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

Mandalas and more

I have been truly remiss in posting here.  My life has been filled to the brim, with new work, creative endeavors and more and more SoulCollage® experiences.  So where to begin, with Mandala's of course.  A week ago,Patricia Waters and I facilitated a Gratitude Mandala Day, at the  Journey Center in Santa Rosa. It was a  sweet, small group,  and we all moved very deeply into the healing aspects of creating Mandala's.  None of us completed our mandalas, but everyone got  quite a bit done and loved every minute of it.   So to continue with  my usual love of   sharing  this process  I am posting the photos that I took of that day here.

 Scale of light practice drawings...

 Small mandalas

 Here is Elizabeth with her absolutely magical mandala that she started at our 

Fall Mandala Day and recently finished.

 Here is a close up of her stunning mandala.

Stay This Moment

 Heart Energy Abounds as we focus on gratitude.

 As the day drew near to an end, almost everyone started to add 

the life energy of color to their mandala's.

 Patricia flew in from the big island the night before our workshop, and swam with a turtle  so this experience was reflected   in her wonderful healing mandala.

 This final one is my mandala, which is obviously just in its beginning stages.  

I will post this again as it progresses.  

Focusing our intentions, and awareness on what we are grateful for, while being present in the 

moment for whatever came up, was a very powerful experience.  

I am really blessed to be doing and sharing this work with others.  I am truly grateful for more life.

The Soul Picture Story Continues- The Fuse of the Possible

Here are two recently made SoulCollage® cards of mine.  I love how this process takes on a life of its own and becomes a feedback loop of images, so to speak.  Playing back the storyline of the inner mythic characters that are up in my life at that moment.  The cards become alive and take on a life of their own.

This first card is one that I did on one of  the citra-solve altered, National Geographic Backgrounds.

I am the one who travels through the imagination.  Who flowers as she reads, traveling the world without leaving her home.  I am the one who loves to read a good book, lose herself in a story that unfurls and circumnavigates the breadth of the cosmos.  I am always happy when I have a stack of good books waiting to be read.

I am the one who becomes enchanted when I draw, or do any kind of art.  I am the one who looks deeply, who pierces the vail of reality as my dreams draw themselves.  I take the time to really look, and carefully render the magic of what is right in front of me.  I am an artist.  I am the one who loves to tell a story through pictures.

The fuse of the Possible is lit by the imagination.”

Emily Dickenson

SoulCollage® Facilitator Training...whew!

So I am now a SoulCollage® Facilitator, along with all the other many hats I wear.  I am still integrating everything that occurred this past weekend.  This is such an exciting process, integrating everything I have been doing all these years into a organic, alive, syncronistic structure that allows people to play in the field of image and creativity, while diving deep and contacting their inner guidance.  

To say the readings were amazing, doesn't do the experience justice. More on that and the process later.  For now, I am going to post  images of the process participants cards  and the ones that I created during  the weekend training. 

IMAGE, IMAGINATION AND INTUITION are the guiding words in this process.

 The Circle and our cards being shared.

 As we  walked around the circle witnessing, I photographed some of the cards that participants in the training made.

People  attended from all over the world and it was fascinating to see what emerged in their imagery

Seena Frost, who is the creator of this wonderful process of SoulCollage®,  created this beautiful piece from her wedding gown and a fishing net.  Each

time she trains facilitators, they add a bead to the net, to become part of the whole energy of this work.  The One and the Many.

 Our final Ceremony, with everyone's cards forming this visual feat of an Image Mandala.

 Seena Frost, dancing opening to the group energy in the center of the circle of images.


These last images are the cards I did at the training and right before I got there.

 I Am The One Who finds grounding in creativity, who slows down and finds my center and patience in working with my hands, who sinks deep roots into the earth as I am creative.

 I Am The One Who plays in the field of fools who comes through when you spend time with your dog.

 I Am The One Who finds balance and heart in the center of the thistle, who can do this despite the fears and challenges that circle around me.

