Project LOVE

Project LOVE Begins

Project LOVE is a personal deep dive study/exploration into God's love for mankind by examining His works and character and then expressing them, as best as I can, through the written word and the visual symbolism. A special page has been created for Project LOVE and I will be adding content to as this spiritual art journey unfolds.


I've also started a podcast that I'm planning to do once a week....click HERE to listen to the first one.

** All images on this website are © by Michelle McSpadden, and may not be copied, transferred, duplicated or used in any way without expressed written permission **

ideas & prep-work

This week I ordered some oil bars and they should be arriving soon.  I have worked in acrylics for the past 20+ years, so I’m looking forward to dabbling in oil paints again.  The plan is to use a few of the larger canvases I have in my inventory for large scale heart paintings…I’m thinking they will be more along the lines of abstractions when completed, but that may change. 

The oil bars are a little different than using traditional oil paint in that the paint isn’t as fluid/soft as it is coming out of a tube and they can be used for drawing applications very easily OR they can be applied traditionally with a brush.  Here is a link to oil bars if you want to get a visual of them: http://www.winsornewton.com/na/shop/oil-colour/oilbar

I originally started off using oil paints in high school, but stopped after 6 years for two specific reasons: 1)  Paint thinners & additives started making me very nauseous and loopy when I used them and  2)  Acrylics seemed to fit the way I painted better, which at that time was in very thin layers.  I’m intending to use the oil bars more like markers and forego additives if I can.  There are “odorless” paint thinners and mediums on the market, but just because you can’t smell the fumes, doesn’t mean they aren’t there. 

This weekend I will be starting to get ready for Christmas by priming crosses that I will paint as gifts for friends and family.  (If they turn out ok.)   I should be able to post pics of the process as I go along.  It’s hard to believe how quickly the year has flown by, huh?

The Heart Series is still in motion, but no pics or videos are ready right now.  I was working on heart word/theme associations yesterday….here’s the list so far: hope, hopeful, hungry, thirsty, satisfied, calm, peaceful, tranquil, nervous, anxious, perplexed, doubtful, hard, gentle, kind, loving, love, soft, bold, brave, sour, bitter, sweet, rough, diseased, fast, slow, lost, courageous, smart, dumb, foolish, silly, beautiful, ugly, plain, exotic, humble, sad, happy, joyful, proud, evil, deceitful, bland, trustful, trusting, true,  cold, cool, caloused, torn, twisted, bound, wounded, hurt, hurting, healed, energized, loving, young, old, sympathetic, expressive, musical, purposeful, honorable, holy, perfect, light, brilliant, pure...

A Funny Realization

I hung out with my aunt over the weekend and as we were scanning chanels for something to watch we came across a Heart concert on MTV.  Without a doubt Heart has been one of my favorite bands for a very long time.  I remember listening to their albums my aunt and uncle had back in the early 80s when I was a little kid.  Several of their songs could easily go along with The Heart Series…as a soundtrack if you will. Hmmm…I may have to explore that more and look into copyright stuff for using their music.     ???

RELAX & Painting With Music...

This week has been a slow week, artistically speaking. I painted on Monday & Tuesday, but decided to take a last night off and relax. Relaxing is awesome once I'm able to turn off that voice in my head that says "you should be working on something...not just sitting watching tv." Isn't that always the case? Something ALWAYS needs to be done, but taking one night off (4 hours) a week won't kill me...if anything, it will help me.

I was asked the other day what kind of music I listen to while painting, so I think now is a good time to talk about that here. During every painting session I will tune into The Word (Christian Talk Radio) for a while, then KLTY (Christian Music), I will also get into to my CD collection (mostly Praise & Worship & Joyce Meyers) and then listen to different books of the Bible on CD. This helps me to learn, stay up with current events, and get inspired while I work. Definitely a Win/Win situation for me! I never paint in silence, but I will turn down the volume very low occasionally, depending on my mood or level of concentration. I also try to keep the tv off when I'm working because it's too much of a temptation to turn around and look at what's going on. How about you?

My Fabulous Painting Rack

HOW in world have I lived so long without a painting rack? In less than 2 weeks, this piece of organizational heaven has revolutionized my studio space. Amazing, just amazing!! I have had several semi-completed paintings stuck here and there, so it helps me to protect them from nicks and scratches, plus I'm able to see what needs to get done...it stays in my face and I need that to keep me on target. Right now, I use the top 3 slots of the rack to store the small paintings while they dry on MDF boards, but I may increase that to 4 if I start another small painting series.

