The World Offers Itself

"This turning deeply towards what you love, saves you."  Rumi

Wild Geese

"You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes, 

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting  

over and over announcing your place 

in the family of things."

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver 

published by Atlantic Monthly Press

© Mary Oliver

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

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

Once again getting excited...about SoulCollage® Training in June.

 Last weekend I led a introduction to SoulCollage®, for a group of my old colleague's, that I  worked with at Santa Rosa Junior College, for over 25 years.  We are now meeting monthly, to keep the connection we developed going.  Some of us, have been laid off from the college, (myself), others continue working there, and others are now retired.  We all enjoy the memories of the incredibly rich, humanistic program that  we worked in and developed together, with others.  It heartens us in these challenging times to reflect on it , and saddens us to know that what we worked for has been decimated by the California budget crisis.  Ahhh, but thats a whole other story. The arts by the way, were the first to go.

I loved sharing this process with my old friends, and everyone who came, really dove into the process and loved it.  Here is Tana, cutting away as she creates one of her SoulCollage® cards.  I only wish I had photographed everyones cards, but I was having too much fun doing my own to stop and take photos.

So, I am getting excited about doing the training in June.  The last time I was about to go, in March,  I had a freak accident the night before and had to cancel.  I am hoping that nothing unusual will befall me before this next training. (Actually that is a belief that I need to release.

I am also excited because I am starting a SoulCollage® Inner Muse, monthly open studio at my studio in July, and people are already interested.  This will be a wonderful art process, to add to those that I already offer through my studio art practice.  If you live in the area, and are interested, please do get in touch!

So in the light of show and tell, which is really what I love about this blog, I am sharing the three cards that I created that day.

"Mirrors are used to see our face, but art to see our soul..."

~ George Bernard Shaw

Bird Medicine repeats itself again and again in all my art.

And lastly, this card, which I shared in my last blog post, it is  the card that really speaks to me right now.  The limitless blessings spilling over from source, again and again, never ending.  But it is opening to the awareness of its presence that is the work to be done.

Blessings to all.

New Soul Collage Cards

I have been making Soul Collage cards, in preparation for taking a Soul Collage Facilitator training next month.  Here are some images, without words...for your viewing pleasure..
Do any of these call out to you, and if so what do they say?

More to come, until then... ciao.

Spirit Doll Making Day @ my Studio

Yesterday I facilitated a day of creating Spirit Dolls at my studio.  I have been gathering with some old friends, colleagues from my days of teaching at the J.C every 4 months or so and leading art making days.  This time we created spirit dolls, using pre made stuffed muslin dolls, and transforming them into Spirit Dolls, with each individual letting a guide of some sort come through in the process. It was an engaging and fun day of expressive art making.  Again and again this brings me to the thought of somehow finding a way to focus on promoting Expressive Art Making Party Days for groups of women and their friends and families.  Here are some photos of the process and dolls that emerged.

After  molding and shaping faces out of sculpey, and putting them in the toaster over to bake, everyone began to focus on decorating their doll bodies.  
Some people painted the forms with watercolors or fabric paint, while others decorated the bodies with marker pens.  

When the faces were cool, they were painted as well as had hair or head pieces created for them.

Then  we were on to clothing them, as well as giving them chakras and any other healing attributes that added to their energy, and popped up out of the imagination.

They continued to evolve over the course of the day as each person played with the possibilities.  The imaginal world was in full bloom as each person's inner child had a field day with the doll making process.

This dolls carries a mask with it, to take on or put off as needed.

Tana's magical inner guide.

Gail created two dolls to give to her granddaughter Raven who is in the hospital with a serious health condition.  Although she had to leave early with her other grandbaby Katie, she is well on her way to completing the dolls, with the small one done, representing Katie and the large one' who will be Raven, having her face molded and ready to be added to the larger doll.  They will be given to Raven so she can play with and hold her baby sister while in the hospital, to keep her company and be a source of comfort as she continues her challenging health procedures.

I am so happy to have been able to facilitate this process for her and her dear grand mother and my friend Gail.

This day made me want to do this more often, what a magical, healing and playful day of artmaking.