Solstice: Return of DeLight

Tags

Altered book, art journal, collage, coloring, gratitude, gratitude journal

The tissue paper on these pages if from a Solstice party we attended. I also included some flames to represent a Solstice ceremony we participated in. However, the bulk of these pages have to do with my younger son’s return from college and the art pieces that have been accepted for a show at a gallery in Madison. They can be seen on my previous post. I have completed 2 more pieces in the series (well, almost) and I need to take them to the gallery tomorrow. So, I will see if she wants the 2 additional pieces, too. Tammy, the owner is also interested in my coloring page packets! Yipee! I’m really going to be focusing on my second set of pages in the next few weeks. There is a lot of gratitude chronicled on these pages, but it doesn’t really show up with all the layers of paint and paper. I really like how some of the images of a woman moving in circles shows through everything.

What a year! What are you grateful for from 2015? My next post will be a year in review so stay tuned!

“Children need art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and fresh air and play. “

I have never reblogged a post, but this one really resonates with me.

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Wise words from Philip Pullman, who received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2005:

Children need art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and fresh air and play. If you don’t give a child food, the damage quickly becomes visible. If you don’t let a child have fresh air and play, the damage is also visible, but not so quickly. If you don’t give a child love, the damage might not be seen for some years, but it’s permanent.

But if you don’t give a child art and stories and poems and music, the damage is not so easy to see. It’s there, though. Their bodies are healthy enough; they can run and jump and swim and eat hungrily and make lots of noise, as children have always done, but something is missing.

It’s true that some people grow up never encountering…

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Eco Squared Art

Flower of Life

Tree of Life

These are the pieces that have been accepted for the Eco Squared Exhibit at Hatch Art House in Madison, WI for January 2016. I upcycled a game board from the game of Life. Then I played with papers and paints and stamps and gel pens. Finally I attached mandalas.

Festive Mandala

Tags

100 Mandalas, colored paper, Festive, gel pens, Holiday, how to make a mandala

Here is a mandala I made using differently colored paper circles that I embellished. I have included a few photos of the process as well. It is quite simple and very rewarding.

I have an old paper cutting system from Creative Memories that is very helpful in cutting the circles in graduated sizes. In the photo on the right you can see how I line up the circles with the grid on the cutting mat to help make the marks symmetrical. I also trace each circle on the one below as a guide.

Happy Holidays and I hope you have a beautiful day.

Flower of Life and Spiral in Hand

Tags

Altered book, Art Assignment, art journal, caroling, collage, Flower of Life, gratitude, Mandala, Washi tape

I love all the music and concerts at this time of year. We are so fortunate to have an absolutely fabulous volunteer orchestra in our town. This show gets me in the holiday spirit. Our church has a wonderful choir (my husband is usually a member, but has not been this year). They did a lovely program too. Then on Sunday night our church went caroling and that is one of my favorite holiday activities.

I am also working on a number of pieces for the Hatch Art House Eco Squared exhibit. It will be my third year submitting pieces for this show and it is such a great match up for my art. I have 2 out of a possible 5 pieces completed. One has a tree of life mandala and the other has a flower of life mandala. Here is my practice for the flower of life mandala. I will post a picture or pictures of the finished pieces at some point this week.

I went to an art class at our local art center that was based on the PBS show Art Assignment. It was really fun. I used some copper that was wrapped up in a really old newspaper and I brought this clipping home. The ladies’ heads were removed when I found it and it struck me as funny. The spiral in the hand was a warm up exercise that we did that I really liked.

 

You may also notice the new tape that I got on sale at my husbands urging this week! Imagine my surprise when he said, “Don’t you want to get more tape. That is a really good deal.” Please understand that I literally have a drawer full of different kinds of tape. I love that man.

These are some of the things that have made my week wonderful and for which I am grateful. What are you grateful for?

 

Daily Inspiration: 3 Quotes Day 3

Tags

dreams, Elise Wolfe, gratitude, Helen Keller, photography, photos, quotes, Thoreau

This post was inspired by The Mom Hood.

