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Postcards to Myself is the book I wish I’d had when I started working in mixed media. It would have
encouraged me to take more chances, to take more notes, and to quit fooing around with techniques that
didn’t suit my own original, intuitive style.
When you finish this book, you will have a collection of fresh new 5 x 7” artworks, each showing your best
reults of the experimental techniques I teach you, and each with notes on the back to remind you of how
you did this so you can expand on your ideas.
The “bones” of this interactive eBook are the 18 videos which comprise almost three hours of
demonstration and suggestions. The videos were filmed without editing, so when something didn’t go quite
right, you can see problem-solving on the fly.
Some of the videos deal with technique. There are lessons on encaustic, on composition, on layering
with abstract acrylic painting and much more. Some deal with details like cutting and matting. And some
deal with critique when I show you what I think is “good” in a small work. I hope you disagree with me
sometimes and understand why you might have chosen something else - this develops a confident personal
aesthetic.
As you work this process, you will choose your own best work by isolating areas with a mat from a larger
workboard, and you will make brief notes. Each little postcard with its notes is a reminder about where you
were and what you were doing in your studio that day, even if your studio is a tiny desktop stuck out in a
guest bedroom closet.
Each time you pick up that “postcard” and read your notes, two things happen:
• You realize how good you really are - ”I did this – I like it – and I can do it again because I wrote down
how I did it.”
• The second thing is that these small works help you limit yourself to the things that truly work for you
– the colors, the materials, the styles and media. And once you see what your best results are, what you
love the best, you can expand in that direction rather than trying every new technique that shows up on
Pinterest or in craft magazines.
But the larger premise of the eBook and its videos is this – you will become a stronger, happier artist if
you discover what materials and processes emphasize your strengths through experimentation. You will
document those strengths as small, annotated 5 x 7” works – Postcards to Yourself, loving reminders of
where you’ve gone on your creative journey.
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