What will you do with your one wild and precious life....Mary Oliver

 

Back in the Blogging World once again

After much more then several years, 2 knee replacements,  treatment for lymphoma...all of which occurred over 2 years ago, and now a major urban wildfire in my beloved Sonoma County, I am now coming  back to this blog.  

After the recent wildfire and being evacuated at 3:30 in the a.m, with flames shooting up into the sky in the hills behind my house, I got a horrible flu/ like cold.  I woke up one morning, vowing to start up this blog again.  So here I am.   

 My original focus when I started this  blog, was sharing the work and classes I did as an art therapist, instructor, creativity facilitator.  However, as I stopped this blog and time has passed, I have decided, even though I still teach and facilitate groups, to focus on my work as and artists here.

This year I turned 70, OMG, and realize if not now, when?  I am an artist and love making art.  I am obsessive about it do it all the time and what to make my living, or a good portion of it from my art, so it is time to come out of the teacher closet, and share it with others.  So that is what I am doing, here.  

All of these image are done with alcohol ink on tile and on glass.  I have fallen in love with the vibrancy of this media, its quick satisfaction and its expressive intense qualities.  

I have been doing this for about a year now, so I am sharing a few pieces as my  entry into the blog world once again.  

I am narrative in my work with alcohol ink and am always intrigued with the story that emerges out of my art.  My need to express myself quickly, loosely and playfully, while allowing what wants to emerge is greatly satisfied when doing these small pieces.  Also I am able to make a lot quickly, to sell at reasonable prices at shops and fairs for the holidays.  So here are some of what the ones I have been creating in the last month.  More to come, more to say.  Hello to whoever reads this and finds it of interest.  Stay safe, one never knows what comes next.  Caterina

So Muchness, time passes..shrines and on & on OH MY.

Has it been 8 months since I posted here?  Oh dear.  Best intentions and life has made this blog fall by the wayside, however I  continue to do, teach and facilitate art making in spite of life's ongoing challenges.

 I always like to share  so here are some photos from a Shrine Making workshop that I did in the summer.  So much fun!  So here's a bit of the process and some of the completed shrines.

 Matchbook shrines

cutting out & painting the templates 

 adding images and words

 Completed shrines

These were so much fun to do.  I hope to do this again come summer, you can never have too many shrines around.  

So perhaps the key to posting in this blog is to do it in small chunks, not too much, not to little.

More to come on lots of what I've been up to creatively.  Until next time.

"Creativity may be the nearest one-word definition we possess for the essence of our humanity, for the true meaning of "soul"."

Matthew Fox

Summer Solstice Mandala Drawing Day...

I am so remiss in posting this, but better late then never. 

Here are photos from the most recent Illuminated Mandala class that I led.

Our focus was on acknowledging  the Summer Solstice thru creating mandalas that reflect the four elements.

We always begin with blessing our materials...setting intention for the season.

Creating scale of light drawings using, white prismacolor pencils on black paper.  Allow the light of spirit and illuminated vision to emerge from the creative ground of the paper.

Everyone always takes off through Intention and syncronicity, creating exactly a perfect mirror for the moment in their mandalas.  Our focus is a jumping off point,

By the afternoon, color begins to emerge....growing out of the light while being illuminated by it.

Slowly but surely the mandalas come into their own....

I always feel so honored to witness the creation of these mandalas.

Expressing beauty, uniqueness and a personal vision, while acting as a map for inner balance .

This final mandala is the one I created that day, that I recently completed.  

May you have a summer filled with expansive joy, and the grounded balance of being with and 

present to the earth.

Ciao. 

Caterina

Magical Band Of Allies - My Inner Support Team

The following series of SoulCollage® cards are the last five in the series that I created as healing tools, prior to my recent surgery.  

Each one of them were images that moved into my inner family of allies and assisted me on an imaginal level, to develop confidence, resilience and an ability to enhance my bodies natural healing attributes in the positive outcome and ease in recovery that I have had. 

 I am posting them here just as images, because a picture is worth a thousand words, so to speak.  Letting them go out into the world and do their work on a different level.   Until next time. Ciao... 

Ongoing SoulCollage® journey - Imaginal healing- Preparing for surgery thru Artmaking

The next time my group met I wanted to continue with using the process of SoulCollage® to help support my preparing for surgery.    I realized that I needed an image that represented the process of healing on a deep level  These wonderful hands presented themselves to me,  and represented the hard work  that awaited me  ahead, of going from being in pain to walking without pain.     

I am the one who does the hard work of diving in deeply to the process of healing.  Allowing all parts of myself to connect with the life force of bone growth, cellular transformation and sprouting of new life.  I am in alignment with this natural healing process on all levels.  

I also instinctively knew that in order to do this inner work, and to be aligned with the healing process, I had to acknowledge and release the burden and weight of the pain that I had been carrying around for years.

This woman carrying  the weight on her head of organic waste really resonated with me perfectly, and I used my white paint pen to visually support  the release of not only the pain, but the belief systems that have held me back from moving forward in my life.  She came as a gift of release.

I am the one who is ready to let go of old beliefs, pain and resistance to change and growth.  I embrace the flowering of my life and hope for a new way of being and moving in the world.  I am ready.

This is the last card that I made in group that day.  It puzzled me, and I had a hard time opening to its offering.  But over time I came to see it as the part of me that uses active imagination, visualization and the healing power of art, to envision health and to support a way to move into this surgery with a positive attitude.  

I am the one who takes my life and my healing into my own hands, taping into the universal unconscious, imagining all parts of this process to proceed effortlessly, supported by healing imagery and my imagination.  I am an active partner in my healing, along with the doctors, and all my allies in health.  

And so more to come as I share with whoever is intrigued with art and healing, about my journey.
I am grateful.  Ciao  Caterina