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Artist-E-pprenticeship with Laura Ludwig Hamor
studios
INSPIRED ideas for you & your creative space
Spring 2011
Inspired reader spot light
What is PhotoTherapy?
Meet Charley & his welded Critters & 5 extreme creatives
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I want to be with people who submerge In the task, who go into the fields to harvest And work in a row and pass the bags along, Who are not parlor generals and field deserters But move in a common rhythm. Marge Piercy
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Spring 2011
contents Stories of Inspiration Amy Jo Dalton Bailey’s Pond Charley Davidson A life to cherish Laura Ludwig Hamor A gift for the asking Rose Brady Inspired Reader Spot light Greg Lyon Lincoln Love Jozie Rade Photo Therapy
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keep the car on the road ... tire not by Sonya La McCllough this creative business journey reminds me of a trip my children and I took in the summer of 2009. the summer we went barn hunting almost every day yet the barn hunting didn't quite prepare us for a day trip to Missouri a rescue mission of two children one boy, one girl stranded in a smaller than May berry Town the sheriff of May berry called the Grandfather in Tennessee and off we went on a rescue mission one boy, one girl we packed the car we checked the oil we created a travel plan we created an exit plan old father time was standing there a single phone call from the sheriff of May berry to DCS if we did not make it in time but we did and the rescue part of the mission was complete now it was time for the longer than long journey HOME we packed the car we checked the oil we created a travel plan we created an exit plan fear set in ... soon it would be dark it's time to get on the road
hunger called ... it would be dark soon it's time to get on the road it's time to stay on the road it's travel time ... it's time to travel be it night or day the road was so dark ... merge lanes were now a dream unknown ... uncharted ... byways our job is to keep the car on the road ... through the darkness ... through the dust ... through the fog ... keep the car on the road ... there's no turning back ... cause we ain't left nothing in May berry soon the road gave way to a highway we could go faster now merge lanes still but a dream unknown ... uncharted ... roadways keep the car on the road ... tire not through the dust ... through the fog through the darkness soon the highway gave way to the road we had to steady our pace dreams of merge lanes have disappeared unknown ...uncharted ... byways keep the car on the road ... tire not it's pitch black day is sleeping night is creeping around the bend to the right of the road there stood a little house sharing & shinning their BIG light keep the car on the road around the next bend to the left of the road there stood another little house sharing & shinning their BIG light one house after the other ... shining the way shift the car into low gear ... it's time to coast into the light Are you the travel LIGHT for someone Else's journey ? keep the car on the road ... tire not
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www.uRsobeautiful2me.com
www.creativebizmarathon.com
www.socialmediaministries.net
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W
elcome to the Spring 2011 issue of Inspired Studios Magazine. This season we’re celebrateing spaces, outdoor spaces and indoor spaces. You will find nothing but inspiration on the pages of this booklet. So grab some sweet tea (a souther drink) and enjoy. All of the stories and phots of this publication were published with permission & grace. Other photos are the property of Sonya La McCllough and may not be reprinted, published or republished without permission. Inspired Studios Magazine is published quarterly by eastwind productions and sonyamac designs. Any questions, comments and or concerns may be directed to Sonya at sonyamacdesigns.yahoo.com
www.eastwindproductions.net www.sonyamacdesigns.com www.sonyamacdesigns.blogspot.com
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tand, There's a cross for you to bear. Things to go through if you're going anywhere. Stand, For the things you know are right. Stand, You've been sitting much too long. There's a permanent crease in your right and wrong. Stand, There's a midget standing tall, And the giant beside him is about to fall. -Author unknown
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call this Bailey's pond. Bailey was our first Golden retriever. We took him on vacation to Tn. Stayed in a cabin on a creek. It was love at first site. We couldn't keep him and his tennis balls out of the water! We loved it too. So we decided we needed a pond for all of us. The thousand gallon pond was built by a local company. We have some large Koi, some goldfish and now and then a frog. The pond is about eight years old now and our beloved Bailey has his wings.Our new 2 year old Golden is Willy and we still hang a sign out every spring that my daughter made for us. It says Bailey's Pond and we enjoy many hours sitting out there ,watching the fish, birds and enjoying the flowers. Willy just like Bailey is allowed to stand in the middle of the pond on hot summer days with his tennis ball.
