babies, children, life, and love ~ day 2

the days march on
i dance through
i plod through
i dance through

anger interrupts
i dance through
i dance toward the light

unconditional love
surrounds me
i dance within
i dance through

sadness interferes
i allow it
the tears bring
healing
i dance through
i dance toward the light

love over all
i dance within
i dance through
i dance toward the light

 

 

"Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby

Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star

And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why, can't I?"

                                               by E. Y. Harburg

autumn ramblings 11

this is a post i wrote weeks ago. since then much has changed. there has been very little time to create. someday i will get back to it with a renewed energy. for now i will share this.

 rolling through these days trying to get some sense of Christmas approaching ~ feeling discomfort at times.

and so I continue to create.

to this stage in time there was very little creating with this piece. I had acquired the original very dark pastel creation probably from my daughter. I believe she got it many years ago from a visiting pastel artist at her school. I had found it rolled up in the basement in a piece of craft paper. hastily one evening as I was preparing for a visitor I hung it on a wall in one of my basement creative spaces. then I realized how dark the piece was, how very abstract. not really what I wanted hanging on my walls. besides, there were so many possibilities. and so I began. the above pictured is with a number of layers of white chalk added.

another evening I chose to grab a piece of charcoal and sketch this face. the portrait was created using a reference from Misty Mawn's Open Studio class. I find my art being greatly influenced by her teachings even after eleven months. truly I have not had nearly as much time in this past year to be creating as what I had hoped. but the lessons will remain with me. and a great dream I have would be to one day participate in Misty's class in Orvieto. a dream ~ but I do believe that dreams can come true. as a dear friend strongly believes "If you can dream it ~ you can do it."  Walt Disney

so with pieces of charcoal flying as the piece was hung on the wall ~ the lovely lady appeared. 

I gave the piece more depth and feeling with darker lines. now she appears on my wall, yet another piece totally inspired by Misty, but with very much my own twist.

self portrait practice

a painting exercise for class

I have decided to finally, I think, call this good enough and move on to more painting. I believe the paper was giving me the main problems making colour blending extremely difficult. Part of what this class was about ~ being loose. I was not. I was becoming extremely tense with each time I tried to work on it. I finally have this at a place where I feel I can share, but please do not linger with studying it. There are far too many things wrong.

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

                                                                       Oscar Wilde 
 
I will choose to move onto something else and to work with more wonderful advice from our teacher                                                     
                                                  practice, practice, practice.

Monday mingle

Week Three

At times I feel the need to pull myself out of the monotones, the muted, the sometimes darkness in my creating. I return again and again to some of these favourites to become inspired. At times, I also find some new pastels and cheery spots to feel warmed and full of energy.

Here are some of my favourites from a time back, as well as a couple of more recent finds. For some of the links I direct you to a specific post so as to show the maximum taste of colour. Please find the home pages for each, as these are all spectacular artists with so much to offer. Enjoy.

A) Pam Garrison
B) Christy Tomlinson
C) Mindy Lacefield aka Tim's Sally
D) Traci Bautista
E)  Alisa Burke

My own play with colour ~ art journal page backgrounds with a decorated paintbrush.

laugh

laugh out loud. laugh a little. laugh a lot.

A new art journal spread ~ continuation of wanting to paint. Continuation of the brights and pastels. This one was fun with lots of rub-ons. I keep forgetting about them until I watch a journaling video and get the urge to dig through my selection. I have also determined an art supply which I actually can use more of. That does not happen very often. My stash of most art supplies is huge, but I love to shop for more.
Rub-ons are so fun to scratch on while I am trying to reach my Mom on the phone and when I am talking with her. I also did some of the sketching here with the pink gel pen while I was speaking on the phone. I really do not like having to talk on the phone much, but this makes the phone conversations easier.

Almost forgot to mention that I was reminded of tape transfers by my friend Dale Anne. She challenged us to do a tape transfer also. Because I had not done one for so long I chose to give it a try. They got a bit rough because I was in a hurry, but still contribute to the page. My tape transfers are the butterfly beneath the 7s and the darker patterned section beside the 4s. What kind of tape transfers have you done recently?

The near smiley face on the bottom right was just by accident but certainly meant to be there. And the word laughter was already on the book page so the choice of what to say was obvious.

Remember to laugh ~ often.