from the archives

Another year nearing the end.

I found these photos of some pages from a stack of journals in the folded book format I used for a few years. Fun to look back, and if you are a journal keeper, you have a pile, a stack, even a bookshelf full of memories to revisit.

Another advantage to this practice!

"Whether you're keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it's the same thing. What's important is you're having a relationship with your mind"
--Natalie Goldberg

Not thinking too much, just doing:

Okay, a little thinking:

Why do we journal?

Why are there diarists whose words get shared and passed on and repeated and quoted? (Anais Nin, I'm looking at you!) Because when we are brave enough to express our own inner truth, when we are brave enough to value our own experience in our own voice, when we are brave enough to know that it is a valid way to spend our work life, our leisure life, our creative life to simply express ourselves, we give a gift to everyone who happens across our work.

Sharing ourselves is not narcissistic or entitled. Sharing ourselves is a gift. We are all made of the same stardust, so why not realize that whatever our own unique voice has to say is going to connect somewhere, somehow, deeply to another bit of stardust? That maybe our little expression might compel that other bit of stardust to be brave enough to have a voice of their very own.

If you need a creative outlet, then you should have that outlet. If you need to write or collage or doodle or ink or draw or paint, if you need to sew or sculpt or express -- then it is your gift to the world to share this. You don't have to wait until it is refined or perfect or finished. It's the act of sharing that is the inspiration.

SO, friends, go out there and express yourself! I happen to do it in Midori journals with words and collage and stamps and ink.
What is your way?
What is your voice trying to say?

Share!

be a joy junkie

Being an artist is to be of service.
Being an artist is to notice.
Being an artist is to find your own authentic truth, and work to share that.

Because if you really notice, you will fall in love.
The standing people (trees), the rooted people (plants), the two leggeds (us), the four leggeds (lots of other animals), all of these beings, if you just notice them, you will love them.

and to start with loving yourself is a pretty awesome way to begin.

Relax the mind with some journaling

Yesterday I was getting ready for an interview.

So naturally I got out my journal and procrastinated!

But what a fun way to procrastinate. I started with the little watercolor painting (on the right) of flowers. Then I scanned it, and made a repeat pattern. Then printed it out, and added some washi tape, a few words, large and small, a date stamp.

My mind felt at ease and I felt good about the beauty I had created. So this is another very helpful way to get ready for an interview.

Journaling as therapy -- hooray!
and if you want to know how to make a repeat pattern in photoshop, here are the steps:

1. create an image.
2. go to filter, other, offset. Set the pixels to 1/2 size of the original image.
3. fill in the center with more of the pattern.
4. go to edit - define pattern
5. open a new image (make it pretty big so you can see lots of the pattern.)
6. edit - fill with the pattern you made.

Check in

How has it been a whole month?

I have too much going on, a book in the works, an on-line job I am busily applying for, stacks of books to read, cards to make, ornaments to construct and hang on our mantle, blah blah blah.

and Winter has set in here, cold wind, some snow, the need for hot drinks and warm sweaters which leaves me wanting to hole up in bed with a book.

So, all that is just to explain why no entries these last 4 weeks.

I miss working in my journal, and will aspire to get back to my hard-earned habit of spending time cutting and pasting and collaging and inking and writing random thoughts as they occur in my little booklets.

Namaste.

Why not be fabulous?

Chiromancy with my journals.

In my last post, I described the practice of asking a question, then picking a random journal off the shelf, and opening it up to any page and seeing if the Universe provided some special insight.

So let's give that another go, right here and now.

My area of interest I propose is: I would like insight into my work life.

So here is the random book I grabbed, looks like it is from 2003 - 13 years ago.

It is kind of a pretty book, with a beaded cover. I was so fancy back then!

and the dates are April 2003 - June 2003. So I guess I filled up that little book in just two months. I will note that this is back in the era where my writing was the focus of these journals. I had not yet fully realized the potential of collage to mine inner gems of the sub conscious, something I gradually morphed into doing in my journals.

and the words?  I was complaining about renting a movie, being unable to make it play, calling my husband and not being able to reach him.

