AmpUP: Work Your Art Out Loud

How do you define yourself as an artist?

When someone asks what you do, do you say:  I’m a starving artist!  Or do you say:  I’m a thriving artist!

You know it makes a difference.

Don’t scoff.

Close your eyes and say “I’m a starving artist!” note how you feel when you say that.  Does it make you feel like going out and visting a gallery or calling a shop to handle your work?  Probably not.

Now try this:  look in a mirror and say out loud to your image, with assurance (pretend you’re playing a roll if you must):  “I am a thriving artist.”  Now say it again with conviction and I don’t care if your dog stares at you funny.  Just try it.

Feel the difference in your body?  It gets easier – practice the thriving thing in the morning when you get up and at night before you go to bed.  Go ahead, I dare you to find out just how Out Loud you can be!

Artbeads.com

Let me say upfront that I am an affiliate of Artbeads.com and when I blog about them, they send me beads.  Let me also say that I was using Artbeads.com as one of my bead vendors long before they discovered me and invited me to blog for beads.  They also send me cool things like this for you, my readers:  good until 12/31/09, 10% off your order with this code:  SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424.  And they ship free!

September was crystal month, and I made a beadwork piece to celebrate.  You can see that here.  December is silver month at Artbeads.com, so I’m going to give you this great link, here, to their Hill Tribe Silver beads which have to be my favorite brand of silver beads ever!

This bracelet is mine – I wear it all the time.  It is made with HillTribe silver beads (swarovski crystals, cut glass and labradorite beads finish it up).  Aren’t they yummy?

I need some silver toggles, too, for finishing up my beadwork pieces.  For all the hours I spend on those, I only use beautiful silver clasps to finish them off.

So run right over and use your discount code – you can have a great piece finished in time for holiday parties!

Disclosure:    As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I receive silver beads free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion, positive or negativve.  I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Some Great Blogs for You to Enjoy

One of my favorite things is to arrive at a blogsite and find a list of blogs that I know I will enjoy because they are recommended by a site that I enjoy.  So here are some very eclectic sites for you to browse.

Christine Kane is currently show-casing folks who are writing about how their word for their influenced them in 2009 – and the word they’ve chosen for 2010.  Tired of making long lists of resolutions that don’t work?  Try just one word instead – but be very careful.  You are in for a grand adventure!

Ascender Rises Above This woman is a consistent and persistent blogger and her art and photography are wonderful in themselves.  But she stop there?  Oh, no!  Not at all.  She always enhances the art with a poem, or snippet from a song or information that enlightens and broadens the whole experience.  She is amazing.

Creative Every Day This belongs to Leah Piken Kolidas one of my earliest and longest blogging friends.  Leah has just finished up with Art Every Day month (November) and is gearing up for Art Every Day 2010.  And if you want a site to use as a launching pad to find other great sites, this one is it.  Just browse through any of her Mr. Linky lists.  You’ll never be bored.

Silver Spring Studio,  Tinker Art, Andrea’s latest blog (she’s Parisienne), and the havens because these women are prolific bloggers, talented and creative, interesting and always make me feel like I’m visiting in person.  Who says you can’t make friends in cyberspace?!

Wylde Women’s Words of Wisdom:

Sisters, I’ve donned my skin and found my voice and with it all the words – and they are singing.  Tammy Vitale, Shift (A Chapbook)