Spring Yard Art and My Newest Handpainted Brooch Full Throttle Creativity this Month

I never liked February much, despite Valentine's Day being smack dab in the middle, and it being a short month. February is a soggy, dreary, icy, month in Connecticut. My mother passed away in this cold month, a few decades ago, and far too soon in my book as she deserved to embrace the golden years that were stacking up for her to enjoy. But March I like and then finally April. ..

Despite April being tax month, crocuses and snowdrops poke their heads up through wet Connecticut soil, and I, an avid gardener and Yardart enthusiast am propelled to create art for my garden along with painting pieces for my ETSY shop or writing new copy for the other shop. The surge of creative 'doing' momentum spills over with the promise of longer sunshiny days.

I discovered YardArt on Pinterest a few years ago. I'd been offering my services to weed and design some area Windsor Resident's yards. I suffered for my efforts, bee stings, poison ivy, but loved working with women who were open to my design ideas, and I made some new friends. I also tired of the constant maintenance in my own yard, "when will this end?" thought I as I pulled away at tough weeds that refused to give up the ghost. That's when YardArt came to the rescue, no more seeing a gorgeous shrub die on me, or forking out money for tons of annuals to pop in color. I still love to buy, plant and even start seedlings, but Yardart helps keep needless backbreaking work at bay, AND it offers an interesting view to the passerbyer that an artist resides in this antique house.

I have a friend who once placed her TV on a pile of old suitcases, I marveled at her swift move to design a vignette that worked utility-wise and really added a visual punch to her living room. Carla shared that she felt there were two kinds of artists in this world. Those that created beauty strictly on the canvas in front of them, ignoring the interior space around them; and those, like her, and me, who's artistic sense encompassed the immediate space around them as well.

Seed Bomb made from recycled paper scraps

Enter Pinterest with it's realm of garden boards, and I even created this one–Cool and Exciting Ideas for the Garden as a visual resource to refer to. I started making glass plate flowers, shutter snowmen and now I'm investigating shutter angels and am finishing up a pair of fan-blade dragonflies for my backyard. And I'm even making seedbombs dotted with Milkweed seed to attract Monarchs to my butterfly habitat in back. In one town artist Deborah Triplette started YardArt day and I'd love to adopt this concept here in Windsor.

The only problem with YardArt and Gardening for me, is creating a balance between outdoor work and indoor studio work, a real #WIP (Work in Progress) for me so I don't neglect one for the other. This is my year to truly discover creative balance. So far, so good, but it is trying, it means going in the studio when I want to be outside, or vice a versa.

Behold, my newest #handpainted brooch that arrived in the Eclectic Halloween Artist Emporium last night. EHAG artists, a juried group of talented professionals who celebrate all things whimsically halloween for avid collectors who love Hallow's Eve. We artists love to combine holidays and this month's challenge brought me to paint a white rabbit stealing away someone's Halloween pumpkin. Just the right kind of whimsical statement brooch for the happy collector to wear on one's lapel this Spring. To view visit here:
SuzanneUrbanArt

Wishing you all a Spring full of colorful surprises, and very little Poison Ivy. Oh! And here's how to make those Seedbombs