Have a beautiful day.

Daily Inspiration: 3 Quotes on Day 2

Tags

Alan Watts, Aristotle, emerson, flowers, photograph, quotes, trees

This post was inspired by The Mom Hood.

Have a beautiful day.

Daily Inspiration: 3 Quotes on 3 Days

Tags

flowers, Mary Oliver, Mother Theresa, Proverb, quotes, Smile, Sunset, trees, work, Zen

This was inspired by an awesome blog I recently discovered. Here is the challenge:

“The MomHood has a daily feature Monday through Friday, sharing an inspirational quote or mini challenge. So this challenge will run next to those, giving you two quotes a day (or more) for the next two days.

The rules to this are simple:

1. Post a quote, three consecutive days.
2. You can pick one or three quotes per day.
3. Challenge three different bloggers per day.”

I like how MomHood invited anyone interested to join the challenge and I would like to do the same. Share a link to your post as a comment so we can all share some inspiration.

Have a beautiful day.

Crazy Quilt of Gratitude

Tags

100 Mandalas, art journal, crazy quilt, Flower of Life, gratitude, gratitude journal, Journal 52, Mandala

Hey, I did a journal 52 prompt! The prompt this week was grid, but on Julie Fei-Fan Balzar’s Art Journal Everyday blog she had some posts about an amazing quilt show. And I thought, what a great combination! She also posted about a class she did on lettering and I realized I hadn’t done much with that in a while, either. I’m feeling somewhat better and have been able to get back into working in my gratitude journal every day. That in itself is something to be super grateful for!

The eye and some of the other work on the right hand page was done by a guest artist who was here over the holiday weekend. Great synergy to help me get back into the habit.

I finally did a flower of life mandala and I’m excited to do another one. I’m over half way on my 100 mandalas challenge. I thought I would be able to complete the challenge this year, but my body had other plans. I am happy with the progress I have made and plan to continue drawing mandalas (at least) until I get to my goal of 100!

Have a beautiful day!

Prompt Stomp: Lights

Tags

Boston, Cee's Photo Challenge, Christmas lights, dahlia, Delight, gratitude, Hawaii, Light, photography, photos, Sunset

“I want to see 3-5 photos, showing us what lights up your life.” This is the challenge from The Hood: MLJ Photos. Cee was participating and inspired me to join this challenge.

I struggle with depression and the darkness of December in Wisconsin can be a challenge of a different kind. Last winter I stumbled across the idea of looking for delight in the light to be found in this darkness. Of course the light of my life is captured in this fun holiday light extravaganza and is the perfect place to start this journey.

We are not big on decorating our house with a lot of Christmas lights, but for the past few years we have gone to these outdoor lights festivals as part of our holiday celebrating. I have enjoyed playing around with trying to capture the lights and with getting interesting effects with photography of lights while on a horse-drawn carriage ride.

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know that I love flowers. I paint them, doodle them and photograph them. I am learning that natural lighting can be such an asset and can be the upside of insomnia. Now when I can’t sleep on a weekend morning I wake up my husband and we jump in the car to get some early morning photos of beautiful place. I love the earth sculpture labyrinth that was home to this dewy blossom.

My younger son is going to college in Boston. The first time we went there with him I fell in love with a lot of the architecture. The library had such fabulous ironwork and I particularly loved these light fixtures.

On that same trip I took a self-portrait that I was quite happy with and it involved the light fixture in the beautiful old hotel we were staying in.

Last winter I was so very fortunate to go to Hawaii to see one of my good friends get married. The light in Hawaii was so lovely. I could post 20 photos of it to demonstrate it, however given the limits of this challenge I will only post this one. We were watching for the green flash as the sun went down. I didn’t see it, but certainly enjoyed the time to focus on the sunset. That was one of the things that I really loved. Every night crowds of people stop to watch the sun set. That doesn’t happen in small town Wisconsin. Aloha.

What brings you delight? I hope you have a beautiful day.