Then a gripe about my relationship to technology.

Well, not sure the point, I love and use technology in my work all the time.

In fact, I just spent most of the day designing and producing labels for my vervain calendula soap, which goes on sale today in my Etsy shop.

So what is this Chiromancy telling me?

That maybe, sometimes, it's just a random page, I guess.


"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things."
—Steve Jobs

What is your life purpose?

I went to a Dream Workshop this last weekend.
I learned many things, but the prominent one was to focus on my life purpose.
Which I learned, is to live in joy.

"Be more literal with your dreams and more symbolic with your reality."
--Robert Moss

29 years 5 months 2 days of journals

Can you believe, this is my bookshelf full of journals?

The first entry date of the earliest journal I still have in my possession is 7 April 1987.  I was still in graduate school, I had a two year old at home, was ragged with exhaustion and overwork. The pages are filled with words, maybe a few doodles. It would be years before I started adding collage and mostly visual art to my journals.

Last night I went to a book reading by Robert Moss. He is a prolific writer about dream shamanism, the practice of re-entering your dreams to get insight and information from other realities. I love his work and have practiced this for about 6 years. I have sections of my journals devoted to recording any dreams I remember (and it is true that the more you work at remembering dreams, the more you do remember them.)

One thing he spoke about last night was the practice of bibliomancy -- when you choose a book that is meaningful to you, set an intention with a question or an idea you want insight into, and open the book to a random page, and read the first thing you see. What you are doing, in essence, is trusting the Universe to provide you magical insight. Here comes the profound part -- he said your personal journals are the most powerful choice for bibliomancy, that they are a database for your own magic, and can give the most profound and personal insight into your intentions.

Just yesterday, I was gazing over at this shelf full of journals, wondering why in the world I am so compelled to keep these logs. That for almost 30 years, I have been recording ideas, remembering dreams, making collage and saving photos and ephemera from my life, looking for some kind of insight. Frankly, it's been a huge time commitment, and I haven't seen the payback that much.

Boom.

A whole new reason to be happy I "wasted" this time. So right now, this actual minute, I am going to set an intention, and open a random journal off my shelf, and consider the meaning offered. I promise, no edits. Let's see how this bibliomancy works with my own journals.

My question: When I return from my visit back East, should I look for a paying job over the holidays?

The answer: I hit upon a page dated 7 March 2007. It is a collage of some mail art I received in response to sending a catalog I had made from a Goddess Mail Art Call. I had lots of Russian participants in this mail art project. This page documented several images from a few of the artists, as well as a request for some mail art from me for a project documenting Yelabuga, a small Russian town. It shows the back and front of the card, and three images from other mail art responses.

So how would this mail art collage answer my question?

Hmmmm.  Make more art, don't seek outside employment?

Reconnect with the mail art community?

Work on documentation of art and mail art I already have in my possession rather than spread my energy outwardly?

I am not perfectly clear what is the Universe telling me with this answer. I guess I have to work with it more.

Let's try this once more, maybe that first one was the practice . . . . .
random page:

This is from 31 January 2003. I am longing for a sunny place, like the beach. (funny because we will be going to the beach on our trip back East, so a bit prophetic.) I also talk about the below-conscious way of communicating that elephants have and how that's a bit like sending vibrations across the miles. Is this journal entry sending me information across the years? and elephants? How does this relate to me working when we return from our trip?

If my journals are indeed sending me messages from the Universe, they are a bit mysterious to me right now. Maybe this work takes practice. . . .


"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."
--Pablo Picasso

"Touch the world by being joyful in your work."

Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (Sark) said that.
and it really sunk in for me.

I often wonder what I am doing, fiddling around with collage, painting birds, lettering funky letters, re-writing inspirational sayings, interesting graphics, stamps, maps, carved erasers.

Why do we do creative work? Because it gives joy.

