Hi Folks,

The Artful Challenge of March has officially been completed!  Yes we gave ourselves a few extra weeks because quite frankly we started at an odd time of the month and I needed a little extra time (shame on me.) 

From this challenge I have learned many things about myself:  
1.  I'm very competitive.
2.  I love colors. Even more than I originally assumed.
3.  I'm not very good at judging how long something will take me to complete.  HA! 

As with many of my pieces, the amount of detail and complexity seems to grow as I continue working...meaning as I go along I come up with alternative ideas that end up taking me more time and energy.  But I am so grateful that I do this to myself because the end results are always fascinating to me! I surprise myself almost every single time I create and that just fuels my creative juices even more. 

With this being our first challenge, we were more or less getting our toes wet and sizing each other up.  :)  I don't want to pin Winners and Losers with these challenges because I think anytime you can challenge yourself and your artistic ability then you're always a winner because you learn so much along the way.  

Bambi was not as much a fan of this challenge and doesn't particularly love her result, but I'm so proud of her because she stepped completely outside of her safety bubble and challenged herself as an artist with a completely different vision.  She's excited to try more challenges, which we've already picked the next theme for this upcoming Month.  But more on that later!

So without further adieu, I present you with our Artful Challenge completions!!! 

Again, the theme here was to do a Land ESCAPE and mine consisted of the majestic bluffs that decorate the driftless region where I live.  I love the result and this will definitely become a series for me. 

Bambi's Land ESCAPE is of a monastery she visits to find herself and experience moments of peace.  

Hi Folks!  

I'm excited to share an update on the wonderful Artful Challenge that a fellow collage-r and myself have embarked upon.  I know those that are following have been sitting at the edge of your seat biting your nails :)  

Just to recap:  A fellow paper collage enthusiast connected with me via Etsy and brought up the idea of doing an artist challenge where we both "compete" against a pre-determined theme, creating our interpretation in our own paper styles.  Both of our styles I would say are very different so I'm really really excited to see where this takes us. 

So far the first theme is "Land-ESCAPES" and we are choosing places within our own area that we love to escape to, or visit.  I chose to do a piece on the bluffs that decorate the driftless region where I live.  Bambi has decided to do a beautiful rendition of a monastery close to where she lives and where she feels a deep connection.  We didn't actually start the challenge until February 10, so we are extending the deadline date to THIS FRIDAY, March 10. 

I'm about half way done.  LOL.  I'd say Bambi is a lot further along than myself, so it should get real interesting here in the next couple of days.  

I wanted to include Bambi's thoughts on this endeavor so that you can get to know her as an artist and experience a deeper connection with her beautiful work.  Here's the first blurb she wanted to say:

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Finding Shelby on Etsy has been a true treasure! We both share such a passion for paper collage that it was such a natural fit (so to speak) and I am so excited that we have embarked on this journey together to inspire and encourage each other as well as to have a collaborative partner to talk "shop" with! Although Shelby and I have a completely different approach to the collage process, and have completely different paper choices, this Land "ESCAPES" Themed-project with her has already turned out to be such a treat and inspiration!

I am from what we call the "Deep South" in Covington, Louisiana. Choosing a special place I considered an "Escape" from the crazy, busy world was easy! There is a beautiful Monastery & Seminary just 5 miles from me called Saint Joseph Abbey. It is absolutely peaceful and serene, and once you are there, you would never know that it is so close to the city limits! The monastery grounds consist of the most beautiful majestic oaks with the quintessential Southern hanging moss, the azalea bushes bursting with pinks, and the gorgeous abbey on the shore of a small but substantial lake. True heaven on Earth!

That was the easy part! I couldn't believe that as long as I have been a collage artist (since 2008) I had never done a landscape! Hard to believe, I know! I have to admit, it was a bit harder than I thought it would be! I created 5 small scale collages with the land-escape theme, just playing with the composition of each piece, and choosing papers based on strictly colors & textures, inspired by Shelby actually! This goes against they way I have been creating collage using a "narrative" as my guide. 

I'm glad that I took the time to do this before embarking on the larger canvas I plan to use (16" x 20") - the larger scale size is also inspired by Shelby ;-) While playing with the application in terms of design, I found myself starting with a larger, almost unrelated focal piece to work around. It was an unintended consequence that worked out rather nicely. I just love that this developed on its own as I worked through the design thought process, as collage artist know well, collage has a way of finishing themselves!

Now, with that said, having an idea of what to start with is a completely different ball game! The end result may not look anything like the first ideas, or sketches as Shelby has so cleverly thought to do! Me, I just jump right in! But somehow, I always seem to swim!

As a Medieval Historian and Art History buff, I love the beautiful inspiration inspired by Books of Hours and Illuminated Manuscripts, so naturally I will be including some elements of these in my final piece, not sure just how yet, but we will see how she progresses! (Now you understand why I naturally thought of "monks", "monastery" when Shelby asked if I had a special place close by that would be characteristic to my own locale that I could translate into our collage challenge!) 

So, that is where I stand at the moment! Since Shelby has already started her collage, I better get myself busy if I want to catch up! Watch your rear Shelby, here I come! :-)

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And with that here are some visuals for you detailing our progress so far! Directly below is the beginning of Bambi's collage of the monastery.  In the second image you can see the picture she is referencing.  The second set of images are the progress I've made up until this point.  You can clearly see the differences in our styles and they are both so unique and so pretty!

There's still several days left in this challenge so be sure to check back in to see the final results! Have a great day everyone and Happy Papering!