Fall Fearless and Fly #5

Fall Fearless and Fly with Marcia Beckett!

Headline Prompt:  Lifelong Fan:  What or who have you consistently valued or looked up to in your life?  What lessons have you learned from people you admire?
Color Prompt:  Your favorite color now or from childhood or both!
Quote Prompt: "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator; but among those whom I love, I can:  all of them make me laugh."  W.H.Auden
Welcome Marcia Beckett and thank you for sharing your fabulous art journal page!

Marcia: I created a mixed media art journal page using the headline prompt of people I looked up to.  I have always looked up to my teachers and especially my art teachers.  I had a professor in college who really encouraged me to pursue art as my major, although I had never thought I would be able to make art a career.  I decided to major in art education, and the professors I had were amazing.  The courses were really thorough, rigorous and grounded in art education theory as well as practical teaching strategies.  I don't think I would have been prepared at all for teaching without the education I received.  The art education professors I had were very professional and encouraged us to become involved in our own professional development.  They stressed the importance of being involved in art education associations on a state and national level.  With our art ed. classes, we traveled to many art workshops and art educator conferences.

Several years ago, I bought a vintage art education textbook off of Ebay.  I cut out and photocopied two of the images to play around with while doing this challenge.  The first was a poem that read, "Of children so glad they 're learning to draw, aren't they the happiest ones you ever saw?"  The other was a row of children with the text reading "How many historical figures have we drawn?  Let us draw each other." 

I chose the shell image because one of my professors was a ceramicist who used shells in all of her work.  She would press the shells into the sides of her pots and use them as a textural element.  I think it had something to do with where she grew up.  Anyway, she came to my wedding (6 years ago) and as a wedding gift she gave me one of her lovely pots (with shell imprints on the sides), and it is sitting in our display cabinet in our living room. 

I think I have discovered a new theme to explore in my artwork:  creating art about teaching art to children!

Marcia Beckett is an art teacher, mixed-mixed media artist, observer, collector, and dabbler in all kinds of art.  Teaching art and sharing her love of creativity is her passion.  Young children are uninhibited and have the spontaneity and the playfulness we all desire. Her teaching blog, which chronicles her adventures teaching elementary school art, is called Art is Basic.   She hosts a group to bring together artists who blog: Artists in Blogland.  Yes, this site!   It is a fun group that shares artwork each week, hosts challenge (ahem!) and spotlights creative people.  
 
You can  find Marcia in many places!  
Art Teaching Blog: http://vividlayers.blogspot.com
Art Journaling, Mixed Media and more:  http://marciabeckett.blogspot.com
Etsy Shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/marciabeckett

She is  also a contributing editor to Featuring, a print magazine.

Prizes! Everyone who joins in will be entered to win fabulous goodies!  We'll randomly draw one name to win it all this week!  From Marcia, we have a packet of paper ephemera (vintage imagery, text, scrapbooking papers and embellishments).  You can check out all her goodies in her Etsy shop here.

Blue Moon Scrapbooking  has generously provided a $25 gift certificate for this week!  They have a wonderful selection of scrapbooking and mixed media supplies!  

What will you do in response to the fifth challenge?  Here are the rules:

• You may participate in one or all of the challenges.
• Use one, two or all of the prompts.
• Use any media -- art journal, scrapbook, canvas, watercolor, quilting, you name it!  This is "Anything Goes" as far as your creativity is concerned.
• Link up by Sunday, December 9, to be eligible to win fabulous prizes!  One winner will receive a $25 gift certificate from Blue Moon Scrapbooking  and a packet of paper ephemera with vintage imagery, text, scrapbooking papers and embellishments from Marcia Beckett!  Go over to Jessica's blog to comment, and be eligible for a giveaway there too!
• You may link up to 2 times, but please only link up to work prepared for this challenge.  If not, we will remove your link. Please post the url of your blog post or flickr page that's specific to this challenge, rather than a general blog address.  And please tell us how your work relates to the challenge!
• Each time you participate, visit at least 3 other links and leave loving words!
• All challenge participants are welcome to join our private Facebook group as a place to talk about your journey and whatever is coming up for you as you work on the challenges.   As it is private, just request to join and we'll give you access. 

To recap, here is the 5th challenge:

Headline Prompt:  Lifelong Fan:  What or who have you consistently valued or looked up to in your life?  What lessons have you learned from people you admire?
Color Prompt:  Your favorite color now or from childhood or both!
Quote Prompt: "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator; but among those whom I love, I can:  all of them make me laugh."  W.H.Auden

Congratulations to  Tracy and  Missy K the lucky winners of our Fall Fearless & Fly challenge #4, chosen by the random generator at Random.org!   You each have each won a $35 gift certificate to Dreaming Color, the home of Twinkling H2O's and Silks!  Please email your address to acolorfuljourney (at) gmail (dot) com for your prize!

And on Monday, December 10, check in for Challenge #6, and the winner of this challenge!

Looking forward to seeing your wonderful work!
Carolyn Dube and Jessica Sporn