About

Hi, I’m Denise and welcome to my art practice. I am a mixed media artist living in San Rafael and this is my digital home. It’s where I track what I’m currently working on, the books I’m reading, and this is also where I keep galleries and archives of the art projects I’ve created over the years. It’s where I work out loud, in the open.

What you’ll find here:

Monthly Art Commitments—Top of Website

One important aspect of my practice is a combined Notes/Sketch book—which I’ve called by many different names over the year (Art Journal, Illustrated Journal, Sketchbook, Studio Notebook, Everything Book), and I’ve landed simply on “Sketchbook”. It is a notebook that is both a tool for my practice and one container (of several) for expression.

Each month in my Sketchbook I create a monthly cover page and post it here at the top of my website. It names the creative projects I’m committing myself to for the month. Then I leave a blank page right next to it in the book to reflect and review at the end of the month before filling pages with drawing, painting, collage, illustrated journaling and whatever else over the month.

As an artist I can get so distracted with new ideas that I forget—often—to stay focused on what I’m actually working on. So this cover page is meant to keep me focused. It’s to remind myself that these are my creative commitments, and new ideas can wait until next month (or longer), thank you very much.

And yes, I end by going back to that reflection and review page before creating new commitments—and a new cover page—for the next month. You’ll find my monthly review in Studio Notes (see below).

Studio Notes: The Backstory

I post highlights of what I create on Instagram. Here on my website I log the back story of both the art and my practice. These are essentially my studio notes, useful in the present to think about my creative process and useful for the future to look back and trace the steps. Maybe useful to someone else for their own creative process.

What I’m Reading

I love to read so one little project is to post pictures the latest books I’ve read. I mostly read ebooks on an ereader, so really, this is just so I can see all my books all laid out end to end.

One future project would be to also post links to worthwhile reading on the internet (so much!), but so far this project hasn’t made the commitments list.

Galleries of my work over the years

A digital home.

And that’s it. My personal website. I’ve tried different ways to share my art practice online over the years—blogs, newsletters and of course social media. But to be frank, I have failed, mostly. Sharing online overwhelms. Purpose gets confusing. However, in one way or another I’ve kept this website and it occurs to me that I don’t need my website to be social media. It can just be my digital home, a place that can hold some of my art practice for me—and for you too if you’re interested.