More SoulCollage® cards...still making them

Well lately, life has been grounding me a bit.  I did something to my left knee, and have had to slow down tremendously.  I am trying to let it heal, but it is real slow going.  My impatience has me up and running in my head, but my body can barely hobble.  Today, I wound up canceling on a excursion, and then losing the keys to my studio, and finally, my car was dead when I tried to go somewhere needlessly.  So the universe is truely forcing me to be still and slow down.  Nonetheless, I made 3 new SoulCollage® cards today.  So I am sharing them here, as well as a few more that I did about a week ago.
Without further ado....

                                       Transforming the ordinary to the extraordinary....

                   Trust has always been an issue, but really it is a non issue... because there is a greater story afloat here.

                         I guess I am meant to write about all the wonder, awe and musings....
                                         These first three are the ones I made today....


                                                the following were created in the past few weeks..

 I Am The One Who celebrates  in nature ~ I transform through my connection with the earth

                                   This is the essence of soul..

 The waterfall of abundance.......

I Am The One Who looks within, who notices the patterns of life around me, often taking me  away from what is right on front of me, that is  blossoming and ready to fly right in front of my very eyes.  So . Pay attention.


Today I came across this Mary Oliver quote, it fits to end with this.  


"Instructions for living a life. Pay attention.   Be astonished. 


Tell about it."   — Mary Oliver

Abstraction is a challenge for me

I work in so many different media, that I have to find ways to trick myself into doing some of them.  I love to paint with acrylics, but rarely do these days because I am so pulled by many different processes. One way in which I get myself to paint, is to never leave paint unused.  

I have a magical little girl who comes to paint with me at my studio.  She loves to use lots of color, so after we meet I always use the paint she has left over to begin a new painting.

I give myself permission to do whatever, 

not worry about outcome

spread the paint across the canvas impulsively

know that I can use this as a base for collage so anything goes

be thrifty- and have fun

I have begun a series of these paintings.

This is one that I just recently began and then subsquently

worked on over a series of studio sessions.

This painting kept changing from its initial impulsive, expressive beginning.  I was hoping to stay completely abstract with it, but the last time I worked on it, the image of the bird and then the flower emerges.  I loved each in their own way, so let them stay.  I however, really respect abstract painters and wish I could stay completely abstract and free from imagery.  But I really find that a challenge.  Nonetheless, I like this piece and feel it is complete.

If you are an abstract painter, how do you stay committed to the non representational, I would love to hear from you.  

And another mandala to share with you all

Today in my email I received this photo of another completed Spring Shapes mandala.  This was drawn by Paula DuVander.  Once again, it is so interesting to see how even when working with similar motifs, ie the 5 universal shapes, each mandala is so different and unique/

When I look at this vibrant, colorful mandala, I am reminded of the thick texture of needlepoint or the vibrant colors of Huchiol yarn paintings.    I am so pleased that folks continue to send me images of their completed mandalas.  I will be sure to post them as they arrive.

Enjoy the spring...

Two More Mandala's completed...from Spring Workshop

I asked everyone who attended our mandala workshop on the Spring Equinox to send photos to me when they completed their mandalas.  So I am pleased to share 2 more mandalas for viewing here. 

                          Here is Patricia Water's mandala. For those who don't know this, Patricia and I facilitate the mandala workshops together. For many years, we had a community art studio together, called the Creative Arts Studio.  Our website still holds the name and energy of the studio. Now our workshops are held  in  different settings, as well as at my studio. Our work together continues creatively in facilitating Illuminated Mandala workshops.

This is Marge Gogh's powerful and vibrant mandala. She attended the Spring Workshop. There is so much to find delight in when looking at this one.  I am so drawn to, excited by, and comforted from the wonderful repeating details that form patterns around and within this mandala.  What a delight. Can you tell which shapes were dominant for her in this mandala?

If anymore mandala's from this springs workshop come flying to me, via the etherworld, I will share them here as well. 

Ciao.

Art Therapy Without Borders - So Far 10 Postcards...

So far I have only gotten a total of 10 postcards, from art therapists around the world who participated in the Art Therapy without Borders Project.  I have already posted 5 of them, and at this point I would be really surprised to get any more of them.  So I decided to post the newest ones for all to see and let it go at that for now. 

 This first one is from Renee Bond an art therapy student at NDNU in San Francisco

                             The above postcard  is from Christy Wolfram living in Northern Kentucky

 Natalie Coriell an art therapist from a small southern Illinois town sent the one shown above.  Natalie is the only one with links to an online shop and a blog.  nostalgicscraps on etsy ,  and urbannostalgicscraps blog...unfortunately her blog link doesn't work.  Oh well.
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 Be My MIrror comes from Christine Hennig in Omaha Nebraska

 And lastly, the one above is from Paul Lee and art therapist in Singapore.

I wonder if I will receive any more of these.  What do you think.  I obsessively sent out about 36 of them at the very begining of the project.  It was fun to participate, but whether or not I will do this type of thing again, I am not sure.  Should I?

Let's keep it simple.

I am not sure where I came across this quote, so I can't give anyone credit.  

Maybe it was somewhere on facebook.  None the less, 

this fits for me today...

it made me think of one of my affirmation cards, 

so here it simply is.

Let`s keep it simple.

Stay soft and quiet inside

Meet everything as a friend

Forget how anything "should" look

Forget how anyone "should" behave

Especially "yourself"

Forget how you "should" feel

Make no modifications at all

This is the "secret" to true happiness.

Color Wheel Mandala - the Circle , Triangle and Spiral- Finished

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - 

things I had no words for.
Georgia O'Keeffe

This is the color wheel mandala that I started at our mandala workshop last sunday.  I have been laid up since the workshop with a problem knee.  It has been raining everyday, and I have found such solace in the drawing I have done on this mandala.  Working with the color wheel, mixing the fine pencil point of one color into another on the lovely nubby paper, has a comforting healing effect.  I was lost for hours, watching the colors emerge, blend and over lap.  Playing with the shapes, witnessing they way they interact and the stories they seem to tell me intuitively is an endless pleasure.
Truly healing.  Blessings to all.