Spirit Doll Making Day @ my Studio

Yesterday I facilitated a day of creating Spirit Dolls at my studio.  I have been gathering with some old friends, colleagues from my days of teaching at the J.C every 4 months or so and leading art making days.  This time we created spirit dolls, using pre made stuffed muslin dolls, and transforming them into Spirit Dolls, with each individual letting a guide of some sort come through in the process. It was an engaging and fun day of expressive art making.  Again and again this brings me to the thought of somehow finding a way to focus on promoting Expressive Art Making Party Days for groups of women and their friends and families.  Here are some photos of the process and dolls that emerged.

After  molding and shaping faces out of sculpey, and putting them in the toaster over to bake, everyone began to focus on decorating their doll bodies.  
Some people painted the forms with watercolors or fabric paint, while others decorated the bodies with marker pens.  

When the faces were cool, they were painted as well as had hair or head pieces created for them.

Then  we were on to clothing them, as well as giving them chakras and any other healing attributes that added to their energy, and popped up out of the imagination.

They continued to evolve over the course of the day as each person played with the possibilities.  The imaginal world was in full bloom as each person's inner child had a field day with the doll making process.

This dolls carries a mask with it, to take on or put off as needed.

Tana's magical inner guide.

Gail created two dolls to give to her granddaughter Raven who is in the hospital with a serious health condition.  Although she had to leave early with her other grandbaby Katie, she is well on her way to completing the dolls, with the small one done, representing Katie and the large one' who will be Raven, having her face molded and ready to be added to the larger doll.  They will be given to Raven so she can play with and hold her baby sister while in the hospital, to keep her company and be a source of comfort as she continues her challenging health procedures.

I am so happy to have been able to facilitate this process for her and her dear grand mother and my friend Gail.

This day made me want to do this more often, what a magical, healing and playful day of artmaking.

Two more Encautics in my Bella Italia series - In Process

Here are two more new encaustics that I worked on yesterday for my Festa Italiana series...Bella Italia.    I plan on having a series of these to take to a big Italian Cultural Arts Fair that I will be selling jewelry at on Oct. 11th.  

Whether they are complete is the question, the first one is a photo transfer from an earlier mixed media encaustic that I did several years ago.  I plan on clarifying this one a bit and perhaps adding something on the right side.  We shall see.  Sometimes the dreamy quality of photo transfer adds to a piece other times it leaves something lacking. Which is it?...




This doorway was a bit more evocative in the original photo, but I still love it. I again am not sure where to go with it and if it needs something more or to be changed.

The good thing is that  I am back in the studio playing, and exploring with the hot wax.  Now that the weather has cooled quite a bit  here in Northern California, it is much more appealing to crank up the hot plates and heat gun.  

Since I am planning another Encaustic Class for the begining of November, getting back into the swing of things is good.  It seems I often need an external goal to get me moving, so at least I am moving forward.. More to come I am sure.  Perhaps one of these days I will show some of my jewelry here as well.  I have been making jewelry for years and years, having done Craft Fairs for ever.  I only start making jewelry these days close to the holiday season, since earrings always sell no matter what the economy.  Doing a fair is something I haven't done for a long long time, but since I was laid off from my faculty position last December I am revisiting it again.  The Italian Festa is a fun event, many Italians, which reminds me of my family, lots of good food...and it is short and sweet...11-6, is also a plus...not alot of hours to sit.

If you are in Santa Rosa on Sunday Oct. 11th, come on by to Festa Italiana at the Veterans Building and check it out!

Encaustic- Back in the Studio on a Hot day....yay

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6"x6" on cradled clay hardboard

Here are two new encaustics that I did in the past two days....It was hot in the studio, but I was happy to finally get in there and crank up the hot wax and hot plate.  I am selling my jewelry at an Italian Festa on Oct. 11th and decided to do a few encaustics that somehow related to my Italian, sicilian heritage.

The Mandonna encaustic is from a photo I took in Sicily outside my zia Dora's house.  It was built into the stucco wall in the back yard.  These little nichio's or altare's are hidden in many backyards all over Sicily.  I wish I would have taken more photos of them when I was there.  Maybe next time..( hopefully) 

I loved the photo but never knew what to do with it.  I this piece is another addition to my nichio, madonna, goddess series.  The Sun is just a lovely old middle ages etching that I photo transfered onto an encaustic background.  I plan on writing Buon Giornio on it with carbon paper or?? not sure yet.  I have to say that I was excited to get back to my wax work after just not being motivated for quite a while.  I think its the fall that gets me going.   Blue and orange are colors that keep calling me these days.  I put beeswax on about 4 more small masonite panels as well, so we shall see where I go next with my Italia series.  Horray... I am having waxy joy buildup!

