Request...

I just know your new book will be my new favorite book!!!
Being a Life Artist is a way of life. It means creating choices - to prioritize relationships first. It means creating memories - by spending quality time with those you love. It means creating art - memorializing all the meaningful stuff! That's how I see it!

Life Art: Preseving my memories. Capturing my thoughts. Catching the moments that make life worth it all... using cool paper and supplies is a total bonus! :)

I'd love for you to talk a little about BLOGGING. Those of us who have blogs, use them to communicate with our friends and families. I'd love some tips on the best way to use my blog, including sharing photos and stories with those we love.
I find that I use my blog as a journal and don't put it on paper as much..........
and thanks, for always inspiring us.

Before I began scrapbooking, I painted and did drawings. Then motherhood kicked in full force and it was always put on the back burner. I didn't realize how I missed that creative release until I started scrapping. How great was this hobby, I could create and keep our family memories forever. But then, I became a Life Artist. I thought I was aware of life before, but now... My drive to work is full of experiences...the words I hear throughout the day take on even more meaning...even the quiet times in the evenings when my 'men' are just being, reading or on the computer, these are moments that I now see are just as speacial as a b-day. Life is an even more beautiful place to be, seen in this light. I can't thank you enough for helping me in this growing experience!
Life Artist=Truely seeing ALL of life as it is and then making it tangible for others to experience with you.

Do you ever get that feeling where you're in the middle of something -- an event, a moment or just a phase in your life.. and you stop and think -- "I want to freeze this moment and this feeling and remember it forever"? I guess that's what life art is to me, taking the time to record and put down on paper the important and everyday moments of your life.. the stuff you want to remember. It's seeing your life through a different perspective, like stepping back and trying to look at it from a certain distance and seeing all the good stuff, the bad stuff, everything that makes it what it is. And I guess by seeing it that way, you gain a new appreciation for it!
Can't wait for your new book Ali, bet it's going to be great! :)

To me life art is an expression of myself. The part of me you dont see on the outside. My thoughts, feelings, reflections creatively collated into something that can be loved and shared through the age of time. A way for me to communicate to others through something I love.

Life Art - it means to me, capturing life & making it art to preserve the memories for future generations to discover what talented people their ancestors were.

What is Life Art? Its about capturing "my definition" of a still/kodak moment. Which someday my children will stare upon and create their definition of my moment.

To me, life art is capturing the precious moments that make up our everyday lives and preserving them for ourselves as well as future generations to enjoy later on.

Okay - now that I've composed myself after my silly shower curtain post above (don't ask - I was just feeling giddy earlier I guess!) - I'm ready to share:
When I think of "Life Art" - I think of a keen sense of awareness - subtly capturing the day to day ~ eventful or seemingly uneventful, not posed moments (i.e. - stand here because the lighting is better, or let me photoshop the heck out of this photo to make it look better). Capturing Life Art, (to me), is the "fly on the wall" stuff - Your subjects should barely know they were captured and looking back over time, the moments you captured should succinctly tell a story that documents growth and clearly defined changes.
Don't get me wrong, there is a definate place for posed pictures & photoshop - I just think that "Life Art" in it's truest sense is raw and subtle. Know what I mean?
AM

To me, life-art is capturing/recording/preserving "life" through artistic expression. I love the freedom that comes with "art". Art is whatever is meaningful to you. Art can be educational, inspiring, beautiful, thought-provoking.
My question is similar to another poster earlier...Ali: how do you manage all the "stuff"? I am also a hoarder of all things found and bought. I have all these ideas in my head about all the cool layouts and projects I want to do, but then I get paralyzed by the sheer amount of product (paper, emphemera, embellishments, etc) that I have accumulated and can't focus on "how" to get it all put together...how to get started. Then I'm stressing about all the $$ I've spent on this stuff that I've hardly used and the paralysis continues, arrrgh!!

Am so excited about the book!
I'd love to hear more about taking good self-portraits. . . .

Hey Ali,
First I would also love to know about stuff you don't like (like Anne Marie). I imagine you make so much there must be some that you are not crazy about.
And for me, life art is about not being shy to take pictures, even of silly stuff, even in public.

Is that you? Your hair looks really cute like that! Have a good day- have fun working!

8 years ago if i were asked if i was creative i would have definitely laughed at the thought . . .now . . .through my passion of scrapbooking . . . i can say "yes". scrapbooking has opened up so many doors to my life. i look at my life in a totally different way . . .i write down {on paper} my feelings and why i feel the way i do about someone or something. sure . . . i am preserving memories for future generations . . . but for me the coolest thing is the way i look within myself now . . . more than ever before. i also express my feelings a lot more to those i love. nothing's better than getting my husband to cry after reading the journaling in one of my creations. one funny memory is when i told one of my "creative" friends that i was selling close to my heart . . . she was like "you?". she totally remembers how she always had to do the name tags for our bus tours because i had no clue how to stamp or even color! thanks for asking ali.
denise . . . who also can't wait for you to come back to pennsylvania.

Life art is sharing a piece of your heart.

I hear a lot of people on certain sites "making fun" of the term life artist. But I guess it just makes sense to me. I create art based on my life AND sometimes that art encourages me to LIVE life. For example, when I first started scrapping, I saw these great layouts of a visit to the pumpkin patch. I'd never been to one. After some research, I found that we have 5 within a 45 minute drive of our home. SO we've visited a number of them. It is now something that we look forward to as a family and what started as an event so I could take some fall pics has turned into a real family time that we all enjoy.
I love that I'll remember the way my daughter used to chew foam rubber like it was gum. I love that I'll remember the first time I saw my son (who has spina bifida) ride a push-bike on his own. I'll remember those because I have photos. I have layouts that show not only the event, but also my thoughts on the event. I scrapbook so that I can remember life the way I lived it.

Hi Ali! To me life art is doing family history for our future generations. They will not have to go through all the time of looking up articles on their past generations. It will all be in one neat beautiful little book for them. They will have the stories to go along with the pics. There will not be any pics posted with the title unknown on any websites. I want my future family to know all i know about ALL my family. That's why I love to scrap. You actually leave a piece of you with the future!! Can't wait for your new book!!

so many great definitions of Life art! I sort of think of it as Life...see the art in the everyday. Sometimes it takes a little bit of distance & perspective to see the funny, cool,strange things and make them art, but it's there. Look for it.

Life Art=cultivating the ability to really *see* my life, especially the details, the small stuff, & then translating those sights into a scrapbook. It requires discipline: striving to live a conscious, intentional life. To be present and fully aware, not just drifting through my days. This awareness breeds creativity and creativity breeds art!