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lunanista

~ Standing up for sanity (mine anyway) through art and humor.

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Tag Archives: meditation

Zen Tangled Mandala

20 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Mandala

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

100 Mandalas, art, Diva Challenge, meditation, Zendala, zentangle, ZIA

dsc_1109

The Diva’s Zentangle challenge for this week is “Relax, bro.” That was just what I needed today after a quick trip to Michigan to see my son and my husband’s parents. We got back late last night and after cleaning and unpacking it was time for some artful meditation. Drawing circles is one of my favorite meditations. I listen to Ohm chanting on YouTube and breathe and draw.

Unfortunately after all those little circles my eyes were not feeling particularly happy so I made a copy on regular paper that was 200% bigger and colored it in leisurely. I think it turned out as fun as it was to create!

dsc_1107

Check out some more meditation art at

iamthedivaczt

Two blog posts in one day. I’m really grateful for that! Oh, and this is Mandala 16 of 100.

Elements of Yoga Retreat

30 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal, Journal 52

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

100 Mandalas, acrylic paint, art journal, Buddhist art, Diva Challenge, joy, lettering, meditation, Tibetan Art, watercolor, yoga, zentangle

yoga joy

Joy is the most important element of yoga to me. My yoga teacher is a proponent of feeling joy in the poses or modifying them to meet your needs. This is just the right fit for me. We did a lot of yoga in 2 days and I really loved it. I had to sit out part of a standing mediation that triggered my migraine, but that was after a lot of really excellent practice. We did lots of Sun Salutations as the sun sparkled on Green Bay. We did circle balance poses that are so beautiful and exhilarating. As we rested on our right side at one point the beauty of another yogini’s feet with the sunshine and shadows was so beautiful I wished I could stop to draw them or take a photograph. Oh, and we ate! Yummy and healthy foods. We started our days with silence and ended with talking and laughter. It was so good to see old friends and make new ones.

elements of yoga retreat

The Journal 52 prompt for this week is Elements. That made me think of the Tibetan Buddhist styles of representing the elements in art. As I was drawing them, I realized that each one corresponded with an element of yoga.

Air – clouds –  breathing

Water – the waves of Lake Michigan and Green Bay – and flow

Earth – rocks – grounding, finding my foundation

Fire – flames – generating some heat!

The mandala on this page is inspired by the shirt of one of my new friends at the retreat.

yoga fabric red

I was also inspired by the Diva’s challenge to use the tangle pattern Tipple as the background for my “joy” page. It provides just the effervescence I was looking for! To see other interpretations of her challenge check out her Diva Challenge.

iamthedivaczt

Have a beautiful day!

Mandala Coloring Pages!

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Mandalas

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

100 Mandalas, Color, coloring, Mandala, meditation

The 100 Mandalas Coloring Book is now available! You can get it for free on Kathryn Costa‘s True North Arts Website. If you are feeling stressed out I recommend checking out this coloring book. You can print it on the paper of your choice, so if you want to color it in with watercolors, like I did this one

painted celtic knot mandala

print it on watercolor paper. If you want to color it in with markers or colored pencil you can print it on whatever paper you have available. I prefer to color on archival quality paper so that anything that turns out well is a work of art that will last for my lifetime and I can frame it and put it one the wall or give it away.

100Mandalas-150

Not Enlightment, but Delight

12 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal, Mandala

≈ 2 Comments

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. liberating prayer 4 limitless qualities karma mandala

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.

Reflection and Retreat: Top 10 Art Journal Pages of 2014

21 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

altered art, art, art journal, collage, flowers, gratitude, illustration, Journal, lettering, meditation, quotes, reflection, watercolor, zentangle

On this darkest day of the year I want to wish you all a happy solstice. I will be starting the new year with a mediation retreat and will be entering into noble silence. I have decided I will not be blogging between now and January 10th. So I wish you all happy holidays and happy new year.

I have taken some time to reflect on the past year of my gratitude journal and would like to share my top 10(ish) pages/page spreads with you. I really enjoyed looking through all the art I have created within the last year, particularly because one of my big intentions for this year was:

make good art

I feel like I have been true to that intention to the best of my ability. Here are my favorite art journal pages either because of content, execution, or a combination of both.

best we cam0001

birds in march 1 journal

journal and still I rise

something I can do journal0001

october workshop page

resentment meditationjournal0001

I look forward to our continued journey in 2015. I have so much to be grateful for and I thank you for joining me.