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Bailey's Pond
Amyjo Dalton http://www.artistamyjo.com
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Slovenia Inspiration
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Jozica Rade http://creatissimoineng.blogspot.com/
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My name is Jozica and I run a small creative business called Creatissimo. I'm an art teacher, illustrator, designer, soon-to-be art therapist, photographer, creator… - in other words: a creative soul who is trying to see beauty everywhere I go (and capture it with my digital camera). I live in Slovenia (a tiny country in Europe) where beauty and inspiration can be found everywhere: at the seaside, in the mountains, in the old architecture, details. I also get inspired by people, esp. children. I love their creativity, energy, curiosity…, so I like working with them or creating for them. A few books and illustrations were published already, but I hope there are more to come in the future, in English as well, I hope. This is the place where I create, my little studio, a Lab. I designed it myself and I like it a lot: it is practical, bright and simple. I create mixed-media art works mostly, that’s why you will find all sorts of materials in my studio. And if there was more room, I’d have even more! But Creatissimo is not only about my art works and illustrations. It is for the people, who want to create something from their lives as well. I try to help people who have hard times to express themselves verbally or have other problems. I esp. focus on people who are left out of the ‘system’ and need to get back to their inner balance. We focus on creative process and I use art therapy and phototherapy techniques to help them journey back to themselves. I try to keep these projects free of charge for the participants, so we’d be thankful if there are people who are willing to support our efforts with donations of materials or money. Life is too short to waste it on the things that you don’t like.
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A gift for the asking
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Laura Ludwig Hamor http://lauraludwighamor.blogspot.com/
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T
he story of my studio is tied in to my cancer. Good things and not so good things somethings come together. In 2003 I was finally diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I say finally because I was sick for 10 months, constant choking and coughing all night long before I found my cancer. ~ okay, side-bar for a quick cancer story.... I was sick, and first we thought it was a virus, then maybe bronchitis, then maybe an allergy, I coughed and coughed, I couldn't sleep. I coughed so hard, I broke two ribs. I was exhausted. I had just starting seeing a therapist, my mother had died and I was struggling with my grief and my family's grief. It was Dr. M. who first noticed how long I had been coughing. "You have had a cough since you first started coming here." I had not really realized how long it had been. "I have been feeling exhausted like I am trying to push through water. I am so tired." Then he said the most obvious thing that I never considered, "Have you thought of listening to your body?" No. I had not. I had not thought of listening to my body, I was too busy pushing myself. You know how it is when you have so much to do, you don't stop to listen. Two days later, I woke up and felt a tiny pressure in my neck. I was listening. I opened my medical book (that I first had for taking care of the kids) and found an article about thyroids. It said: Take a drink of water. Lean your head back and swallow it while looking in the mirror. Is your neck symmetrical? No, it was not. I had nodules on my thyroid. Most nodules are NOT cancer. Thyroid nodules are very common. But, I was sick. I fractured two ribs coughing! I was sick. I knew. Okay, that is it. I found the nodules, called my doctor, had an ultrasound, had a biopsy, had surgery. Now, back to the studio.
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was recovering from the surgery. I was tired and they had to find my balance of synthroid (thyroid hormone replacement) and that took some time to get right. So I had a lot of time to think. What do I want to do? Really do with this life, with this one life that I have been given? Of course my first priority was our family and raising our sons. But what about me? What do I want? I wanted this life changing experience to change something in my life. Hopefully for the better. Isn't that what a life-changing experience is for? My studio was in a small spare bedroom. It had actually moved around the house. First in a larger room off the playroom, then we moved the older boys into that room, so I moved into the kitchen, then to the smaller bedroom. So what do I want? Asking myself this over and over. I had an idea. The preschool was a small building nearby. What if I called my son's preschool teacher and asked if I could rent the preschool space for the summer when they are closed. Then I could work more in the coming summer--away from the boys and their friends and I could leave projects set up instead of cleaning everything up each day. I called her and asked if I could rent her space. She owned the little building and said she would talk to her husband and call me back. The next day she called, "Here is an address, you can meet our property manager and he will show you a space." I did not know this, but they owned a series of buildings on a warehouse street. I did not have a lot of money, since I had not worked in months. But I had asked her, so I decided I had to meet him and I would just turn down the space. The next day I met Mark, the building manager, who was a really nice guy. He opened the door to this long narrow room with only a small path to walk through pile of old, crumbly, smelly boxes from floor to ceiling. The space was being rented by the local movie theatre and they were using it for storage. It looked like long abandoned storage. The boxes were old and falling all over each other.
