Mixed Media ACEOs From a Master Board

Jan 30

It’s Not Talent. It’s Time.

This past week’s studio session came from one of my favorite ways of working, creating a large master board and then cutting it down into smaller, more intimate pieces. In this case, those pieces became ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions and Originals), each one carrying its own tiny story.

If you’ve followed my work for any amount of time, you know I love this process. A master board gives me freedom. There’s no pressure to make something “perfect.” I can experiment with color, texture, marks, collage, and intuition, knowing that later, hidden compositions will reveal themselves.

And they always do.

Small Pieces, Big Meaning

These ACEOs were pulled from a single master board, yet no two feel the same. Mushrooms, leaves, numbers, fragments of text, they appear quietly, almost accidentally. I love that about collage. It mirrors real life. Growth happens in layers, often unnoticed at first.

Many of the phrases that made their way onto these cards reflect that idea:

Quiet growth is still growth
There is beauty in the unnoticed
Even in the shade, life rises

They’re reminders I need just as much as anyone else.

It’s Not Talent. It’s Time.

One of the main things I talked about in this video, and something I feel strongly about, is the idea that art isn’t about talent in the way people often think it is.

So many people look at art and say,

“I’m not creative.”

But what I see, over and over again, is that creativity grows through small pockets of time.

Ten minutes here.
An hour there.
Trying something new without expecting perfection.

Those moments compound.

This master board, and the ACEOs that came from it, didn’t happen because of a single burst of inspiration. They happened because I showed up, experimented, and allowed myself to explore without pressure.

That’s how artists are made.

Why I Love Working This Way

Creating from a master board gives me permission to:

Experiment freely
Let go of outcomes
Find compositions I never planned
Create cohesive series without forcing them

It also creates space for storytelling. Each ACEO becomes a pause, a small visual meditation, something you can hold in your hand and maybe display somewhere to provide motivation everyday. OR to be used as a gift to someone that may need to know they matter.

Watch the Full Process

If you’d like to see how these ACEOs came together, I shared the full process in my most recent YouTube video. It’s a relaxed, real-time studio session where I talk through the ideas behind the work I’m creating.

You can watch that video here:
(https://youtu.be/r_V2l5bx4Pk?si=2xondsqoWW7UT8Jc)