The Versatile Blogger

What a great surprise! Deb Prewitt, of the Life of Deb blog awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award:

It’s my first blogging award, and I love the idea behind it. An award helps encourage people to praise others. While we praise our kids, we don’t often praise each other. There is something that makes us hesitate–too much responsibility in praise. We might make a mistake. We might praise someone who isn’t perfect. So better withhold the niceties. Praise is a motivator to do more of what you were praised for. That has to be good.

Here are the rules for the Versatile Blogger Award:
If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.

• Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
• Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy.
• Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
• Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.
• Finally, list 7 things about yourself.

Here is m list of nominee/winners. Go visit them and see what they are up to. Many of them don’t know me and don’t know I follow them, which makes it even more delightful–they won’t know they’ve gotten the award unless someone else tells them. I love the secret pass-it-along kind of praise.

1. John a’Lookin Around. I love this art-loaded blog for its calm and wonderful journaling that keeps you interested in a common life with simple drawings. The combination makes it one of my favorite blogs.

2. iHanna is a creative voice in so many ways. She reviews books, posts tutorials, and runs postcards swaps. (We’re in one now!)

3. Woolgathering’s Elizabeth Perry posts a hand-drawn image every day. Every. Day. And they are so beautifully done! Simple, spare, but very meaningful.

4. Seth Apter’s The Altered Page. Seth is both a psychologist and an artist. He has a new book out, The Pulse of Mixed Media, in which he spotlights many of the better known mixed media artists: Pam Carriker, Danny Gregory, Angela Cartwright, Karen Cole, Sarah Fishburn–100 artists in all.

5. Seeded Earth is Bo Mackison’s photography blog. Bo takes macro photographs of botanicals in both Wisconsin and Arizona and writes engaging blog posts about life, art, and the natural world she loves.

6. Studio Mailbag. TJ Goerlitz is the manic artist for whom nothing is off limits. This week she is into linoleum print reductions–she cuts her own linoleum blocks, of course. She tackles anything that interests her–life, being a mother, moving from the U.S. to Germany and back, art projects–with the enthusiasm of a deeply creative art instigator. Oh, she taught me the word Creality, too!

7. Liz Crain is a ceramicist who makes meaning with clay. She’s amazing on every level–an artist, a teacher, an experimenter. I love her blog and I love her work.

8. Gwen Diehn is the art journaler whose work I fell in love with when I first fell in love with art journaling. While I was afraid to write a book because it would never be as good as hers (she doesn’t know me, so I’m safe in saying that), I knew I had to introduce more people to art journaling. And then I had the idea that my book wouldn’t be a comparison, just very different. And it was. I own all her books.

9. Simply Trece has a blog that is calm and encouraging. It doesn’t get much better than that.

10. Krystyna Rawicz is Curious Cat whose work includes both painting and poetry. I love to stop by her blog because it always surprises me and takes my breath away with understanding.

11. Paula in Buenos Aires has a blog called Keep it Simple, Make it Great, or HappySnappy for short. She’s on a photography quest at the moment. She is a regular commentor on my blog and I love her cheerful digging in creative soil. She finds great treasures.

12. Paula Snyder is another creative explorer. On Second Studio Art Blog she creates postcards, mixed media, paint, covered rocks, sees life in furniture–she loves it all. It’s easy to get lost on her blog–it’s all fresh.

13. Daien will welcome you to Wild Integrity, her blog. She makes life her art, and does an excellent job of simple mindfulness that brings us around to appreciation.

14. Kira is the JournalGirl who hasn’t met a page she can leave blank. On the way you will catch her enthusiasm for life and journaling.

15. Wendy of Late Start Studio knows it’s never to late to start or start over. And it doesn’t matter where she is, she is interesting and curious about life.

Whew. Are you still with me? I wanted to include so many others: Judy Fei-Fan Balzer, Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow, Jenny Doh, whose blog is a world in itself, Chris Dunmire of the Creativity Portal. Many others. But I was limited to 15.  And the blog is now over 800 words long. Can I skip the seven things about me? I’m sure you won’t mind. Go look at these amazing blogs!

—Quinn McDonald is an art journaler working on loose-leaf journal pages. She is also a creativity coach who has room for one more client in her practice.