What is the most interesting thing you have learned this week?

[F]

To me one of the most wonderful things about learning something new is that the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. With each new thing we learn, we also get the benefit of the interconnections between our new knowledge, skill, or understanding and all the other things we have encountered and absorbed over our lifetimes.

 

So what new things did you learn,observe, or realize this week that change how you look at the world or that give you ideas for new creative possibilities? Where did you find it- a book, online, your neighborhood, a change of scene, something that popped into your head as if you had always known it somewhere inside you but it just made itself felt?

 

Please share!

[Laura E. Thykeson]

I am continually learning that there are unorthodox ways to use different painting mediums, alone and mixed together that I hadn't thought of yet! Some I think are "new" and most tried before, just new to me! This creates a constant state of wonder and excitement for me, which is great because I bore very easily. If I have to paint or use an art supply only one way for very long, I get really sick of it, and will quit in boredom. So I spend some time researching and a lot of time playing and producing, experimenting with different techniques, mediums, and additives. I would imagine that I haven't discovered anything that is "revolutionary" - except to me, lol!

[Susan Hosken]

Laura, I am doing the 21 secrets workshops and ready to do some art pages using bleach and some with shaving cream!!
lots of love from susan in australia
srhosken.blogspot.com
susanhosken.blogspot.com

[Laura E. Thykeson]

I have read about the bleach, but not the shaving cream-sounds really interesting!!

[Mary Hicks]

Susan, can you say a little about these techniques? It sounds very interesting - although the smell of bleach would totally turn me off! Shaving cream, on the other hand - not so much! It sounds very messy, and I love messy art!

[di]

that sounds like so MUCH fun!........are you using a razor with the shave cream?????

[Trina Adermonn]

Looking forward to seeing the bleach ones. You have my curiosity piqued about the bleach now. I will be looking at that this week. Love playing in the shaving cream. Foamy paint is quite the same. I've worked with kids in an after school program with that stuff and it is sooo much fun but messy! Shaving cream is definitely fun as well! Nothing like dipping your hands in and getting them all messy. For me, it just takes me back to when I was a kid and art was an all 5 senses experience. The smell of the cream(foamy paint has a bit of a smell to it), the texture of the paint as you paint, mix, blend, the sight...and hearing it come out of the tube or can and squish is just...sigh....heavenly. Now you have me wishing to do it again! (Do you think my husband would mind or think me nuts if he came home to find me playing in it? Or do you think he'd just shake his head and say, "yep that's my creative wifey!")

[Trina Adermonn]

That sounds like how I work and learn Laura. I too get bored easily. If I learn something new, it's also a state of wonder and excitement for me. I sometimes get the feelings that I find things as God allows me to. It's uncanny the timing for things. Like for instance the time when a local business opened it's logo design to artists in the community. I was fearful to try to do it, to put myself out there, more fearful of failing more than anything as I hate to fail at anything, but I did it!  Before when I was a closet artist, I never would have done that. So you defined it quite well, how things are "revolutionary" and meaningful to yourself as an artist while to others, it may not be. They may have already been through that or experienced that or learned that.

[Anne Westlund]

I discovered that the most predictable people (my family) can behave in unpredictable ways. That's really cool to me, especially since I'm moving in with them. My mom who is usually so in control of things has been really stressed out by this move, my brother who is sorta volatile has been mostly calm about the whole thing. I've even surprised myself by my behavior! I've been slowly packing things up instead of leaving it to the last minute, my normal modus operandi. This all bodes well for the move. Yay!

[F]

I think it is really wonderful that you find inconsistency interesting. So many people expect everyone in their lives always to do the expected. Even when people have changed over time, many people still see them as how they were a long time before.

[Laura E. Thykeson]

Anne! Great to hear from you! I was wondering the other day where you were!

[Anne Westlund]

Doing a little lurking along with the packing. Hee hee! I can't keep up with all the discussions though. Hi Laura! Hi Fritzie!

[Mary Hicks]

Hi Anne! Good luck with your move -- be sure to send me your new address! XO