As Promised a Few more Pocket Shrines to see...

And so, without further ado, here are some more photos of pocket shrines that members of the Medicine Art Group made.  Weeks ago I promised to post these.  Since it has been about a month since the time that we made these, we are now onto new directions and art processes.  As a natural evolution we are exploring themes in cigar boxes, dream boxes, intention boxes, dia de los muertes altars and...who knows where it will go..

When those are completed I will share them as well.

Enjoy these little gems~

Each one has a story to tell......

                                                        As well as an intention or focus......

              And some were made just for the pure fun of embellishment and decoration......

I am now off to cleaning and reorganizing my studio once again, to get ready for a SoulCollage® workshop on this Friday morning and then our Seasonal  Fall Equinox Mandala Retreat day on Sunday, which this time is focusing on the Tree of Life.. What fun ...until next time.   Ciao..Caterina

Fun Making Pocket Shrines

I facilitate an ongoing women's expressive art group, which has come to be called the Medicine Art Group. The name comes from art therapist, Shaun Mc Niffs's book, "Art as Medicine"  Over time the name as morphed and changed, it was once called the Art Spa fondly by group members.  Medicine Art has not only become the official name, but also now seems to  also refer to all the groups that I offer at the studio, being part of the Medicine Art Series.

The idea being that doing art is healing on a deep level, whether it is process or product oriented, whether one likes the tangible outcome or not.  All art making is healing, because we move into the moment, become more aware and our brain waves shift and we move into a deeper, healing awareness.  Art therapists call this approach Art As Therapy, not necessarily art therapy.  But to me and to participants in all these groups, it is one and the same.  ART is MEDICINE.   

 This past Friday in this ongoing group, we began to make pocket shrines.  Creating small containers to hold a specific energy, thought, intention or honoring.  Whether playful or deeply meaningful, the experience was fun and filled with energy.    

We started altering a various of sizes  of tin containers, although any container can do.  We used lots of altoid tins and small candy containers.  Altering is the name of the game here.  We painted, collaged and filled them with pieces, papers and items that moved us, in the moment, for whatever reason that emerged spontaneously.

 Everyone really got into it, to say the least.  These are some of the shrines that emerged during the group.

 Many of us were not complete and are going to continue on with this process the next time we meet in 2 weeks.

 So here are some of the small, portable shrines that emerged that day, for your viewing pleasure.

 I truly love show and tell, which is what this blog has become for me, showing off what emerges in my groups as well as my own personal art process.

                                       Aren't these all so wonderful, charming and magical?

                                 Each with deeply personal meaning for the shrine maker.

                                            This last one is mine, which is till in process.

After continuing to work on my pocket shrine after the group ended, I moved into another personal shrine.

A dear woman to me, who was my fathers girlfriend for many years, recently, and in many ways was another mother figure to me, recently died.  Interestingly enough, she shared the same name as my mother.

So, I took a holy card that I received the other day in mail from Addie's memorial service and an old tin nichio that I have been wondering what to do with and created another shrine,
honoring Addie, my mom and all the mother figures in my life.

A wish for us All

Oh please do watch this sweet and short video by Lynn Whipple posted on Lanie Garriety's 14 Secrets for a Happy Artists Life.

14 Secrets for a Happy Artist's Life: A sweet video from Lynn Whipple

Yes!
and now go make something,
do it for you, do it for me, create it for the whole wide world. Amen.

Art Therapy Without Borders - So Far 10 Postcards...

So far I have only gotten a total of 10 postcards, from art therapists around the world who participated in the Art Therapy without Borders Project.  I have already posted 5 of them, and at this point I would be really surprised to get any more of them.  So I decided to post the newest ones for all to see and let it go at that for now. 

 This first one is from Renee Bond an art therapy student at NDNU in San Francisco

                             The above postcard  is from Christy Wolfram living in Northern Kentucky

 Natalie Coriell an art therapist from a small southern Illinois town sent the one shown above.  Natalie is the only one with links to an online shop and a blog.  nostalgicscraps on etsy ,  and urbannostalgicscraps blog...unfortunately her blog link doesn't work.  Oh well.
www

 Be My MIrror comes from Christine Hennig in Omaha Nebraska

 And lastly, the one above is from Paul Lee and art therapist in Singapore.

I wonder if I will receive any more of these.  What do you think.  I obsessively sent out about 36 of them at the very begining of the project.  It was fun to participate, but whether or not I will do this type of thing again, I am not sure.  Should I?

Let's keep it simple.

I am not sure where I came across this quote, so I can't give anyone credit.  

Maybe it was somewhere on facebook.  None the less, 

this fits for me today...

it made me think of one of my affirmation cards, 

so here it simply is.

Let`s keep it simple.

Stay soft and quiet inside

Meet everything as a friend

Forget how anything "should" look

Forget how anyone "should" behave

Especially "yourself"

Forget how you "should" feel

Make no modifications at all

This is the "secret" to true happiness.

On going work- Inspiration - What do you think?

I continually return to pieces I have worked on as a matter of course.  A painting, collage, mandala or encaustic sits around my studio for a while and then suddenly calls to me for the next step.  I posted this painting a while ago as part of a way I have been playfully using up paints, that my clients leave on their palettes after a session or a group.

Here is the original painting that I posted a  while back.