First World Problems, Snow, and Soup

22 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art journal, collage, first world problems, gratitude, gratitude journal, meditation, snow, soup

first world problems So the other day when it was 6 degrees Farenheit (-14 C) my garage door got a little bucky with the cold and I had to take off my seat belt, get out of the car, and manually close my garage door. As I took my son to school I started to laugh  at myself with him for my irritation (remember my post to always meditate on whatever provokes resentment – here it is in action). Anyway, I started to count my blessings and you can see them here on this warm sunny page. Karla and BDAO river of thoughts soup and snow

The rest of this week has gone well with good food, conversation, and a good furnace! brrrrr

Meditation on Resentment & a Cure for Loneliness

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

altered art, art journal, atisha, collage, gratitude, loneliness, meditation, resentment

vonnegut quote and thx tangle resentment meditation

DIY Yoga Stencils, Fall Foliage, and 8 Breaths

02 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal

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Tags

Altered book, art journal, Dharma, fall, gratitude, gratitude journal, meditation, photography, yoga

yoga stencils

I finally made a few yoga stencils from my photographs of my lovely yoga teacher. The facing page is a remnant from a wallpaper sample my mom and I played with when making a photo collage earlier this week. I have also started another  Zentangle Inspired Art piece inspired by the lovely Helen. Included here is a portion of my sketch for that piece.

fall colors and fun
Fall in Wisconsin makes taking photographs so fun and easy. I love walking through the crisp air and listening to the leaves crunch under my feet. Now that I have an iPhone I always have a camera with me, too! These morning fog on the river photos were taken with my iPhone.

at play practice
I have returned to my Dharma teachings class on Tuesdays. It is so healing for me. The Venerable Chodun taught us about the 8 breaths mediation and I have been practicing them every day. I have been working on letting some difficult feelings go because they really have a negative impact on my health and well-being. This 8 breath practice has been so helpful. On the right hand is my husband walking right through all those balloons I am letting go. He has been my hero this week. For this, and for so many other things, I am grateful.

Lunanista – Virtual Blog Tour

08 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

art journal, blog tour, gratitude, illustration, meditation, migraine, photography, watercolor

This Virtual Blog Tour was inspired by Sue Jones at It Goes On. I’m a little nervous and excited by this opportunity to share my creative process.

What am I working on?

My two big intentions for 2014 are contentment and to make good art. I’m really trying to have everything I am working on have those goals in mind.

My gratitude art journals are always a work in progress and usually don’t feel like work as much as they are part of how I move through my days. I enjoy focusing on specific artistic skills and techniques and stretching my limits in my journals. Now I am also working on larger collages that have grown out of my art journals. I have done a few drafts of an abstract garden color meditation collage that is coming along nicely. The sketches were in watercolor and acrylics with different cut paper flowers. For the final collage I am making individual flowers in different media and attaching them to a painted canvas. I posted part of the work in progress, some blue Zentangle on paper flowers.

I am also playing around with different ideas of art to abandon and considering different challenges for Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. However, I have decided that these are not my highest priority right now. I get easily sidetracked from completing big projects so I’m going to use these as incentives as I finish bigger projects.

Speaking of big projects, I have been working on transforming an extra bedroom that we have been using as a storage room into a studio. This is a really big project. I want to get my dining room back and I think that having a dedicated studio space will really help me see and finish my big projects. However, I have to pace myself and many days it is a choice between making art and working on the studio. I guess I’m waiting to have a creative block to get going on the studio. No, actually, I have days when I feel energetic and I can make some progress in there.

Cereal box installation. What, you may be asking yourself, is a cereal box installation? Well, you will have to wait and see, but I’m really excited. Environmentalism and contentment are part of the driving forces behind the idea for this. At this point I will tell you that, for now, I’m mostly collecting cereal boxes in my “studio” and that is not helping with the cleaning/organizing in there.

How does my work differ from others of my genre?

I guess my genre is art journals and that covers a lot of territory. I am inspired by many of the art journal artists out there. I most certainly am not the only altered book art journal artist, but I do seem to be the only one with the focus on gratitude that I have. I think the story behind how I came back into doing art full time may be what sets my work apart.

Some of you know that I have had really chronic migraines for the last 3-4 years. By really chronic, I mean that I cannot remember the last time I did not have a migraine. I have been keeping a pain record journal for the last 3 years or so and it was when I started that journal that I realized that my migraine never really went away. I have other pain problems, too so it has been a little complicated. What this level of migraine means is that I spend a lot of time laying quietly in a dark room doing (almost) nothing seemingly for days and weeks on end. I practiced gratitude daily long before the migraines and it has helped me through more than one of these long quiet days. Do you know what happens when you give your mind that kind of space? You notice things. Some days I’m grateful for the lyrics to a song and the cat lying on my pillow. Some days I spend an hour or more doing loving kindness meditation to pray for freedom from pain for my future self and every being on Earth. Sometimes I lay there and think about the fact that people are doing metta (loving-kindness) meditation for me and praying for me. Do you want to know the really wild part of this? I actually worked as a school psychologist part time until last October with the full time migraine. I’m not sure how I did that. I know it didn’t leave much left over to be a mother or wife and it led me to a life with pain levels of 6 and higher almost all the time. By that point I was working maybe one or two days a week and spending most of the rest of the week in bed. I had started my blog and gratitude art journal by then. I am happy with the work I did, but it was generally much simpler than what I do now and I didn’t post as often to my blog either.

