MATS Blog Tour 2013

After too many years of standing still in both my professional and personal life I have recently made the decision to get proactive and make the changes to market my work better and extend myself more to make a difference in my community. In the past, I would have just day dreamed about taking those big steps but now I am acting on those day dreams.

Recently, I have become a BIG SISTER (through the Big Brother and Sister program in my community) to a beautiful 10 year old girl, who is super bright and sooooo creative. A favorite outing for us is to go to the public library, find a fun space and get out our pencils and paper and start to draw. I am so glad I made this connection. I really appreciate how hard this agency works to match up folks and I definitely see a mini me, in my little sister. I hope that my mentoring will make a difference in her life, I know it definitely will in mine.

Creatively, I have made big changes too, after years of freelance work that never fully utilized my illustration and art skills, I decided to make a concentrated effort to market myself better and strengthen my illustration skills as well. 

I feel that I am off to a great start. After reading a friend's FaceBook post spotlighting her friend and amazing artist/illustrator Emily Balsley's journey to making it into the top 6 of the Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search 2013, I was instantly intrigued and had to visit Lilla's website to check things out.  Almost immediately, I signed up for her e-course MAKE ART THAT SELLS (Part A) and I am so-so glad that I did. I have not only gained new insights into current markets and opportunities for the creative entrepreneur but I learned to see and think differently about my art in a much better way. 

A huge bonus to the course is the amazing community of talented creatives, MATS (Part A) alums, that have connected through the course and have stayed connected through the course FaceBook page. We post our success stories, questions regarding projects, creative pursuits and more. It has been so wonderful to find this community, that from day one has been so inspiring and supportive.

Today I am participating in the MATS Blog tour along fellow alumni Andrea van Dalen and Ohn Mar Win.    

Ohn Mar Win

Andrea van Dalen

Check out their blog posts and also check out the Blogs of my other classmates listed in the sidebar to the right. :)

Oh yeah, I just wanted to share my excitement over a recent edition to my backyard, my NEW Studio! It was a long time coming but so worth the wait. I can't wait to set up my work space inside and "Get Crackin".

Some of my MATS-A Class Projects

My projects from the Make Art That Sells E-Course,

taught by Lilla Rogers

Project 1- Bolt Fabric Design

Project 2-  Home Decor (Plate Design)

Project 3- Children's Book Art

Rabbits

I tend to draw a lot of Rabbits. 

Here are just a couple of them.

Sweet &

Savory

New Work

Here is my most recent work completed in time for this month's faculty show at Madison College, in Madison WI. Unfortunately the show is no longer up but the work was amazing! Such talented people.

More work included in the show.

Make Art That Sells

I recently completed the Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells course (Part A). I signed up impulsively after viewing the incredible work of one of the finalist in Lilla's National Global Talent Search and I am so...so happy I did. I truly believe that completing this course is the start I need to be able to pursue illustration full-time. I never dreamed there were so many options for the Illustrator as Entrepreneur. Lilla Rogers is such a talented and generous teacher and artist. Through this course she not only gave me invaluable information and insight into markets and opportunities out there for creatives, but also introduced me to a very talented community of illustrators,artists and designers,who I was lucky enough to have as classmates. I loved the community that was established by the class Facebook page and other support pages set up for the class. To see everyone's work and get helpful feedback was just another cool aspect of the class. 

Although, I have not always been a diligent blogger, I definitely want to get my blog up and going. I signed up to participate in the class blog tour to continue my excitement for the class and keep working toward my illustration goals. I love the idea of the tour! We are about a week into the tour now and the posts and work have been amazing. Please BOOKMARK my page or Follow my blog and check my FAVORITE BLOG list on the right to check out these very talented artists!

On December 6th it is my turn to participate in tour so hope to see you back here on the 6th if not sooner!

Tabula rasa

"First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination." 

~ Napoleon Hill