Why do we do what we do?

I was just reading a post on Lanie Garrity's wonderful blog 14 Secrets to a Happy Artists life,  and one of her posts focused on this question.  It really got me thinking about my life now,  as an artist and as an art therapist.

I was born with a congenital heart condition, and as an only child growing up in Chicago, I spent alot of time alone, often in the hospital, and when not, missing school often, rarely playing outside with other children.

I was pretty lonely, and art became my best friend, my ally, and my constant companion.

I self soothed, created imaginary friends and worlds, and lost myself for hours in lovely fantasy.

This rich inner world, stayed with me my whole life, and after having open heart surgery on my 13th birthday, I threw myself into life and activity.

But artmaking stayed with me, throughout my life and shaped my life into the one it is today.

As a child, I remember often looking down from our third floor window watching the kids in the alley and courtyard, riding bikes, playing with hoola hoops and on the swings.  I felt like an outsider and wanted to belong.


And even though making art made me happy I wanted to do it with others...  Whenever I was sick, my parents would give me another paint by numbers set, or kit for weaving pot holders.  I loved to make different things, use my hands, and build little people out of mushed up toilet paper, making up stories and traveling across the united states in our long hallway with my handmade paper doll friends....

As I fast forward to my life now, I see that I live a life now that allows me to do art with others, share all the different art processes I have learned, and offer   others the opportunity to explore the healing realms of their imagination.

This is a bit more personal that I have been before on this blog, but it seemed to fit for today, so Thank you Lanie  for your wonderful prompt.

Why do you do what you do?     Ciao

Fall Mandala- Process of a Drawing....

About two weeks ago, myself and my working partner, Patricia Water's, led an Illuminated Mandala workshop, focusing on the change of the seasons, from Summer to Fall.  

We are both facilitators of the late Judith Cornell's Mandala Process.  The workshop was a wonderful day and I have shared the groups process in my last post.  I have finally finished my mandala and am sharing the process of the drawing here.  

This is my original drawing, using white prismacolor pencils on the black paper.

In this second image you can see how I add the scale of light (reversed shading) to the images on my mandala, illuminating the shapes with light.

  

 In this drawing I have begun to add color, in some cases going over the white and in other areas, leaving the white light uncolored.

 Each step of the way is primarily unplanned, and whenever I do something I don't particularly like, I go with it, letting it take me where the drawing wants to go.  Allowing it to change and evolve organically.

Here is the final pieces, a lot more subdued than the last image, but still illuminated.  The intention of this piece was release as well as trusting the process of life and change to guide me, as we move into the winter, the dark, the unknown of the cycle of life.

This mandala, along with many of my other mandala's will be available as a matted print on my etsy store, for purchase.  Patricia and I take these workshops on the road, so if you are interested please get in touch, here.  Our next scheduled Illuminated Mandala Seasonal workshop will be a New Years Intention Mandala Day in January of 2010. Please check our website at the Creative Arts Studio for updates on the details.

Mandala Workshop- Recent Images...

I am finally posting the images from our recent Autumn Equinox Mandala Retreat Day.


We had a wonderful, small circle of women, drawing and sharing in my studio, last Sunday.  The weather really co operated, thankfully and it wasn't as hot as this weekend, with Indian Summer blazing away  here in northern Ca...otherwise the studio would have been like a sauna.

 Photos speak louder than words for the process so here are some from that day of what emerged and our process.

Here are some of the small practice mandala's that were created just in the white on black.

 The contrast of the white prismacolors on the black canson mi tientes paper is always so stunning.  It is hard to jump into color, because often these  are so perfect just as they are.

This is the mandala that I began that day.  It really expresses alot of my feeling about transitioning into autumn and the approach of winter.  Actually, fall is my most favorite time of year, but their is always a bittersweetness to it as well.

Lots of release and letting go is inherent within it.

There is something about the dark center that is so provocative

After a wonderful morning of diving in and drawing small mandalas, we began our bigger ones and then created small test color wheel mandalas, practicing blending the rainbow prismacolor pencils that we use in the process. Color is so exciting, and it changes everything.

 We use a limited palette in this process, just 6 colors plus white.  Aquamarine, true green, yellow, orange, magenta, and violet.

                                 With these 6 colors it is possible to mix hundreds of vibrant colors.

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.╡

>

> - Kahlil Gibran -

Here are all the mandala's in process up on the wall.  Because this is such detailed work, we need to give our eyes, hands and backs breaks.  Often times when you stand back and look at what you are doing, it is possible to see the work in new ways. The mandalas will let you know what the next step is.

Please note the intricate detail on this amazing mandala.

Close up..........

This is the mandala that I began that day, in process. I will post the completed process at a later time.

This is Patricia Waters mandala in process, created with a dear friend in mind who is going through some traumatic life changes.  

Most everyone in the group promised to send the completed mandala images to me, perhaps those will be included in another post.  

I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self

 I had attained what was for me the ultimate.

 C. G. Jung

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.

On going work- Inspiration - What do you think?

I continually return to pieces I have worked on as a matter of course.  A painting, collage, mandala or encaustic sits around my studio for a while and then suddenly calls to me for the next step.  I posted this painting a while ago as part of a way I have been playfully using up paints, that my clients leave on their palettes after a session or a group.

Here is the original painting that I posted a  while back.

 I have now taken it into another direction, adding some collage imagery, (birds which is a continuing motif and theme in my art) as well as wording.   The colors have changed somewhat and it has become less subtle.  What do you think?

 I

INSPIRE   12"X12" on canvas                         

For some reason the colors are different than the original in this photo.  The blues are still more subtle and the bottom is actually purple.  I will retake the photo in different light and post it again.
This painting Inspire is now posted in my etsy store Soul Arte Eclectica.  

So my question is a request for feedback, should I have left it alone or does this work as an inspiration piece.  Thanks in advance.

INSPIRE: to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative 
To  create (a feeling, esp. a positive one) in a person

Whales at the Coast - Oh My

Yesterday I went out to the Sonoma Coast, and it was a beautiful day out there.  Such a lovely laid back experience, except for the hoards, and crowds of labor day visitors, and campers crowding up the usually empty roads and beachfront parking.

Russian River Mandala - The mouth of the Russian River at Jenner, CA.

But the highlight of the day was going out to Bodega Head and watching the whales

Art Therapy Renewal in the Redwoods- Connecting with the Tribe

This past weekend I went to the Northern Calif. Art therapy Assn. gathering in Redwood Valley in Mendocino, to connect, network and gather to do a workshop at art therapist Linda Chapman's wonderful studio, Art Therapy Institute of the Redwoods.

Her studio space is an inspiration, and the setting is exquisite.  Linda facilitated us in collaborative Eco Art Workshop, making collaborative art with recycled materials.  More than anything else we had fun.  We had to create a collaborative piece which was either a character or an invention that had a purpose.

For me the experience of playing with art with others in my art therapy tribe and networking was the highlight of the day and quite invigorating...So Here are some photos of the day.

old computer keys...what fun to incorporate into an art piece

This piece is a playful expression of the source of creative energy that art therapists draw from, or as Christi defined as the Art Therapist.

The beginnings of a piece made from recycled braille books.

The Amazing and Wonderful Art VARk

It purpose is to only speak in positive, life affirming statements. 

The Art Vark  was made by covering a cardboard box with many plastic bags, covering them over with masking tape and other recycled paper products to give form and substance to the body.  

Gathering with this group made me rethink going to the AATA conference which will be held in

Sacramento this year.  

Plus the drive up into Mendocino county was so, lovely.  Ciao