Celebrating 2012-- Highlights of My Year

I read Carin's post today about her creative achievements of 2012 and it got me thinking "what would be on my list if I were to make one?"  At first I thought, well, I don't have a whole lot to say, but then I thought back to all the little things I am proud of, that made me happy and experiences I had this year that were fantastic.

I'm not going to lie, this Christmas season I was not fully in the mood to celebrate the holidays.  I pay a lot of attention to the news and read many of the stories that come across my way.  Of course, there were the big tragedies in Newtown and the movie theater and the one in my own state at the Sikh temple.... and many more smaller tragedies that I hear about all the time.  All of the bad things in the world have really weighed on my heart and I have just not felt right celebrating when the world is so broken.  How can there be such evil in the world?  It really has thrown me for a loop.  I try to keep my blogging light and happy and positive but it just seemed like one after another this year.  Because of this, it has really made think about how I treat other people and how I need to be a positive force.  I need to keep perspective and not let the little things irritate me.  I need to focus more on the big picture rather than the day to day.  Letting things go that are really not a huge deal!  We all need to be kinder to each other because we do not know the burdens another person bears.  And I'm not just talking about a random act of kindness thing, but overall a shift in perspective for myself.

It's important to not take the little things (and the big things) for granted.  It easy to let things slip by without really celebrating them.  It's easy to focus on what you don't have or what you are not, rather than the things that you do well or the things that make you happy.  I encourage you to make your OWN LIST of things that you are proud of or great memories you have from this year.  Celebrate them!  Embrace them and be proud of them.  Carin had 60 things on her list! 

Here are some of my creative and personal highlights of this year:

1.  Participated in a fun online workshop from Strathmore with Traci Bautista.

2.  Showed my students artworks in the Youth Art Month Show at the Hilldale Mall and the State Capitol. 

3.  Created some amazing collaborative canvases with my students (2 of which were auctioned off and 2 of which are hanging in my school.)

4.  Conducted several fun and messy afterschool art classes for kids.

5.  Went to New York in March for the National Art Education Conference and had an amazing time!
I got to hang out with some of my favorite art ed bloggers in person, and saw Peter Max and Chuck Close give speeches!

6.  In January I started working with Marit and the team on a new mixed media art magazine called Featuring.  The first issue came out in April!  I interviewed artists and wrote 3 articles for the first issue. 

7.  Put out another school yearbook successfully with the middle school kids at my school.

8.  In June I volunteered at the Re-Art Swap at a local art store in Madison where you can drop off unwanted supplies and then pick up new ones.  Amazing!  I am so volunteering again next year.

9.  In June we also took a family trip (with Andrew's family) to Disneyworld!   Yeah, I want to go back.

10.  Had a lazy summer filled with art, friends, Daria time and relaxation.

11.  In August, I wrote a lesson that was published in Scholastic Art magazine.

12.  In August, I created a new logo image for our school's 30th anniversary that was printed into a big banner and used on our school t-shirts.

13.  In September, I launched the Weekly Doodle-- printable drawing prompts for kids.  I'm considering make some more e-packets for download.

14.  Had a drawing page published in the Doodler's Anonymous Coloring Book yeah!  It's so cool.  The book, I mean.. my drawing is nice but the other ones are so amazing.

15.  Sold a few things in my Etsy Shop!

16.  Bravely experimented with glass fusing at school!

17.  Got a new phone with a texting plan!! (Welcome to the year 2005, right?)  And I joined Twitter. Woah!  Technology overload.

Follow @marcia_beckett

18.  Was in the running for the Art Ed blog of the Year with The Art of Education.. did not place in the top 10, but still honored to be one of the 20 in the running!

19.  I had a few activities printed in 2 books in October.  The best part of submitting to these sorts of things is that you get free copies of the book!  And it looks good on your resume.  Not that I am planning on ever leaving my current job but it's still always good to pursue recognition in your professional field.

