Generosity

I had a marvelous vacation at Hatteras, NC, a peninsula of ocean land 30 miles out in the Atlantic from the mainland.  Besides reading, gathering shells, sitting on the beach, a bit of yoga, and eating amazing seafood, I got to do a bit of nothing.
 It was glorious.
The fullness of life is there for us; happiness is a choice.

I am committed to using my thoughts to always create positive energy for myself and anyone I am in contact with.  Our thoughts affect the very small events in our day, which can shift our own attitude, shift others around us, and thus shift the world.
Why not choose joy?

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?
Why would you refuse to give this gift to anyone?
Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups.
They swim the huge fluid freedom.
-Rumi

What is your journal for?

Life is so complicated, there are so many choices and pressures. I sometimes am so overwhelmed with all those plans to make, lists to fulfill, dreams to realize. I am so convinced that working in my journal really does help me get where I need to go.

I can loosen up and just explore ideas.
I can write out dreams and goals.
I can mess around and fantasize about crazy possibilities.
I can just take a break from all the striving and have some fun.

Keeping a journal can and should be a tool for all theses ways of exploring what and who and where and why you are here on this planet. So much of life pushes us to fall into an expected pattern, to drive us to be mindless cogs in a wheel of civilization that makes us consume, work to pay, consume, work to pay.
All of it a bit mindlessly.

I want to have clear intention in my life. My journal really help me create this. Everyday.
Try it.

“The Universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts - it gives you what you demand with your actions.” --Steve Maraboli

Waiting

Sometimes, my journal is about words.

 I have been in a long fallow period, waiting to hear about a job (I did not get it), waiting to see where my work will take me. It takes so much trust to know you can just be, and not be making and doing all the time, and that it is okay to be with the space, to not struggle or strive or despair . . . that sometimes the long spaces of life just need to happen. To know that the cup must become empty before it can be filled.

I worked on a series of collagy-watercolory owls last year, I had 12 that I liked enough to be a calender, and a publisher, through my rep, is looking at them. and as I wait for an answer, there are numerous other things to do, but somehow I am still in the waiting mode. I applied for a job, had an interview, waited, waited, waited to see how much my life might change. For my art's sake, it was better not to get this job. I will pick up the watercolors soon (next week!!!) but for now, I think the waiting has been okay.

A philosopher, Meno, once asked: "How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?" Sometimes the hidden and mysterious take patience to discover, and all the busyness we think we are supposed to constantly inhabit can result in missing a subtle quiet whisper of what is to come next. My journal is the place I can release the words of wondering, insecurity about what I am to do, lists of maybes and what-ifs and intentions. and once I've done this, done the day-dreaming (and night dreaming) and setting intentions and goals and planning paths, I can sit and see what happens next.

I am waiting.

"Certainly for artists of all stripes, the unknown, the idea or the form or the take that has not yet arrived, is what must be found. It is the job of an artist to open doors and invite in prophesies, the unknown, the unfamiliar, it's where their work comes from, although its arrival signals the beginning of the long disciplined process of making it their own." --Rebecca Solnit

done at our monthly journaling group

"Oh soul, you worry too much. You have seen your own strength. You have seen your own beauty. You have seen your golden wings. Of anything less, why do you worry? You are in truth the soul, of the soul, of the soul."
--Rumi

Finding new ideas

This journal page is from Guillermo del Toro's concept art for a movie. Lots of creatives think by drawing, and an art journal is the perfect place to do this. The biggest hurdle is often worrying what the page looks like. Make a bunch of messy pages, add some ugly drawings, and you will be much freer in your work. and after you've filled a bunch of sketchbooks, look back through them, scan some pages, and collage into another book.

Repeat.

Seriously fun, and this always helps me come up with new ideas.

"The creation of an art collage from the soul is an inner journey that allows your soul to speak to you. Your soul's voice can be heard through the images, feelings and insights that surface..." --Kathleen Carrillo

 "Rapid-collage prevents any elevating movement toward a fixed goal. To 'be nowhere' is to let oneself be." --Josh Goldberg

 "Collage is like a hall of mirrors. Every direction you look, you see something different and visually stimulating." --Nita Leland

