Jan Avellana | Hazelnut Cottage

monsters...

{ herman the horrible TM :: part of the nightmirrors TM }

every artist i know has a tormentor, a gremlin, some kind of inner critic that rears his/her head nice and obnoxious like and tries to keep the artist from their work.

i created this new series of monsters with my children in mind—my youngest has “nightmirrors”, you see. as the days go by, i am seeing these children’s monsters in a new light; they are my monsters in the dark too.

meet herman the horrible TM! he likes to remind me that my ideas are just a bit too crazy for public consumption. i can best disarm him by telling him not to worry, and agreeing with him that my seedling ideas are crazy and for my eyes only. when he is satisfied with this, he goes hopping away on his leg and then i smugly publish and finalize things for the real world. so there.

who is your creative monster? what is he telling you today and how do YOU disarm him?

a brand new season!

dear friends,

where or where do i even begin? i am finally coming out of a wintery season, a time where everything was laid bare and me, stripped nearly down to the bones from it all. i am almost afraid to write about all of the goodness that is unfolding here, for fear of jinxing it somehow...do you know what i mean?

but i know God is always good and for the first time in a very long time, i can feel His joy! i survived and am now, thankfully, thriving :)!

my dear, sweet friend trish seggebruch gifted me with art coaching lessons from lesley riley of artist success, and i am not exaggerating when i say that these women are changing my life! at lesley’s encouragement, i’ve chosen to fall headlong into the digital art i have so long resisted (epic story) and really let myself try. i am still in a season of testing the waters so to speak, but i am learning to embrace that fact that i will always be a work in progress—and so will my art—so i’d better not wait until i’m ready because there will never be a perfect time to start trying and living, so here i go!

my new website!

there is all fresh new artwork in the galleries, artwork for children of all ages...here are a few that would like to meet you!

{ children's alphabet art :: g is for giraffe :: © jan avellana }

and my really, fresh out of the womb babies! meet the nightmirrors TM...monsters on parade TM! these pieces are inspired by my children. my youngest has frequent “nightmirrors”, as he calls them, and so, these were born from his dreams...

stay tuned to see if i can finish the alphabet! let new monsters emerge and leap tall buildings in a single bound! hah.

the 101010 project | me!

Today is the last post for the 101010 project I’m participating in, the brainchild of Robin Norgren of Well of Creations and My Creative Peace, both on Etsy. Here, finally, is my own response to one of the questions Robin posed:

What do you need to STOP DOING in your business?

I need to stop, period. I need to let go of the things I know I am ready to let go of and allow myself to walk step by step into a new season. I need to stop demanding that my artlife (and life in general) can only unfold in a particular, me-envisioned way. I need to stop striving. I also need to stop being so disorganized; time to whip my studio into shape for all the artmaking that is to come!!!

To read up on all 0f the 10 questions posed and answered by each one of the participants, come on over to the site of the 101010 Project! :)