The painting rack was made out of a baby bed that we took apart after visiting this website. We did make a few adjustments. Instead of 24in slats, I used 20in slats. We also added a 2ft brace to each side for stability. ****A special thanks to my little brother Michael for helping me put this thing together...ok, he pretty much built it by himself, but I handed him the screws. : )

Your Studio Space

Recently, an artist buddy and I went on the White Rock Artist Studio Tour to see how others organize their work space to inspire us to make our studios more efficient. Before we ventured out, we made some mental notes of what we wanted to pay attention to so that we could learn how to make our studios better. One of the things we were both interested in was art supply organization, so whenever we saw something that would make life easier, we pointed it out to each other. Two weeks after our artist studio tour & research outing I decided to re-organize my supplies. This ended up being a day long project, because the last time I had done anything like that was in 2003 when I decided to clear out my furniture and turn my living room into a studio. Going through everything was actually fun and interesting. I found a lot of stuff that I wasn’t using and wasn’t intending to use any time soon, so I put those items in a box and will be giving them to some artists this week. This will help somebody else do something beautiful and it has helped me to de-clutter my studio some.

Do you have a special space set aside that’s just for you and your creative work? If not, why not? If so, is your studio currently arranged & organized to help you be the best at what you’re doing? Some people may not be able to make their entire living room a studio, but here are some ideas:

Spare bedroom - Sell the extra bed and get an air mattress for guests…you can use the extra $$ to buy art supplies…besides, how often do you have slumber parties?
Garage - You may want to get a window unit for the Texas summers
Storage Shed in the backyard - Don’t forget the window unit….
Dining Room - You only use twice a year for family meals anyway.
A small section of the living room
Your Media/Theatre room

And as an added perk, as long as your studio is NOT in your bedroom you can write off the square footage of it for business expense. Woohoo!

Organizing your studio doesn’t have to be a difficulat task. We saw how one artist was using an old plastic closet door shoe organizer to keep different supplies in, but instead of hanging it on a door, she nailed it to her studio wall. One lady had all of her stuff in an old tool chest with wheels so that she could roll it wherever she needed it. Another artist had her work table suspended on the ceiling via pulley system to make more room in her studio for other things. When she needs to work on the table, she simply clears the area and cranks the handle to lower the table. You don’t have to spend an arm and leg either…you can find great deals on storage cabinets, carts, shelving units, containers, etc. at garage sales, estate sales, going out of business sales, thrift stores, holiday sales, etc.

By having a special creative space, you’ll also be encouraged to create more frequently. For me, since my studio is such a large portion of my residence, I constantly see paintings that are in progress and it sparks ideas for new work, helps me with creative problem solving in pieces that have me “stumped” and keeps me focused on my short and long term artistic goals. If you don’t have a studio space, now may be a good time to create one and bless yourself with a special place that’s set aside for your creative endeavors. If you have a studio, now may be a good time to go through things and take inventory of what you have and move things around so that your space is more efficient than before. You may decide to bless other artists with things you don’t use/need OR you may want to donate them to a homeless shelter, church, or school for kids to use. Either way, it’s all good, so have fun and enjoy the process of making your studio unique, inspiring, and one of the coolest places to hangout in your neighborhood!

***Click here to see more pics of my studio***

Taking An ART Vacation!!!!!

Have you ever gotten to that place where you were totally exasperated and ready to explode? Well, that happened to me at work last week and I got to thinking “wow, I haven’t had a vacation since summer 2008…” Like a lot of other artists that are striving to perfect their craft and pursue it fulltime, I work at a “day job” and work on my art when I can. Since 40 hours of my week are devoted to my day job, my artwork often takes the back seat. I also notice that when I’m tired, my creativity doesn’t flow the way I would like it to, compositions are weak, my line quality is poor, not to mention my attitude. What’s an artist to do? Take an Art Vacation!!

Ok; this isn’t first the first Art Vacation for me, but I haven’t done this in well over a year…so I’m very excited about it! : ) What is an Art Vacation you ask? Well, for starters, I’ll be taking off a WHOLE week from my day job at the end of October, but I won’t be telling my family about it. Does that sound mean? I hope not. I know from past experience that if I tell my family that I plan to spend a week at home doing art I’ll get calls all day long with requests to go here and there, run errands, etc. WHAT a distraction!! I really want and need this time to be devoted to a specific purpose: advancing my art business by expanding my inventory. Here’s my agenda:

• Go to the Huffines Art Trails on Sunday, 10/25, with my art buddies to see what other artists are doing, observe their setups, listen to music and eat greasy fair type food.

• On Monday, I’ll make sure that all of my supplies are ready to go and then I’ll review old sketches from the past 2 years and plan out 3-4 new surrealistically styled compositions.

• On Tuesday, I’ll start working on all of the new paintings.

• By Wednesday night, the art hermit in me will be craving interaction with others, so off to the Art Love Magic Open House I’ll go. (YAY!!!)

• Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be painting days.

