Sweet Squares

What better way to get into the back-to-school spirit than an online challenge? Inspired by Melissa Sweet at the SCBWI Conference in LA, Diandra Mae has started the MONTH OF EXPERIMENTATION over on her blog and it sounds like a great opportunity to me. Click over to Diandra's blog to see what it's all about. The basic idea is to start the day with play. I did my first 3X3 "Sweet Square" today.

These "Sweet Squares" offer an opportunity to do anything-- use new materials or new combinations of materials. Just try stuff out in a small format quickly. Today I used acrylics with black marker and some collage. I hope to do a ""Sweet Square" everyday in the morning to get my day started. The key is to have fun and experiment without judging or pushing oneself. Who knows where these little experiments can lead? I don't know but eliminating the pressure to produce "perfect" work for my portfolio seems like a good place to start.

Thanks so much to Diandra Mae for cooking this up.