Liz Greenwood, a Longmont artist, began a fascination with tiny art when she was still a tiny girl.
Greenwood grew up in Greeley where she was surrounded by her mom, grandma and dad who dove into creative pursuits.
"My mom and grandma and I used to go to a lot of the craft markets and find cute little things," Greenwood said, "and I was a little person so having things that were me-sized was just the coolest thing as a kid. I'm still a rather petite person overall and so the love of small things stuck with me."
Greenwood still works on small-scale art projects, recently challenging herself to complete the 100 days project. The challenge is to spend 100 straight days of doing something creative.
For the challenge, Greenwood decided to repurpose a variety of cards from playing cards to Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon cards because of their portable nature.
"I tend to like working on little things. You know, some people really love doing huge projects on big canvases and, for me, that often ends up feeling intimidating," Greenwood said.
Although she has taken a few breaks from the challenge, Greenwood said she draws inspiration from different parts of the cards and sometimes from holidays that arise while she's working on them.
On Valentine’s Day she modified the ace of hearts and on another occasion added flower faces to the 10 of clubs card. She also used the land cards in Magic: The Gathering to create more exaggerated versions.
Unsure what media was exactly right for the project, Greenwood dabbled in watercolors but with the cards, found acrylic worked best. She is seeing how different styles and materials affect the way the project comes to fruition.
"It (the card project) has been more of an expansion upon what is there combined with what intrigues me at the time. I'm still fairly early in the process of this so as I'm doing more, I'm getting a little more confident in what works well at that size and scale for what I can do," Greenwood said.
This is just one facet of her self-acclaimed creative spirit. She notes that her creative spirit affects her everyday life and encourages her self-expression.
"To me, being a creative spirit is an all-encompassing kind of thing. It's wanting to find creative expression in everyday life and in all the different avenues that are available to me. For example, in how I dress, in gardening, in exploring the town and exploring the world. It is just taking whatever new and different things I can do to discover and learn and express myself," she said.
Although she has a free, creative spirit, Greenwood wasn’t always so forthcoming with her art. It wasn’t until she found the the Left Hand Artist Group (where she is now the art curator) that she was encouraged to share her art more freely.
"I was looking for groups or social activities to join. I ended up finding the Left Hand Artist Group through my spouse, Eric. We went to a lot of the meetings, hanging out at a lot of breweries and other places where they were hanging art. So, seeing the art that was hanging there was an inspiration. Being able to see the art that was there and see that there's this diversity of materials, of styles, of sizes and of price points and go 'Oh, I could do this. This is something that's within reach,’" Greenwood said.
Greenwood hopes others in the community get similarly inspired and encourages them to give things a try.
She said, "Anyone who wants to try doing art or something creative and is just feeling too intimidated or like they're not good enough. That's not the point. Jump in, do something fun because you like it. And if you like it enough, you'll keep doing it. And you'll get a lot better at it."