 "Collage is the twentieth century's greatest innovation." --Robert Motherwell

some things I admire

a volcano (Nature's power), Frida, a circle of women, Mary Oliver

"I live in nature where everything is connected, circular. The seasons are circular. The planet is circular, and so is the travel of the planet around the sun ... The ancient people understood that our world is a circle... Do people live in circles today? No. They live in boxes." --Eustace Conway

regrets

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
-Alexander Graham Bell

patience

A new moon teaches gradualness and deliberation,
and how one gives birth to oneself slowly.
Patience with small details makes perfect a large work, like the universe.
What nine months of attention does for an embryo
forty early mornings alone
will do for your gradually growing wholeness.
--Rumi

to make art is to be filled

What was said to the rose
that made it open
was said to me
here in my chest

What was told to the cypress
that made it strong and straight

What was whispered to the jasmine

So it is what it is
whatever made sugarcane sweet
whatever was said
to the inhabitants of the town of Chugill in Turkistan
that makes them so handsome

Whatever lets the pomegranate flower
blush like a human face
that is being said to me now

I blush
whatever put eloquence in language
that's happening here

The great warehouse doors open
I fill with gratitude
chewing a piece of sugarcane
in love with the one
to whom every "that" belongs

What was said to the rose
that made it open
was said to me
here in my chest.

RUMI

reverent owl

"The goal of life is rapture. Art is the way we experience it."   --Joseph Campbell

a new fun tool

For my birthday, I received a magnificent set of Derwent Inktense pencils from my Mother-in-law. They really are fun, you draw a simple pencil drawing, but then when you add water, and the colors just jump right out. Having fun tools really makes art easier to be happy with. I can scan this fish, print a bunch, then use it in a multi-fish collage in my journal. (Repeating fish makes sense, since they hang out in bunches, ya know?)

and also, noticing how very beautiful life is, it's fun to try to get those colors to be as lively as they are in real life. Livelier, perhaps.

"We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again." --Rumi

Got Journalers' Block?

When stuck, do this:
1. put some color on a page
2. tear out some magazine images that attract you, glue them down here or there.
3. tear out some similarly colored images, and tear them into strips. glue randomly around the page as a border.
4. now write in large letters: FIFTY THINGS
5. list 50 things you love and are grateful for. Works every time.

"Do you think I know what I'm doing? That for one breath or half a breath I belong to myself? As much as a pen knows what it is writing It may be the satisfaction I need depends on my going away So that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home." --Rumi

dreaming/journaling

This is a collage done with various bits and pieces that were just hanging around my desk, an old envelope from Hong Kong, a sketch of an owl, some stamps, a translation page from a guidebook, some tissue paper, spray from an ink spray bottle. I printed out part of it for the cover of a little journal I am working on using dreams as part of my art practice.

I have been listening to Robert Moss talking about using our dreams to connect to the universal consciousness of the multiverse. He has written nine books on the subject, and really, all are wonderful. I have been writing down my dreams for years, but just for two years, I have been recording them in a dream journal. I believe his idea that our deeper Soul-self has messages to give us, and that it can use dreams to bring this information to us. Also that, in the multiverse, there are many realities that in dream-time can overlap and vibrate in an informational way.  Exploring this information and asking it to lead us toward a higher truth for ourselves is a very fun and magical path to follow.

For me, journaling also helps to unlock part of the puzzle of the soul's journey.  The words, the images, the strong feelings we get from certain collages help me to connect the dots, and I feel like I have discovered something deeper, it doesn't just feel like a pretty picture or interesting phrase.  Synchronicites can be found, and some sense of connection and revelation when I do work in my journal with my dreams.

It all seems connected - journaling, dreaming, shamanic work . . . . and how fun to open our minds and souls to finding the deeper/truer meaning all around us.

"The same thing happens when you realize that ordinary life is a dream, just a movie, just a play. You don't become more cautious, more timid, more reserved. You start jumping up and down and doing flips, precisely because it's all a dream, it's all pure Emptiness. You don't feel less, you feel more - because you can afford to. You are no longer afraid of dying, and therefore you are not afraid of living. You become radical and wild, intense and vivid, shocking and silly. You let it all come pouring through, because it's all your dream.

 Life then assumes its true intensity, its vivid luminosity, its radical effervescence."
 --Ken Wilber

Have you journaled today?

"If I do good, I feel good, if I do bad, I feel bad." --Abraham Lincoln

Synchronicities.

Standing in line, waiting to get on the Southwest flight that took me to Surtex in NYC, I chatted with a very cute gal, and the topic went to our work and why we were headed to the city. Little did I know she was also an artist, Linda Schneider, and was on her way to the city to teach a calligraphy class.

Later on the flight, I woke up to the adorable little Chinese boy next to me saying a lady wanted me to have this notepaper. Linda had calligraphed (is that a verb?) a little note with my name, and the words "dream art." I don't remember mentioning to her my deep interest in dreaming, but maybe she had a chance to check my website? It felt quite magical. The words were so beautifully lettered, that I immediately glued them in a the journal page I had started working in on the plane.

