Playing with Friends and Family, Paper Mandalas, a Ukulele, and Board Games

Tags

100 Mandalas, Altered book, art journal, drawing, gratitude, hummingbirds, Mandala, paper art, Ukulele

Well, here is my 2 page spread upside down for some reason I cannot fathom. Here are the individual mandalas right side up.

I saw a birthday card that had a cut paper flower that I loved and it inspired  this mandala I made of our time and the Kalahari Indoor Water park in Wisconsin Dells. We went there for my younger son’s birthday celebration and met up with friends and relatives. The decor of the hotel and water park has an African theme, but what I really loved was the light fixtures. I made a stencil from a photo of them that is featured in the center of this colorful mandala.  I spent most of my time in the hotel room drawing and talking and kicking back with some great people.

This mandala I’m calling my ukulele mandala. It wasn’t anything conscious, but I’m learning how to play the ukulele and I mentioned that I’m grateful for that in the tiny print on this mandala and then I noticed that the outside part kind of looks like a string instrument. Well, anyway I have plenty of imagination and it made me think of my ukulele. 😉

The hummingbird mandala represents some nice time I spent over the weekend with my mother. I got this hummingbird stamp to use as a metaphor for her in my gratitude journal and it works in a mandala as well! In the center are hearts cut from money used in the game of LIFE! My husband and I like to play games together and we tried a new version of Monopoly over the weekend. I have a few games that I bought at a second hand store for collage so I’m not tempted to use game pieces that we will still need!

How do you play? What do you like to do for fun? Do you like big adventures like the water slides at a theme park or do you prefer a board game with someone you love? Do you like to play with art supplies? That may be what I am most grateful for! I enjoy time with family and friends, but I can get so lost in cutting and arranging paper, drawing a mandala, or painting in a stamped image. I am so fortunate that I don’t have to choose, but I get to enjoy so many different fun activities. I hope you have a beautiful and fun-filled week!

I am now on Pinterest for the 100 Mandalas Challenge.

I didn’t share this week’s journal entry in the current week’s blog post for Journal 52 because this week’s theme there was silhouettes. I submitted last week’s post as that contained a variety of silhouettes.

Dark Humor, Red Shoes, and Hamsters

Tags

100 Mandalas, acrylic paint, altered art book, art journal, gratitude, hamsters, humor, journal52, Mandala, Wabi-sabi

The book I am altering as my gratitude journal is Roots of Art by Lyonel Feininger. It is a gorgeous book of photographs. And it is bigger than my scanner. While I have a new and larger scanner/color printer on my wish list, I will have to make do in the interim. That has led to some Wabi-sabi practice on my part. Wabi-sabi is the Japanese term used to describe my life. In this case in means that some of my images are a little wonky. I wanted to provide an overview of the 2 page spread that covers the last week. It came together nicely on the page. The photograph is a little sideways.

I have started numbering my mandalas so that I will know when I get to 100. I am seeing them in everything these days and really having fun with this project. I am so pleased with how the Red Shoe Mandala turned out. The red shoe is a metaphor for one of my good friends. She took me to a day of doctor’s appointments and we has such a lovely lunch and shopping excursion. I am so happy the mandala reflects the playfulness of our day.  I’m including some individual page scans for a more detailed view of the individual mandalas.

My younger son turned 18 this week.

“The trouble is you think you have time.” Buddha

That quote was on the

website and seemed so appropriate for an 18th birthday, both for my son and for myself. He thinks he has all the time in the world and I can see how fleeting it is.

We got him a pygmy hamster (one of the cutest animals ever!) and a hamster on a hamster wheel is so clearly a mandala in the making. It also ties in with this quote so, so well. It made me think of the Buddhist idea of this precious human life. How are you using the moments of your life today?

The center of this mandala was pretty Wabi-sabi, too. Apparently gel pens and acrylic paints combine in strange and unpredictable ways. I had to paint over the mess a few times and it still was odd. I added the stencils and journaling at the end of the week upon reviewing the Journal 52 prompt. I wanted to tie the whole page spread together. The Journal 52 prompt was Conversation Starters. My intention for this year is to work on kindness in communication so I thought this would be a good opportunity to give you an update. I still have a lot of room for improvement. One of the really challenging ways I speak unkindly is when I’m trying to be funny. In my aquacize class yesterday I was discussing this with a friend of mine. We were having a blast laughing and poking fun and then I had to go and toss out this loving kindness in speech idea. We really had a great conversation. I have had conversations with others about this too. So many comedians are mean in their humor and I have used some majorly dark humor to help me through difficult times in my life.

My question for you for this week is what funny things are you grateful for this week? Are you able to keep kindness in your humor? How do you do it? Seriously, I’m looking for tips if you have any! IN any case, I hope you have a beautiful day.

