Encaustic- Back in the Studio on a Hot day....yay

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6"x6" on cradled clay hardboard

Here are two new encaustics that I did in the past two days....It was hot in the studio, but I was happy to finally get in there and crank up the hot wax and hot plate.  I am selling my jewelry at an Italian Festa on Oct. 11th and decided to do a few encaustics that somehow related to my Italian, sicilian heritage.

The Mandonna encaustic is from a photo I took in Sicily outside my zia Dora's house.  It was built into the stucco wall in the back yard.  These little nichio's or altare's are hidden in many backyards all over Sicily.  I wish I would have taken more photos of them when I was there.  Maybe next time..( hopefully) 

I loved the photo but never knew what to do with it.  I this piece is another addition to my nichio, madonna, goddess series.  The Sun is just a lovely old middle ages etching that I photo transfered onto an encaustic background.  I plan on writing Buon Giornio on it with carbon paper or?? not sure yet.  I have to say that I was excited to get back to my wax work after just not being motivated for quite a while.  I think its the fall that gets me going.   Blue and orange are colors that keep calling me these days.  I put beeswax on about 4 more small masonite panels as well, so we shall see where I go next with my Italia series.  Horray... I am having waxy joy buildup!

Intention - Affirmation Cards...

Intention- noun:  a thing intended; an aim or plan : she was full of good intentions • the action or fact of intending :  have (a course of action) as one's purpose or objecin\

• ( one's intentions) a person's designs,  plan that (something) function in a particular way :

2 Medicine the healing process of a wound. 

3design or destine (someone or something) for a particular purpose or end :

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French entencion, from Latin intentio(n-) ‘stretching, purpose,’ from intendere (see intend ).

While I was visiting in Mt. Shasta, I brought with me supplies to create more intention cards. 
I shared the process with my friends and once they started they couldn't stop making them. 
 Judy was up all night for 2 nights in a row, it was as if a storm of creativity broke free in her after being bottled up for years.  


So I am including some of the cards made by both my friends, Vicki and Judy as well as  some created by me, and a few  other's created in another seasonal women's art group.  


I love witnessing how this simple process allows one to be free and say what needs to be expressed in a visual way.


Perhaps it is the small format, or the freedom of collage that allows one's inner guidance to come through.


                                             Each card is both beautiful and evocative.





  This is just a sampling of the images that emerged.  I love this process and keep adding to my stack of cards as well.  With all the best intentions...!!!

Views from Mt. Shasta

After a bit of a hiatus from my life, artmaking and writing on this blog , a trip to Mt. Shasta and getting a bit sick to say the least, I am posting some photos of Mt. Shasta., and my friends property Tara's Retreat Center.  

HARVESTING OUR BLESSINGS - MANDALA completed...

I have finally completed my mandala that I began at the Summer Solstice workshop.  It has become something else altogether, and really speaks of opening to the blessings of life as well as offering blessings for the earth.  I wonder what others might think it alludes to.  If you have any thoughts and want to share your sense of this mandala, please let me know.  

It is interesting that now that it is complete it is also time to focus on promoting the Fall Harvest Mandala workshop that Patricia and I are doing on September 20, th. .  After searching all over Sonoma County for the perfect, charming country retreat space, we have decided to offer it at my studio, and harvest the blessings of the space once again.  

We were seeking another space because we wanted a large enough space for 20 people, but realize that my space will work with 12-14 at the max...including the two of us, so until another space presents itself, we will have to limit how many people can attend.  Please get in touch if you are in the Northern California area and want to attend.  Or for that matter if you live in Sonoma County and know of a reasonably priced, art workshop space with good lighting, in a lovely environment, also let me know.  Ask and ye shall receive.  

Compassionate Peace Mandala Workshop

This weekend I attended a Compassionate Peace Mandala painting workshop, led by Lama Prema Tenzin.  It was a lovely, deepening experience in the process of creating mandalas.  Lama Prema is a national treasure from Bhutan, where he has been studying the creation of mandala's since the age of 6 years old.  He is a master Mandala  and Thangka painter, as well as sand mandala's, stuppa's  and prayer wheels.  I was honored to be a participant in this day long experience.  

Lama Prema Tenzin in standing in front of one of the thangka's that he has painted.


Here is a photo of his students in Bhutan learning the process of  thangka painting.
Here other students  are painting a large mandala.
This is the painting of the Compassionate Peace Mandala that we created smaller, condensed versions of in the workshop.  It took him three months to paint this mandala.  The colors are exquisite. All the symbols are very specific as well as the colors and placement of the symbols. 
Here is the beginning of my mandala in pencil
After the whole structure of the mandal was complete we went over it in fine line black pen.
The painting not quite complete.
Here is the  completed mandala. that I did.   The process was very slow, and deeply moving.  Having the structure already prescribed, made the experience mindless, and the day moved both quickly and slowly, as each person was lost in the process of moving from outer to inner, inner to outer and then painting each shape in a prescribed manner step by step.   I truely loved the experience and opportunity.  I hope to study with him again as he offers another workshop in another mandala later in the fall.  This has inspired me to go back to the mandala I started at the summer solstice and complete it.  What a lovely, experience and an honor to be with his energy and way of sharing.   

Mandala ...and the Spiral Process

As I spent time working on this mandala during the week, I reflected on my last post here, where I was a bit discouraged about flitting around from one art project to another and not losing myself deeply into one experience.  I realized ...or rather had a rather large epiphany that like the center of this mandala, I was deeply into the Spiral Process at this point in my life.  When one is in the spiral process, they are engaged in experimentation, moving from experience to experience,  seemingly going around in circles, but actually moving into different levels of awareness.  Change is the constant and is what is needed for growth and healing.   

So in my Friday Medicine Art group this week, I shared this awareness as well as Angeles Arrien's 5 Universal Shapes Experiential, which is explained in depth in her beautiful book The Signs of Life.  Realizing this changed my perspective around how I spend my time these days, and shifted me from judgement to joy. This mandala is still not complete, but its getting closer to the essence of where it wants to be.  I will post it once again when it is truely complete.  

For those who do not know of Angeles Arrien, she is well worth finding out about.  She is a cross cultural anthropologist, Basque Mystic storyteller.  She has written many wonderful books on myth and symbol as well as researching rites of passage and tying them into contemporary life.  She is an inspiration to hear speak and is truly a wise woman teacher.  More information can be found on the link to her website.  

Mandala Emerges as I flit from project to process

The Mandala that I began on the solstice slowly emerges as I flit like a butterfly from thing to thing. Without a structure of consistent work in my life, one would think I would be more productive. In many senses I am accomplishing alot creatively, but it is in a scattered way. More like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower.   Drawing Mandalas is centering and focusing, but only if one spends a bit of engaged time doing it.  I go from drawing, to making jewelery, to photographing items to sell on my new etsy store....and then do a bit of carving on my encaustics,  some collageing in one of the 3 journals I have going and then dash out to the Y for a swim.  Ahhh, life in the scattered lane.  I am loving it, but feel I need to focus on just one thing. Or do I?