It's been a while-Healing Art making

It's really been quite a while since I last posted here.  My life has flowed into new directions...since my dear friend and cofacilitator, Patricia's  death.  I have been almost obsessively, making Mandala Amulets, from both her mandala's and mine.  Working with her Illuminated Mandala images, has been a healing process for me.  Gathering, cropping, working with the images in Iphoto and turning them into amulets has taken over almost all my other art endeavors, except creating SoulCollage® cards, in my groups.  

Here is the backstory;   I had been making pendants from my art as well as found art, since the fall.  They turned out so lovely that I began to sell them and found them to be quite popular.  Plus the whole process appealed to my love of making things in multiples.  I am  maker.

Healing Star Mandala

Universal Shapes

I made a pendant of one of Patricia's mandala's as a Christmas gift for her. It actually was of her Star Mandala...which is this one here.  She wound up giving it to her caregiver as a gift.  A dear friend of hers, who was at the house during her last month of life, commissioned me to make a series of these for all the women in the loving circle of friends that surrounded her during that time...and I have continued to create them along with Amulets from my own mandala images.So one  thing has led to another, and another and I have continued this artmaking journey for months.  The interesting thing is that this whole process has brought me closer to Patricia, and led me full circle back to viewing all of my mandala's in another light.

Flowering Color Wheel

In order to get an image to be strong in a smaller format, there must be a lot of contrast and not a lot of detail in order to reduce the image  to a contact sheet size. So I am viewing my work with a different lens.  

Heart Healing

I also have realized that I am always soothed by doing things in multiples, which is why I love creating mandalas. Mandalas, have repeating patterns in them, and creating repetitions makes one feel safe and comforted.  Kind of like a visual fence that encircles what is important, what is in the center,  the heart of the matter.  

Goddess of Balance

I have also found more of her  original mandala's, as we  a community of women friends, now go through her art and her possessions, and I have photographed them with an idea to reproducing them in the future.  It has allowed me to really and truely see and appreciate her art, in a deeper light.  And when I work with the images, she is in my mind in a different way, which has taken a lot of the edge off of my grief around losing her.  Healing Indeed!

Soul Mother

Another thing has happened, and that is that this whole process, which has included making the Amulets from all of my mandalas, ( I am now calling them amulets instead of pendants, which alludes to the power inherent in these images) has begun to  bring me a greater sense of abundance, and a new direction for making money.  

I have always felt that my art, and in particular my Mandala drawings, have work to do in the world. That these images enhance and support others, separate from the healing power of creating them,  that the images are meant to inspire others. This has become clearer with this process.  I am grateful and blessed by this entire process and my sadness has been a process of personal transformation.  

Thank you to all who have been following my  musings, in this blog over time, and who find their way here synchronistically.  Always remember that doing Art heals, in subtle and profound ways, whether you feel you can do it or not,  --- JUST DO IT!  you never know where a process will lead you.

Until the next time...when I plan to post my new series of SoulCollage® cards.

Namaste'  

Caterina

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.
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 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?

The Thrill is Gone- Still making postcards..

As I continue to make postcards for the Art Therapy without Borders, post card swap,  I have to say, tthat the thrill is gone.  Gone is the excitement of creating, being replaced with a sense of the obsessive need to complete the project.  

I know, ..... I know that I have 6 months to complete the postcards... but I feel the weight of the commitment to it haunting me, and keeping me from doing other things.

So, I have been creating postcards in bits and pieces over the past week, and now I only have 3 more to make and I am done.  

The other day I mailed off the last of the cards to go to the US and  as soon as I finish making the last three I will mail off all the international cards and be on to something new.  I am often like that when some creative process turns into a creative commitments, something shifts for me and....somewhere along the line, the excitement of the initial creative response leads to the feeling of the grass is always greener syndrome...only in this case the greener longing for another art engagement of some sort.  Maybe it is the colder weather, but encaustic is calling me.

So these are the last few cards that I haven't shared here yet.  Once again, using rice papers and collage bits and pieces of ephemera, to create a visual ground and then adding words.   The words for the  Raw Soul Art Card came from a little box of words and letters that I keep adding to.  I just pulled words from it and tried to find some wisdom from the random words.

I love this Pablo Picasso quote, which I added to several postcards...."Art washes form the soul, the dust of everyday life."

Art Heals...

                                                                            Inspire....

So  artists and art therapists, and all creative beings, are explorers of spirit.

