POSTED - Day 1

Visual: selfie of you with your art
Caption idea: share who you are, why you love to paint, and let your followers get to know you. Ask where everyone is from to get more comments.

CAPTION: For as long as I can remember, I have enjoying creating. This picture is from my first official collection that I launched in 2020, a week after my mom passed away. I still can’t believe I did it, but I had so much encouragement, and had booked that launch date long before I knew she was going to pass away. It was the first time I had really set, broke down into steps, and worked hard to meet a goal. It was invigorating, and inspiring when I saw that others actually wanted to have my work in their home. It had been a transition for me, from watercolours and calligraphy to abstract paintings. These pieces held a lot of feelings, therapy sessions, emotions, tears and triumphs. It was a big deal for me completing them in my little house by the river. Do you have a painting from the Rising Collection? I know the journey they took me, but I’d love to hear why you love them, or how they make you feel? Let me know in the comments!

posted - Day 5

Visual: make a reel where you show the sketch, pull it away to reveal the painting.
Caption idea: share a sketch and then the painting, what sparked the idea? ask audience who art inspires new ideas for them?
Tip: show the tools you used to make the sketch or painting

CAPTION: For almost 10 years, we lived near the shores of Georgian Bay, on the longest freshwater beach in the world. It was our home. I loved those waters, those sunsets, and all the memories that come along with thinking about them. Some of the best moments of my life were simple days with important people along that shore. The Home Collection came to me while sitting at a picnic table, near the water, while my boys played on the playground. I had brought my sketchbook and my paints, and the sketches started pouring out. Later, in my studio, the sketches were translated onto watercolour paper, which was then mounted onto cradled wood panels. I finished each piece with a rubbing of wax to protect the delicate paints.
These pieces will always make me think of home, and what that means. It’s not the house or the address, but the people you fill it with, the connections that are made, and the memories that are locked into your head. I do think that beach will always feel a little bit like home, no matter how far away from it I am.

Day 6

Visual: share a picture or video of you in your studio working
Caption idea: tell a story from that day. Ask the audience if they find their own work enriching

CAPTION:

Day 7 -

Visual: make a time lapse reel of something you’re working on and voiceover of a short story about the theme and how you came up with the idea
Caption idea: one line to grab people’s attention, that alludes to what you’re talking about in the voiceover

CAPTION: ***add time lapse of sewing a book*** and do voiceover

I have always loved paper. Hearing a pen or pencil scrape across it, feeling it’s roughness or smoothness under my fingers, listening to the crisp sounds of scissors cutting through it, or the ‘shhh’ of a page being torn. The many colours it comes in, the many textures, the many sizes. The fact that you can make it at home, without too much special equipment. The fact that you can use it for so many things. Love notes, paintings, grocery lists, journaling, wrapping presents. Paper can carry stories, education, feelings and even songs. I love making books, so I can share my love of paper with others too. What is your favourite use of paper?

POSTEd - Day 9

Visual: share the dramatic before and after of a painting. Show the after first for better engagement. Messy stage then refinement
Caption idea: talk about how your creative process connects to your content pillars

CAPTION:

Working large has always freaked me out a bit. It’s intimidating looking at a blank canvas or page, but looking at one that’s half your height (or more) is even more unnerving. Josh has always pushed me to work larger, though. One time, I was picking out canvases for a commission, and had two sizes available to choose from. I instinctually went the smaller size, which still felt large to me. I briefly paused at the bigger size, which was on sale, cheaper than the smaller. I turned back to the smaller one, looking for one that had a nice tight stretch to it. When I turned again to face the cash, there was Josh, already purchasing the bigger size. He forced me into it. Step one of my fear…tackled.

Step two began at home, realizing that when painting large, I can’t take to the canvas like I normally would. I couldn’t go to my favourite brushes. I couldn’t put out the usual amount of paint on my palette. I couldn’t stay close to the piece during the painting process. I couldn’t take on little movements of my arm.

Painting large required more than just courage at the art store. It needs bigger brushes, more paint, bigger movements, painting with the whole body, not just the wrist. And the need to remember to step back. Look at it from a different perspective, and look at it that way often.

I spent most of 2023 painting small. Really small. All the while, a large canvas has hung on the easel, with a base of colour, and a reminder of the fears. So as I continue into 2024, while I’m not one to make resolutions, I will say this. I am told daily to not be afraid. It’s a canvas, and I can tackle one this large again.

Featured here: the process images and final of my largest painting I’ve made in this home.
Rooted in the Faith
from the Rooted in Grace Collection, 2022
30” x 40” (typing that, I realize it’s not even THAT big!)
-available-

Day 15

Visual: post a photo or video of you signing your work
Caption idea: you can write bout the signature of one of your favourite artists or an artist from history who inspires you and how their signature stands out to you. OR talk about the satisfaction of seeing your vision come to completion and how finishing paintings is so fulfilling.

