A bloggiversary? Time for a giveaway!

This weekend I celebrated eight years of blogging. EIGHT years since that very short, very tentative blog post that would lead me here today. Eight years of noticing, observing, writing, articulating, gesticulating, dumping, questioning, living, growing and sharing in an online space.

I started that first blog, called Urban Living Experiment, to document my first-time experience living in the downtown core of the city. Freshly separated and soon to be divorced, it became a story about much more than that.

Three years later I shifted to my Creative Living Experiment. At first I used a blogspot address, then I splurged for the dot com URL you see here today.

Eight years is worth celebrating in my book, which is why I am hosting a good old fashioned giveaway!

It's my way of thanking YOU for being here and joining me. Some of you have been with me the entire time and wow, really? Wow. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I wanted to offer you something fresh, something new and recent, so I spent a bit of time fiddling with my printer this afternoon - you know, cleaning my nozzles and such - and now have a never before offered print of one of my favourite digital pieces:

December Moon II - Digital, December 2013

You can be the first one to own one - except maybe for my mom, 'cause apparently she really likes it, but other than the woman who gave birth to me, YOU can be the first person to have this print!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before midnight Friday, January 31st, EST.

I will ask my lovely assistant (husband D., an original reader of the first blog) to pull a name out of the jumble and voilà! I will announce the winner on the blog the following Monday.

The image size is approximately 6"x6" on an 8"x10" sheet of archival quality photo paper and the colours came out deep and rich, true to its mood. I am quite pleased with the result.

AND as if a bloggiversary isn't reason enough, I just found out that there's a second January supermoon this week on Thursday the 30th, which means the timing is even more perfect for this particular piece to see the world.

So go on, why not put your name in the hat? Leave me a comment why dontcha...

On the Art Table: First Completed Piece of 2014!

Homage to "The Little Peasant", by Modigliani

10"hx8.5"w, acrylics, charcoal and pastels on mat board

This weekend, after working on a painting for a few weeks with what felt like minimal progress, I set it aside to play a little. I found a background in the making on my shelves and went to it. After another layer of mark-making I felt I was ready to move on to something specific.

As I flipped through some of my art books for inspiration I was drawn to one of Amedeo Modigliani's portraits - not one of his famous slender-necked women, but that of a peasant. I liked the simplicity of the composition and the soft tones worked perfectly with my background.

I pulled out the pastels and created the piece you see above, that I have since happily declared complete!

See that signature on the bottom right? That means it is done and DONE.

Here's to the first one of the year, it feels good.