Treats and treasures in the mail

When I was little I used to chase the UPS truck as it drove through our neighborhood yelling "do you have something for me?!!!" There is nothing better than getting a package in the mail. Well this week I received two!! It was so wonderful to be the recipient of my very first UGRA homer. Translated, that means a project was created for me by one of the incredibly talented members of UGRA (Under Ground Rail Art) which she sent out to another Ugra-ite to work on, and they forwarded it to another and so on.

In this case, one of my favorite artists, Loretta, started a "slam book" for me. She sent it to Bonnie who forwarded it to Corvus, who sent it to Sharen, who passed it on to Bonnie who shipped it off to Jennifer (all the way in North Carolina), who sent it "home" to me. The book is absolutely scrumptious and I am so honored that each of these talented women worked in it! It has hand sewn signatures, pop out pages, and pockets and pouches filled with treats. I will treasure it!

On this page, you push on the labeled spot to the right, and the fire flies light up!

I also received an incredible prize package from my dear friend Jen. I was randomly selected after leaving a comment on her sparkle/shine/ shrink blog-a-polooza. She sent me 3 of her most favorite scrapbooking supplies and I am so very stoked (I'm doing the wave in my chair). I received a BIG ol' BOTTLE of Glossy Accents, Tim Holtz Distress Ink and the most darling array of fibers wrapped around the waistband of an old pair of jeans -(the girl is a creative genius!) How fun is that!

I've also been having an absolutely fabulous time in my Still Life painting class. It appears, I may have some skill peeking out which would be really great since I feel that my artistic abilities to this point, have been completely learned - that a natural aptitude or innate talent has yet to reveal itself. I don't want to jinx it by getting all "look at me, I can paint" before I have flushed things out, but I had to share this suspicion because it is a wonderful experience to feel you may have potential in something that you love to do. Most everything I have accomplished in my life has come from hard work or dumb luck. There have only been a few times in my life where I actually "felt" ("felt" being a critical word here) I was blessed with talent. Even if it turns out to be a short lived experience, I want to document it so I can come back and say "oh yeah - that was awesome!"


Here is the painting I did last week - my second oil and Still Life ever... It has a variety of troubled areas which taught me A LOT. My professor said "Jillene, I am impressed with your willingness to tackle tough set ups! Good work." She doesn't usually say things like that - she sticks to the instruction and critique so a personal comment like that made me feel really good.

I'm working on two new paintings right now, one of which I had to submit at the 50% stage. My Prof said "Jilliene, Good job and good thinking on your changed comp. Very good work, be proud."

Happy weekend!