 I have now taken it into another direction, adding some collage imagery, (birds which is a continuing motif and theme in my art) as well as wording.   The colors have changed somewhat and it has become less subtle.  What do you think?

 I

INSPIRE   12"X12" on canvas                         

For some reason the colors are different than the original in this photo.  The blues are still more subtle and the bottom is actually purple.  I will retake the photo in different light and post it again.
This painting Inspire is now posted in my etsy store Soul Arte Eclectica.  

So my question is a request for feedback, should I have left it alone or does this work as an inspiration piece.  Thanks in advance.

INSPIRE: to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative 
To  create (a feeling, esp. a positive one) in a person

Inspiration Monday - A Reminder : Why We Create- Take the Time to Make Art!

Today is a good day for a little inspiration, a reminder of how important it is for us to take the time to create, not for product but for how the experience of art making transforms us in unknown and known ways.  
So I am sharing this wonderful video  that reminds us why it is so important and powerful to create.

I tried to embed it here but, somehow that didn't work so here it the link.  Take the time to watch it, or rather make the time to watch it.  

Even if you already know why creativity heals and is powerful, this wonderful U-Tube video says it so eloquently and clearly.  It is a reminder for Monday!..Enjoy!


Click on the green link below, (that says why we make art!)  

Why We Make ART!

Soaring Bird Encaustic- Bird theme continues

Birds are a continuing archetypal  theme, or image in much of my art.  As a child, the only pet I could have, in our 3 floor apartment in Chicago was a parakeet.  I had many parakeets over the years, and developed my love and relationship to flying things from those early, tender and companionable memories.  

Here is an encaustic painting I did of a Soaring Bird, which is available for purchase in my etsy store.

Encaustic painting

10"x10" on cradled hardboard

“For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive.”

D.H. Lawrence

Revisting Some of my Encaustic's-La Finestra Primavera

Before I had my surgery, coincidentally, I brought home many of my encaustic paintings that have been hanging at Art and All That Jazz in Healdsburg.  Due to the economy, the owner was revamping and changing the focus of her gallery.  My work has been there, selling and being seen, for about 5 years.

La Finestra Primavera

The springtime Window

11"x14" on cradled hardboard

Soul Arte Eclectica

Now that I am getting better, I have the time to unpack these pieces and decide what their next step in the world will be.  Shaun McNiff, a wonderful studio based art therapist, believes that images are like angels and that they have a life of their own, and stories to tell.  That has always resonated with me, and I have felt that my art has work to do in the world and it is my job to get them out there.  Some of these pieces are being hung all around my house and studio, and others left stored.  So in that light I have decided to show them here, prior to posting them on my etsy store....while I open to another new venue here in Sonoma County, where they can be seen.  

I love the texture in this piece.  It is an homage to Italy and all things Italian.  The archway reminding me of the narrow streets in Italia, the flowers under the window box...and birds...I have em bedded an antique map into the beeswax on the lower left which is decipherable  among all the colors.

I will continue revisting my early encaustics over time.  This painting is available for sale at my store at.  

SoulArteEclectica

Please go visit them at my etsy store, for another viewing.  Ciao. Caterina

More Journal Pages and On going Recovery

I often feel  the need to express my ongoing journey with the unknown, wide world out there.  That healing itself is an ongoing process of being in the moment and responding authentically to what is happening inside and out of me. Which is exactly the same process that occurs in the act of creative engagement....the ART PROCESS.  . ...being in the moment, paying attention and letting the story unfold.

I continue to play around in my journal and love to watch the images that show up, so I am honoring them as part of my process, without judgement, and with awe and intrigue.

In my journaling process, it is as if I first set the stage, by painting the backgrounds. In this particular series of pages, I used varying watercolor washes.

Once the background is laid into the paper, the curtain is pulled back, the window opened so to speak, and I  begin to collage around the backgrounds, creating a mood   or a feeling with the collage images that are applied.

Next step: PLAY.. I play around with media, pens, prismacolor pencils, words, letters, rubber stamps and then, more watercolor, until something comes together. Going back and forth from one page to the next, responding visually to what I see and what I feel.
Once INSPIRATION arrives, it is just a matter of filling in the spaces, doodling around and emphasizing one part over another, and I arrive  in   
The Mythic Land of image into story line.
It's that ah ha moment, that is part of the creative process, the part that we seem to long for, but have to muddle through unknown lands,  and critical inner demons to reach.

That is when I really begin to feel nourished by the process, it is as if

CREATIVITY MAKES THE MEAL  

The process is like a baby bird playing with a ball, dancing in air.

Using blocks of incongruent connections to make a whole feast of possibilities.

This is the gift of the imagination and the creative process, to nourish us and give us the opportunity to create a Retreat into our own Souls Language, to help to make us whole.

The Art of Encouragement..     

To encourage is to give active help or to raise confidence to the point where one dares to do what is difficult.

And so the images lead us places, open doors and windows, by providing new perspectives, and

posing enigmas..

And the healing journey in my life and art continues to hearten me and offer guidance, even if at first I can't read the story line or understand the purpose.   

To hearten is to put one's heart into or to renew someone's spirit (:heartened by the news of his recovery), and to inspire is to infuse with confidence, resolution.

Ciao....Caterina