Bereaved

My Father-in-law died a week ago and I have been away for his funeral. Here is a photo I took of the rainy journey home.

Windows

Tags

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, Cee's Photo Challenge, Italy, Tuscany, windows

I just needed some fun today so I’m entering Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge with the topic of Windows. These photos are from a family trip to Italy with my mom. We met up with an exchange student from France who had lived in our home for a year in the 1980’s. The 3 pictures at the top were taken at the Castle of Bibbione, where we stayed for a week while exploring Tuscany. The shop window at the bottom is from one of the hill towns in Tuscany. I loved the patterns that were available on bolts of fabric and plastic as well as ready made kitchen and household items, and of course the windows themselves were beautiful. The other 2 pictures were taken from Vatican City. My mom is looking out over a courtyard and I tried to be artistic and capture the reflection of St. Peter’s Basilica. I hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane as much as I did.

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

Check out photos of all kinds of wonderful windows at Cee’s Photography.

Mail Art Completed & Mandala 19 0f 100

Tags

100 Mandalas, acrylic paint, collage, Diva Challenge, Diva's Challenge, mail art, Mandala, zentangle

Yesterday I posted about the beginning of this mail art batch and I finished 2 post cards today. The one on the left is also for the Diva Zentangle Challenge. The tangle that I used for the background is called Keeko.

Here is another step in the process:

I find drawing different sized circles in my mandalas to be very soothing. I have been working on this one for quite a while because I had a hard time coloring around all the little circles. I’m looking forward to coloring it. If you want to color some of my other mandalas they are available as digital downloads from Etsy.

Variety of Art Completed (mostly)

Tags

acrylic paint, acrylic paints, art, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, collage, gratitude, gratitude journal, layers, mail art

I have been working on a complicated gratitude journal page layout and I just finished it. These pages have been quite a process, like a lot of the art I have been making lately. I will post pictures of the pages in process and some mail art that I’m working on and haven’t yet completed.

completed page layout

This has a few layers of paint and paper. The left hand page represents a lot of love and sadness the week following the election. The right hand page has a lot of mail related ephemera. Some of it is my gratitude for our ability to pay our bills. Some of it is my love for getting and sending snail mail. Some of the stamps and postmarks are important in my life. In any case there is a lot of gratitude, but I wanted it to look prettier.

So I added some more paint. The left hand portrait is of my younger son who had a difficult week. The white on the right side was following up with the “whitewashing” idea from my process painting and some ideas I have for art with a complex yet subtle background. I am practicing some more with the mail art project that you will see momentarily. I did some journaling on the white with colored pencils, but it isn’t very visible. Even less so when I put the mandala on it.

mail art step 1

Mail art step 2 – I let the under-painting dry completely for this one.

I put a mandala on it. I plan to cut this into pieces to make a mail art series.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

Process Painting #4: Betrayal

Tags

acrylic paint, acrylic paints, betrayal, painting, patterns, Process Painting, vulnerability

A lot of layers in this painting. The visible part is a “whitewash” I put over the dark layers of betrayal. On top of that I put new patterns that are the result of betrayal and a lot of circles because I love circles and to indicate the cycles of life including trust and betrayal. The large purple circle in the center represents being vulnerable and the outer circles embrace that vulnerability in the hopes of developing compassion for self and others.

Today I’m starting a very different kind of painting class that will be focused on techniques. I’m excited! I also have a bunch of gratitude journal entries to post. I hope to get caught up this week.

Silent Sunday: A Quiet Life

Tags

Albert Einstein, Creative block, Creative Life, Creative mind, Creativity, Life

We Shall Overcome. Someday

Tags

African American, Election, imagine, quotes, Racism, Southern Poverty Law Center, Toni Morrison

The last few days have been really difficult. I have thrown myself into art and music to get through. One of my African American sons was verbally abused by a stranger in a store today. Both of my boys are very concerned and so am I about so many things in their lives. Education, health care, and basic safety in a country that has elected a bigot and condoned abuse of the vulnerable. I am listening to We Shall Overcome and Imagine. I am donating to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The name is misleading. It has been working through legal, social, and educational channels to make the United States a better country.

