I changed a tab on this blog to read Art Store instead of Bookstore. About a year and a half ago, I thought for sure I needed to devote my life solely to the art of writing words. But as this last year played out, I’ve felt pulled, as many artists do, to dabble here and there in other mediums. Photography, mixed-media collage, painting, art-journaling to name a few. So I’m letting the Muse take me where it must, and I’m trying not to build a box with walls so high I can’t scale them when necessary. I think my gypsy artist heart is prone to wander and needs the thrill of wide open spaces at times.
In the Messy Canvas Art Store you can still find my four e-Books.
In addition I have included a link to all the digital scrapbooking products I design for Scrap Girls. My latest product is a set of digital papers in both 8.5×11 and 12×12 sizes, called, Vulnerable. I feel like a part of my soul kind of bled out in creating these. I look at them and feel a bit exposed.
I have also include links for my products at Etsy. I re-opened my Etsy store this past weekend with a line of 5×7 #secretmessage art pieces. Maybe they’ll be a secret message hidden for you somewhere in there!
This morning I spent some time working on a #secretmessage art journal I’m creating for someone special. As I pushed my brush across the pages of an old book and listened to a familiar Anna Nalick song, my heart welled up for an instant because I truly felt in my element.
I’ve been a scared person the last 24 hours, scared at all I am attempting, hiding in my closet so I didn’t have to face myself. Wide open spaces, though thrilling, can be entirely daunting as well. But this morning in those moments of brush strokes and #secretmessage circling I felt certain I have to keep pressing on.
This dream living business is certainly not for sissies. I’m thankful for a husband that doesn’t balk at my hiding. For a neighbor that doesn’t flinch at my inability to answer the door. For a anam cara that calls me braveheart. May we all be bravehearts as we try to let the person out that lives inside us. And have grace for ourselves on the days when we hug the carpet of dark rooms, shaking and breathing shallow gulps of air.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I think it goes in seasons, words, paint, etc. That’s the glorious thing about being an artist, you are never limited! Beautiful pages, I can see how your soul bled.
Thank you for seeing me.
And yes, seasons. I love your Etsy shop and your blog words that I just read today. Thanks for stopping by and waving hello.
i’m freakin’ proud of you. and really, really excited.
i am so right here, both *with* you and in my own life in this place.
i’m {trying} to work through something…standing my ground and not letting myself be pushed out of my own life, not letting my voice be drowned out. i know this isn’t exactly what you wrote but it feels like it comes alongside and just silently nods in understanding. i’m a little extra-abstract today. :-/ i love you.
I wish courage was independent of fear.
And I wish dream-chasing came without the threat of nightmares.
And I wish goals were free of the possibility of failure.
But there’s not a genie to be found that can grant those three. All we can do is choose to keep going. Choose that “it’s” still worth it. And you have. I can see your resolve in your words, in the very brushstrokes of your morning. You are fierce and brave and inspiring.
Rain and Mandy, precious friends – I’m trying to be diligent about writing down the encouragement I get from others in one page of my journal. You two seem to be there on that page a lot. Thank you because I realize I can’t keep going without this sort of soul fuel. I guzzle it so quickly. I must be so thirsty. Wish I had one of those electric souls that doesn’t need so much fuel. But at least I have friends that give so open-handedly to me. I cherish every word.
You pour out as much as you drink in, my friend.
Yep, needed this comment too. Gratitude from deep places within me.
it still makes me giddy that your own amazing journal (seriously, i picture it open with light rays emanating forth and a heavenly hallelujah chorus rising) has things i wrote in it. <3
and what mandy t said…you pour out so much. you give so much. you deserve to feel quenched. i'm so honored and happy that i can have a little part in your quenching. <3
yes, you quench in the best of ways. glad you feel poured into as well.
Mandy, this is immense beauty you share. Thank you for opening up and sharing yourself and living dreams. You encourage and inspire me, and I’m sure untold others, to live the dreams that are inside of me. When I read your words here, I breathe fresh air.
good because fresh air breeds awakening life and we all need a good excuse to come alive. me included.