Happy New Year to All, and ~ Art Postcards from A Far~

Happy New Year, 

May you enjoy and revel in your life as it is, 

and make of it what you will.

As they say life is what you make it, 

and this is a wonderful time for creating a new template for your life.  

Dance with your dreams, 

savor the cup that is in front of you, 

walk through all the open doors, 

and release what no longer serves you...

Many Blessings in the coming Year.

If you have been reading these musings, you may remember that I have been participating in a postcard exchange with art therapist from around the world.  I have finally begun to receive some of the postcards from  fellow participants.  Slowly but surely.  So since I have only sent off 3/4 of mine, 

I don't feel too bad since others are slower than me to respond.

Here are the ones I have received up to this point for your viewing.

Enjoy...

and now off to enjoy a new day in a new year...and make some art to honor the coming year.

Ciao.

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

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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" 

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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.

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..