feather

beauty

today . . .

“Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find out how big a prize you’ve won.”    --Twyla Tharp

doodling magic

This is a page from my Beltania journal - the photo is a drawing by Dania who took the workshop, she sure has the eye for doodling!  I love to doodle, then scan the doodle and make it into paper to use in collages.  I made this paisley pattern into a full page for future tearing out and pasting down.
and nothing is more soothing than to make little pink and yellow dots.  lots of dots.
FUN!
Here is the paper I photoshopped of these doodles for future collage use:

 "A little of what you fancy does you good." --English Proverb

teaching

"We can think of ourselves not as teachers but as gardeners. A gardener does not 'grow' flowers; he tries to give them what he thinks they need and they grow by themselves."   --John Holt

Beltania

This weekend is Beltania and I will be teaching a journaling workshop.
We will make an eight page book out of two large sheets of paper with a ribbon binding, add some color, find some images, tear and glue, write and doodle, play. We will work on the idea that magic happens when you let loose of careful planning, when you just let the colors and images dance on the page, opening up your heart for surprises. Also leaving some space for later photos and ephemera will make it a wonderful little memory book from the festival.

Holy work, this creative journey is. Join us!

"In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you,
But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art." --Rumi

doodling . . . .

First some stamping. Then some marker. Then more marker. Then dots and more marker. Scan, print, play some more. Why Not?

"I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself... and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part."   --Shirley MacClain

the gift of beauty

"Real beauty is found in oneself. That's the tranquil beach. The beautiful sunset. It's not a location, the location is you. To travel is to travel inward. That's the ultimate vacation." --Miles Patrick Yohnke

go there

"If I knew where the songs came from, I would go there more often."  
--Leonard Cohen

Get moving.

I am teaching journaling today -- a makeup for some folks who missed the last journaling workshop I gave so it will be a mini-version.  And I sit here at my desk, totally in procrastination mode. . . trying to make myself at least go over my previous teaching notes.
I teach in an HOUR, yes, an hour.
From now.
SO instead of preparing, I wander over to Facebook like it's a crackpipe, while telling myself once again KEEP THAT BROWSER closed. . . .
and then onto Ze Frank's site, to see what he's up to, and LO and BEHOLD, he has started up his video show and the first episode is about procrastination and fear in the face of creating.
Thank You, Ze!
So I will share here a few of his ideas, then I will go prepare super quick for that workshop:
**being stuck between zero and one, afraid to start, let the heat of those past starts and stops be the fire under you that keeps you going.
**when the energy in your body tells you to go the the fridge and make a cheese sandwhich, that's the cheese monster talking and it will never be satisfied except with the cheese of accomplishment.
**you give the people you love chances even when they fail, extend that generosity to yourself.

and so much more -- watch this intro to his show - then go work in your journal.

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."
--Duke Ellington

Bliss, balance.

“There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”  --Rumer Godden

being an artist . . .

 

"As artists, we are free to abandon society’s directions for “correct” living. We are free to define ourselves. So when market forces threaten our image of who we are as artists (we can’t sell our novel, our poems are rejected repeatedly, our friends are forging ahead while we languish in rejection), we can abide by our culture’s estimation of our gifts, decide we are not worthy and suffer envy, or we can refocus the lens, redefine the terms. Define success for yourself. Recognize your talent, without placing it on a ladder of worst to best. You are where you are, and that’s OK. Visualize creativity as a river that flows to the sea, lifts to the sky in clouds, falls to earth in rain, and down to the sea again in rivers. An endless and nourishing cycle that we flow with- not a pile of rocks that gets handed out one by one until there is nothing left for those still standing in line. You are not in line for your chance at happiness- you are a part of the cycle of creative spirit, already immersed."     --Sara Stockden

color

"Color affects our life. Color is physical... we see it. Color communicates... we receive information from the language of color. Color is emotional... it evokes our feelings."    --Bride M. Wheelan

Some new prints for sale:

New at Etsy -- Bright happy Spring bird:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/96654210/mixed-media-art-print

going outside right now. . . .

"The earth is the earth as a peasant sees it, the world is the world as a duchess sees it, and anyway a duchess would be nothing if the earth was not there as the peasant sees it." --Gertrude Stein

women who journal

I got an interesting note from a small boutique publisher in New York who is launching a kickstarter campaign to publish an historical diary: THE JOURNALS OF MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF.

Marie was a Russian Noble teenager, who went to live in France, and wrote of her Belle Epoque experiences, she died in Paris at 25. She painted quite beautifully, and soaked in all of life in that creative time. To be able to read the thoughts and ideas of someone living at the cusp of Modernism sounds amazing, and gives us all hope that our work, although intensely personal, also creates a legacy of the time in which we live -- here is a link where you can donate as little as $1 to help this book become available: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/275178957/the-journals-of-marie-bashkirtseff

 and here is Marie:

Play in your journal

Where do you find your wisdom? I play in a journal, let the images, colors, paint and ink allow my mind to wander. I might love the image I make but even if not, I always love the sense of play and creation and freedom that working without goal or direction allows. Art for the wall is one thing, messing around in your journal is another. Make a mess, it's okay, you might find something unexpected.

“Wisdom sits in places.” --Apache Proverb

nature encourages creativity

Don't you love this time of year? Time to get outside, see the green shoots bursting through the dry soil, hear the birds singing outrageous songs of Springtime joy. Crocuses are here, it's time to clean up the debris of the Winter, get ready for the new growth of Spring. In my art, I am doing this as well, organizing and cleaning and getting ready for new work to blossom. Spring Cleaning of the Soul -- how nice to be here another season to breathe in all the blessings.

"Wildness we might consider as a route of the authentic spontaneities of any being.  It is that wellspring of creativity whence come the instinctive activities that enable all living beings to obtain their food, to find shelter, to bring forth their young, to sing and dance and fly through the air and swim through the depths of the sea.  This is the same inner tendency that evokes the insight of the poet, the skill of the artist and the power of the shaman."
--Thomas Berry

new beginnings

"Save some room in your heart for the unimaginable."
--Mary Oliver

Anais Nin