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Design Team 2010 Design Team Jen Evans, Team Leader
Design Team 2010 Design Team Jen Evans, Team Leader | Jen Evans, Team Leader |
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Username: creatoftenBlog:www.createoften.blogspot.com Location: Turner, Oregon As an artist for the last fifteen years, I believe that if my hands aren’t stained from paint then I wasn’t having fun enough! My twin sister, Rebecca, introduced me into scrapbooking and stamping nine years ago. I kept my feet grounded and refused to take the plunge that she had. I held tight onto my canvas, paint brushes, and acrylics and watched as she continued to write and tell me about her new passion. She even went as far as to send me instructional videos of her doing new techniques to entice me. A year later I walked into a scrapbook store, fell in love with paper, and I dropped my art supplies thinking that I was to never to look at them again. It wasn’t until altered books and mixed media came into the Northwest that I began to realize that my first love for paint and canvas could be used with scrapbooking! Scrapbooking then became more of an artistic way for me to tell my story than just photos on a page to document an event. As a Craft-Media artist, I have a passion for color; reduce, reusing, and recycling items to make them new again; and ultimately having fun and making a mess doing it! I am right brained and love using untraditional items to create meaningful pieces of art, while also trying to balance myself occasionally with a surprisingly clean and organized layout. Some items that I use all the time are spray paint, my sewing machine, Thickers by American Craft, rubons by Fancy Pants Designs, Distress Ink by Ranger, fabric, and simple styled punches. I also love to include vintage items on my layouts which include script I pull out of repurposed books, silk flowers and leaves. A former preschool teacher for eight years, I enjoy teaching parents and children how to experiment with hands-on projects that are far from Popsicle stick and macaroni art. I now teach my three year old son fun techniques that I carry onto into my own art pieces. I teach parents and teachers that art can be fun, educational, and doesn’t have to be difficult. My supportive husband and I have our own photography business where we are blessed to help capture memories for others to treasure. We also work and serve at Aldersgate Camps and Retreats in guest service. I get my color inspiration from God’s beautiful creation, online, or in home décor magazines. The teacher inside me creates a sketch before beginning. I don’t always follow the sketch but it helps me get going creatively. Once my little one is down for the night, I unpack my things in my art space; I have a wardrobe filled with supplies that my husband and I built from IKEA and a small desk in my living room. I then bounce from desk to the floor and create such a mess that I have at one time realized that I was working out into the hallway! I continue the piece until it is finished even if it is well past midnight. If there is chocolate in the house, I have already eaten it before the project is done. When I have the piece finished, I sigh with delight, look at the mess, and shake my head. How did it get that bad? I clean it up before crawling into bed exhaustedly happy. If I am lucky I might get to do this once or twice a week. If I have an itch to get the paint out but don’t want to clean the mess, I get on the laptop and do a digital layout to make up for it. I have a sweet addiction to chocolate, my favorite being Britain’s Cadbury Crunchie. Since I am unable to get the chocolate covered honeycomb locally anymore, any chocolate is its substitute. Being a twin is an adventure! Not only do I live five minutes away from my best friend, we also can finish each other’s thoughts. Although we have found this causes confusion for our husbands who can not. So, sometimes I only say half of a sentence and forget to finish my thought out loud. I highly recommend that if you ever need to organize your scrap space to get a sibling to do it for you. Recently I moved and my dear sister helped me organize. First we purged. Then, I purchased several clear shoebox containers. Pretty much after that I sat back and ate some chocolate while she put everything away! The only problem now is that I have to call her when I can’t find something! If I were to choose a title for my life story it would boldly say, “Romans 8:28.” “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” I live quite a beautiful life right now, but it wasn’t always that way. But I had faith that God would make it better. My husband Dave and I met on a blind date and it was like we had known each other our whole lives. Now I share my life with a man that loves and laughs with me! If I was stranded on a remote island, I would help pass the time away by bringing my very used copy of Pride and Prejudice. Then, when I had read it several times through and realized that the novel had no nutritional value, I would then take my favorite pages and use them to create pieces of art. Of course to do so I would have to have gesso, paint, brushes, my Fiskars paper trimmer, and my sewing machine. Oh, to be able to have the sewing machine I would of course need an electric outlet which would mean having a usable working space – without sand! Maybe with cable and room service?! |
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