Share Your World

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Cee's Photo Challenge, gratitude, Share Your World

Another Landmark: the Baha’i House of Worship, Chicago, IL

I often think about participating in Cee’s Share Your World Post and I have a few times. I could not pass it up this week.

Her questions and my answers:

What is the most famous landmark or building you have ever seen?

This is a fun one, because I have been very fortunate to see so many wonderful ones. I think I will list them in the order I saw them. When I was about 10 or 11 we took our only big family vacation and drove from Wisconsin to California to visit family friends and visit a lot of family on the way there and back. We went to the Grand Canyon, Great Salt Lake in Utah, Estes Park, Mesa Verde, China Town in San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean. In my college years I saw some really famous places as I did my major traveling. I saw Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands, the Terra Cotta Soldiers in Xian, China, the gorgeous hills of Guilin, China and the neon of Hong Kong. My husband and I met while we were both living in Taiwan and we have explored Yellowstone and the Tetons, Beartooth Pass, (not the most famous, but one of my favorites), the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Old North Church in Boston, the Eiffel Tower and the Louve, the Eiger Mountain, Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, and so many landmarks in Italy that I could post about that place for years. I don’t know which of these you would call the most famous. I think the Eiffel tower may be in the top 10. In any case, my favorite landmark or building I have ever seen was Michelanglo’s statue of David.

Portland, Maine mini-vacation

Do you like long vacation or lots of mini-vacations?

I love mini-vacations. My migraines and vertigo make long vacations difficult without a lot of rest days planned in and that is a challenge for me. Now that we are living on the east coast there is so much to see and do so we have already had a lot of mini-vacations. We have lots more planned and I will be sharing, doors, trees, and flowers from all the places we explore!

What is your favorite National or State Park?

I love National and State Parks and my favorite so far is Arches National Park in Moab, UT. We had the luxury of exploring it extensively when we lived in Utah and it never disappointed.

What is your fantasy vacation?

I have 2 big fantasy vacations that I hope we will be able to do in part or whole someday. One is to go back to Italy and explore Venice and Murano and go back to Rome and Florence. I would love to spend a month or more there really getting to know a few corners of the country and painting and taking photographs.

My other fantasy vacation is what I hope we will do when my husband can retire. I would love to go to all the National Parks in the 48 contiguous states on a grand tour with a little camper. We want to go to something in each of the states and find any odd roadside attractions. Not sure what we would do about our cats as they do not enjoy travel, but this one is still in the dreaming stages. Do you see some common themes in these questions? I love travel and so does my husband. It is literally what brought us together.

Optional Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? I’m grateful for the new friends I’m making here in New Jersey. I’m grateful that my health is good enough that I can work on art most days. I made some bookmarks for people to color and I colored one copy for myself. I’m grateful for the new car that we got that will be able to tow the little camper we hope to get in the next few years! I’m grateful for my wonderful husband who I hope to travel with for many years to come. I’m looking forward to progressing on a big new mandala that I’m working on for a show in September! I’m also looking forward to getting Botox in a little more than a week. My migraines get worse as it wears off – I get it every 3 months and I’m almost due.

bookmarks

I hope you have a beautiful day!

 

Paper Blossoms

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art journal, Art Journal Every Day, flowers, gratitude, paper collage, paper flowers, pink, Zentangles

I have been keeping a gratitude journal for years. About 4 years ago I started doing it in art journal format using altered books. Not long after that I started this blog as a record of that journal and has blossomed into so much more. Recently I started a professional art blog. I will continue to maintain both blogs for as long as possible.

This is my first time using a mixed media sketchbook as my gratitude journal and I’m really enjoying it. I have been exploring acrylic paints and that exploration is reflected in my journal. I also us it to experiment with different media. For example, the flowers in the upper left page were experiments for my Mandala 41 with Rhododendron painting. I didn’t like how they looked with the mandala but I really enjoy them in my art journal and I’m going to use my “plaid” paper in a large mandala I’m currently working on, I think. Stay tuned…

I’m continuing to explore the Zentangle® Method. The tangled squares use a pattern called Paradox that I’m really enjoying. The text and images document what has happened with whom in the last few days and weeks. I had a really long conversation with a dear friend who is fighting cancer. I used a new to me pen to start her drawing and it didn’t work quite how I wanted, but I’m so grateful to include her in my journal. The new pens are from a spiritual doodling class that I’m taking at my Unitarian church.