Thanks, Linda! What a synchronistic way to start my adventure in New York!
and her beautiful, flowing and very elegant work is HERE.

"Reason is like an officer when the king appears. The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun." --Rumi

What do you look at?

What do you put into you imagination? I don't watch the news, I surf (mostly) uplifting places on the internet, because why fill your head with pictures of sadness, violence, evil, anger? Oh, that means the news! I read some headlines and listen to NPR a bit so I am informed, but most of the other news is either misplaced sensationalism, or silly celebrity gossip. None of that helps me to be a better human on the planet.

There is so much beauty out there, let's look at that, and make more of it.

"The practice of imagination, on an everyday basis, involves clearing unhelpful images that block or misdirect our energies, and choosing to focus on positive, mobilizing imagery that gives us courage and confidence." - Robert Moss, The Three 'Only' Things

All working together:

"You're a star -- and so am I. I'm a genius -- and so are you. Your success encourages my brilliance, and my charisma enhances your power. Your victory doesn't require my defeat, and vice versa.
Those are the rules in the New World -- quite unlike the rules in the Old World, where zero-sum games are the norm, and only one of us can win each time we play.
In the New World, you don't have to tone down or apologize for your prowess, because you love it when other people shine. You exult in your own excellence without regarding it as a sign of inherent superiority. As you ripen more and more of your latent aptitude, you inspire the rest of us to claim our own idiosyncratic magnificence.

"Tibetan Buddhist teacher Geshe Chekawa (1220-1295) specialized in bodhicitta, seeking enlightenment not for personal gain but as a way to serve others. On his deathbed, he prayed to be sent to hell so that he might alleviate the suffering of the lost souls there.
As you explore pronoia, you will discover that like Chekawa, you have a huge capacity to help people. Unlike him, you'll find that expressing your benevolence doesn't require you to go to hell. It may even be unnecessary for you to sacrifice your own joy or to practice self-denial. Just the opposite: Being in service to humanity and celebrating your unique power will be synergistic. They will need each other to thrive."

--Rob Brezsny
bit.ly/YouStarYou

Update

I have just returned from a visit to New York to attend the Surtex Trade Show, an event that lets reps show their artists' work to people who buy licenses for things like fabrics, wrapping paper, calenders, paper goods, cards, and all that fun stuff. My reps had a booth, and a banner with my work, and ipads set up with portfolios. (They put one of my designs as the ipad skin!)

All of this was very exciting and inspiring, but most of all, I enjoyed the conversations with various other artists who do what I do. Some of them have been doing it for decades, and I met several who were just so generous and open with their ideas. Others were cute young things, right out of school, who had invested someone's life savings to start up a design business, and it was super fun to chat with them, too, to see their fresh work and starry eyes. (and creative displays!)

The world of licensing is new for me. Rather than being out selling my work, I have been here on-line, showing the world my journal pages, and making collages for I think over ten years. I was selling cards and originals in galleries and craft fairs, on-line, and certainly to friends and family. Little local things that made a few hundred dollars, and involved me hand making all my own inventory. I knew the world of licensing existed, I just had no clue how to break in. The funny thing is, this timing is now perfect for me. I think if it had happened earlier, my work would not have been ready. For better or worse, maybe I have a slow learning curve, but it really did take me the last ten years of journaling and making collages to find my own style, and develop my own voice as an artist. Now, I feel ready. At Surtex, I had so much positive feedback, it was one of the more uplifting four days of my life.

and I must mention my amazing reps at Parcai, Teresa and Lainey.  They are simply such classy ladies, smart, professional, hard working, and deeply kind.

Usually gallery shows leave me exhausted, depressed, and wanting to quit selling art. This left me eager to get back to the studio and get to work! I have a few calender requests I am putting together right now, and other ideas in the making. So, I guess I am sharing all this here to say, thank you to my art journaling, a slow turtle like me is actually hitting the design world with my own style, personal and unique, and coming straight from my heart. Who knew at age 51, I would figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up?! Passion, maybe is a key to success, and I think I have that. I love what I am doing, and I am happy with my art.

What a blessing to be doing this work with such great people.

 "The road to success is not a path you find but a trail you blaze." --Robert Brault

reading . . . .

For Mother's Day, I think I will go to Tattered Cover (best independent book store in Denver) and enlarge my to-read pile.
Suggestions welcomed!

“He took up books as if they were people and welcomed them into his family.”    --Michel de la Montaigne

working.

 “The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up & get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part & a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you."  --Chuck Close.