20.  Issue #2 of Featuring Magazine was released in the fall and I wrote 2 articles in this issue (one really long and intensive one and the other was a shorter interview.)   

21.  Continued to moderate the online group Artists in Blogland and continued to connect with more and more amazing, soulful and positive artists across the world.  If you have not joined us there, the New Year is the perfect time to commit to making more of your own art.  We have lots of fun challenges, swaps and interviews in the works.  

22.  Wrote an article for Art Journaling magazine by Somerset Studio which hits the newsstands any day now.  I am very (humbly) proud of it!  I have submitted to many, many publishers and contests this past year and received *many* rejections, but also a few acceptances. That is part of the process I have learned.  Maybe some people have an easy time with it, but I am simply proud of what has been accepted.  When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer for a magazine as my career.  Now I am simply satisfied with a few articles here and there.  :)  

23.  My husband started his foray into the world of blogging with a Lego blog.   It has been fun to share the experience of writing a blog.  There is a whole community of adult Lego collectors who buy and sell sets.  Very interesting.  

24.  Bought a binding tool to make my own sketchbooks:

25.  Kept several art journals and filled a few of them!

26.  Experimented with Gelli plate printing.

27.  Made several mixed media collages for fun!

28.  Filled two scrapbooks with Project Life style scrapbooking!

29.  Participated in an ATC swap where I received some beautiful cards in the mail and made some to send out.

30.  Read a whole bunch of inspiring books! 

31.  Made a little bit of art with my darling daughter.

Well if you have read this far, thank you!  I hope you will create your own list now and share it with me.  Going forward 2013 seems full of possibilities.  Happy New Year!!

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Issue #2 of Featuring Magazine is ready for pre-order

The 2nd issue of Featuring Magazine is going to the printers.  It is ready for pre-order!

I am part of the editorial team at Featuring magazine and I'm so excited for the release of this issue.  In this issue, I wrote the article titled Mapping It Out, which features the art of Mary C. Nasser, Tofu and Karey Kessler. Each of these artists explores using maps in their own way to tell a story or to make a statement.  I also wrote the Featured Blogger column:  Tammy Garcy from Daisy Yellow guides her blog readers with tutorials, art journaling prompts, challenges, inspirational photographs and interesting quotes.

I love this gorgeous cover!

You can see several pages of preview at the website.  Visit this page to learn more about the 2nd issue.

Pre-order issue #2 in the store for a chance to win an inchie on the back of our next issue!

We will give away 30 inchies to readers who pre-order issue #2 before September 21.
These will appear on the back of our third issue.  On the 21st, we will draw 30 winners. Issue #2 of FEATURING will be released soon after.

Issue #1 is still available too... and remember:
Save money by buying multiple magazines at once.

Within Europe:
if you order two magazines at once, you save 11.2% on shipping costs.
if you order three magazines at once, you save 40.8% on shipping costs.

People living outside Europe:
if you order two magazine at once, you save 15.8% on shipping costs.
if you order three magazines at once, you even save 43.8% on shipping costs!

Do take advantage!
Combine your order with those of your friends or order different issues at once – and save on shipping costs.

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Submitting to Featuring magazine is a great way to share your art with the world. 

In the third issue

Inspiration for the THEME GALLERY:
SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE
take it literally or metaphorically
it's up to you, just be inspired

There are other categories (joint projects, creative spaces, feature articles) to submit to as well.

I have written the past two columns about a FEATURED BLOGGER.  I am open to suggestions for blogs you love, or if YOU have an artistic blog and would like to be considered for this column, let me know.   I am especially looking for unpublished talented bloggers.

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Take a look and see what some of the readers have said about Featuring magazine.

Quinn McDonald, author of Raw Art Journaling

Seth Apter, author of The Pulse of Mixed Media

Jill Zaheer, mixed media artist

iHanna, mixed media artist

Daisy Yellow's Interview with Featuring founder, Marit Barentsen

Body Pictures-- Summer Camp

I am teaching 3 summer art sessions.  Each session is two hours long with one or two art projects.  For this session, I had 2 students going into 4/5th grade, 2 students who just finished kindergarten, and one student going into kindergarten.  It was a small class, which was perfect for this project, since the pictures were LARGE.

