Happy Monkey

Friday’s are a great day to think about how we can add creativity to our weekend. Bonus: in the USA we are heading into a 3-day weekend!

More chances for doing fun stuff with art supplies.

Or maybe, making art is your job and on weekends the creative well-spring gets filled with:

nature hikes
extra rest
a movie
a good book
a fire
tea and cookies
time spent with friends and loved ones

Suzanne Gibbs, ©2018, Grid Face Happy Monkey, mixed media, 4 x 6 inches.

Whatever you do, make your life count. Create the life you live. Nurture yourself. (I know I need to strengthen this muscle.) Making art to make a happy you. The monkey might be happy too!

Search for possibilities and potencial.

Smile at the silly happy monkey you see here—we’re smiling back! Sending you joy via art.

Enough reading now, go be a happy monkey!

Walking While Musing, Episode 11

Thoughts on art and life while I am out and about.

Enjoy Episode 11 of Walking While Musing by Suzanne. This episode may be my last ever Walking While Musing video blog. I have decided that 2019 is a year for me to get On Track with clearer business ventures. I also plan to learn to do less of trying to “do it all.”

I am very grateful to everyone who viewed these musings, posted comments, and commented privately. Thank you for letting me know that what I was doing mattered.

Luna and Zoie stand, umm sit… at attention waiting to see what I will do next in 2019!

I send you love, peace, and joy as you too focus on what matters most to you in 2019. May you create the creative life you wish to live. Should you desire some support in your creative work, please feel free to contact me. I’d love to help.

Hugs. Enjoy and feel free to comment.

Walking While Musing Episode 10

Join me for a very short musing from just before the Holidays.

This was a time when the pressure of the end of the year approaching had me thinking about change. I was also beginning to feel a deep weariness settle into my body, but I was choosing to ignore my bodies messages.

My hope for others viewing this is that I become a reminder to listen and learn from yourself.

My musing videos include thoughts on art and life while I am out and about—usually on trails.

Episode 10 of Walking While Musing is very short as I begin to explore and figure out a way to explain a change in focus for my life and business. I am constantly looking for clarification on my journey as a creative and as someone who wishes to serve other creative individuals.

Please enjoy and feel free to comment. Also feel free to contact me if you wish to have a personalized one-on-one call with me to talk about changes you wish to make in your creative life.

More Sketchbook Sharing…

In 2018 I worked my butt off learning business aspects of being an entrepreneur. One such thing was creating work in my sketchbooks to share.

Being consistent and showing up with finished work (including process) is an excellent step towards professionalizing my artistic output.

Below please find 2 sketchbook videos I created in 2018. However, I neglected to add the work to my blog during the year. The sketchbook process work is integral to continued exploration of my personal themes and ideas.

With no further drum roll I bring you 2 sketchbooks where I share my process behind the work I make.

July 2018

August 2018

Walking While Musing, Episode 9

Continuation of my series of video while walking. Enjoy Episode 9!

Thoughts on art and life while I am out and about. Enjoy Episode 9 of Walking While Musing by Suzanne. This musing explains the thoughts behind this musings series. Please enjoy and feel free to comment.

I would be really excited for some (I need 100) subscribers! I’d love to name my own channel, and these are YouTube’s rules! Thank you in advance for your support!

Visiting the Brooklyn Art Library

Late November 2018 I visited my own work in The Brooklyn Art Library.

In this video, I read a few pages from my illustrated journal: Dorky Doodle Darlings ^prepare to Visit NYC.

I encourage anyone visiting NYC to visit The Brooklyn Art Library. This is a place to sit down, get quiet and fall into the hearts and creative beings that shared their small slice of humanity in a shared sketchbook.

I visited the library with a childhood friend.

We sat at the tables, reading book after book. We found ourselves in awe of the stories on the pages of the sketchbooks. The act of holding the art, reading and viewing page after page, felt like an act of intimacy with strangers. I thought to myself, where else could I sit and be this close to the stories of others? People sharing the most lovely stories or giving us a glimpse of their daily activity. As I turned the pages of different books, the work of young and old alike touched my heart.

