AND SO IT BEGINS

Sometimes, you realize the journey

 has already started

 and you are on your way.

 So, I write it down 9 times.

NOW

STILL IN THE BLACK AND WHITE GARDENS

I can't stop these.  When I am drawing these, it's effortless, it's soothing and even mesmerizing to just let
the pen flow onto the paper.  I love tapping into the creative juices.  Using black and white and no color,
it focuses your attention on design instead of color.  I do so love color.  But this kind of drawing for me stimulates my creativity and design.  Using black and white patterns reminds me of a quilt with mixed patterns.  I am actually playing with an idea to take these sketches somewhere.  Still just a dialogue between me and the universe at this point, so can't say more.  But most of all, I am having so much fun.
And staying in the NOW when I do these.  ta..

MORE DOODLES

Another evening's worth of doodles.  I think the movie Avatar has left it's mark on me.

I loved the plants in that movie so I am dreaming up my own garden.

BLACK AND WHITE FANTASY GARDEN

Did two doodles sitting watching tv in the evening.  I love to draw and am keeping my sketch book handy to keep up the drawing especially in the evenings.  It's soothing to me.  This is the result of two seperate sketches that I did, then scanned into photoshop and joined them together.  I love the whimsey and this might evolve into a painting on the large canvas that is sitting patiently in my studio.
  But NOW I have to jump into work....  ta
note the 999 in the doodle... I am seeing a lot of 999 lately.. which signifies completion of an important chapter in my life and now it's time to get to work - without procrastination - on my nest life chapter.  This number sequence is like an alarm clock, ringing loudly in order to talk me into working on my life purpose.  (from Angel Numbers 101)  I have always had numbers appear on a regular basis in my life.   And besides the 999 number coming up a lot lately, other signs are coming to me. It's an exciting time and I am working on a new adventure.
More on that later...

ALWAYS, ALWAYS KISS ME GOODNIGHT

Getting in the mood for Valentine's Day.  NOW I  wish I had this bed for real.  I love it..

xoxoxo

ta

STAYING WARM ON A COLD SNOWY MORNING

EARLY PREDAWN.. FEELS SO GOOD.

Willie sitting under the desklamp, warming his back..  he is loving the warmth.  Snowing lightly this a.m.

and I am jumping into a full on art morning creating some new tropical designs with luscious Hawaiian music in the background.  Thinking I will stoke up the wood buring stove this morning here in my studio.

Thinking of lots of new marketing ideas. Did some serious brain storming on the phone this morning with my sweet daughter who happened to up at 3:30 in the morning hawaii time.  Loved our chat.  Miss her good energy.  She is  such an inspiration in my life.

Saw Avatar last night with Dan.  Not to be missed.  As an artist and a believer of spirit, the movie

was soooo incredible.  All the good things I have heard about the movie, pales to the heights this movie took me.  You cannot miss this one.....

NOW off to create my intention for  new ART for Lunar!

ta

WISDOM

This is the 2nd in the series of 12 for the Scavenger Project. "Wisdom" was my title, and I used the thought of the heart for wisdom.  My words on the canvas say:

"With Wisdom in the Heart, the mind can hold onto the Sacred within.  Keep the Heart full."

NOW

I can move onto #3.

ta

NEW SERIES FOR A BOOK PROJECT

I started on my 12 pieces of art for the Scavenger Project - My first title I was given is LOST AT SEA..  And I am ready to move to my 2nd one.  I used tissue paper over the initial loose painting crinkled and applied with  gel medium.  Then I proceeded to paint the blues in.  I wanted her vague and nearly invisable.... lost. I avoided a dark theme because if you are lost, it isn't always a negative thing.  It can simply mean you are not where you need to be.  I used dictionary pages torn in strips to create the sea weed and added more elements of paint.  I could go further with this, but don't have the time. 
  I am doing the project for the creative stimulation and for the fun of seeing the finished published book that will feature the art.  It will be interesting to see the different takes the artists use with the like themes.  Something we do locally sometimes for our Wild Women shows.  We dub it our collaboration corner.  It is a really great example of how the creative muse takes each of us in a different or sometimes like direction.
  We don't get these pieces of art back.. where they eventually end up, who knows!!!  So I have kept the size down to 9 x 12 canvas panels --  economically feasible plus easy/lightweight to ship.
  NOW only 11 more to go.  My deadline April 15. 

ta

WHY WALK WHEN YOU CAN CARTWHEEL?