To start, we traced our bodies on large butcher paper.  Then, we outlined them with markers and used collage materials (magazine images, stickers, tape and paint) to create an artwork about ourselves.

Insects, Spiders, Bugs and More-- 2nd Grade

The second graders drew a bug of their choice on white paper.  I had photos for reference and showed them how to use the pencil to create shading and how to blend it with a blending stub.  (I call them "smudgy sticks").  Later, they cut out their bug and glued it to another background page.

The students looked at this image by Louise Bourgeois and answered some discussion questions about the artwork.

Then, they filled out a sheet which prompted them to detail their experiences with insects or spiders.  What is a memory they have of an insect?  What would they do if they were an insect?  How do they feel about insects?  Have they ever had a dream about an insect?  If they had no answer, they could leave it blank.  They used watersoluble crayons to color a background page.  Using markers, they drew images related to insects, bugs and spiders on top of the background.  They could illustrate the prompts they responded to or create new imagery of their own.  Then, the pencil drawing was glued on top.

Beautiful Oops

If you haven't seen Beautiful Oops yet, you must find a copy and look at it.. It's my favorite book ever!





The first graders looked at this book in class and then they were presented with a creative challenge.  Each child chose a piece of colored paper with a hole in it.  Holes of various sizes were pre-cut into papers of various colors.  They had to figure out how to turn this "oops" piece of paper into a work of art.  The process was the exciting part as the kids folded paper to make pop-outs, placed cellophane behind the hole and colored around the hole.  Flaps, shapes and even black dot stickers were added to make a creative picture.  I would love to see how other teachers would teach a similar project.  Let me know if you decide to use this book for a project.

Start with paper with holes cut out.

Featuring Magazine

Have you heard about Featuring Magazine?
In the Spring of 2012, an inspiring magazine will see the light: FEATURING.
FEATURING is a printed magazine that can be ordered online only.
FEATURING will appear as a quarterly publication.

I am pleased to tell you that I have been working on writing some articles for the magazine, and I have been accepted as a contributing editor for the magazine.  Writing for magazines has always been a dream of mine.  In fact, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a magazine writer for celebrity magazines.. lol. 

The focus will be mainly on art journaling and mixed media, but other types of art will be highlighted as well. FEATURING wants to bring a spectrum of art-related articles and stories. You will also enjoy seeing pages jammed with collaborative projects, glimpses of studios, interviews, background stories, layouts, paintings, photos, poetry and much, much more!

There are many people whose work stays out of the spotlight. These people remain a bit in the background, but in silence, they create amazing art pieces. FEATURING is especially interested in these artists – their work, their stories and their sources of inspiration. So ‘silent ones’…come forward. Let us know you are there and submit your work! It might end up in the magazine! Oh, and all you not so silent friends, we would love to hear from you, too. The more the merrier, we like to say.
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Right now, here is a way you can participate immediately and quickly!
We have a new, quick survey for you to fill out for the upcoming magazine Featuring, which I am a part of.  It only took me a minute or two to fill out.  It's about Etsy.com shops. Have you ever shopped there?  Do you have an Etsy shop?  We are going to write an article in Featuring magazine about Etsy shopping.  So, would you pretty please fill out this survey for us?

Sketchbook Pages

This last one will have text added to it later probably.

Sketchbook Pages

I'm following along with the Strathmore Visual Journaling Workshops and here a few of the pages I created so far.  The first workshop is about taking copies of your previous artwork and cutting them up and reusing them on your journal pages.  There are blank spaces left because I think she will be talking about writing and doodling next.

Three Flowers on Grid

Mixed Media with two flower pictures and a flower painting.  Scrapbook paper and watercolor paints were used.