Ya, I know splitting hairs again.

But when I go out with Sally we talk about such things, art rambles as we walk about and pick through art supplies.

There are these trees in Golden Gate Park, that if you were to paint them you'd need a semi dry brush, and only the tips of bristle groups would be used, making little lines going upward. I realized when I was seeing the brush strokes that would be needed to paint that tree that there is a difference between looking and seeing.

You look at the outside of a thing.

You see it's potential, it's color, it's comparison to other things, it's symbology, it's mythology.

You look to make sure there isn't spinach on your teeth before dashing out the door.

You see how you've aged and are ok with it for you see your grandmother or grandfather coming out in your face and you are chill with it all.

A crafter will look to see that there are all the pieces in a kit and following the directions can expect a predictable outcome.

An artist has media: polymer clay, paint, wood, and following an original vision or dream, see the potential in these supplies to make the dream manifest. The outcome of which is rarely predictable.

Some folks say that they don't feel like an artist. Well, you'll never feel like an artist until you come out to yourself as wanting to be one. The desire has to be there. One can feel it...the passionate hunger to have things fly off of your fingertips, kaboink, like magic. The techniques of which I can help you with ....but you have to own your own dreams.

There is a truth to your dreams in that it come from you and you alone. If someone was to come up and tell you that you Temple of Yow sucked big time, like they did to me, then you can stand up straight and proud and reply, "Point being?"

You don't have to defend your visions or your dreams, you just have to express them. Some folks express with music, dance, fun foods...better known as Chefs. We are choosing polymer clay to help us express our inner visions because it is cheap, handy, no special equipment and all other supplies can be found at the SuperMarket.  Art on a budget, that's us.

Sally my painter pally, says, "It's the ability of making something out of nothing at all. To see things in this lump of nothing that isn't yet there. The excitement that comes in watching it evolve...and even if it doesn't come out like you thought it would be, it has a life of it's own, and you can continue the excitement in discovering what it wanted to be made into. Some art pieces take years to complete because you have to 'live with them'"

I'll interject here that the excitement is what I want share here the most. Everyone can learn technique, anywhere. But I'm here to goose you muse and make you laugh, and hopefully tickle your brain, and urge you to be free to accept your dreams and visions enough to stand up to anyone and say, "Ya, you can think what you want, but these are MY DREAMS and you have no say in whether they are true to me or not."

Being an artist is a weird thing.  You can't look at the world like other people do. Sally says, "You can't let other people tell you how to look at the world or what you should be seeing ....because it isn't you."  We aim here to foster individual expression and bring to you interesting things to motivate and inspire you to put your hands into the clay.

Once you do you'll know why we're here. It is a tactile, and emotional art form. It is warm and soft and sensual. There is an intimacy of finding a finger print of your swap mate on a rose petal...."aww, that so and so's finger print."

Beings that polymer clay cures in less than a half hour, we get immediate feed back. We are the most impatient of artists of all the media I know about. Who else can take a slice of cane, and slap it to an earring back, cure and go out wearing new earrings, or a necklace, or chop and toss in a pocket watch pill case just so you can say "It's time for Art." when ever someone asks you what time it is? What other art form has such variety, covers to many uses, can be so many different things but polymer clay.?

What these things are is now up to you to figure out. There are no directions in the subconscious stirrings of your dreams and visions. No one can pick out the one that will drive you to finish a piece but than one you picked for yourself.

For I can only ask you to look at your clay packet's, only you can find what you see in them.

xoxo

Nora-Jean