What started out as one cloud turned into the Cloud Congregation!

"Cloud Congregation" by Julie Jacobsen

One day when I was having a chemo treatment I pulled out my sketch book and decided to play around with my new colored pencils.  I was going to do a little landscape with some cheery fluffy clouds but the cloud aspect got away from me.  Then, as in almost all my sketches nowadays, more and more cloud creatures appeared.  I actually think it's even better than what I had originally planned.  Definitely more interesting.  I've learned to let go and trust my instincts more.  It's like my brain has gone back in time to my creative days in high school and before.  How did I ever lose this drive?  I guess I felt like I had to plan everything out in a drawing, etc.  That's a real creativity squelcher!  I had to become a total adult and had forgotten that art can be just for fun.

It has taken me quitting my job and being in a non stress environment with not much to do to get me to this wonderful point.  I'm still doing planned out paintings but I'm doing all this creative stuff.  It's like my brain has burst and shooting stars are spraying out.  I keep thinking of all sorts of things.  I have even thought of 3D ideas and I have not been interested in that for years and years-except my broken china mosaics.  

Let the party continue (without any more illness.......oh please!!!!!)!!!!!!!

Yay!!! I'm back! Lots of progress!

********I'm starting this blog entry with the caveat that of course all of these images are copyrighted and can not be copied in any way for further use******************************************

Well, it's probably been more than 2 years that I've been working on this but I got a lot done on the Christmas painting.  I was at our cabin for a good deal of the summer and I was determined to paint!  So I did!  I'm still working out the Mary, Joseph, and Jesus vignette and my son, Kip, does not look right but at least the boy's hair isn't green any more.  I'm redoing Aren's face in the Christmas tree ornament because I didn't like it before.  But it's moving along!

I've been doing tons of sketching withing the last year and at times my sketches got pretty bizarre as you can well imagine since it was during my chemo treatments. When I had to take steroids for 3 days after each treatment it was like entering The Twilight Zone!  But I've really let my imagination stretch to almost the outer limits.

I've always been told by my teachers growing up that I should illustrate and I never followed that path but now that inclination is manifesting itself more and more.

I start out with light scribbles (that's why you can see sketchy lines) and as I keep doing it things pop out that I never would have been able to think of by just drawing.

Now, I'm thinking it will be very fun to write a story about each of these and personalize them for my grandchildren's Christmas.

There's plenty of good story material in each one.  I'm not a writer but I might try my hand.  I've been trying to get my son, Kip, to write about these.  He's a gifted writer!

When I look at my beginning sketch books I can't believe how much I've been able to extend my imagination through my pen.

I use a pen because then I can't erase.  Erasing would be a big mistake because a lot of times I come back to these and see more hidden creatures.    How in the world it happens, I have no idea, but I'm glad it does!

To further my recovery from my treatments I've decided I really need to get back to blogging more because it is such a good exercise for the brain and it's a great way to be in touch with the rest of the world.  I have one really fun friend now that I met through clicking on the "next blog" button.  We have so much in common.  So good or bad you're going to hear a lot more from me now!

Everyone "JOIN" Monday is Artday

This is my entry for "Join" and I hope it conveys the message that all artists are welcome and will make this blog a successful platform to display our art.

My new entry for Monday Art Day!

"The Paint Mines"

Last week's theme for Monday Art Day was "desert".  I chose to do a muted drawing of the Paint Mines in Colorado that I visited years ago.  It's a beautiful place with colors of yellow ochre, pinks, purples, and red contrasted with a chalky white.  I don't know if it's possible to go there now because it was on private land back in the early 1990's.  It's definitely worth a visit.

More progress on the Christmas painting-Yay!

More work on the Christmas painting. I'm trying to bring each vignette to the same stage. If you look closely at the one with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the background you'll see angels. I changed the view of the kitty. Redrew Gracie. She was too big for her age in the photo I'm using. Darkened the Christmas tree scene background. Just noticed a mistake I need to fix!  Ha ha!  So much more to do!!!! It's a very dark painting right now but that will really change.
Sent from my iPhone

My post for Monday Art Day.....Finally!

So I belong to a very fun blog that's called Monday Art Day. I decided this would be a very good thing to pick back up again as I haven't posted on there for years. Each week there's a challenge. This week's was Folk Art done in a medium you aren't used to. Say what? So I decided to take a sketch that I used all my artist's skills on and turn it into Folk Art. You would think that it would be easy but it isn't! That's why I'm rotten at Pictionary. Artists can't forget what they've learned very easily. I also decided to use crayons. I had no idea how hard it would be as I forgot they have little tiny crumbs that smudge. Yuck! I almost started over with another medium but decided to make myself solve the problems. Here's my entry. I hope it looks folksy enough!

FINALLY! PROGRESS ON MY CHRISTMAS PAINTING!

Okay, so I know it's been way too long since my last entry but we've had so many major problems since then in our family. I don't know if I mentioned it before but our daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2015 and had a double mastectomy.  She carries the BRCA2 gene mutation like Angelina Jolie.  Then I was diagnosed with the same thing.  It means chances of having breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostrate cancer, and pancreatic cancer are greater than in a normal  population.  Note that I didn't just say female because men can get breast cancer also and there's the prostrate element in it also.   I listed chances in that order.  Gracie lives in NYC with 2 very small children and a husband that is a resident doctor at a NYC hospital.  Of course we were back there constantly to help and it was a good thing I had my job with jetBlue.  The company was wonderful about helping us and others to get on flights.

In April I had genetic counseling and they advised me that because I was older I didn't need to have a mastectomy but further screening as a precaution.  Also they advised me to get my ovaries out.  We decided that 2017 would be the year for that as we already had enough to deal with with upcoming help for Gracie.  Would you believe I started to fill bloated and when I ate I filled up too fast.  This was in September and I started to think this reminded me of my sister's ovarian cancer 17 years ago (she's still alive!).  The symptoms continued and I called my doctor to ask about it.  We were slated to go back to NYC as Gracie was having breast reconstruction.  The nurse asked if I was bleeding and I said no.  So she said I could wait until I got back to come in.  That's what I did.  In the meantime when I was in NYC I kept thinking what is the deal?!?  Why is my stomach feeling so fat?!?  I must need exercise.  So I was running up and down her apartment building stairs constantly the whole time I was there.

I came back and still had symptoms but I had an appointment for the doctor towards the end of November.  When I went in she ordered tests but the next day, as I was working, after 4 hours I thought this is ridiculous!  It will take days before the insurance is approved for the tests.  I told my husband we have to go to the ER.  So of course they discovered malignant cells in all the liquid that the cancer had produced in my abdomen.  Long story made short:  I had surgery for ovarian cancer 11/29/16.  Actually it's really Fallopian tube cancer.  They're sure it started there and usually does with BRCA2  patients.  Now I'm undergoing chemotherapy at a  great place in Salt Lake City:  the Huntsman Cancer Center.  I feel confident that, even though it's 3rd stage, I'm going to beat it just like my sister.

So, any women out there, please take note of my symptoms and don't ignore them. If I had I probably wouldn't be here.  A doctor told us that they hardly ever diagnose this type of cancer early unless the woman is in some kind of accident and they discover inadvertently that something is wrong with her ovaries.

Here it's the end of January and yesterday I felt well enough to paint, finally.  Chemo really takes it out of you.  I'll post later more about it but for now I just want to say that I'm going to try and keep up with my art.  It's hard as my hands are very shaky sometimes but I think it's very very important to have something about me besides my cancer diagnosis.

P. S. Gracie is doing so well!  So far so good!  Can you believe that this happened to a mother and daughter all within the space of a year.  Too strange for words!