What's on My Project Table

Well, Artfest is just around the corner (I'm still in total disbelief) and I've been challenged by Heather of Paper Follies to post what is currently on my project table.
Currently, I'm working on a postcard swap for Alpha Stamps hosted by Lenna Andrews of Creative Swaps. (See the resulting works of art here.) I'm cutting it close to the wire (like usual!) but it will be out in the mail by Monday (cross my fingers--I mean, cross my heart!) :) I thought I'd also post my daughter Maya's project table, which sits right next to mine.
Currently, she is working on an altered book! She was inspired by the altered book I brought home from a recent RAFT workshop I took last month and decided to start her own.
Her art is so precious, it warms my heart! Right now as I write, she is at the table playing with paper punches. I enjoy making art with her and I'm glad we have something special we can share with each other.

My Art Was Chosen!

Blue wings from Artxchix Studio, Winter Faux Post by Renee Stockfleth, crown image courtesy of Paper Whimsy

This itty bitty I entered into an Artchix Studio swap was chosen to be included on an itty bitty collage sheet. I'm totally honored and excited! :) I also found out today that I will be a participating artist in the Hands on the Arts festival in Sunnyvale, California on May 17. The festival is for kids age 3+ and they get to roam around trying different visual and preforming arts activities all day. I will be teaching a felt doll project inspired by the Alpha Stamps felt doll swap I participated in. The kids will be decorating felt dolls and turning them into pins or stick puppets. I am very happy to say that it is possible to be a working artist! Anyone out there who wants to major in Art should just do it and not think, "What can I do with this degree?" Or if you are an accountant by day but an artist at heart, just do what you love!

Happy Spring!

I was just walking through the neighborhood the other day with Maya and we were on a blossom hunt! The trees are in full bloom all around us and I couldn't help but snap up some pictures of nature's beautiful show. This is my favorite time of year. The weather is warming up, the sun is out a little longer each day, the birds are singing! The earth is waking up again from it's long winter slumber (well, this part of the world, anyway!).

Maya said the blossoms that had fallen on the ground looked like pink snow. How magical. Wouldn't it be heavenly to wake up one day and have it snowing little pink blossoms? The Silicon Valley used to be known as The Valley of the Hearts Delight with all of it's acres and acres of fruit and nut trees. Springtime then must've looked a lot like what I imagine heaven to be like. You can still see the remnants of the old valley with it's blossoming trees here and there, sprinkled throughout suburbia. It's a nice reminder that nature is always surrounding us, no matter how much we build and pave over it.
Now that it's warmer and sunnier out, I'd like to continue our little discovery walks. When Maya was a baby, I would stick her in a sling and we'd walk up and down the street--it helped her get to sleep at night (she was born in July!). And even as a toddler we'd always take evening or daytime strolls around the neighborhood to the park or just because. She would stop every other step to pick up rose petals or examine a line of ants. One time we found the decomposing body of a very large lizard! We sat and looked at it for a long time. We watched as the ants took little bits of it and I told her that the ants were our little garbage collectors and without them, we might have piles and piles of dead things all over! (ok, it sounded more beautiful and poetic at the time--explaining the "circle of life" to my little girl).Take a discovery walk now before the summer heat pulls the energy out of you! Tell me what you find and if you have a camera, bring it with you. I read other art blogs and a lot of artists take their cameras with them even when they go out to run errands. The thought is, you never know what you might find along the way. :)

Happy hunting!