YES!

I do like this tagline mucho better. 

 NOW I am happy with this design.

YES!

YES I CAN!

A morning's work illustrating the JOY of saying YES!  I did the mountains out of fabric and the snow tops

cut watercolor paper.  It gave the mountains some depth. I am still thinking of the tagline options, but like the

positive affirmation of YES>  might not leave the I can.  Still thinking about it.

But for NOW

I need to get on the road for a trip to take my mom to the Dr.

ta

MORE CARDBOARD RECYLE ART

I found some lovely cardboard.  I know, that sounds funny.  But, I am a recycle artist at heart.  I love taking something that someone would normally discard, and re-invent it into art.  It makes my heart smile, it makes the planet smile and it is just a feel good way to create.  What made this cardboard great?   it's thick and it has a nice linear texture.  So when you apply paint with an old credit card, a nice linear pattern appears.

These are just in the beginning stages.  And I am not certain exactly where they are going.  I love to work

from the heart, not the mind, so I will trust these pieces will go on their own journey with a little help from me.
I started by cutting the shapes and actually stitching them together with my sewing machine using a zigzag stitch.  I loved the sound of the sewing machine needle punching through the cardboard!

 

And heartbreaking news this morning.  I am making cardboard houses and listening to the news from Haiti about the huge earthquake and the hundreds of casualities.  If only I could magically send these cardboard houses to that island to be transformed into actual houses.  If only.

NOW

I must get to work making a living. :)

ART for NANCYE

I did this small art piece for a woman named Nancye.  I am a member of a delightful mixed media art NING group and we recently learned that one of our members/administrators of this group is undergoing cancer treatment and has surgery coming up.   I received a note from one of her fellow administrators about Nancye's cancer and she was asking if we could send her get well wishes.  I suggested we take it a step further and send her some healing mail art. So I worked on this piece this morning.  I used thick cardboard for the house shapes.  I cut 3 pieces from the cardboard and then machine zigzaged the pieces together.

I painted the house with greens and turquoise and white acrylic paint.  The roof and the sun are cut from

fabric.  The flowers are fabric sculpt using Mod Podge for stiffening and shaping.  The wings were those

gold cloth craft wings that I painted white and attached to the back of the cardboard house.  The heart of the

door is wood painted and embossed with a clear embossing.  I attached a hanger on the back so the piece is ready to hang.

And of course, I decided after I finished this piece, I could easily put the art on a nightshirt for Nancye.

So now she will have the original art plus a nice comfy nightshirt to enjoy wearing while she recovers from her surgery.  I hope this brightens her day and lightens her load. 

So NOW I have created a loving gift and will send it on to Nancye in Minnesota!  And if you are reading this, please say a little prayer for Nancye to heal!

ta

RECYCLED WOOL SAMPLE RUG

Here's a project that I have tucked in my closet for over 6 months~~~

I scored these really expensive highend 100% wool rug samples from my friend for CHEAP!  She had bought a big pile of them from a cool local home store and shared them with me.  I choose 9 of them keeping the colors complimentary and a nice mix of patterns.  These measure 12 inches square and I laboriously handstitched them together on the back edges yesterday afternoon.  I used a very strong upholstery thread with a wonderful large curved needle that was a real finger saver for this project.  It took me about 3 hours to stitch it by hand.  I just didn't think my sewing machine could handle the thickness, plus I wanted to control the connections.  I stitched heavily to create a secure bind.

I love recycle.  Look at this great rug idea.

  I thought it would fun to create a border of some heavy fabric around the outer edges, but that will have to wait for another day.  For now, it looks great as is.  Most of all, I love the look of the various patterns.. funky..  Plus the amazing quality of the wool rugs makes this piece even more great at such a FABULOUS price!  Ya gotta love a good score! 

I had to work on making the corners connect as good as I could given that the squares weren't perfect.  I sometimes had to try all 4 corners to find the best fit.  But here you can see the wonderful nap of the wool and cool colors.
   NOW I am happy to have checked off one of my long overdue projects of my list!
ta!

