Thursday, October 5, 2017

WHO BUT HER?

Why do I love Junelle Jacobsen's online classes so very much? Well, who else would come up with a project as fun and whimsical as a "Pumpkin Patisserie"?





Monday, October 2, 2017

WE WISHED IT INTO BEING

I think I mentioned before that, when we first moved to this little house we call Seasonality, I couldn't draw stick figures. Luckily, the friend I call High School Debbie took care of all that about six years ago, when she introduced me to on-line art classes. Or, should I say, one teacher in particular -- the amazing Junelle Jacobsen. Why is she so special? Well, for one thing, she was the one who finally forced me to let go of my perfectionism, and gave me permission to just play and have fun. Best of all? She's got seasonality!

A Couple Of Projects From My First Class With Junelle, Spring '12

She's a photographer/artist who lives in Idaho, I believe, and spends lots of time outdoors in nature, especially during the spring lambing season! Her classes tend to reflect those passions, as you can see in these pages from her various seasonally-inspired projects.

Summer Projects from 2013 and 2014




She even taught me how to use an altered book as an art journal.



Spring of 2015 or '16


Not only did she take away my fear of drawing and water-color painting, her fun projects always kept me motivated to stay at it, at least for a while. Whenever I found myself slacking off, I'd just sign up for another class! But then I got sidetracked with weddings and travel and travel journals and collage and collage paper painting and grandbabies! Before I knew it, more than a year had passed since I had taken one of her classes, or done much of anything with watercolors, or seasonality, and I really, really missed it!

Imagine the shock I got when I went to her blog to look for a new class to take, only to find it had been abandoned! No new posts or classes in months and months. I couldn't even imagine what might have happened. I immediately messaged H.S. Debbie to see if she had heard anything. She said she thought she may have taught at a few events during the year, but had seen no sign of her online classes anywhere. She was just as sad as me!

Then, just a few days later, Synchronicity stepped in to save the day once again. I was doing a very quick scroll down my facebook feed, about to shut it off and go to bed, when something grabbed my attention and made me scroll back up. Someone I don't even know had posted a fallish-looking sketch and said something about falling into another Junelle Jacobsen wormhole for the next few weeks. I went straight to her website and there it was -- a brand new seasonal workshop, starting the very next day!

I immediately signed up, then texted Debbie to tell her the news. She said we wished it into being!