What do hares and armadillos have to do with each other, you might wonder? Well, I wondered that too, but realized what happens between consenting lagomorphs and turtle-rabbits (that’s what the Aztecs called armadillos) is really none of my business.  What is my business, or, more technically, my hobby, is creating jewelry inspired by the “Hares and Rabbits” theme for the monthly Art Elements design challenge and sculptures prompted by an armadillo spirit guide that began whispering to me last month.

Well, here we are ready to turn the page on another year. And what an extraordinary year it has been. I won’t dwell on the pandemic or other dire news headlines of the year. Instead, I’m reviewing my creative journey as documented here on my blog. Creatively speaking, it was another productive year although I didn’t post as frequently as I have in some other years. I’m going to say it’s been about quality, not quantity. LOL

The November theme for the Art Elements design challenge was “mushrooms and toadstools” which is one I’ve been hoping for since I don’t know when. I love mushrooms and toadstools as design elements and art themes. There’s a tremendous diversity in wild mushrooms and then there are “fantasy” mushrooms from imagination. Tragically, I was in some kind of creative funk this month and didn’t do the theme justice. (note that this post, for reasons i don’t understand, didn’t publish in November, or somehow disappeared, so I’m re-posting in December.)

The theme for this month’s Art Elements design challenge was gothic. Gothic architecture is something I know practically nothing about. According to the interwebs,  it’s characterized by pointed arches, stained glass windows with elaborate tracery (yeah, I didn’t know that term until Google explained it to me), and flying buttresses.  Think Canterbury Cathedral and Notre-Dame de Paris.  Gothic fiction, on the other hand, is a genre with which I am very familiar.  It’s characterized by the supernatural and horror, with elements of dangerous or tragic romance.  Think Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker. Edgar Allen Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft.  My designs this month were inspired more by gothic fiction than architecture.

Butterflies were the theme for the Art Elements design challenge this month.  Butterflies are symbols of change and transformation.  The Art Elements Team has made some changes to the monthly theme challenges, including moving the reveals from a blog hop to a photo album in a Facebook community.  I’m choosing to blog about my themed projects anyway because, frankly, if it weren’t for the monthly challenges, I would have to come up with content ideas all on my own.  

Bees are the theme for the Art Elements design challenge this month. Bees are awesome for so many reasons, and I could easily spend a year’s worth of blog posts expounding on all the things I admire about them.  There were so many ideas for how to interpret this theme based on all the things I love about bees.  But there are only so many creative hours in a month, and so, there are only so many bee-themed projects I can share with you today.