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We walked through the first long room, down the hall into a small second room, still filled with boxes. Mark turned to me and said, "Which room would you want?" I said, "Well, I guess the first room so I wouldn't have to walk through that mess to get to the second room," knowing I was probably not taking it anyway. I asked him,"So how much is it?" This is the question that was going to lead me to say I couldn't take it, or so I thought. Mark turned around and made a phone call. "My uncle must like you, he said I should empty the whole space, and give it to you." I didn't know what to say. "Um, well, how much is the rent?" "Well since the space needs cleaning and painting, nothing for the first months, then 100 a month after that. No lease, just month to month." WHAT? 100 a month? I could do that. I could figure out 25. per week! It was too good not to do it. I sent the landlord/preschool teacher's husband a heartfelt thank you letter. I went from recovering on the couch to opening my studio! My whole focus changed. I was looking to my future. It turns out my landlord wanted to help someone else who was starting a new business! He was prepared to help someone, just when I had called to ask. How many times do we want something, and we don't ask? He is definitely one of my angels.
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For the next months, after the boxes were removed, we cleaned and scrubbed and primed the walls. We pulled the smelly carpet off the floors and scrubbed them over and over. When they were finally clean, I primed them and painted them with floor paint in a soft grey. And then I painted that block wall red. "Million Dollar Red" was the paint name. (that's the wall I just repainted "Startling Blue"!)
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a life ... to cherish Charley Davidson http://www.charleydavidson.blogspot.com/
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spent 15 years traveling as an entertainer/comedian living in a tour bus, the last year or so of it was wearing on me and I was looking for a reason and a place to toss out an anchor.
small shop/studio and started building artwork out of reclaimed metal objects. I have struggled for this first year trying to find my voice in art and now
On Jan.26th 2010 I found that reason & place, His I think I have found and focused on what I need name is Jayce Carter Hankins my first grandson, to do. the place Murfreesboro, Tn. The premise behind my business and artwork is I finished all my contractual obligations as a co- to take things that have outlived their intended median and moved to Murfreesboro the night of purpose and and re-purpose them into static and the great Nashville flood. I found a location for a functional art pieces.
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and then there was light
Sonya La McCllough http://www.sonyamacdesigns.blogspot.com/
I
call it my shed to studio conversion, yes ... what was once a storage is now my high tech studio from which I design, produce and publish this very magazine. The leaded glass doors showed up one day, like a long lost child.And, the light brightens my each and every day.
Inspired Reader Spotlight
Rose Brady
Crafting a space
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My mother meant well, but didn't understand that she crushed my dream as a child and I was so obedient that I never fought for it. Through magazines, I have come to realize that many, many young girls had to fight & really sacrifice to make the 'Artitst' dreams come true for them. Also many, like me, are still at it. Now that my craftroom has evolved (with sometimes too many supplies as I love thrift stores & garage sales), I am constantly giving away shelves, jars, markers, crayons, paper, colored pencils etc. to up and coming kids and teenagers who have that dream in their eyes of being an 'Artist'.
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If I am being totally honest, I also believe that God had a higher purpose for my life and He has used me in the workplace to help others spirutually. But deep in my heart I do wonder what my life would be like, had I pursued the Art. I have a nice home in Colorado, good neighbors, a 17 1/2 year old cat and two little great nieces (ages 6 & 9 ) who want to be artists too. They love coming over Aunt Rosey's house for the night.
ere is my sad little story. When I was in the 7th grade I had gotten an 'A' in Art. I loved the class, first time I had loved a class. I ran home to show my Mom and told her I wanted to be an Artist, she inturn told me I was going to starve to death. "Haven't you seen those people selling their paintings on street corners?" And I was not allowed to take those kinds of classes any more. I turned 53 this My craft room is 10' x 13' (I took down the past February 6th, and I still want to be an artist. closet doors) it was originally 10' x 11'.
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For the Love of Lincoln Greg Lyon
Greg Lyon is a passionate Murfreesboro Tennessee artist in love with the life and legacy of none other than Abraham Lincoln. This love, this interest, has inspired Greg to create over thirty pen & ink pointillism pieces.This vast creative project spanned a three year journey. Greg lives on a small farm with his Mother and creates from a man cave studio in their basement. Currently Greg is working on a political project to be reveled later this year. To find out more about this creative guy, give him a call at 615-893-0032.
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“Being a Creator, at its deepest level, means that you create your life. Being a Creator, at its deepest level, means that your life is your work of art.” –Christine Kane
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http://artist-e-pprenticeship.blogspot.com/
Artist E-pprenticeship http://artist-e-pprenticeship.blogspot.com/
e-class
Contact artist Laura Ludwig Hamor www.LauraLudwigHamor.com
This is an e-class for artists who would like to take their art out of the Studio and into classrooms, museums, libraries and the world!! How to connect your Art to the classroom curriculum!
ŠLaura Ludwig Hamor Bottom 1/2� will be covered by your tagline (chosen during the publish process) and an internal order number