My Deck continues to Grow...

"I am the one who steps into the healing pool and 

is renewed and energized."

Here is the SoulCollage® card that I made last week, using the Citra-Solv page as a back ground.

At first it was too spacey looking for what I was trying to convey in the card, but with some white pen and gold markers, I grounded her in the healing waters and sent light and healing to her from the sun.

I really look forward to using these amazing abstract pages for more S.C. cards as well as in other mixed media art processes.  Wonder how these would work with encaustic, saturated in beeswax?

Hmmmmm?

MORE CARDS

 Now I have 2 SoulCollage® groups going a month, and I am excited that my deck is continuing to grow.  I am also facilitating readings with friends  as well, and am amazed at how potent and powerful they can be.  So this new endeavor, which pulls together all the elements I have used before in my art therapy practice, but in a succinct and structured format, takes on a magical energy when all put together.

Here are 2 more cards that I made last Friday in my Inner Muse Card Making Group.

" I am the one who soars towards my dreams, with childlike enthusiasm.  I am the one who holds the foundation for these dreams to become a reality.  I move towards the light as I follow the path of my life and my right livelihood to the unknown."

"I am the storyteller, the weaver of images and fantasy.  I clear the Open Meadow of your mind to allow the stories to emerge.  I encourage your Inner Child to play in that field of plenty.  I am your grandfather, telling you stories of the old country, making doll houses and murals and stirring the seeds of creativity in you, that will last throughout your life."


More to come....until next time... Ciao.

Citra Solv - Wowie Zowie

I have been thinking about playing around with creating collage paper with Citra-Solv for a while now, but since I have begun leading SoulCollage®  workshops, I have been cutting out background images for the groups obsessively as of late.  The other day I finally got together all the supplies and spent an afternoon, outside under a tree, playing with National Geographics and Citra Solv.

 Oh my goodness, did I have fun, there is a bit of a learning curve getting started, but talk about Easy Peazy...it really is a no brainer.  National Geographics....I used both older and newer and both worked.

 Rubber gloves, and newspapers outside  in the fresh air, and to prevent messes.

 Vibrantly colored images that have lots of contrast...

 Concentrated Citra Solv, a tin pan to pour it in and I used a rubber brush, but a sprayer or any brush will do.

 Dribble, brush, spray, drop or splatter  the citra solv    onto the page, move it around

 Smush the pages onto each other and leave them for a little while

 Pull up the paper as it dries, brush around a little more...or blend in areas with a brush

 and walla, absolutely stunning results....

 Some of these can stand on there own as works of art.

 Perfect for collage backgrounds, as well as SoulCollage® card backgrounds to say the least.

they are gorgeous, absolutely stunning

 So I decided to post them here, just because I am enamored with the results

 The smell is quite strong, but not unpleasant and lasts for days on the pages

 But the results are beyond belief.  Try it if you are intrigued.

I will show the  SoulCollage® card  that I used a citra solv  background in, the next time I post here.
What a blast, absolute joyful creative play, just what the doctor ordered!  Try it, I bet you'll like it as well.

The Artist's Creed

I just recently came across this wonderful testimonial to creativity by Jan Phillips, so here to inspire you is the Artist's Creed..   Enjoy!

The Artist’s Creed by Jan Phillips

I believe I am worth the time it takes to create   whatever I feel called to create.

I believe that my work is worthy of its own space,  which is worthy of the name Sacred.

I believe that, when I enter this space, I have the right to work in silence, uninterrupted, for as  long as I choose.

I believe that the moment I open myself to the gifts of the Muse, I open myself to the Source of All Creation and become One with the Mother of Life Itself.

I believe that my work is joyful, useful, and constantly changing, flowing through me like a river with no beginning and no end.

I believe that what it is I am called to do will make itself known when I have made myself ready.

I believe that the time I spend creating my art is as precious as the time I spend giving to others.

I believe that what truly matters in the making of art is not what the final piece looks like or sounds like, not what it is worth or not worth, but what newness gets added to the universe in the process of the piece itself becoming.

I believe that I am not alone in my attempts to create,and that once I begin the work, settle into the strangeness, the words will take shape, the form find life, and the spirit take flight.

I believe that as the Muse gives to me,so does she deserve from me: faith, mindfulness, and enduring commitment.                

Another Mandala - show and tell

I just recently finished this mandala, it is one  that I started at our recent mandala workshop, 

 that we taught  a few weeks ago, at the Journey Center.

