Day of Creating Prayer Flags...in process

In my Medicine Art Womens Expressive Art group, we began creating our own Prayer Flags this week. Only 2 people came to group this week, but we all were so engaged, that it was nice having the space in the studio to work.  All I can say is what fun we had.. Here are some photos of our ongoing process.

 First we cut unbleached muslin into the size and shape we wanted.

Then we painted washes of Jaquard fabric paints on them and put them in the sun to dry.
Horray that it was a sunny, warm day.
The next step was using stencils of both letters and images, that we pounced onto the fabric...and wallah!  amazing things began to happen.

 Here you can see some of Roberta's in process.  We all got about 2 of them kind of done that day.

 This is Marcella showing off one of her prayer flags..

 These last two are the ones that I did that day.

 This will obviously be about a 3 session process, and with the other members of the group joining it
who knows how long we will be at it.  So many ideas are brewing in regards to this process.

Even my own entreprenurial mind is spinning, and I am thinking of doing a day long prayer flag workshop for others it was soo exciting and fun.

These are inspired by Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags, which monks hang so the prayers printed on them (traditionally in sanskrit with an image of the Buddha) can be whisked into the universe with help from rain, wind, sunshine. When we are too preoccupied to hope the best for the world at all times, the flags are a constant prayer. They're even left unhemmed intentionally, the quicker to disperse their  prayers.

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 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.