Finished Art! (Part 4)

My “Songbirds Of Hope” project is complete! Wheeee! As promised, here is the final product. In case you missed the first three parts of the process, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. The workshops went really smoothly and were well-received by the children. They were all really engaged in the activity and took their work seriously. They had a blast finding ways to put their own personalities into their birds. Some even created multiple birds for me. Over two days I worked with twenty-six children to create the final piece. Then I installed the canvases, vinyl lettering, and sound recorder. Yes, our birds chirp when you walk by them.

Here I am with some of my creative crew!

The Clark County Public Arts office was a pleasure to work from beginning to end and I give special thanks to the talented Arturo Cecena, who shepherded over a dozen projects like this one. The installation was accepted permanently by the Desert Breeze Community Center, so if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check it out.

Check out my interview on Clark County TV!

Photograph by Arturo Cecena.
Photograph by Arturo Cecena.

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all.” 
– Emily Dickinson

Wishing you the best, always!

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

Art In Progress (Part 3)

I’ve been working as a Teaching Artist for five years now. Wow! I can’t believe it’s been that long! I started out applying for grants through the Nevada Arts Council. I designed creative exploration workshops for adults and children. Then last summer I applied for a Youth Collaborative Art Workshop and Temporary Installation project through Clark County Public Arts. “Songbirds Of Hope” was born! I created a design and wrote a detailed proposal and lesson plan for the project. I was interviewed a few weeks after the submission period ended by a selection committee who eventually chose me and a dozen other artists to facilitate workshops throughout the county. I didn’t know where my project would land, but luckily it ended up at the Desert Breeze Community Center which is only a few miles from my home.

A few months ago, I attended a meeting with the program coordinators at the community center, and we discussed the location of the artwork, the schedule for the workshops, and how to prepare according to their COVID safety guidelines.

Then I got to work preparing the background canvases, vinyl lettering, sound recorder, and of course, 50 cut-out birds to be painted by the children.

After 50, I’m getting the hang of drawing birds.
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Stay Connected

Being on “lockdown” might not be all that bad for some people, like me. I’m used to spending long hours working alone, but for some people this is a fate worse than prison. As we all grapple with where this global situation leads us, it is essential we stay connected with others and with spirit.

We are all in this together and we are stronger than we realize. In a meditation I received this prayer which has become my mantra:

May our bodies be fortified with boosted immunity, may our minds be filled with positive thoughts, and may our hearts be overflowing with generosity and compassion as we courageously walk into the future with dignity.

Sending love and hoping you are well.

Bonnie


Start your own PLAYBOOK!

My Playbook: A Daily Practice Of Recording My Divinely Guided Magical Life” is one of my favorite secret weapons for living a creative life.

Now is a great time to start a creative project of your own. If you’re not sure where to start, try getting one of these playbooks. Each day you can write and draw in it until you figure out what you want to create. Once you’re into a project, you can use it to monitor your progress. I’ve been using one for three years and now I’d be lost without it. (read more…)

Thank You

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for caring. On this Thanksgiving I have a lot to be grateful for. Mostly, I am thankful to be alive. I am thankful to have the ability to think about putting sweaters on wild animals. I am thankful to have the time to wonder, who was the first animal to be drawn with a sweater on. Was it Winnie the Pooh? Goofy? What is Goofy, anyway? These are the questions I am grateful to be able to ask on a Thanksgiving morning, because I am still here. I am still alive, and I am hopeful that with each new day I will put a little more of my fears and insecurities behind me.

To see more pictures of animals in sweaters, if this interests you, click here.

I am thankful that I have time to draw this penguin in a sweater. That I can put aside everything else and simply indulge myself in an idea and put pencil to paper and create it. I don’t know why I wanted to do it, but I did it, and you know what? It made me feel happy. Sometimes I get so consumed by the challenges of each day, the work that needs to be done, the goals that are still to be met, that I forget what the point of it all is anyway. Everyone might have a different reason for living, but, for me, today, it is to create a little “penguin-in-a-sweater” happiness.

