Art by Niki Hilsabeck

When perfectionism hits, it helps to have an escape plan... "Chatte et Fleurs" 8.5 x 11.5 inches Click here to view Etsy listing In my case, I work in an alternate method.  I've been working with pastels all summer, but have hit the point where I am nitpicking over details.  When that feeling takes over, I switch to making fun collages. When I create a mixed media collage, I like to work with big shapes and layers of texture.  For this piece, I began with a watercolor background, and layered in tissue paper to create big forms.  Once the big forms were in, I added a few pieces of recycled paper from bags (the stems), and began painting with oil and soft pastel.   I was inspired to make the big flowers after seeing my aunt's large zinnia blooms, but felt compelled to add a little cat among them to exaggerate their size.  That's the fun part of making these collages-- I get to indulge my creative side, and worry less about achieving the detailed...

What is "birdwalking?"  My understanding of the word is that it means to stray off topic.  As you can imagine, creative people are often drawn to all types of activities and forms of expression.  This is not great for marketing, I suppose, but as one of my favorite former art teachers would say, "So What?" I did a couple of collage pieces back when I was recovering from a few months of morning sickness, and knew I had found a fun way to create art that appealed to my sometimes child-inspired view of life.  After having another baby, there's been precious little time to do much of anything artistic, and for a while I was struggling with the frustration of never being able to really focus on my paintings for more than a few minutes at a time. With these pieces, I could pick them up and put them down as time allowed, and even do a little work with a baby in the wrap and a preschooler yapping in my ear.  The following three were inspired by the children's s...