I listened to Sark give an hour talk about creativity and finding one's writing voice, and the real crux of the message is that we find our joy in saying something true about ourselves. And we only have to say this to one person. We don't have to tell the whole world. That's too much pressure.

Permission -- permission to do our work simply because it is what we must do. It's not about making money (we might need to earn money in another way.)

An Unangan writer (Ilarion Merculieff) said something very profound in another podcast I was listening to: "that we have to unburden our hearts before we can think clearly." That when our emotions are clogged and repressed we can't be authentically ourselves. After we allow our emotions to be acknowledged, then our brains become clear.  He said if we would just take an hour a day to either laugh or cry or both, (yes, an hour) that if we did that for a whole month every day, you would clear the ego and what would be left would be our pure divine aspect which is true love and compassion.

Forgive yourself, and let your heart rule.

Letting our creative expression be an important part of our practice is so key.
Key to joy.
Key to magic.
Key to speaking our truth.

For me, I love to fiddle around in my journal, paint a bird, splash some paint, stamp an inked eraser, glue down a stamp, add some words.

What is it for you?

. . Create . .

“Passion is one
great force
that unleashes creativity,
because if you're passionate
about something,
then you're more willing
to take risks.”
--Yo-Yo Ma

SO -- go out there
and follow your passion,
make mistakes,
see what happens!

Maybe the 1% shouldn't be calling all the shots . . . .

I recently attending the Mountain West Herb Conference in Breckinridge. It was a marvelous set of lectures, hikes, and inspirational workshops on using herbs, mostly wildcrafted, as medicines and healing agents.

I learned that 99% of the biomass of our planet is plant and tree material. In other words, all the animals (including insects) make up only 1% of the biological material in our world. Maybe we should be protecting this aspect of life! I doubt the biological balance of our planet would function without the 99% who do all the work. (sound familiar?)  I have a new appreciation for the plant allies in my garden, and I have been making journal pages honoring the attributes of the green (and brown and red and purple) friends I get to spend time there with every day.

In fact, weeding our garden is my favorite break from work -- my studio is in our walkout basement, so all I have to do is turn my head to see the beauty in our yard. Right now a purple clematis is showering the arch trellis in brilliant purple flowers. Just a glance brightens my outlook.

Here is my little ode to garlic - one of the many vegetables and herbs we enjoy:

“Garlic used as it should be used is the soul, the divine essence, of cookery.
The cook who can employ it successfully will be found to possess the delicacy of perception, the accuracy of judgment, and the dexterity of hand which go to the formation of a great artist."

--Mrs. W. G. Waters,’The Cook's Decameron’

Push your art.

This journal entry had a lot going on. Then I added more.
Then some more.
Then a bit more.
Then I loved it.
(Media used: German language book and map pages, bird painted in watercolor then scanned and printed on an old book page, washi tape, ink, marker, Tibetan textile print, carved eraser block, printed, then scanned and reproduced into the square, Anais Nin quote from book.)

"The Edge . . . . there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is, are the ones who have gone over."  -- Hunter S Thompson

Some mixed media journal joy -- color, shape, text, tape, carved eraser stamp, pattern

"I love the abstract, delicate, profound, vague, voluptuously wordless sensation of living ecstatically.”

--Anais Nin

Jump, and learn to fly.

"In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one
is doing or what one knows."   --Henri Matisse

Finding Inspiration

“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club”
--Jack London

Celebrating.

"Civilization may be unraveling in a lot of areas; some of its structures may be collapsing; but it is also in the midst of a tremendous upheaval of creativity -- a flood of innovation and genius and love pouring out of millions upon millions of people -- a Great Awakening that is far louder and stronger and more interesting than the sleepy resignation and corrosive maliciousness and ignominious decline that the media prefers to focus on."

                      --Rob Brezsny

Why not be fabulous?

"You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life."

--Walt Whitman

Yes words and No words

"Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style."

