Lifebook 2015: A Left Turn Into Mixed-Media!

One of my quirky birds from a
 lesson with Tamara LaPorte 

This week, I take a left turn to talk about mixed-media art, how I discovered it and how valuable it has been for my confidence and progression as an artist. When I found Flora's website for the first time (September, 2014) I was ready to start painting right away, but had to wait to February. She had a link on her site to this year-long art event called Lifebook 2015, in which she was one of the guest artists. I checked it out, liked what I saw and signed up, and still had to wait until January, 2015, 4 long months away!
Lifebook is the brainchild of Tamara LaPorte from Willowing Arts, an artist from England with a fun, quirky style. Besides Lifebook, she offers lots of fun short classes, some for free. The little bird was from her "Quirky Birds" online class.
In Lifebook, you pay a one-time fee of around $125 for a year's worth of mixed-media art lessons from lots of cool artist and Tam, herself. There is a lesson a week and a monthly theme. I know it sounds like I am promoting Lifebook, and maybe I am because for me (who knew nothing about the magical Internet art community) it was a doorway into the wonderful world of mixed-media and lots of incredible artists of many diverse styles.

January finally rolled around and I got my first lesson. It was a piece that centered on New Year's resolutions and intentions for 2015. We were supposed to incorporate our ideas into our mixed media collage. I jumped right in and immediately sank! I tried to do my own thing, following directions but making my own color choices and such. I didn't have a lot of the supplies Tam used but carried on using what I had. My piece didn't look anything like Tam's, not that I expected it to be exact but OMG! It was so truly awful that I will spare all of you from having to look at it here. I do keep it though, just as a reminder that we all have to start somewhere. My ego definitely took a hit on this one, I mean, come on, I was always the artsy one in the family.

"Beacon of Light"

A week later, I was a bit recovered and ready for the next lesson. It was called "Beacon of Light" and I was shocked when I saw it. It was a big-headed, big-eyed, skinny armed, no legs girl. I was like, "I am not painting that!" I had thought I'd get more Flora type projects. I rebelled for 3 weeks until I relaxed and realized it was a learning experience and I really knew NOTHING about how to do mixed-media art (especially based on my New Year's piece) so I dove in. I decided to just copy exactly what Tam had done (she said that was okay to do that) and thought it went against my "I am an artist and create my own masterpieces" self-image, I did just that.
The following pictures are a few of my Tam pieces from Lifebook 2015. All credit for the ideas and images go to Tam. I take credit for being an amazing copycat! After finishing "Beacon of Light" I was quite pleased with myself and looked forward to each week's lessons.

"Courage dear Heart"

The tight-rope walker on the right was not a Tam lesson, but a project by Patti Ballard called "Courage Dear Heart. I added her because of my extreme left turn into liking painting skinny big-headed girls. Although it is a total copycat of Patti's picture I am still proud of it.

"Seeds of Love"

"Seeds of Love" was my second Tam lesson. I was starting to get a little more confident but not enough to do my own thing. I have a few of my own ideas in this piece but it is mostly Tam's work I copied.
And I have to say even though I was copying, it was valuable and I learned a lot about how to do mixed-media. I was always a collage person but never took it this far with all the paint, stamps, pens, ink sprays, little drawings and other cool embellishments.

"Layers of Your Heart"

This piece on the left, "Layers of Your Heart" sealed the deal for me and mixed-media. The greenish page in the background is a cool envelope for all the hearts. I did copy that but the hearts are my own, inspired by Tam's. Each heart has 2 sides of art and are about things I love and am grateful for. This was the first time I did a Lifebook project that was truly meaningful for me, based on my own process and internal knowing. I still get a thrill every time I look at these hearts. I have since started a mixed-media vision journal and my style there continues to follow this lead. It is very personal and very satisfying.

"It's the Little Things"

                                                                          Tam did several 2 page spreads in her lessons. I did learn more about doing faces, which she is very good at, also shading and embellishments. All of the lessons were done on heavy weight watercolor paper, rather than canvases. This style of picture and my end result are not one of my favorites and after doing the hearts I was really wanting more of that type of project.

"You are Wise"

When I did "You are Wise" I closely followed Tam's 

directions and style. I really love how it came out. 

I am very clear that this is not my style (though I am 

not sure yet what is!) or the direction I want to take 

with my art. However, what has served me in 

mimicking Tam so  closely is a steep learning curve 

into mixed-media. I find I love it as much as I love 

painting. I need to diverse and express myself in 

different ways and this is so very satisfying. 

Thanks, Tamara LaPorte for an incredible learning 

opportunity!

You can find Tam at: http://www.willowing.org