The migraine has had vision implications at times and always has stamina limitations. These have had an impact on the ways I can express myself with art. Art journaling is the perfect venue for expressing art within varying constraints! It is really difficult to paint with watercolors or acrylics in 10-15 minute increments. However, Zentangles are perfect for short periods of work. I am getting to the point where I can work on multiples of something, such as prepping canvases and journal pages and getting into more watercolor and acrylic painting. A lot of the time now I will start something with paint and then embellish it with Zentangles. A photograph is something I can manage on even my worst days, or gluing some text from a magazine, or writing out a word or two.

Why do I write/create what I do?

I started to really enjoy exploring new avenues of creativity while I spent hours being quiet and trying to think of something other than pain. Like I said, I have been practicing gratitude in one way or another for many years and I am so grateful for the joy and satisfaction that working in my journals has brought to me. The fact that anyone else is interested has been such a wonderful bonus.

How does your writing/creating process work?

As I go through the day I notice things that I am grateful for. I have developed metaphors for many people and activities in my life that are frequently included in my journals. Some examples from this week’s post include the use of pages from my father’s hymnal and old magazine clippings that my great aunt collected as a metaphor for my mother.

wisdom teeth removed safely

 

salsa and community

Usually when images are cut up, as in Saturday’s entry, it represents some kind of related work I was able to do. I like to use images of cut up food for time spent happily cooking. I like to represent organizing stuff with orderly rows of circles or squares with different design elements in them. I have to say that I was so happy with the way the photos of our latest CSA bounty turned out. It was fun to cut up the ingredients to make the salsa with the food processor and then with the scissors. Some days I also want to use specific art supplies to prepare for a workshop. Tonight I’m teaching a back-to-school gratitude/art journal workshop with mostly Crayola supplies. This watercolor was done with crayons and pan watercolors available for less than $5.

So some days the things I’m grateful for determine the media and the process and sometimes it is the other way around. I have to admit that I am also addicted to books and videos about how to do different things. At any given time I have 20-30 things checked out from the library and that may determine how I express my gratitude on a given day. If a book is due that day I may add it to my reference page to use a technique I don’t yet have the materials and/or stamina for yet or I may jump right in and try something from the book and mention it in my blog.

And some days I’m not up to much of anything so I lay in bed and make a few notes in my pain journal to use as reference. Those days usually end up being pretty simple pages. I may focus on a word or person or my cats or all of the above. There are so many things that I am grateful for everyday, even my really bad days. I have made stencils to represent my husband, son, and cats. I have a stash of photos that represent different friends. I have started to collect washi tape and special papers that reminds me of individuals.

My photography has generally been used to support my children’s scrapbooks, my journals, cards, and as reference for my artwork. However, I bought a really nice camera a few years ago for a vacation to Italy and I have been getting into photography more and more as an end in itself. As I mentioned before, I have also developed a stash of photos that act as metaphors for different people and activities. My friend Dawn is such a morning person and I have a photo of the sunrise over Lake Michigan that is so her.

As I have been blogging longer and reading other people’s blogs more, I have been writing more and sharing more of who I am. This post has been the biggest share of all time for me and I hope you have enjoyed it. I am looking forward to learning more about the creative process of 2 fabulous writers I follow Lora and Ellisnelson.

Peace Now

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by Jeanette Clawson in Gratitude journal

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

altered art, art, art journal, balance, collage, gratitude, Journal, meditation, Peace, yoga

I have been out in the world having adventures and have gotten way behind on posting! Please forgive me. Before we left for our adventures I was going to post a few pages but our internet access was unavailable. I had been listening to more Jack Kornfield meditations and the line that really resonated with me is “What would you have to let go of to be at peace right now?”

  peace right now

Here is the page for another gratitude workshop. I have started to make up a stencil and some coordinating papers or other related items to give out at each workshop as a door prize. I’m having fun with it. Next month’s workshop will be using back to school supplies in fun and creative ways with some school supplies as door prizes.

make art everyday

Here is the Thursday before the trip (see the “balance effort and ease” as our yoga class intention) and it included a lot of packing and other preparations. As in the yoga intention, I have to be careful to balance effort and ease with travel and travel preparation so as not to exacerbate my migraines. Having Joanne Sharpe’s Whimsical Letting book provided some lovely moments of ease. I also included the first day of our trip on this page. We started listening to the audiobook of Bill Bryson’s Walk in the Woods. What a great way to start our adventure!

packing and setting out

I did sporadic journaling on the trip and I have a lot of components that I need to bring together. I hope to update you on the trip soon!

Today I will let go of too many things on my to do list so that I can find peace. I will make time for meditation after putting a load of laundry in the washer. How can you find peace today?

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