THINK BIG (now)

This might be considered a serious plug, but I have been trying out green teas now for several years.  I have a cupboard FULL of different teas.  I try to drink the tea without sugar but if it is just too BLAHHHH-UCKY

I will use honey.  The only tea I can drink sans sweet is licorce tea.  So imagine my thrill, when I found this green tea and found it sooo yummy, I do not need any sweetner with it.  It's so good I can easily drink 2-3 cups a day. And that's a good source for natural antioxidants!

 So!

NOW

ya know!

ta

plus I love Celestial's illustrations on their boxes, don't you?

NEW ON ETSY

Lots of angels!  I just listed three paper mache angels on my etsy site.. they are all ready to hang and will
ENLIGHTEN your life! 

Also the found object DADA angel is also listed.  A sweet fellow with the sweetest face, don't you think?

NOW

I have decided my WORD for 2010 is NOW.

I am forever procrastinating. Have a list of somedays todo a mile long that just seems to grow with each passing year. so my word is

NOW


because what in the world am I waiting for?

ORANGES ON A SNOWY DAY

Here is my attempt at using Citrasolv to alter magazine pages. I found this method in the latest issue of Cloth, Paper Scissors and decided to give it a try. It's quite smelly... the orange cleaner is pretty strong. I didn't find that offensive, but certainly my studio will be
orange smelling all day, if not for longer! It's all natural: says it's made from a clear liquid peel of the orange and also an essential oil blend
and biodegradeable cleaning agents derived from coconuts. hmmmmm.

It is messy, so be prepared to have stack of newspapers handy. Also it will wreck your manicure, but as an artist I never have manicures...


another note: be sure the pages don't touch as they dry.. because it will dry stuck. I did find the pages would dry on newspaper which eliminated the runs I got when I hung the papers on the clothesline.

fun morning! Next will do some art and show the results in a week or so.

GOOD INTENTIONS

This is about Good Intentions.  This is about offering feedback and then having the door closed in your face.

If you are going to start a NING network of friends with like minds, BRAVO for you.  But please, be prepared to give.  And please, know that some of your members are not going to jump in with all four feet and participate.  Some of them are quiet observers, rather by their own personal choice or their own limit of free time.   And oh, this NING network???? is NOT about you.  It's about sharing.  Not just your sharing, but all the members in your group sharing together.  Sharing, you know, giving without expecting anything back? 
 
I have to say I am not a good groupie follower.  If I join something, it's to just enjoy the feeling of like minds... you know the group as a WHOLE.  If I choose not to chime in, contribute, or partake, that's my choice.  But being banned if I don't actively contribute?  I am not sure if this is a common practice in these NING networks, I sure hope not.  I would like to think the administrators are more generous than that. 

This reminds me of a shop I visited years ago.  I was in love with the "stuff" and bought some.  I went back often and bought now and then.  But the overriding question in my mind was, what in the heck was this girl doing owning a shop?  Because she was anything but welcoming.  She complained, she bitched, she was obviously not having a good time.  And I thought, boy, this shop is doomed.  If you don't love it. it will tumble.  And that's life right?  And of course, the shop failed.  As has this NING...  Who wants to be around
someone who is cranky?  Not me.  There are many other more positive places to hang out, thank you very much.

 So ban away dearest.  I rather play nice with nice people.  Nice people don't BAN...


ta

WELCOME 2010!

I think the hardest thing is that everyone wants to be good, to master everything in a weekend workshop. Painting is a lifelong process, and instead of worrying about making the perfect painting, you need to paint a lot."
-- Patti Brady, Director Golden Working Artists Program

SO.  New Year.  Wipe the slate clean.  Take everything off my VISUAL INTENTION board.
Start over.  Rethink.  Plan.  Envision.  Believe.  Expect.  Do.  Be Brave.  Now.  I want to choose a word that will continue to inspire me through this new year.  And I think NOW is it.
But I want to focus on my visual board and do my first journal page for 2010 and then see what word bubbles up and grabs my heart. 
Because when I am stewing over problems, I tend to sleep.  And I need to stay AWAKE...
be aware and open up my arms for new possiblities.  To start a broad vista of adventures.

I love the new year for this.   I can step into whatever.