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Reading and Writing

As a writer I find it embarrassing that I was never an avid reader as a kid. I was much more interested in going outside. It didn’t really matter what I was doing, as long as it was outside. Mostly, I wandered. I looked at things, smelled flowers, tried to talk to the birds, and when I felt really brave, I would lift up a rock and see what I might find hiding underneath. I didn’t really become a recreational reader until I graduated from college.

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HeART of Discovery!

I’m facilitating a collaborative mural project for the Discovery Children’s Museum! On Saturday, August 3rd from 10am – 1pm we will be in the Discovery Lab working on a visitor-created piece of collaborative art in celebration of Art Appreciation Month at the Discovery Children’s Museum here in Las Vegas. I’m so excited to be a part of it.

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Happy Little Trees

Started my day today watching an episode of Bob Ross and following some of his advice as I created my own version of “Happy Little Trees.” What an inspiration he was. Such a lovely person. He always says, “don’t copy me, make it your own. Make the place you want to go to.” I feel like I’ve been there all day, even while I’m roaming around in my urban desert home. I’m still there among those happy little trees. Magic. Thank you, Bob!

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May your day be filled with happy trees of any size.

Bonnie


Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books that celebrate diversity, creativity, and all the special qualities that make each of us unique.

©Bonnie Kelso and Creating Your ExperienceVitalize Your Creative Life is a workbook based on a series of classes I designed based on creating from the energetic space of your inner child. In this workbook, I encourage you to rediscover the creative kid inside of you by coloring, scribbling, and even drawing stick figures. This is a very approachable book for people who want to begin exploring their creative life in a playfully spiritual way. Read more…

For the joy of it!

trust

My illustrations are a reflection of my inner child. I can remember drawing my own characterizations of animals since I was in Kindergarten. When I was in the first grade I won a poster contest about listening. I drew animals with big ears. When the teacher announced to the entire class that I had won, I heard a classmate say, “We all know her Dad drew it.” I was horrified and heart broken. It’s true my Dad can draw, but he didn’t help me, not one bit. Already being fearfully shy, I didn’t know how to express my distress over the comment and began crying right there in front of everyone. Over the years I have realized how precious our creative lives are to us. I try to express this vulnerability as well as beauty in my art. My intention as an artist and writer is to encourage people to express themselves creatively and become more resilient to criticism, especially that dreadful inner-critic.

How are you using your creative life? Do you feel like you have one? I’d like to reassure you right now that you do. When was the last time you engaged in a creative project just for the joy of it? Sometimes I feel like we put so much pressure on ourselves to create something amazing that we never even start. It’s true there are a lot of amazing creations out there. The other side of this truth is that these things were created because a whole lot of other things (things that may not have been so great) were created first. So, take the pressure off yourself and create something for the pure joy of it. No expectations. Just joy.

Xoxo,

Bonnie


Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books that celebrate diversity, creativity, and all the special qualities that make each of us unique.

©Bonnie Kelso and Creating Your ExperienceVitalize Your Creative Life is a workbook based on a series of classes I designed based on creating from the energetic space of your inner child. In this workbook, I encourage you to rediscover the creative kid inside of you by coloring, scribbling, and even drawing stick figures. This is a very approachable book for people who want to begin exploring their creative life in a playfully spiritual way. Read more…

Igniting Artemis

Happy Thanksgiving!

I always feel that I have so much to be grateful for. I really do, even when things are not so awesome. Gratitude is what has kept me going over the years. It’s what keeps me connected to spirit and source.

I was recently gratitude-gifted with a beautiful smoky citrine generator crystal. Isn’t it just gorgeous? (note: buy crystals from nice people) This act of gratitude compelled me to start igniting my new character, Artemis. I’m getting amazing results already. So much inspiration is starting to pour in, it’s hard to keep up with it all.

So on this full moon Thanksgiving, I’ve set up a little altar by my workspace. I even created my own little 3D Artemis out of sculpey. She’s got her magician’s cloak on and we’re ready to make some serious children’s book magic. In addition to the altar, I’ve got a moon calendar starting tonight. So, this cycle will go from full moon to the winter solstice.

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