This week I have been making lots of cards for various people. One of my sons has a birthday coming up and I have a few other friends who are also fighting cancer. All of my cards have had something that uses Zentangle® tiles or inspired art.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

Back to Gratitude and Paint

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acrylic paint, art, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, grateful, gratitude, gratitude journal, Zentangles

I have been working on layers in my art journal and have been so busy with Zentangle® classes and art, but here is the page layout of the buildup to the CZT27 and planning our trip to Connecticut and Rhode Island.

I included my first Zentangle® tile from the seminar and my dinner coupon for the first evening. The meals at the Providence Biltmore were fabulous. They were awesome in their skill in accommodating gluten free and special dietary needs. There were quite a few of us at the seminar and I got some good tips on that too! They made some gluten free brownies that everyone loved!

You can also see some random flowers I drew/painted on scraps of paper. They turned out pretty well. I’m still playing with cutting painted paper and using layers in my art. I feel like things are coming together, so to speak.

The background of all of these pages were from my Lenten painting marathon. They have been great fun to work on. I should probably get back to them so I can continue to have art journaling backgrounds ready! I played with more layers and tried out new pens and tangle patterns during and after the seminar on these pages. I’m also working on a mandala that I’m going to submit to a show out here and I’m a little nervous. This is a different market from Wisconsin! I’m learning about combining inks and acrylic paints and pens and gel pens with interesting, and sometimes smeary, results. The daffodils are from a napkin from a pot luck dinner I participated in at MUF (Morristown Unitarian Fellowship).

There is also a quote from The Buddha Walks Into a Bar by Lodro Rinzler.

“One way to think of this dignity is to equate when you are on the path with unraveling a ball of yarn. You have wound your sense of self so tightly that it’s hard to be anything other than you, a big ball of yarn. That’s just who you are, not string, or threads, but a ball of yarn.”

The thing about living with daily migraines is it has helped me see the threads in myself, not just the ball of yarn. Don’t know if that will mean anything to you, but it gets me through a lot of my days.

Oh! And I have Zentangle® classes scheduled to teach! And my professional art website is getting going! Check it all out here!

I hope you have a beautiful day.

 

Circles of Compassion and Mandala 35

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acrylic paintings, Albert Einstein, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, compassion, gratitude, gratitude journal, quote, Theology, Unitarian

Here is my gratitude journal entry for the recent past. It includes my new dahlia stencil and circles cut from paintings my boys did in preschool. My husband has a hard time parting with memorabilia and this is one compromise that helps. Plus I really love how the colors and textures of their uninhibited painting come together. I had attached the circles from their art before I found the quote that is written on this page.

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
― Albert Einstein

I’m taking a class at my Unitarian Universalist Church called Building Your Own Theology and it is an exploration of what I believe. Part of our homework this week was to find a quote about human nature that resonated for us.This one really works for me.

I finished a new coloring page this week also. It is available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

Mandala 33 and Valentine’s Day

Tags

100 Mandalas, art journal, gratitude, gratitude journal, Mandala

The still life was started as a project from The Creative Edge by Mary Todd Beam. However, I had to turn the book to the library after drawing an imagined still life and covering it with a gel medium. It was interesting to see how the paint worked on top of the medium, but I don’t remember what was really supposed to happen. Still lifes aren’t really my thing, but I wanted to try this process and it made an interesting journal page. I’m not doing a great job of journaling these days. You can see this 2 page layout covers February 5-14! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. Mine was nice. My husband and I both prefer discount Valentine’s candy for our anniversary on February 26th! The red and white paper hearts came from the envelope of the card that my mother in law sent for Valentine’s Day. She is so good about sending thoughtful things for holidays. I texted both of my boys to wish them a happy day!

Mandala 33 was an experiment with colors. I used my Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Artists’ Crayons, Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and Ranger Distress Markers to color in the various layers of the color wheel. It was a good activity to compare the variety of colors and how they blend. I wasn’t super patient about letting things dry so some unplanned mixing happened, too. I’m enjoying this new gratitude journal. The paper is fun to play on and it can get really wet and still hold up nicely.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

 

Community Mandala Prototype

Tags

100 Mandalas, Altered books, collage, community mandala, Gessobord, gratitude, paper collage, torus mandala

I’m coordinating a community mandala project at my new church this Sunday and I’m a little nervous. The mandala will be 36″ x 36″ and I have never made one this big. Here is the prototype.