Intention - Affirmation Cards...

Intention- noun:  a thing intended; an aim or plan : she was full of good intentions • the action or fact of intending :  have (a course of action) as one's purpose or objecin\

• ( one's intentions) a person's designs,  plan that (something) function in a particular way :

2 Medicine the healing process of a wound. 

3design or destine (someone or something) for a particular purpose or end :

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French entencion, from Latin intentio(n-) ‘stretching, purpose,’ from intendere (see intend ).

While I was visiting in Mt. Shasta, I brought with me supplies to create more intention cards. 
I shared the process with my friends and once they started they couldn't stop making them. 
 Judy was up all night for 2 nights in a row, it was as if a storm of creativity broke free in her after being bottled up for years.  


So I am including some of the cards made by both my friends, Vicki and Judy as well as  some created by me, and a few  other's created in another seasonal women's art group.  


I love witnessing how this simple process allows one to be free and say what needs to be expressed in a visual way.


Perhaps it is the small format, or the freedom of collage that allows one's inner guidance to come through.


                                             Each card is both beautiful and evocative.





  This is just a sampling of the images that emerged.  I love this process and keep adding to my stack of cards as well.  With all the best intentions...!!!

Views from Mt. Shasta

After a bit of a hiatus from my life, artmaking and writing on this blog , a trip to Mt. Shasta and getting a bit sick to say the least, I am posting some photos of Mt. Shasta., and my friends property Tara's Retreat Center.  

HARVESTING OUR BLESSINGS - MANDALA completed...

I have finally completed my mandala that I began at the Summer Solstice workshop.  It has become something else altogether, and really speaks of opening to the blessings of life as well as offering blessings for the earth.  I wonder what others might think it alludes to.  If you have any thoughts and want to share your sense of this mandala, please let me know.  

It is interesting that now that it is complete it is also time to focus on promoting the Fall Harvest Mandala workshop that Patricia and I are doing on September 20, th. .  After searching all over Sonoma County for the perfect, charming country retreat space, we have decided to offer it at my studio, and harvest the blessings of the space once again.  

We were seeking another space because we wanted a large enough space for 20 people, but realize that my space will work with 12-14 at the max...including the two of us, so until another space presents itself, we will have to limit how many people can attend.  Please get in touch if you are in the Northern California area and want to attend.  Or for that matter if you live in Sonoma County and know of a reasonably priced, art workshop space with good lighting, in a lovely environment, also let me know.  Ask and ye shall receive.  

Compassionate Peace Mandala Workshop

This weekend I attended a Compassionate Peace Mandala painting workshop, led by Lama Prema Tenzin.  It was a lovely, deepening experience in the process of creating mandalas.  Lama Prema is a national treasure from Bhutan, where he has been studying the creation of mandala's since the age of 6 years old.  He is a master Mandala  and Thangka painter, as well as sand mandala's, stuppa's  and prayer wheels.  I was honored to be a participant in this day long experience.  

Lama Prema Tenzin in standing in front of one of the thangka's that he has painted.


Here is a photo of his students in Bhutan learning the process of  thangka painting.
Here other students  are painting a large mandala.
This is the painting of the Compassionate Peace Mandala that we created smaller, condensed versions of in the workshop.  It took him three months to paint this mandala.  The colors are exquisite. All the symbols are very specific as well as the colors and placement of the symbols. 
Here is the beginning of my mandala in pencil
After the whole structure of the mandal was complete we went over it in fine line black pen.
The painting not quite complete.
Here is the  completed mandala. that I did.   The process was very slow, and deeply moving.  Having the structure already prescribed, made the experience mindless, and the day moved both quickly and slowly, as each person was lost in the process of moving from outer to inner, inner to outer and then painting each shape in a prescribed manner step by step.   I truely loved the experience and opportunity.  I hope to study with him again as he offers another workshop in another mandala later in the fall.  This has inspired me to go back to the mandala I started at the summer solstice and complete it.  What a lovely, experience and an honor to be with his energy and way of sharing.