A thought for today from Mary Oliver

I want to think again of 

dangerous and noble things,

I want to be light and frolicsome

I want to be improbable and beautiful 

and afraid of nothing

as though I had WINGS

Mary Oliver

Tree of Life Mandala Completed

It has been almost a month since I last posted anything here.  I've been busy, playing around with making paper dolls, cutting out images from magazines for my SoulCollage® workshops, experimenting with more CitraSolv backgrounds, and finishing this mandala...among many other pursuits.  

                                                                  Tree of Life Mandala

I struggled with this mandala quite a bit, as I worked on it,  feeling that the sun color wa too dominant....and at times wishing I had just left the drawing in black and white, or at least left more black in the drawing. But Patricia suggested I bring more of the orange of the sun into other parts of the image and in so doing I finally came to resolution with it. Unfortunately, none of the other participants from the Fall Mandala Retreat, sent me any images, so I am posting this alone.

By the way, we are doing a Gratitude Mandala Workshop on Novemeber 12th in Santa Rosa, if you are in the area and are intrigued with this wonderful art process.  Contact the Journey Center for more info.

Paper Dolls anyone????

While I am at it, I mentioned that I had been playing with making some paper dolls.  I do art mentoring with several little girls and since I planned a paper doll lesson, I pulled out some color copies of my art and turned them into my own version of paper dolls...just for the fun of it and as examples of paper doll possibilities.  The little girl I work with, of course took off on her own unique way of  expression, but I had some examples of my own to share with her.  Talk about fun.  Here are the ones that I did, all in differing stages of becoming complete.

 This one is not complete yet, and her face is collaged from a photograph of me as as little girl.

Again, all are still on process. It is so fun to do this and it made me remember how much time I loved to spend cutting out paper dolls when I was a little girl.  No wonder I love collage so much.

One final thing... here is a link to a clip from a movie called "Praying with Images"
about the art and life of  the amazing artist Meinheid Craighead.     .Praying With Images
If you don't know here work, this will be a epiphany for you.  Enjoy... Until next time. Ciao