You can see my boys and my cats peeking out of it. My husband is implied with so many of the meaningful papers. A lot more people and ideas that are important to me are incorporated into this mandala of me. It includes fabric and lots of ephemera. This is my first one on Ampersand Gessobord and I love it! The Gessobord is covered with pages from my Pilgrim’s Progress from 1877. My mother-in-law gave it to me and I’m not sure she believed me when I said it is one of my favorite gifts of all time! This is mandala #32 of 100.

Gratitude Journal and Mandalas

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100 Mandalas, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, dictionary page, dictionary page art, flowers, Gratitiude journal, gratitude, leaves, Mandala

Last week I didn’t make a gratitude journal post so this week you get 3 pages and some mandalas that I’m selling on Etsy! There is a lot of good in this scary world, even now.

I got some Caran d’Ache Neocolor II artist crayons and played with mixing them and adding water for these flowers on a black gesso background. I didn’t paint the flowers on the gesso, I left white flower shaped spaces on the page. Then I played with different white tools for drawing lines on the black. The little mandala/lotus flower was practice for a mandala that is now for sale on Etsy.

The torus mandala on the right hand page is a mock up for a community mandala I hope to do at my church. I’m really excited about it. The left hand page is an experiment that didn’t go very well. I’m still sorting through lots of boxes of stuff from the move and I came across a really old silk scarf and I thought it would be cool/interesting to put it in my art journal. It made it really difficult to write on the page and it disintegrated more when I put it on with acrylic matte medium. So I added some more acrylic paint and used paint to write on it – still a little messy. I have noticed that I’m using more black in my journal. I do like the contrast it provides, but it also reflects the darkness I’m feeling these days.

I posted this mandala on Etsy for $60.

I’m going to post this mandala on Esty for $20.

Still We Rise

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100 Mandalas, acrylic paint, art, art journal, flowers, gratitude, gratitude journal, I Rise, mandalas, Maya Angelou, Poems, quotes

My new gratitude art journal is my first mixed media sketchbook!

I can journal for quite a few days and really play with things with this book. This page layout was from the past week and culminated in the Women’s March. I didn’t make it to Washington, DC, but I did go to Trenton NJ. It was a really uplifting day. Yesterday I taught part 1 of a mandala drawing class at my Unitarian Universalist Church. I donated the class for their annual service auction. The people who made it were really happy with part 1 and I’m looking forward to part 2 next Sunday. You will see some of my samples in this journal.

Here is my sample free-hand mandala and some very free for all art journal play. I’m going backwards chronologically so here is the beginning of the gratitude journal.

I got some new art supplies that are used in these pages and am playing with lots of flower images. I’m kind of doing a 100 flowers challenge as well as the 100 mandala challenge. I have really enjoyed doing a lot of mandalas as samples for the class. It gets me working in different ways. Another focus for the new year is to get a new blog for just my art and beef up my Etsy site.

The right hand page of the top image has much of the Maya Angelou poem, “Still I Rise” written out. It really captures the spirit of the march and was part of our minister’s sermon yesterday. I’m so grateful for the legacy of Maya Angelou. Here is the poem in its entireity.

Still I rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou

I hope you encountered beauty today.

Return to Gratitude and Art Journaling

Tags

acrylic paint, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, art therapy, gratitude, inspiration

I’m doing oversized index cards as (one of) my art journaling outlets to share with the art therapist I am seeing. I have been doing this since mid-December so I’m way behind in blogging about art journaling. This may look familiar. I had another one that was part of the holiday card development, but I didn’t photograph it. The journaling part is on the other side of the index card, so that is a different way of doing this. I struggle with anxiety and depression and the holidays are difficult for me so some privacy with my journaling was nice. I have had a variety of therapists in the past, most of whom have been extremely helpful with the challenges I have faced. But working with an art therapist is so exciting! I look forward to my appointments in a new way and feel more connected to my art process. I highly recommend it to anyone!

Here is what else I’ve been up to and each one is influenced by the many art projects I have going right now. You will see more as I finish things, I promise!

Influenced by my acrylic painting classes. (above) Playing with acrylic paints influenced by The Creative Edge by Mary Todd Beam. (below)

Happy new year

I have a mixed media notebook that I’m using to art journal everyday and I will be sharing that soon!

Let’s make something beautiful!

Variety of Art Completed (mostly)

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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.