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

Recuperating....

Exactly two weeks ago today, I had total hip replacement surgery on my left hip.  I had the right one replaced 4 years ago.  So, the past month of my life has been  a busy 2 weeks of preparation for this surgery and then....the surgery, return home and then recuperating.  So this blog has been totally on the back burner of my mind and my life.

Now I am finally beginning to feel rather like myself and with a successful surgery behind me, that will make my life transform in terms of physical limitations.  I am moving daily into more and more gratitude.  I went into the body shop and had a part replaced and now it is time for self nurturance and healing.  Art has always been a healing, transformative activity for me, and now more than ever, I find myself longing to get back to drawing.  So...

Prior to my surgery I painted background pages in my most recent journal. About a week after surgery I spent time here and there doodling and working randomly on a few of the pages, moving energy and letting artmaking begin to be a part of my daily recuperation schedule.   

So as I doodled two of the  themes that emerged, were  butterflies and mandalas.

                                          Here are some other  pages that I worked on.

 

                               Windows opening to other windows....possibilities, new ways of looking at things

The movement and energy I need for healing, instinctual energy, wild ness contained and focused.  

The image of flowering came up for me during a hypnotherapy session before my surgery, as here it presents itself to me in my journal process.  Reminding me that healing is a growth process and happens naturally, just as the process of drawing unfolds naturally.  So, yes healing happens. 

     Each of these pages, were instinctual, spontaneous drawings, that unfolded as I went back and forth from one to the next and back again.  My mind roaming, my hand moving, and my energy begining to move.  Now a week later, and two weeks exactly from my surgery, I have taken the butterfly and began a new mandala.  Using that symbol as a healing image to help with my transformation to health, vitality, freedom of movement and the ability to walk with ease.  I will post more of how my art and healing merge in the days to come.  

On-going Journal pages....Show and Tell

I haven't been posting much lately,  because I have been trying to focus on doing my taxes in bits and pieces, as well as just starting a new art therapy journaling  group for teenage girls, so my time and energy has been diverted a bit.

However, I still have been working in my on-going mixed media collage journal.  I love how I can sit for 15 minutes or more and embellish. doodle around an image, add words on glue a border piece or new image on and feel the satisfaction of the process.  So here are some pages that have changed, evolved, reformed or are in the process of being birthed in the journal I am putting energy into these days..

So here is a little show and tell just for the sake of it..

I often Dream of Release.......

As I began this journal, I began to collect quotations that spoke to me in the moment, so many of these mixed media collage pieces incorporate the quotes that fit them.

Trusting, trusting the process, trusting life, trusting the universe, trusting myself, seems to be an important musing that comes up again and again.  

The Geography of the Heart III

I love how this process evolves and becomes more than I ever imagined in the beginning of the process.

                                              "To Be an Artist is to Believe in Life"  Henry Moore

I love this quote by Bertole Brecht....

Unfortunately the colors on these images have not come through very well, maybe if I make the size of the image smaller....

And to end this series is the thought that it is all about ...believing in yourself.  
Believe in Your Self!!!

Beware the 10,000 Beautiful Things

This week I went to see the Encaustic show Working with Wax: Contemporary Encaustic Painting in Northern California, at Santa Rosa Junior College's Art Gallery.  After an inspiring talk from Mark Perlman, an SSU professor and remarkable encaustic artist, I began talking to some acquaintances at the show about my doing so many things and going  in so many directions creatively that I have gotten side tracked from my love and commitment to working/playing in Encaustic.

One person mentioned a teacher who once said "Beware the 10,000 Beautiful Things" That statement really touched me and  I have been mulling over that statement all week, as I witness all my creative projects tugging at me like  my many children calling out for attention, as I neglect them by sitting in front of the computer, looking at the beautiful inspiring art and creativity posted from all over the cyber universe.

Can I find time for my one true love, or can I not shame/blame/judge myself for my lovely, affairs with other media, my quickies into others art on line, and flitting from media to media.

I am working on this and am curious about other peoples  ability or lack of it to focus on one thing.  So if you are reading this and struggle with this challenge, let me know how you make peace with it.

As an art therapist, and creativity facilitator, being able to teach, inspire and support people in many way of creative expression is a benefit, as an artist it keeps me from delving deeply into the exploration of one process and the infinite variety of ways I can explore theme.

I am also pondering over the fact that using computers has made me, or rather exacerbated my tendencies towards being ADD.  I used to be able to lose myself for hours in my artmaking, but now, I am lured more and more by the computer and have to set boundaries, in order to do art, read books, take walks, etc.  Does anyone else feel this way, that traveling at the speed of light online, makes it more difficult to stay focused?  I am concerned by this.

One of the ways I have been flitting is in my mixed media art journals.  So these photos are from a journal I have been working on since the holidays.

For me working in this journal is a process of inviting in the muse, priming the pump, nurturing my soul, playing with possibilities without  worrying about outcome or product.

I am curious to hear of how others approach, invite, explore or set boundaries on the 10,000 Beautiful Things.  Let me know.  Ciao

Art Journaling - Mixed Media and Gathering with Others....

On Friday I facilitated and Art Gathering with a group of my women friends, who I used to work with at Santa Rosa Junior College.  

After teaching there for over 25 years, alongside many of these friend/co-workers, it was like playing with family.  

It saddened me to hear how everyone who still works there is still feeling the effects of the budget crisis and the worries about if they will have a job or not in the fall.  I feel like I was part of the first wave of layoffs...and am grateful to feel on the other side of the fear, worry and tension that comes with the possibility of layoff.  The worst thing is the absolute demolishing of the cutting edge/deeply humanist department that I worked in for so long.

However...the art we did...mixed media exploration, was healing, joyful and a soothing balm to everyone.  I love how creative engagement shifts energy and acts as a healing medicine and joyful play.   It was a deeply satisfying day of artmaking, friendship and food.   

It brings me back to my new idea of creating Art Gatherings for existing groups of women, to bring life, joy and creative play into peoples lives.    

I have been working on developing pages for another mixed media Art JOurnal.  I am combining collage, and focused free write as well as doodling into it.  

This process is bringing together many of the elements that I taught in my Creative Process class for all those years.  Again thinking perhaps to offer this as a ongoing class in the fall.  Who knows.  These are some photos from this new Journal I am working on.   

The final collage is a mixed media piece that I continue to work on, adding text and more collage imagery.  I love playing, adding, reframing and transforming art that I did earlier.  

This Goddess of the Sweet LIfe, is a copy of an earlier collage, that I continue to play with.  All is grist for the mill.