Weekly Challenge #200: “Bi-Zen-Tennial Celebration!”

Tags

Bi-Zen-Tennial, Diva Challenge, gratitude, Inktense, Mandala, Zendala, zentangle

Congratulations to Laura Harms the Zentangle Challenge Diva on 200 Challenges!

What an accomplishment. I am so grateful for the fun and opportunities for growth and community that she has provided. She challenged us to use one Zentangle pattern and go off the page “Let’s extend from end to end, and fill our tiles BURSTING with Tangly JOY!” That really capture the enthusiasm of the Diva. I tried to do my best Onamato Zendala I could come up with. Then I got out my Inktense pencils and played! Laura this one is for you! Thank you!

See the other challenge participants’ art and learn a little more about Laura at

Not Enlightment, but Delight

Tags

100 Mandalas, altered art book, Altered book, art journal, Buddhist art, gratitude, karma, Mandala, meditation, pizza, Tibetan Art, zentangle

Here is my next batch of Mandalas in my art journal.

I’m not doing a mandala a day, so I’m not quite sure how this is going to work out as my regular gratitude journal. So far the mandalas that I have made are really nice representations of what I am grateful for. The Meditation Retreat was very interesting. I totally fell in love with the Liberating Prayer, a portion of which is included in the “Water the seeds of loving speech” mandala that incorporates Tibetan Buddhist Art symbols. I learned a lot about Karma and Buddhist art. The Liberating Prayer really tied in nicely with the 100 mandalas theme of resting in darkness. I’m also still really grooving with the Spirograph! These images, and many other art journal pages, are also available for viewing on Journal 52.

My gratitude question for you this week is how do you water the seed of loving speech in your thoughts? Who helps you in this journey?

One of the things I discovered at the retreat is that when I take care of my loved ones with an attitude of stinginess or like I’m not getting the recognition I’m due, I am watering the seeds of unhappiness in my own mind. While I was cooking for my friends at the retreat it was such a pleasure. Finding that pleasure in my ability to do mundane tasks for those I love is one of the biggest ways I can water the seeds of loving speech in my life. There have been many times (and they continue to pop up) when I am not able to eat, much less cook or wash up after a meal because of my migraines. I have lots of quick and easy foods I know how to make and I have all the ingredients to make a wide variety of healthy (and some not 😉 ) foods. I have people in my life who I love and I get to share meals with them regularly. I am so frequently amazed at the number of people who have worked so hard to provide me with organic (when possible) fruits and vegetables, grains, etc. When I start looking at making dinner in this light, I can find a feeling of delight. My husband and the wonderful Buddhist nun that I have had the good fortune to meet greatly help me on this gratitude journey.

Kindness in Communication

Tags

art journal, gratitude, gratitude journal, intention, kindness, Mandala, New Year, zentangle

My intention for 2015 is to increase my kindness in my communication. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on my intentions for 2015 in the last 10 days. In the process of reflection I have created this mandala.

I have been looking through a few different blogs that have challenges that I intend to follow this year to aid me in keeping to my intention.

http://kindnessblog.com/

My good blogging friend http://suzjones.wordpress.com/ has been a guest blogger on the kindness blog. The idea of making a commitment to speaking kindly really resonated with me. In discussing my struggles with this commitment with my husband I discovered that one thing I can do is to communicate what I am grateful for to the people I am grateful for. This may seem obvious to you, but it was kind of an aha moment for me. One of the greatest struggles I have with speaking kindly, other than the whole humanity thing, is the ever present migraines that I have. I always feel a little bit crappy at best and that tends to make me feel crabby. The introspection on this topic has led me to the awareness that as a consequence of feeling crabby and crappy, I don’t communicate very much with my friends and family in fear of being a whiner and being too negative. So I don’t say much of anything at all.

Here comes the TaDa:

I have been keeping track of things everyday that I am grateful for and I take time to illustrate them in my art journals. Then I take the time to blog about them and share them with all of you. How have I been doing on sharing them with the people who are directly involved? Not so hot. Well, here is one area of kind communication that I intend to improve upon! I will keep you updated on how this plays out.

This year I plan to step back from teaching art and/or gratitude workshops and focus more on making art and blogging. That has led me to the other 2 websites that were part of the introspection process. The first is http://collagediva.typepad.com She is hosting a 100 mandala challenge that I plan to take part in and may incorporate into my gratitude journal. Also http://journal52.com/2015-week-1-pathways/ This blog is a natural support for my art journal and I am very excited about seeing how weekly prompts impact my journal. The introspection mandala is a nice synthesis of both of these paths. I’m curious to see where they take me.

I would also like to ask you a specific gratitude question each week. My question for this week is who was kind to you today or this week? Take a moment to relish that kindness and maybe even pass it on.

Happy New Year!