--Rebecca Solnit

Some collages

“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.” ~Junot Diaz

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart…” ~William Wordsworth

Go have some fun in your visual journal.

Two collages done today in my journal.

Just because they were fun, no deep meaning.
(and those images are photos run through a very fun app called "Dreamscope" on my iphone.)





“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
--Khalil Gibran

Fast Speed Collage

Sometimes it's fun to watch things get made.

Here is a time lapse of a collage page in my Midori Art Journal - (sorry it's a bit blurry, and maybe too fast to really see much . . . )

I started with the blank pages in my Midori insert made from a calendar, and a Buddhist tapestry. I had some images pre-cut, and others I cut and tear in the video. (Unicycle rider, jellyfishes, artichokes). I glue those things down, add some dots and words and swirls.  and there's an outline in Copic marker. I play around with a stamp and fortune cookie fortune, the fortune never finds a place.

Some notes on materials:
I use a tear bar to make straight tears on pictures, and scissors to cut them out, and I also tear with my fingers.
I use spray mount (spraying in a glue box) to make the pictures stick nicely to the paper.
I use copic markers, and a tul black gel pen for the words.
I held the pages flat with large paper clips in the upper corners.

and some composition theory - not thought of while working, it just sort of happens from experience: I used lots of red and green, compliments which make a strong compostion, lots of repeating circles, and a balance of empty and filled space. You can see me moving things around until my eye is pleased with the placement. I find it better not to "figure it out" but just to do what feels and looks good.

here goes:

and the final page:

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
--Aristotle

Blogging with my buddy, Anais Nin

I love the diaries of Anais Nin, the original blogger when spilling one's ideas was a much more private affair. She wrote with such honesty and fierceness, at a time when the things she was saying could get her put into jail. And she did intend much of these words to be published, sort of like us bloggers today. I don't think we ever again will understand how oppressive that time was (the 30's and 40's). Most of her work could not even be put into print until the 70's, when she herself was approaching her 70's. She paved the way for feminism and freedom of expression and candidness for women in their both their sexuality and creativity.

I have all the volumes of her dairies, and recently, Volume 4 fell apart at the seams, pages came tumbling out all over my desk. So I, of course, took my scissors and got to it. I found it really great to cut out passages I wanted to respond to, and write out my answers in my own journal, Anais and I, chatting away!

and I also sent some of the pages through my printer, and printed some of my watercolor sketches on them. That also, was really pleasing to do, and makes a great start for a collage on a page in my journal, or as a card to put in the mail.

Anais Nin, one of my heroes, now is in my own journal for ever, connecting me to her wisdom.
I, we all, owe her a big debt for her pioneering work.

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” —Anais Nin

How I use my Midori

I have been loving the heavy duty leather and nice durability of my Midori notebook. It is so nice to change the inserts, I have sections for written journaling, visual journaling, and record keeping Here's a little video showing how it works.

Those big fat paperclips are from Target -- pretty great for keeping it open while I work.

Find joy in your journal

Joy in journaling -- I was watching a BBC gardening show (working out my disappointment at the 6 inches of snow out my window this morning,) and there appeared a little plump robin. I froze the screen so I could get my watercolors and paint him. Then I scanned this watercolor, and printed it onto a page from an Anais Nin book. (The book had fallen apart, so the aged pages have been a nice collage base for the last few days.)

I went back to my watercolor files, and printed a bunch of animals I had painted onto pages to use in the future, so fun!

Cutting out the bird, adding some words, and then, how about some eraser stamps?  I love carving white erasers because the shapes can be so lyrical and have a look of the hand on them, and are repeatable, making nice patterns. Then some washi tape, more words, and how about some stickers?
Perhaps a rose?

Such fun, to make beauty in my journal, and on this snowy day in Colorado, two days before the Equinox, where I am wishing for more green and more birds and more gardening, this page brings me hope.

Because to find joy in your expression, isn't that the whole reason for this work?
For life itself?

“I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason.
I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me.
I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another.
No more walls.”
― Anaïs Nin