• On Sunday, 11/01, I’ll “chil-lax” and reflect on my artsy fartsy week.

You see, the Art Vacation is really all about work, but it’s the kind of work that us creatives love to do. It’s our passion and yet for a lot of us, we don’t devote as much time to it as we would really like to. I’ve mentioned this before in previous posts that our busyness often keeps us from doing those things that we love to do. Perhaps simplifying our lives some, turning off the tv, and focusing on our creative goals will help. Maybe more Art Vacations are in order for all of us. ??

I want to encourage you to take some time in the next week to sit down and think about what your creative goals are for the next year and write them down on a BIG poster board and tape it to your wall so that you see it everyday. Take an Art Vacation and work on these creative goals every chance you get. When you do, you’ll be happier and the rest of us will be blessed because you have introduced more beauty into our world.

Starting Projects & Finishing What You Start

The execution of your creative idea can a difficult part of the creative process, but if you’re prepared, it can be a little easier. Think of all of your notes and sketches concerning your creative idea as a roadmap to where you’re going…now it’s just a matter of starting the journey and getting to your destination. Here are some tips to help you along the way:

1. Keep your vision/goals in front of you. Write down your goals on a large posterboard and put it in a prominent place in your creative work space. This will help remind you and keep you focused.

2. Set Completion Dates. It’s important to have an idea of how long you want to spend on a project, but make sure that your timeline is reasonable. If you go beyond your deadline, that’s ok...the main thing is that you finished what you started.

3. Accountability Partners. Tell one or two people what your plans are and ask them to follow up with you about your project(s) periodically.

4. Prioritize your creative side and clear your schedule temporarily. Take a sabbatical from the TV, bowling league, book club, etc. and devote that time to your project. You can set up a temporary work schedule to help you meet your goals.

5. Plan to reward yourself for a job well done. This can be a night out, small shopping spree, ice cream, etc. after you have completed your project.

Eliminate Creative Droughts

For artists, fresh ideas are the cornerstones of our creative lifestyles, passions, and work. If I had a dime for every time I heard an artist say “I’m in a creative rut,” I would be a Zillionaire!! How is it that creatives like us find ourselves uttering these words? Is it because the well REALLY does run dry at times? OR, could it be that we need to visit different wells frequently to make sure that none of our resources get depleted in the first place??? How can we keep the creative juices flowing? Well, we could tuck our ideas away and save them……

When you have a creative idea, or an “AHA!!!” moment, document it and be diligent to keep track of your ideas for future reference. (What good is a great idea if you forget it because you were busy at the store buying some hot pockets?)

Keep a special notebook, sketchbook, or handheld recorder with you at all times so that it’s easy to record your inspirations as they come. If you’re the type that draws on scraps of paper here and there (like me), you could use an old shoe box to keep your quick idea sketches or doodles in and label it Bright Ideaz so that you don’t have to worry about losing them. – I’ve often thought of better painting compositions by simply looking through old sketches or paintings, so please don’t throw anything like that away…it will be valuable to you in the future. -

To get inspired, generate ideas and save them for the future, you can…
• Record specific details from your dreams every morning for a week.
• Review your favorite artist’s work and make notes about what you like.
• Revisit old works that you did 5 years ago. (How would you create them today?)
• Listen to some of your favorite songs from high school…go down memory lane and see what ideas emerge.
• Listen to some music that you absolutely love and think of how to interpret it for somebody who is hearing impaired.
• Enjoy nature by going to a park or lake and take time out to breathe in deep and really NOTICE creation in action around you.
• Get a box of crayons and melt them, draw with them, glue them together, etc.
• Do a few illustrations of scenes from your favorite book.
• Drive out in the country on a cloudless night and sit under the stars…gaze at their beauty and ponder their significance. (Take a flashlight in case you get some ideas and need to write them down.)
• Visit an assisted care facility for the elderly and contemplate the aging process and the wisdom that comes along with it.
• Visit the newborn nursery at a local hospital and contemplate the wonder and miracle of life and new beginnings.

Another thing I want to encourage you to do is be gentle on yourself regarding the whole idea generating process and don’t be too critical during your brainstorming/brainblooming sessions. Something may seem like a good or bad idea at first, but space and time may change your perception of it later on. To reiterate…please don’t throw any of your idea notes or sketches away…they may prove to be very valuable to you in the future.

If you happen to go through a creative dry spell, take the time to go through your collected notes and sketches to see if you get some creative sparks and then move into action. If you want to avoid a dry spell altogether make a date with your sketchbook or notebook about once a month. Turn off the cell phone, tv, radio, and make some cocoa, then take 2-3 hours to go through your sketchbooks and notebooks. When you do this, you’ll generate even more ideas which will refill your creative well. :)