“For more than four decades, we’ve won landmark cases that brought systemic reforms – toppling remnants of Jim Crow segregation and destroying violent white supremacist groups; shattering barriers to equality for women, vulnerable children, the LGBT community and the disabled; protecting migrant workers from abuse; ensuring the humane treatment of prisoners; reforming juvenile justice practices; and more.”

This helped me today and I hope it helps you. Lets work on healing.

View this post on Instagram

Today we feel, as artists & activists, that Toni Morrison's #quotation sums up what we should all strive for – just as the suffragettes did. Time to reflect, regroup, re-energise. We support all who champion equality & voting matters. To all our friends, known & unknown, never forget that no matter the disappointments or the setbacks, our direction is forwards – with love. Emily Davison & her sister suffragettes are willing us on. It is our choice whether or not to further their noble cause. We choose Hope. Shoulder to Shoulder with you. Always. Step Up | Vote | Lead Because #youmatter 🌍 bit.ly/Emilymatters #Emilymatters #repost Image via manifestjustice.org

A post shared by tofreedomscause (@tofreedomscause) on Nov 9, 2016 at 5:08am PST

Focus on Gratitude

Tags

acrylic paint, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, Etsy, gratitude, Journal, Liquitex paint pens

Today I was pretty upset about the results of the election so I really focused on gratitude and making art.

This page layout is a different kind of grid based on some studio setup and getting my Etsy store launched. I really had fun selecting meaningful papers to arrange. In moving stuff around the studio I found some great painted papers, had my process painting class, and colored in some “store models” of my coloring pages.

I want to thank you guys for your generous comments on my bird selection question. I actually added tail marks to the bird in the bottom of the photo from yesterday’s post and put the spare bird in my art journal. The leaves are from an art therapy session. I’m very happy with my new therapist. I was interested in studying art therapy when I went to grad school to become a school psychologist, but went a different route. It is really interesting and exciting to be on the receiving end of art therapy. A technical note on this page is that I tried some pumice gel in the leaf background and it kind of became a mess. Probably not going to use it in an art journal again. But I did enjoy a new Liquitex set of supplies that I bought to check out their paint pen and how they work with other products. The spray paints really need good air circulation! Maybe I will save them for summer. But I like the pens and the color selection is interesting. Stay tuned for more experiments with these!

As you can see from the sticker in my art journal, I did vote. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to express my beliefs in the direction our country will go. This is not the first electoral disappointment I have been through and I know that there is going to be a lot of work for all of us who work for social justice. In the face of disappointment it is really helpful for me to focus on what I’m grateful for and I have so much. I still will worry, but this helped recharge my energy so I can do my part to keep our country great for people of color and others who are afraid of what the future will hold.

Draw a Bird Day: Blue Jay

Tags

acrylic paint, bird, birds, Blue, Blue Jay, collage, Draw a Bird Day, Painted paper

Here are my 2 blue jays that I made for Draw a Bird Day.

I’m planning to use one of them for my Christmas Card, but I can’t decide which I like better. Please let me know which one you prefer and help me select my centerpiece for my Christmas card. I love how my painted blue jay paper turned out.

I have been working on building up my painted paper stash because I want to get into more painted paper collages. This texture and color combination screamed blue jay to me. I grabbed an awesome reference photo from Kathy at backyard bird nerd and I was off! Laura at create art every day is taking a break from blogging, but I wanted to keep in practice for Draw a Bird Day.

 

Process Painting #3: Love

Tags

acrylic paint, acrylic paints, colors, painting, Process Painting, reflections

Of course I love color, the other meanings are for you to discover on your own. I hope you have a beautiful day.