Street ART in a Small Town

This is where I live ...

Brooklyn is a charming small town in southern mid-Michigan. Surrounded by corn fields,  scattered silos, woods, and in an area of lakes and recreation, it exemplifies the meaning of "bucolic."

What you can't see from this snowy photo is the back of those buildings have amazing street art.

I spent an afternoon this fall with two of the artists who worked on some of this amazing art as well as, Josh Mitoska, who owns many of the buildings ... Here are some pics & video.

Not everyone is thrilled by the art ... here are some snippets from our local paper, the Brooklyn Exponent.

Life Book 2016 is HERE!!

Life Book 2016 is now OPEN! I have an amazing, affirming, and juicy lesson planned for the course. There are 20+ other awesome artists contributing. Come play and paint with us! Just follow THIS LINK to register! 

Check out this lovely video below!

xoxo
See you there! 

Winner of LIFE BOOK 2016 Giveaway!

Congrats to Jean, of Pages in Time blog! You're the winner of the Life Book 2016 giveaway! Please let me know via email which email you'd like to use for the class!! All the best! I know you'll love it!!

I hope to see you all there at Life Book 2016! I'm working on bringing you two awesome lessons, and the others instructors are going to wow you as well!

xoxo

Teaching on LIFE BOOK 2016 and a GIVEAWAY!!

Hello everyone!



I have some wonderful & exciting news! I am going to be teaching on Life Book 2016 next year!

I can't even begin to explain how happy I am to be a part of this lovely course. It's a wonderful opportunity for artistic and personal growth :).

And even MORE exciting news is that I can give away 1 space on this amazing year long art course! Keep reading if you want to find out more about Life Book 2016 and if you want to find out how you can win a spot! :)

First let me tell you a bit more about Life Book in case you haven't heard about it yet!

“Life Book, a celebration and honouring of YOU” is a year-long mixed media art class organised by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts.

Tam is joined by 23 incredible art teachers who are all gearing up to share their mixed media techniques, tips and tricks with YOU! Themed around self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! You will have a wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life!

You can find out a lot more about this wildly popular course (it has been joined by over 8700 people in the past!) by clicking HERE.

I haven't fully developed my class idea yet, but I'm excited to be sharing with you how to find your own voice in your art through personally meaningful symbolism and how to build texture with mediums and pastes, much like you can see in these paintings:

I will also be making a BONUS class on sacred self care and we'll be making a watercolor as well as a raw food smoothie.

Registration opens for LifeBOOK 20166 on October 5th 2015 and the class begins on January 1st 2016.

So if you want to start the year with a fabulous creative BANG and spend 2016 with a wonderful creative community of like-minded souls, learning more about art and how to be kinder and more loving towards yourself, be sure to join once registration opens! :)

Keep this page bookmarked so that you can sign up the moment it goes on sale! :)

Now then, onto the give-away and blog hop! :)

I can give away 1 space on Life Book 2016 to 1 lucky winner, yay! :) And if you follow the blog hop (see below for links and dates) you can up your chances of winner a space by entering all the other giveaways also! :)


How to enter the give-away:

1. Share this give-away on Facebook or twitter
2. Sign up to my newsletter (click HERE)
3. Leave a comment below letting us know why you would love to join Life Book 2016

I will announce the winner on Thursday, September 24th.

Here is the list of the other amazing teachers who will be teaching on Life Book – they too will be giving away a spot on Life Book so go check them out and enter their giveaways! :)

7 Sept 2015 Tamara Laporte http://www.willowing.org/
8 Sept 2015 Annie Hamman http://anniehamman.com/
9 Sept 2015 Kristin Dudish http://kristindudish.com/
10 Sept 2015 Effy Wild http://effywild.com/
11 Sept 2015 Faith Evans-Sills http://harmonyandfaith.blogspot.com/
12 Sept 2015 Gillian Lee Smith http://www.gillianleesmithartist.com/
13 Sept 2015 Ivy Newport http://ivynewport.com/
14 Sept 2015 Jane Davenport http://janedavenport.com/
15 Sept 2015 Jenny Grant http://www.flowbyjenny.com/
16 Sept 2015 Angela Kennedy (Pennystamper) http://pennystamper.blogspot.com
17 Sept 2015 Lisa Viger http://www.lisaviger.com/
18 Sept 2015 Martha Lever http://marthalever.blogspot.co.uk/
19 Sept 2015 Mary Beth Shaw http://www.mbshaw.com/
20 Sept 2015 Melody Ross http://bravegirlsclub.com/
21 Sept 2015 Pam Carriker http://pamcarriker.com/
22 Sept 2015 Pauline Agnew http://www.paulineagnew.com/blog/
23 Sept 2015 Rae Missigman http://rae-missigman.squarespace.com/
24 Sept 2015 Renata Loree http://renataloree.com/
25 Sept 2015 Roben-Marie Smith http://www.robenmarie.com/
26 Sept 2015 Roxanne Coble http://bybun.com/
27 Sept 2015 Shiloh Sophia McCloud http://www.shilohsophiastudios.com/blog
28 Sept 2015 Donna Downey http://donnadowney.typepad.com
29 Sept 2015 Tracy Verdugo http://artoftracyverdugo.blogspot.co.uk/
30 Sept 2015 Wyanne Thompson http://www.wyanne.com

Have a great time following the blog hop! I'm SO looking forward to seeing you in the course next year!! :)

xoxo
Lisa

The Golden Hour: And then there was light ...

The Golden Hour:

"In photography, the golden hour (sometimes known as magic hour, especially in cinematography) is a period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer compared to when the Sun is higher in the sky."

Indulge me. Just for a moment. I want to share this stunning, heart opening, light filled evening {and a few collected words} with you ...

Awake my dear 

Be kind to your sleeping heart. 

Take it out into the vast fields of light 

and let it breathe. 

~ Hafiz

Even if your life is now a cage,
For a divine seed, the crown of destiny,
Is hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain
You hold the title to... - See more at: https://www.openhandweb.org/light_will_some_day_split_you_open_hafiz#sthash.NvzEiXDF.dpuf

Light will someday split you open
Even if your life is now a cage,
For a divine seed, the crown of destiny,
Is hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain
You hold the title to... - See more at: https://www.openhandweb.org/light_will_some_day_split_you_open_hafiz#sthash.NvzEiXDF.dpuf

Light will someday split you open

Even if your life is now a cage,

For a divine seed, the crown of destiny,

Is hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain

You hold the title to ...

~ Hafiz

Even if your life is now a cage,
For a divine seed, the crown of destiny,
Is hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain
You hold the title to... - See more at: https://www.openhandweb.org/light_will_some_day_split_you_open_hafiz#sthash.NvzEiXDF.dpuf

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; 

the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
  ~ Plato

 Darkness cannot drive out darkness:

only light can do that."

~ Martin Luther King, Jr

There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

~ Leonard Cohen

Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.
  ~ Brené Brown

We went down into the silent garden.
Dawn is the time when nothing breathes,
the hour of silence.
Everything is transfixed,
only the light moves.
~ Leonora Carrington

Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.
~ E.M. Forrester

Fear can only grow in darkness. Once you face fear with light, you win.
~ Steve Maraboli

Love is not consolation. It is light.
~ Simone Weil

Light is more important than the lantern,
The poem more important than the notebook.
~ Nizar Quabanni

She was bendable light: she shone around every corner of my day.
~ Jerry Spinelli

The rose shadows said that they loved the sun, but that they also loved the dark, where their roots grew through the lightless mystery of the earth. The roses said: You do not have to choose.
~ Robin McKinley