I found work of artists that went beyond the given sketchbook. Many made new books with stronger watercolor paper or used cloth and stitching. Every book giving away details of the life of the human that created the work.

The Brooklyn Art Library is the perfect place to fall in love with the creative work of others.

I give The Brooklyn Art Library my full endorsement!

PS. The printed version of my sketchbook sold out. To view the digital version click here. Stay tuned in 2019 for more illustrated journals. I love making them—and sharing my work!

Walking While Musing, Episode 8

I wanted to quiet down, live slower in this episode.

My videos focus on thoughts on art and life while I am out and about. Enjoy Episode 8 of Musings While Walking by Suzanne. This musing focuses on being quiet and sitting to rest. I filmed it in October of 2018. Releasing the video in December seems even more appropriate with short days and the busy holiday season.

I never did slow down after I filmed this, and as a result I am writing this blog post bundled in blankets with a large box of Kleenex next to me. Nursing a cold in the cold of Montana.

Too Much Travel

At some point in 2018 I signed up for Google Tracker. I don’t remember doing this, but I’m sure it was me. Then I get an e-mail telling me where I have been in the past month. My deep weariness (and also satisfaction and joy), that I couldn’t fully understand, became obvious with my alert from Google Tracker! Yes, my life has been full with a little too much travel!

Expanding my reach and deepening meaningful connections was a 2018 goal.

To reach the goal, I have traveled too much…let’s look at just one month.

In November I lived in and visited: Langlois, OR, Arcata, CA, Los Angeles Down Town Area (Broad Museum, LA Zoo, and LAX), Pasadena, CA, Lincoln City, OR, San Fransisco (airport only), New Jersey (airport, Trenton, Princeton, and my sister and parents house), New York (Museum of Natural History, Uptown, Downtown, and Brooklyn). I also travel to Coos Bay, OR, Bandon, OR, and Port Orford OR on a regular basis for meetings and errands—this is the price I pay to live in a remote area. Services are all more than 15 miles away.

And… drum roll…

I also moved! For nearly two years I lived in a temporary housing situation (moved 5 times) while my husband and I built a small house on a small lot on a lake in Oregon. So if you have wondered if I have made any new art or started writing my next book… you might think no never! Not possible!

My Year of Separation is Suzanne’s second book, published in 2018.

Even with moving and too much travel, I have been doing the work.

As much and as little as possible, while still getting much needed rest.

As an entrepreneur and a creative worker I can never stop working. If I do, the income dries up instantly. I will say though, I would like to either not move, or travel less or both next year. Or not, because…there are already 5 trips on the books!

Travel = Fun + Adventure + Growth.

Travel also equals = Art and Book Sales plus Art Services for my business are all online!

Therefore, if you are interested in my work, then please by all means visit my art or books online and make a purchase. I can ship work immediately following the New Year! Not this week, not in time for Christmas…later!

Why later?

Travel! Of course! I will be in Montana with my immediate family (husband plus 2 adult boy children) through the holidays!

Enjoy the season and your family! And go ahead and keep me busy after the holidays with shipping art and books.

Also coming in 2019. Art services by Suzanne. If your creative journey is stuck in a rut, you can hire me for one-on-one video conferencing art practice services. More details to come! I honestly, cannot wait to help and be of service to artists around the globe!

SketchKon 2018 Sketchbook 2

While I was at SketchKon I drew often and made illustrated notes of the presentations, panels, and workshops that I took.

SketchKon 2018 was an Unconventional convention with artists and teachers from Sketchbook Skool as well as sketchbook artists from around the world.

I ran out of paper in my first sketchbook, so I started a second one during the conference. Upon returning from this trip I sat down to add color to a few pages in this second sketch book. Then I made a video flip through. I hope that if you have any questions or comments that you feel free to contact me.

Thanks for viewing! If you like my work hit like in YouTube or Subscribe for new content added regularly.

SketchKon 2018 Sketchbook

A video of my travel journal and illustrated notes from SketchKon 2018—An unconventional convention with artists and teachers from Sketchbook Skool.

Towards the beginning there are 2 pages that were created before the trip in preparation for the presentation I gave during the conference.