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?

 

Postal Inspiration

Tags

Altered book, Anais Nin, Anne Lamott, art journal, gratitude, gratitude journal, handmade books, Mae West, mail art, quotes, Virginia Wolff, Washi tape

My vision problems have come back so I haven’t been able to do a lot of art the last few weeks. But I have been getting lots of inspiration. Last week I got a parcel in the mail from a new friend I made at the yoga retreat. It was some really interesting handmade books by an artist she knew. They were wrapped so beautifully, too.

In an odd example of synchronicity the Journal 52 prompt for last week was Mail Art. So I used the wrappings and various used postage stamps to create the following gratitude journal entry.

All of the handmade books included quotes so I typed up a few on my label maker to add to the pages.

“I used to be snow white, but I drifted.” Mae West

“I read the book of Job last night. I don’t think God comes out well in it.” Virginia Wolff

“A hundred years from now? All new people!” Anne Lamott

“Then the time came when the risk it took to remain tight as a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anais Nin

“If you have knowledge let others light their candles on it.” Margaret Fuller

“It’s the good girls who keep the diaries, the bad girls never have the time.” Tallulah Bankhead

I hope you have a beautiful day!

Observations and Intentions

Tags

100 Mandalas, altered art book, art journal, gratitude, Washi tape

The Journal 52 prompt for last week was Observations. My gratitude journal is intended to focus my observations on positive things in my life and I include them in my journal in words and/or images. Framing them with washi tape makes it so much fun. My morning mandala practice fell quickly to the wayside while I was not feeling well. However, this cold and damp Monday morning led me to introspection and a return to the practice. I started a morning mandala last week with a little bit of Spirograph and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I did do some intermittent morning introspection and intention setting some days and I included my mandala work from the last 2 weeks or so. The little colored ones are from my color theory study that I have been working on. I plan to do a post of the whole bunch when I’m done with them. I have a busy day today so I need to get going. I hope you have a beautiful day. Thanks for stopping by.

Zentangle challenge Charlie

Tags

art journal, collage, contentment, gratitude, gratitude journal, Washi tape, watercolors

I did my Zentangle challenge #157 right in my gratitude journal yesterday and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Check out the Diva at

I’m trying to play with my Crayola watercolors everyday this week to push myself a little with this medium. I’m quite happy how this came out. Part of the inspiration for this came from the book Zentangle Untangled, that I am adding to my reference and recommendations area. Today I did play with my watercolors, but then I really went to town with the Washi tape. My mantra for this year is Contentment, just as I am, I already have everything I need. So the question is, will I resist the lure of more Washi tape? Stay tuned…

I have been teaching a lot. Last Saturday was a collage workshop and here is my sample collage. The next page is from Monday’s Gratitude Workshop. We played with matte medium and photos. One of the participants got some Tombow pens and let us all play with them – one of the perks of the workshop!

My son and his friends did such a great job with this play. It is so serious and they really demonstrated some maturity with their performances. This miscellaneous page was part of the collage demonstration. The meatloaf picture is from a vintage magazine advertisement that one of the participants decided to use in her fabulous collage. I have another collage workshop on March 22 – we will incorporate photocopies of photographs on transparencies that we will then paint. So much fun and creativity – I am so blessed.