Buon Anno! Happy New Year!

"I  am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with my whole heart!" ~ Van Gogh

As  we begin the new year, I find myself sorting, organizing and cleaning my studio.  This process allows me to put in order, make sense, review, envision, compile, release and play with what is available to me creatively.  I have such abundance available to my creative self, as an art facilitator I have an abundance of supplies, gadgets, art materials, papers and paints for people to experiment, explore and play with creatively.  So this is my legacy for others and my inner child.  


Yesterday I dropped  a box of wonderful collage images, and since they were all disheveled and bent after falling and being picked up, I began to sort them according to color themes.  Several years ago I was gifted by an ex student, who was a collage artist, Gloria Zuppa,  of all her collage materials, since she was experiencing health difficulties that made her decide to let go of  her collage supplies.  She thought that I would be the one person who could share these wonderful images with many other people. Whenever I go through the images I am dumbfounded, struck by the wealth of imagery she gifted me, and hence others with.  The patience, time and care that went into cutting and choosing them, is mind boggling.  So this is a heartfelt thanks to Gloria, and her creative gift.

“I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy.”

Anais Nin

My inner child delights in the gift as well, as I continue to use many of the images in my own artmaking.  What a delight.  

So today, I have invited a few of my women friends over to spend the afternoon making art around the new year...to play, experiment, setting intentions, work on something in process or just visit.  I get to share my art supplies, spend time with my friends, as well as do art in community.  All of these things delight and nurture my inner child, which is one of my intentions for the new year.

May all your days be filled with joy and nurturance!

Happy New Year!

Buon Anno!

"The source and center 

of all man's creative power. . 

. is his power of making images, 

or the power of imagination.”

Albert Camus

Let Your Goodness Blossom

Its been quite a while since I have posted on here, being swept up in the polarities of this season.  Trying to find balance btween them and find the center  of my own sense of peace and good will.

I have been receiving some wonderful inspiration from Lynn Jericho's Inner Christma s guide and website.  If you to have been longing to find balance and equilibrium seasonal needs for spiritual fulfillment and the material too muchness of this time of year I recommend her work heartily.  She offers a free pdf on her website of her inner Christmas Guide.

"  Reflecting the natural world, the soul seasons transform at solstices and equinoxes.  The light and the dark aspect of our inner lives move from attention to ourselves as earthly beings to attention to ourselves as spirituals beings and returns.  In summertime's light and warmth, our souls embrace our intense perceptions of the world.  But in the dark cold silence of early winter, our souls turn inward seeking the Spirit."

Many blessings to all... follow your instincts for goodness, let the magic happen.  Happy Solstice.

Still Working on Gratitude

The day after Thanksgiving my Women's Art Medicine Group met and we created gratitude scrolls.  This is what I created.

I added this to my gratitude blessing book which is an ongoing process for me.  I fall out of it and then life situations remind me to remember what I am grateful for and that being in a state of gratefulness is a form of prayer for me.

I have to keep reminding my self that it is my choice to choose happiness over struggle, no matter what circumstances I find myself in.  So, as usual the art making process helps me to

find balance amid lifes varying changes.

Something about this process,  engaging in my own art making and then sharing it with the world,

 is an integral part of the creative process for me.

 I am grateful as well for this venue.

May happiness 

fill in the cracks that form in your life 

as winter time reflections 

bring melancholy.

Time to revisit Gratitude....If the only .....

" If the only prayer you said in your whole life  was, "thank you" that would suffice."

Meister Eickert

And so here are some of the things I am grateful for...taken from my ongoing Blessing Book, or gratitude collage book..

I am grateful for...

All the love in my Life

S0 very Grateful for

ART

Art is a blessing tome

my body and my life...

Happy Week of Gratitude...

Engaging Day Exploring Encaustic

The small group of women who came to my encaustic class last weekend, were totally engaged and lost in the process.

 I love it when participants explore process deeply without attachment to outcome,

just diving in and seeing what the media can accomplish.

This is what happened

 everyone meshed

 and that wonderful

creative buzz

of focused,

yet playful

energy

filled

the studio.

Reconfiguring my Studio ~ Encaustic Group on Saturday

Today is all about cleaning up and reconfiguring my studio, since I am facilitating an encaustic day on Saturday.  Pulling out all the mixed media supplies, checking to make sure I have enough medium made,

cleaning brushes and more.

I haven't taught an encaustic group since late spring, and I am excited to be doing this again.
It always gets me going on a new piece and as of late I have been not cranking up the hot plates and producing.  So sharing is a way of getting me motivated.

Although my encaustic supplies are not in disarry, I have tables to move, electric cords to plug in and I need to make sure my extra hotplates are in the right areas of the studio.  Often times all that electricity blows a fuse or two, so heat guns and hot plates need to be placed strategically around the studio.

So enough of me messing around on the computer, which I have been doing all morning.  I have been creating holiday cards from my art on my zazzle site ( check it out if you are interested)  ArteEclectica
Time to open up the door to my studio and get going.
I will post images from the workshop after the fact.   Ciao...

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

- Sir Francis Bacon

A Few More Dolls - And my Inner Child

In my Friday Medicine Art Group we started the process of making  Spirit Dolls.   Since we meet for 3 hours and quite a few people were out last Friday, only a few folks  began.  They are in process and have great potential brewing.  Here are a few photos of  several of the dolls in their beginning stages.

II

In the group two weeks before this one, ( we meet alternating Fridays), we created  images honoring our inner child...(inner creative beings, which led to us creating the dolls in the next meeting.

This is mixed media collage of my inner child.   She looks a little moody, and I realized that I was a rather introverted child, due to having many health issues in my childhood.
She loved to make paper dolls and little people out of all kinds of supplies, so doing doll making with others definitely in a healing, and joyous salve to my inner little girl.

She also loved to do art with others, parallel imaginative, play, and I am so blessed to still be able to do this.  I have created my life work out of the longings of my inner child.

Speaking of being with others and making art as well as pushing my creative limits.  This weekend I am going to the Mendocino Art Center to  take a class in " Creating Stunning Abstracts" along with my friend and fellow art therapist, and partner in the Creative Arts Studio , Patricia Waters.  This class and its teacher, Mira M.White , have come highly recommended.  I am looking forward to doing something very different  from my normal creative focus.

Mendocino is one of my favorite places to go, and taking a class at the art center is a wonderful experience.  I will post images from the class and my trip next time I get around to posting.  Happy Art Making!!!