Friday, June 24, 2011

True Artists

Okey-dokey. Maybe I should add a new label for posts here: Proof that Susan Is Loony.

I got my Papertrey design email this morning and clicked over to Betsy Veldman's blog. For years, Betsy has blown me away with her creativity and artistic eye, and I've CASified a number of her designs. Today's tutorial is totally fab, but you want to know what struck me most? Click over, take a look for yourself, and then come back to see if you guessed.




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Are you back? Did you figure it out?

How in the HECK does she work with all those ink stains on her acrylic block?!?!?!?!? Dang, I'd go crazy and be completely unable to stamp anything straight with the block...all that ink would distract me hugely!

Betsy, however, is a true artist like all the other true artists I've known in my 44 years. True artists are never distracted by silly stuff like ink stains on a block. Have you ever looked at a true artist's watercolor or oils palette? They dive right in and make a mess and wodge colors together and slop stuff around.

And out comes beauty.

How do they do it?!?!

As both Popeye and my friend Nicole P. say, "I am what I am, and that's all I am." I am AR/OC. Betsy, clearly, is not. We both make pretty stuff and get pleasure from it, and that's all that matters. As much as I want to go to her house and clean her blocks, she'd just mess them up again.

I so completely admire her for that.

Now, go back to Betsy's blog and read her tutorial. I'm so going to use her ideas for sentiment, in my own clean and simple way. I bet you'll be inspired, too!

22 comments:

  1. Susan...I'm with you on the ink stains! I always clean my stamps, blocks, work surface, etc. I also sort M&M's by color and if there's an odd number of one color, I eat that one first so there's even numbers and then I eat them in two's. What that has to do with clean blocks, I have no idea except maybe another indication of my slight OCD?

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  2. you're a true artist too, my dear <3 my blocks are always clean too, can't deal

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  3. Oddly reassuring to know there are others out there. I wanted to reach through my screen to clean that block too! And scary enough, I get the M&M situation from Cheryl...and don't even think about making me fix a sandwich in a different order!

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  4. I couldn't concentrate on the lesson, I kept looking at those bright red ink splotches! Euww!
    I have to clean mine every time I stamp, even 2 words on the same card! (maybe that's why I run out of card-making time before I have all the cards I need!)

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  5. You are such a wonderful artist - clean blocks and all. My block, on the other hand, get cleaned every now and then. I'm just a mess person when I stamp.

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  6. Less time cleaning = more time stamping. Just sayin'. :-D

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  7. lol, I didn't even think they were dirty!! I'm not showing you mine then. sometimes they are so dirty that the stamps won't even stick!

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  8. I didn't notice it when I read Betsy's post. And wouldn't have noticed in a million years had you not pointed it out. But then, my entire work area is a hot mess, blocks included.

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  9. I don't like a messy block, although I confess that I didn't even notice when I first looked at Betsy's blog post. I was too blown away by the sheer awesomeness of it to even look at the block.

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  10. I'm with you, I hate my blocks being dirty, but then I would have to agree with Betsy's earlier comment. Still it would bother me and therefore no creativity would happen.

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  11. I'd happily leave the ink stains on the blocks and get stamping, but somehow I always manage to transfer marks from the block onto my card. The blocks therefore must be cleaned ;-)

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  12. It's true, I really am. Ug ug ug.

    Being loony isn't so bad. I prefer the word 'authentic'. ;)

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  13. I truly hate to admit it, but my blocks are sometimes WAY worse than this. I just have a really hard time stopping my creative flow to clean...not a habit I'm proud of, but I like to think of it as an artistic tendency!

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  14. Or ink on one's hands! Because what if it transfers!? :P I have one block with a little bit of black ink that won't come off. Very annoying. :D

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  15. ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.ha!!!!
    you are too stinkin' funny.
    i actually didn't notice the stains until you pointed them out. i, too, was blown away by the composition of those texts. she makes them look effortless. wow!
    marty ferraro

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  16. I have to keep my blocks clean because otherwise my cards would be smeared and messy. That being said, I didn't notice the messy blocks because I was concentrating on the cards. I do admit to being a bit anal sometimes. I sort and eat jelly bellys by color; I eat the smallest Raisinettes first ... I could go on ... Glad to know there are others like me :)

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  17. Love this post AND Betsy's tutorial! I am not super organized, but I can't work with blocks with colors on them :)

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  18. What I am wondering is how Betsy manages not to mess up a card with the stains when wet (I mean at one point it is wet). Often times I wipe the ink off the block before I stamp anything to avoid any accidental "extras" on my cardstock. But as Susan said Betsy is an artist so I don't think these things happen to Betsy as it does to me. :)

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  19. Yes, Betsy's tutorial is awesome..she is genius with her ideas. Like you the inky blocks would drive me crazy. I noticed a long time ago, as you stated, that real artists don't worry about the mess...they are almost oblivious to it, intent on their art. An artist I am not, can't abide mess, it stifles what little creative spark I've got. So I work my art in a methodical neat manner. It is the only way I can function. I can't live without creating and I can't live with mess around me so a compromise is necessary. I'm a combination of Poirot and Monk...I practice order and method as I create--that's the Poirot part...and I go a little bit nutzo as the mess accumulates--that's the Monk part. Balance keeps me sane.

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  20. Well then, two of us are loony, because I noticed those splotchy blocks when I looked at Betsy's blog before you pointed them out. Betsy is right, though, that less time cleaning = more time stamping. I just need an angel to come along behind me to clean up and put away so I'm ready to go again next time.

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  21. I must be somewhere in between. I do have some black STAZON lines on my fav lined block, and the next time I have the STAZON cleaner out, I might remember to swab at it. Now, where the heck is my brayer. . . !

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!