The colors just make me happy, 

feel expansive

 and like my heart is stretching its wings, in new and colorful ways.

At this point in my life, I seem to only create mandala's when I facilitate a workshop, which is one of the reasons, why I love to facilitate these workshops.  I have so many creative pulls in my life right now, so I don't often have the deep satisfying pleasure of stopping the world, 

and diving into the slow and soothing process of drawing  a mandala, 

and watching it unfold and work its healing, calming magic on me. 

 So, this one will have to do for now.   Until next time.

Journey Center Mandala workshop-

Patricia and I facilitated half day, introduction to the mandala process workshop,

 at the Journey Center, in Santa Rosa  yesterday. 

 The Journey Center is a place to come for spiritual renewal, and 

we were very impressed with its beauty, energy and sense of spirit filled possibility.

 Here are the photos of the amazingly beautiful mandalas that were created in that short amount of time.

                                                Although most of them are still in  process,

                                    the experience  of creating them was  calming,

                                                                     focusing

                                                                       mindful

and filled with insight.

Hopefully, some of the women who attended will send photos of their completed mandalas.  Nevertheless, I love to share the powerful images that are created, each  mandala unique and stunning. whether complete or in process.  

This hopefully will be the beginning of doing more mandala classes at this beautiful, healing spiritual center.

Intention Sticks...or Prayer Sticks..

Last week in my Medicine ARt Group, we made Intention sticks, which are in some ways like talking sticks, but the focus is on making a three dimesnional talisman, that is a visual reminder, or fetish piece to bind to you, and the intention that you set,  for your life or your future.  

                                                               Take Time For Me

I have always been drawn to creating tangible vision pieces and the summer felt like a good time to create these organic sculptural pieces.    So here are some photos, of the ones we  made last Friday.

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All over the world, people make objects to hold and send their prayers. There are special ceremonies found in ancient cultures and practiced today, that involve the construction of ‘holders and senders’ of prayers from natural materials.Prayer carriers have many names such as Bahos (Hopi), Lung ta (Tibet), Prayer Flags, Ikupasuy or Prayer Sticks, Prayer Bundles, Prayer Trees and so on.

 There really is something very satisfying about this process, holding the stick in ones hands, and wrapping, is soothing, meditative and in a way fulfilling.

Prayer Sticks are considered a vehicle through which we can communicate to the gods. Its artful and creative manufacture was a major concern; hours of thought and energy went into making a Prayer Stick.

Prayer Sticks with feathers attached as offerings to the spirits, were largely used by the Pueblo Indians. Pueblo Prayer Sticks are usually made of cottonwood about seven inches long, and vary in shape, colour, and the feather attached, according to the nature of the petitions, and the person praying.

The prayer energy is offered into the creation of our Prayer Sticks by thinking good thoughts, or healing thoughts, or thoughts of forgiveness, or whatever our reason for offering the prayers may be. All must be done with the very best intentions.

Here is Marcella  in the studio, with her Intention Stick.

• 
• Our Process 
• we gathered sticks, wrote or painted intentions on them,  or on strips of raffia or paper and glued or wrapped those onto the sticks binding them through the our movements to the sticks..
•  Next we added paint..
• We then, wrapped fibers, yarn, copper wire, string and or raffia around the intentions,
• After that, we added beads, feathers, charms and any number of interesting adornments to the sticks..

At on one of the next times that  we meet, we will begin making pocket shrines and see where that takes us.  I love to watch what emerges for everyone in this group and also I love connecting with the women in the group, and doing art with them.  What a blessing.
Until next time.

Color Wheel Mandala - Flowering Colors

So, along with backing my newest SoulCollage® cards, framing for this Friday's Sacred Circle Mandala show, and life, I have slowly but surely working on my newest mandala.


I began this one at our last mandala workshop.   Something about working on a color wheel mandala is soothing and invigorating at the same time.  I love have a repetitive pattern to work within.  Making patterns gives me feelings of safety and comfort, without worrying or considering where or what to do next.  And blending colors, softly letting the pencil circle around and around, watching new and vibrant shades emerge, fills me with energy.

So during a busy time, I still was able to carve bits of time in my late afternoons and early evenings brining to life another mandala.  I love how this process fits so well into my life, and shifts how I feel.  It's meditative quality stops the world and lets me dive into the moment.

My  newest mandala.  Enjoy.