 I Am The One Who had deconstructed my old beliefs about money and abundance, who plays in the field of light and beauty as I create money and abundance through sharing creative play. Who cuts away what isn't necessary as I manifest a new way of working in the world.

  I Am The One Who peers into the wellsprings of the unconscious, pulling up the blessings and insight that live within it.

I Am The One Who gives you the energy you need to move forward in the world and do your work with others. 

I Am The One Who reminds you to be happy, be in the moment and move into the forest of the soul.
Blessings to all who read this and see these images.  Ciao. Caterina

On this journey called life .....Just Trust Yourself

"Just trust yourself, and then you will know how to live"  Goethe

In my ongoing expressive art group a week ago, I began a mixed media collage.  Having fun with it for days afterwards, I created this  this.  I love maps, they elicit so many fantasies, and memories for me as well.  I used to spend hours drawing them as a little girl, and then pouring over them with dreams of travel as I became a young woman.  Even, now maps  continue to hold a power over me, but in a different way. They are guideposts, signs leading to inwards reveries and imaginings.  So, they often find their way into my art these days.    

There are many art therapy directives that integrate maps and mapmaking into the art process, creating maps of your inner landscape, maps of your spiritual journey, maps of your life's path, maps of your journey in  overcoming challenges.  Creating mandala's is another ancient mapmaking process,  the experience of finding your center, creating a way to orient to your own personal true  north...and of course,  just the experience of drawing a mandala is a map of the cosmos, both inner and outer.   Oh how I love maps. 

My newest fantasy is to make a series of envelopes from old maps.  We shall see if I follow through on that one. If so I will post them here eventually.   Maps are a call to the journey towards the self.   What do you do with maps?  Show me!

Post Card Exchange- Art Therapy Without Borders

Well, I have been busy making mail art postcards, for the Art Therapy Without Borders Post Card Exchange.  I will be making and mailing over 25 Art postcards to be sent to a list of art therapists all over the world

Add caption

.  






This art exchange includes over 350 art therapists and art therapy students participating from Singapore, India, France, Scotland, Slovac Republic, Canada, Ireland, Australia, the UK, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hungary, Honduras, Chile, the United States, South Africa, Germany, Peru, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Portugal, and Hong Kong.


"The goal of this collaborative art project is to allow community members from the Art Therapy Alliance, International Art Therapy Organization, and Art Therapy Without Borders to receive postcard art from art therapists and art therapy students living all over the world." ~ ATWB

Here is the entry way to my studio and some of the supplies that I have been using for my mail art - mixed media post cards....

So   I  have finished 11 of them and mailed them out yesterday.   I am posting the mixed media cards I sent out as well as my process here, for your viewing        Here are the 11 postcards that I sent out yesterday , to art therapists in the USA.   I plan on doing the international ones all in a group, so I only have to go once to the post office for the correct postage.

My process....  I started with a large sheet of watercolor paper, I  measured the size for each postcard on the back....then I created washes and played with it without any specific focus.  

 I then cut out each postcard (and I found out that the size given on the directions was a little to small)
I loved the idea  cutting out each section and letting only a part of the whole be the postcard.  Here is one of the watercolor postcard sections.  I love the combination of orange and blue...so vibrant.

 Here is the card that this section eventually became.   I took a folder of laser prints of some of my mandalas, that weren't extremely high quality prints and cut parts and pieces of my original art out.

                                         Then I glued pieces onto my watercolors randomly...

              I took irrdescent and metallic watercolor paints and doodled on each of  the watercolors.....

                        All of this was done in stages, watercoloring, doodling, collaging and then

                                        stamping....all around, once again randomly.
                                     my intention was to have fun, without judgement or plan.

                    The last step in the process was adding words with rubber stamp alphabets.

 I really like this quote by Norman Vincent Peale.

"Imagination is the true magic carpet" 

.

Well for some reason, I am not being successful in uploading the last several images...so I will leave it be for now.  At least this gives an idea of my process and the fun I have been having.

My next series will be done a bit differently.  I am looking forward to getting started soon and will share not only what I do, but what I receive here.   Until the next time.