May you all find the way to explore spirit through creativity in your own unique ways.

Thanks for visiting, and sharing in my art process.  

Gathering with my Tribe @ the American Art Therapy Conference

Well its been a few weeks since I last posted here and I have been quite busy since then, journeying a bit on both the inner and outer level.  This past weekend I attended the American Art Therapy Assn. conference ( ATA) in Sacramento.  The 3 days were a whirlwind of inspirations, connections, networking and mini epiphanies.   I sold some of my art at the Arts and Crafts marketplace on the first night, which allowed me to sit in one place and have people visit me and see my art, and talk about my work.  I was happy to see many old friends and make new ones as well, and to attend quite  few exciting and inspiring workshops that speak to the power of making art in a studio based setting.

ONe of the compelling things I participated in was an introduction to the Soul Collage cards with Seena Frost, in a key note lecture and a hands on workshop.  Above is the card I created in the workshop on Saturday.  

The interesting thing about this work, is not that it is new to me, but that it is something I have been doing for years,  that combines my early work with the tarot, my gestalt jungian bent in my art therapy practice, and my ongoing involvement and love of collage.  It is a great fit for me, and I am planning on taking the facilitator training in the new year.

This card speaks to me saying:  I am the one who calls to your sense of adventure, your longing for a deeper journey, standing as the gatekeeper, calling you to the next step, helping you to find that inner map that leads to another part of your souls calling.  


So  I am sharing this with you all, a little wary of putting this out there before I act on it, but the image calls me to this as well.

Along the collage path, I am participating in an exciting Art Post Cards exchange, through Art Therapy without Borders....I will post photos of my cards and more of that whole international community art process in another post..  

Shrine Making -Visual Feast

I have been facilitating a women's art support group, every other friday morning, for the past 20 years.  The name of the group has morphed and changed over time, along with all the wonderful women, who have made art in the group.  For a while it was called the Art Spa, because everyone always felt like they had gone on retreat and been renewed from it.  But the name Medicine Art Group is the one that has lasted the longest.  Obviously, the name reflects how artmaking is a deep medicine that is available to all of us.  How doing art heals, and how being in community with others, excelerates the healing process.   

In past month we have been creating Shrines in the group. The focus has been to create a shrine that honors an aspect of ourselves that we want to bring energy to, allowing that part  to come into our lives and to celebrate it joyously.

I love what is happening in the group and how powerful the process has been for the participants, so I though I would share some of the shrines here that are now in process.  Unfortunately, I don't have photos of everyones shrines, but here are a few of them, for your viewing pleasure.

                                                            Shrine to Inner Wisdom

                                      Shrine to My Inner Healer and Inner Wise Woman

Roberta's Shrine to Joyous Living

 

                                 Here is the back, in process, it has changed quite a bit

                                                       Marcella's Transformation Shrine

Each of these shrines are in process and I hope to post several others at another time.  They are made with foam core, that has been cut, covered with rice paper and then painted and collaged over.
Aren't they visual feasts for the eye.  More to come, with more photos and perhaps a story or two.  so thats what I have been up to.

Art Therapy Renewal in the Redwoods- Connecting with the Tribe

This past weekend I went to the Northern Calif. Art therapy Assn. gathering in Redwood Valley in Mendocino, to connect, network and gather to do a workshop at art therapist Linda Chapman's wonderful studio, Art Therapy Institute of the Redwoods.

Her studio space is an inspiration, and the setting is exquisite.  Linda facilitated us in collaborative Eco Art Workshop, making collaborative art with recycled materials.  More than anything else we had fun.  We had to create a collaborative piece which was either a character or an invention that had a purpose.

For me the experience of playing with art with others in my art therapy tribe and networking was the highlight of the day and quite invigorating...So Here are some photos of the day.

old computer keys...what fun to incorporate into an art piece

This piece is a playful expression of the source of creative energy that art therapists draw from, or as Christi defined as the Art Therapist.

The beginnings of a piece made from recycled braille books.

The Amazing and Wonderful Art VARk

It purpose is to only speak in positive, life affirming statements. 

The Art Vark  was made by covering a cardboard box with many plastic bags, covering them over with masking tape and other recycled paper products to give form and substance to the body.  

Gathering with this group made me rethink going to the AATA conference which will be held in

Sacramento this year.  

Plus the drive up into Mendocino county was so, lovely.  Ciao