W.W.F.D.?

When in doubt, look to Frida.
Fearless, tireless, even in pain, moving forward toward expressing herself.
and we see that in her powerful and raw paintings.
She told her truth, no matter what people thought or said about it.
Today if you are wondering how to move forward in your creative life, ask your self what would Frida do?

"If you become more sensitive to beauty, to poetry, that means your love has blossomed. And all the energy that has been left by fear, anger and hate, will be taken over by your love, your sensitivity, your compassion, your creativity. This is the whole alchemy of changing base metals into gold." --Osho

I finished a Journal:

This is a torn watercolor paper handbound journal. First I tore two large watercolor sheets into three 22" strips, so each page ends up having a fold-out.
I bound the 6 pages with a simple pamphlet binding, then added paint.
When dry, I collaged with ephemera, photos, stencils, lettering, paint, and odds and ends from the scrap paper pile.
You might have seen some of the individual images in previous posts, but I wanted you to see how the whole journal looks, with the pages opening out.
Although I started with the intention of making travel the subject, lots of owls seemed to creep in.
Go Figure.

Thanks to Teesha Moore for sharing this technique!

(and thanks Neil Young for the background music.)

awareness

How much of our lives do we just cruise on auto-pilot, not even aware of the details all around us?
In the garden this morning, I had to stop and admire a little brown spider squarely resting in the middle of a perfect octagonal web, all the fine filaments catching the early sun. What a beautiful work of architecture it was.
This chant is a great way to start the day:
Morning Sun
Morning Sun
Come my way
Come my way
Morning Sun
Morning Sun
Light my day
Light my day.
I hope you have a blessed and AWARE day today!

"I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said "I'd like some fries."
The girl at the counter said, "Would you like some fries with that?"
--Jay Leno

experiments

My newest journal is entitled experiments.
I am trying to do some new things, and let the page just move where it moves without too much mental interference and carefulness.
I already have some messy strange pages, but I am moving on, hoping to find something original and magic in the exhuberance of not knowing what I am doing.
I will share the not so great pages here, so see what you think.
Judgement really does dampen the work, so I am trying to leave my head behind. . . .

"The glass I drink from is not large, but at least it is my own." --Alfred de Musset

why visual journal?

Meld into the work.
Let it flow from the inner truest place of you.
Don't think about how it looks or who will see it.
As you do the practice on and on and on, some inner truth emerges.
Some connectedness.
Sometimes the pages thrill me, other times I wonder what it was all about.
But the total of the work is so revealing and pleasing.
My journaling is part of my spiritual practice.
and it shows me things I just don't know how to see otherwise.
Thank Goddess for Journaling.

"I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision." --Henry David Thoreau

expression = joy

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." --Rabindranath Tagore

"When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy." --Rumi

balance.

"Logic and intellect can take an artist to the dance, but intuition and creativity are the dance itself." --Gregory Packard

what do you see when you make your art?

"I have the feeling that I've seen everything, but failed to notice the elephants." --Anton Chekhov

looking at the natural world

"To look at a thing is very different from seeing it." --Oscar Wilde

I've been in the garden.

The colors are just starting to change, and lots of clean up is happening. The colors are just stunning, and I am so happy to be outside with cool air and bright sun. I had to share these bits here, more journaling pages will come soon, and some of these images just might sneak into my journal.
When in doubt, go outside!





"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses." --Hanna Rion

Today.

"Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through, and be silent." --Rumi

more owls.

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." --William Wordsworth

Why are we here?

Listening to Christina Pratt talking to Stephan Beyer about finding joy in life in a podcast, Christina shared a beautiful story of working with Tom Cowan at a Shamanic retreat. Asking the Spirit of a Place what they should do, the Place said "sing the song of this place, when all life was in balance and harmony." They answered "we don't know that song."
"Yes, you do," said the Spirit of that Place.
Tom Cowan thought to a time he felt deeply lovingly connected to Nature, and said, "oh, I guess I do know that song."
SO - we DO know the joy of connection with Nature.
We DO know the joy of service to others, being with people we love, channeling Spirit in a way that we know deeply we are connected and in right relation to all life.
This deep joy of connection and love IS THE STORY we need to remember and focus on.
It should be our work.
Accumulating possessions - what a waste of time and our life energy.
It is the love connection that lasts.
All else will rust and rot and decay and go away.
Working in my art journal helps me connect and feel that joy.
What do you spend your time on?
That is what you value.

"For the 99 percent of the time we've been on Earth, we were hunter and gatherers, our lives dependent on knowing the fine, small details of our world. Deep inside, we still have a longing to be reconnected with the nature that shaped our imagination, our language, our song and dance, our sense of the divine." --Janine M. Benyus

time in the garden

"My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view." -- H.Fred Ale

just because I like the colors.

"If a little is not enough for you, nothing is." --Epicurus

What did you see today?

“It has always seemed hopeful that people passing the same spot of earth, on the same day, at the same time in their lives, could have utterly divergent experiences. Other people have gone where I have gone, and met some the magic beings I knew, but it wasn’t in their destinies to experience what I did. There are layers of realities before us, behind us, around us, and in us, and we stay in a layer no matter how far we travel until the spirit admires our courage and grace and allows us to sprout into another zone of experience.”
--Martin Prechtel

research

"You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." --Kafka

t o d a y .....

"The only thing we need to know: go outside." --Joanna Harcourt-Smith

like trees . . . .

Make your art, no matter the outcome.

"Like trees, authors [artists] can't worry too much about what gets done with their fruit. They can only try to make fruit that inspires. Where their peaches end up is none of their business.
Some end slowly savored by lovers of life, while others are rudely consumed by greedy flocks of wild geese who chomp it all down, forget it, and look for more elsewhere.
The remainder usually rots into humus that feeds the old tree again to make more fruit. But a very few reseed themselves and grow into flowering trees in their own right."
--Martin Prechtel

in the flow.

Lately I have had many closed doors; teaching jobs, graphics clients, galleries, even workshops and selling my books -- lots of starts but nothing really taking off and flourishing in a way that makes me feel like I am on the right path.
Five galleries since I moved to Colorado have embraced my work, yet, there were very minimal sales, and not much support once the work is on the wall.
I have tried pushing other outcomes, and they just seem to dry up.
There has been lots of frustration, fear, and doubts as many of my ideas don't lead to anything that "works".
In life, I know we knock at many doors, and when one opens, we decide if we want to go through and take that path. My last few years have been lots and lots of knocking in lots of different places.
I am listening to what works, and for now, just working in my journal, gardening, and taking care of my health is what the water seems to be flowing toward.
I have tried pushing other outcomes, and they just seem to dry up.
So I am, instead, going with the flow of personal journaling, and taking care of myself.
So much of what we hear is to just believe and make things happen, to relentlessly push for an outcome if we want something. The self-help philosophies in books like The Secret seems to say if we believe hard enough, it will come to pass.
But I would like to believe in the right thing.
I want to walk in correct relationship with all life.
I want to walk knowing I am on the RIGHT path, not just the path that feeds my own ego.
The goal is not for worldly success for me right now, as much as I would like my work to be seen and appreciated.
The goal is to do what I am called to do, and do it always in right relationship,
and the teaching/selling/showing path has not been so abundant for me lately.
What is working now are these pages, and working outside with the plants.
So that's where I will be.
You?

"Four Rules For Life: Show up. Pay attention. Tell the truth. Don't be attached to the results." --Angeles Arrien