depicted in a recent painting of a crumbling leaf that shelters a fragile egg.
She describes it as "refuge" and links it to Psalm 16:1, "Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge."
"Some of my most intimate moments with God are when I am painting," she told us.

Amy shared a book called If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get out of the Boat by John Ortberg. It is the book we will be reading for our next semester of our small group.

She told us about her classes in Atlanta, from Chris DiDomizio. He had them duplicate paintings from the Masters. She would sketch and paint for hours in a studio and lose herself in music and brush strokes.

She brought a small painting that had been in her childhood home for years. It had hung on a wall and was perceived to be of a tree in a field. She could not stop thinking about the oil painting that resembled those of the masters she was then studying. After getting it from a drawer at her mothers, she began finding treasures within the painting. She first noticed a small road reaching out from the tree into the foreground, then on the path she noticed a small red dot. After careful study, she realized that it was a bow on a bonnet worn by a girl. As she studied even further with a magnifying glass, she saw the figure of a man deep under the canopy of this old tree. She named it the rendezvous tree as she copied it.

How many times do we go through life and only see half of what God is really trying to do for us? He gives us tal ents and things we love to do as a child, like draw, or rearrange our rooms, or run, or make potions. But as we grow, we see only the reflections of what school teaches us to be, or our parents aspire for us to become. We lose sight of our passions to be artists, designers, athletes or chemists and pursue fields that we are lost in until God prods us and pushes us back to that thing that he planted deep within our hearts.

What are you pushing back today? What rendezvous are you missing? Get out your magnifying glass and find it! Don't wait for God to have to do the pruning, it is right there in your heart. Just find it.

Creative Call

In 2007, a group of women artists joined each week to study the book, Creative Call, by Janice Elsheimer. The book provides inspiration so that we may become the artists God made us to be.

Each week we gather to share information, to encourage each other, to listen to praise and worship music and to explore our gifts of painting- in a attempt to wake up the creative spirit that lives within us.

Goal one is to come to the realization that because we create, we ARE artists.
Our first semester brought us to a comfortable place in our new title as ARTISTS.
Semester two we studied Scribbling In the Sand by Michael Card.

Other books of interest:
The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron

Spring 2008, we will read If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat.

We visit local art events together, share learning experiences by inviting local artists to do demonstrations and view member artist's work and techniques.

The group has grown into a close-knit group of friends who are now more than "colleagues" but are friends.
We invite you to join us today and check back as we share our creative endeavors with you online.


"Our talents are a gift from God, and I am to use them to fulfill his purposes in my life and his world. I humbly acknowledge and accept my gifts as I ask to receive God's vision for how I am to use them. I ask the Holy Spirit to free me from self-doubt and self-absorption. I pray this work will bring me into closer alignment with God's plan for me as I seek to bring my gifts and talents into his light and to become the whole and complete person he intends me to be." Amen