Tag Archives: quotes

Mandala 34 and Jung on Mandalas

20 Monday Feb 2017

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jungs-mandala-quote

The quote from the 18th isn’t super legible but it says,

“I saw that everything, all paths I had been following, all steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point – namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation…” C.G. Jung

I have lots of pink on these pages because I’m knitting 2 chemo caps for good friends who are currently fighting breast cancer. Neither one of them is into pink at all, but I have it here for them where it won’t bother them.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

Still We Rise

23 Monday Jan 2017

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

i-rise

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.

freehand-mandala-and-free-play

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.

new-beginning

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.

We Shall Overcome. Someday

10 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by in Quotes, social justice

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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.

Gratitude and a Grid

21 Friday Oct 2016

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maine-grid

This journal page layout is kind of a mish-mash of the last week. It includes bits of maps from our trip to Maine, my scratch sheet from my Mandalafest 2016 coloring page, a couple of quotes that came up during the week, and a phrase from a motivational poster I made for my younger son. I added the blue and green grid because I’m loving grids these days! It was painted with my Pelikan watercolors.

The quotes aren’t particularly legible so I combined them with some photos from Ogunquit.

flowers-and-ogunquit-with-conrad-pope-quote

ogunquit-with-dalai-lama-contentment-quote

Under Hope’s Roof

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Gratitude journal, Quotes

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rainbow and circles 001

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under it’s roof.” Barbara Kingsolver

Right now I’m hoping that my husband gets the job he is interviewing for in New Jersey. And I’m also hoping that tomorrow will have a positive impact on my health. I pick up my CPAP machine and have Botox injections for my migraines. I know the injections help. I hope that I am also able to get a good night sleep and maybe get my energy back. In the meantime I hope to make my life and the lives of others more peaceful and beautiful. I also hope you enjoy this gratitude journal page spread that incorporates a lot of different artistic inspirations.

What do you hope for?

Stars Above

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Gratitude journal, Journal 52, Mandala

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starry night 001

The Journal 52 Prompt for this week inspired me to finally make a luminous mandala. The painting page that I made at the painting party last Saturday reminds me of the Northern Lights. Jounaling on it with white pen added to the effect. I layered the Van Gogh quote in Digital Image.