Summer Time Collages.....

I love to play with older works, reworking them, adding, changing, turning them into new stories.  That is the beauty and intrigue of collage to  me.  It is an opportunity to recreate, re-envision, reframe the picture and look at it differently.  

School has ended and I am reworking some collages as I get ready for the Art @ the Source Open Studio Tour next weekend...  I am excited by having free time, and overwhelmed by what I need to do to get ready for the Open Studios.  Yet, creating art and letting it go out into the world is really what it is all about for me.  

Encaustic Mixed Media Heart/ Art Pins

I am back in the studio in between working at the J.C., creating, finishing and getting ready for Art at the Source, a West Sonoma County Open Studio, that I am participating in the first two weekends in June.  http://www.artatthesource.org.   Along with finishing up quite a few encaustic mixed media paintings, I have been creating small encaustic art pins.  

I have been having quite a bit of fun with these, getting carried away with the mystery of faces emerging out of texture, as if being revealed from a dream state.

                                                                                                                                                                           I plan on adding some of these as well as more original encaustics to my etsy site eventually, but right now, with the end of the semester approaching and all the details involved in doing this open studio, I my update of my etsy site is very lacking... 

Since I don't live in west sonoma county, I am sharing studio space with two exciting artists,

Paula Smith, an incredible plein air landscape painter of beautiful Sonoma County,  http://www.paulasmith.com  (whose studio I will be at)  and Mylette Welch, http://www.mylettewelch, a vibrant expressive artist  specializing in wonderful paintings of dogs and old cars.   

If you are in Sonoma County during that time, come check us out.  Sebastopol Center for the Arts, http://www/sebarts.org,  has brochures with maps and information on all the artists participating all over the County

Back From Sun Valley

Idaho is a starkly beautiful state.  I was struck by the beauty of the melting snow on the mountains.  

After a whirlwind journey, and a full 

day of facilitating a Creative Spirit Workshop and an afternoon session of mandala making.  I am full and satisfied.  

Leading a workshop with over a 120 people felt like it would be daunting, but it was actually exhilerating and special.  

The participants, teachers, counselors and juvenile 

prevention specialists, from all over Idaho were so

 appreciative and engaged in the process and really  open to exploring creative interventions that they could adapt to use with students,  clients and family members.  

We loved being there, sharing the healing and communicati

ve aspects of artmaking and witnessing their excitement.  

The afternoon mandala session was most enjoyable, we were able to slow down a bit and spend more time diving into art making.  The mandalas that participants made were really amazing.   

However, as beautiful as Idaho was, being back in northern California and particularly Sonoma County, makes me remember how blessed I am to be living in such a beautiful part of the planet.  Its good to be home.

Threshold to the Inner Garden

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

I recently created this mixed media encaustic painting, which  evokes so much for me as I continue to stand at new thresholds in my life, reevaluating  what I do in the world.  ..I seek the hidden words hoping to I to decipher  an aspect of what is being revealed in my art.

Sacred Imagery of the Elephant Kind....

So we think that we are the only creative beings on this planet,  but actually that is not the case.  The natural world abounds with creative spirits.  I once saw a wonderful special on Nova  about bower birds, who work three dimensionally, building amazing environmental installations.  Their awe inspiring, performance art is  created to draw their lovers to them.   

And although I have heard about elephants painting before, this video is amazing.  Take the time to watch this video of an elephant painting a self portrait.  Slow moving and conscious, this wise being creates a stylized, expressive self portrait that blows my mind.  Slow down and  watch the whole thing and enjoy.  

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v= LHoyB81LnE

Working in my Studio..My plate it full...

I have been working in my studio in between all my other commitments and life...getting ready for doing the Art At the Source Open Studio the first two weekends in June.   This image is something I am striving for in my work, both texture and luminosity. However I often get lost in detail and love to carve out and dig into the wax.  Although I strive for simplicity it rarely happens.   

My plate is  full.  I am getting ready to go to Sun Valley Idaho, with Patricia, my friend and business partner in the Creative Arts Studio.  We are facilitating two workshops on Creativity at the Idaho State Prevention Conference.  We have over 115 people signed up for our Free the Creative Spirit workshop and 77 in the Bringing the Mandala into The Classroom session.  That many people in an art workshop is a bit overwhelming...but it will be exciting as well.  It has been a long time since I have been in the snow.   I plan on taking photos and posting them when I return.   

Tropical Dreams

Tropical Dreams
Originally uploaded by blue_sea_art

I am finally getting into my studio after the flu and other maladies that have effected me for the past month. I am dreaming of the tropics, of warmth and sun, and sweet lemonade. Its dreary here today, but I have a week off work for spring break and I am feeling better and am as happy as if I was in the tropics.