CAPTION:

Many people associate signing artwork with the want for future recognition. Or to claim the piece as theirs. While the claiming is fairly accurate, in my opinion, I’d rather look at my signature on my work like Vincent van Gogh does. After facing pushback from the church about selling everything and giving it all to the poor, he was accused of taking on a too-literal interpretation of Christ’s teaching. Wow. No wonder people can struggle with the church and leadership. Van Gogh wrote many letters, and in one to a friend he said,

“They think I’m a madman because I wanted to be a true Christian. They turned me out like a dog, saying that I was causing a scandal.”

After leaving the mission field, he turned to art, with the aim to “bring consolation to humanity through art” (Britannica). As he wrote to his brother, Theo, he said, “I want to give the wretched a brotherly message. When I sign [my paintings] ‘Vincent,’ it is as one of them.” Nothing special or self seeking, but just to share that he felt what they felt, struggled as they struggled, and wanted them to be seen.

I’ve always been moved by the art of van Gogh, and an mesmerized all the more the deeper I dig into his story. He was a broken person in need of a saviour, just like me.

posted - Day 17

Visual: reel or a studio tour, talk about your favourite materials to work with and why, talk about how being in your studio makes you feel, or productivity and of your creative process and take satisfying shots of your space.
Caption idea: write about your art studio and how much you love to be working in it.

CAPTION: It feels like a privilege to be able to make things that others see beauty in. It’s definitely a gifting I don’t take lightly. Beautiful things make us feel, remember, look in awe. It’s easy to get that little bump of happiness when we look at something beautiful. That’s kind of how I feel when I take in my studio space too. Although, yes, I love the art that I’ve filled our home with, not only my own, but pieces from many others too, it’s also the supplies that make that art possible. Pigments and paints, pencil and markers, tapes and stencils, blades and stamps, inks and more. The sheer amount of things that you can create with is just unreal to me. I hoard scraps of beautiful paper, collecting ephemera from anywhere I can, and adding in bits of nature that a purchased supply just can’t replicate. It’s still just wild to me what can be made into art. Could I name a favourite supply? Likely not, there’s just too many that are wonderful to play with.

posted - Day 19

Visual: post a photo of your painting in a nice home or environment
Caption idea: share about how art elevates a space, write about colour or emotion or how the theme will draw us in and inspire us throughout our day

CAPTION: Going somewhere and seeing your art in a friend’s home is always such a joy. Knowing that they enjoy my work enough to want to have it in their home, displayed for all to see feels like such an honour. Creating art is leaving a bit of your heart out on the paper, and then passing it on to share with someone else. Getting to see it in their home and hear about how it’s resonated with them while they’ve had it is even beyond and honour. The night I snapped this photo at @toriami’s house, her husband Daniel caught me and mentioned that he loved looking at this piece from different distances, because it changes so much for him. It was something that I never even considered when I was painting it. Being a small piece, I stayed close to it, literally. I was so grateful for that moment, a reminder of needing to consider my work like a collector, and not just as the creator. That I need to remember to look at my work the way a collector would, with it up in their home. So a thank you to Tori and Daniel for the support of my art, and the reminder of stepping into others shoes is always needed.

posted - Day 27

Visual: share that you’re open for commissions and examples of past commissions
Caption idea: write about your commission process and how much you love to do them. If you have a testimonil or can get one, this would be a great time to share that

CAPTION: In 2019 my parents church did a season of reading through the bible, spending on a week on each book. In partnership with that, they had congregants create pieces of art to go with each book. My mom signed me up for 1 John (well, 1, 2, & 3) and she finished up the series with Revelation. Chapter 3 of 1 John stood out to me, with having two little kids of my own, knowing that we are called to have a childlike faith, and that we are God’s children. This is the piece that I created after some study of those books, focusing on verse 18. Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:16-18
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

posted - Day 31

Visual: carousel of books
Caption idea: share the reason why you like making these

CAPTION: How many journals is too many? How many sketchbooks is too many? The limit does not exist, as far as I’m concerned. I was chatting with a friend the other night about how she had too many journals that had been gifted to her, because she loves them. But with many empty ones on the shelf, and less time right now for her to write in them, she said she needs to ask for no more (for right now). I tried to resonate, but I’M THE PROBLEM. It’s me who buys too many journals and sketchbooks in our house. For me. And now I make them too. So, thus, the limit does not exist.

I’ve added some new leather bound journal/sketchbooks, as well as some of those sari fabrics that I was sewing together a couple weeks ago, to the website. They made the prettiest books! As much as I would like to keep them all, because I love them, I’ll let them go too. So add another to your sketchbook collection, or gift just onnnnne more to that book lover in your life.