Reflecting on the day…

August Break Prompt – Reflections

Digital art piece by Linda Davies.

 

I had my first house guest in the new Apollo Beach house.

My dear friend Linda is here in FL staying with her mom about two hours south of us.

She made the drive up to have a day of girl friend time and art making.

We reconnected, chatted a lot, had a lovely lunch,

played in our art journals side my side,

and ended the day with a yummy BBQ dinner at a local restaurant with My sweet Hubby David.

It was so nice to have a playmate here !

I have got to get to work on building a tribe here. I love sharing my space with good friends!

Linda gifted me a lovely framed piece of her digital art (Vision – shown above).

It fits in beautifully with my new seaside(ish) home. I love it !

This is the page I worked on in my art journal while we hung out together:

It started out as a kind of mono print spread created with glimmer mist and spray inks and some stencils as well as some india ink dripped on the page with an eye dropper.

Now I have two cool backgrounds to work on.

This first page was done with Sepia India ink and a dip pen and some Distress Ink markers and a blending pen.

Some very cool doodle stories emerging here…

Love the worlds that get created when I let go and let the pen and imagination take me…

 

I hope this fine Wednesday is treating you well, Beautiful Ones !

Big love !

 

Hosted by Susannah Conway

They say it’s your birthday !

Today this little girl

turned 48.

Happy Birthday, Kimbo !

I woke up early to receive phone calls from some of my favorite peeps.

And even got a home made banana bread baked for me by my Honey for breakfast.

After joyfully reading a whole bunch of sweet birthday wishes on Facebook,

I decided to take myself on an Artist Date in the studio.

I pretended I was at a Cold Play concert, listening to this album as I played :

I sang and danced along with Chris and the guys.

Chica even joined in the dancing for a couple of tunes.

And as the music played,

I created this two page spread in my moleskine art journal.

“The Buddha and her Garden”

(stencils, spray ink,Twinkling H2Os, Faber Castel pens and a blender, white gel pen)

I was so glad to see the beauty back after the uglies of yesterday.

(Though we have decided that uglies are necessary and valuable in their own right too.)

I also like that Buddha somehow became a woman here.

They say that all of us are the Buddha after all.

 

As I was soaking in the fact that I am 48 years old now,

I decided on one more major gift for myself.

I am going to work really, really hard at squashing the negative voices in my head,

and to stop the self-criticism that has been so much a part of my every day for so very long.

I am going to work to the best of my ability to turn

mean, cruel messages that I give myself

into positive, motivating and self-loving ones.

Starting today !

Starting right now.

So I am off to enjoy the rest of my birthday day.

Not sure where I am headed,

but I know that this beautiful, creative, shiny Rock Fairy Star

will be shining brightly as I go !

Thanks to all for the sweet, sweet birthday love !!!

Love and light!

It ain’t always pretty…

I woke up on the wrong side of the easel today.

Maybe I am just in a bit of a funk about turning 48 tomorrow.

I know, I know.

48 is great, especially considering the alternatives to growing older.

Hardi-har-har.

Whatever the cause, I was crabby.

So I took Crabby Me into the studio to lose myself in music and paint.

Acrylic paint play on an already stenciled page in my moleskine journal.

Letting the paint blobs bring the doodles out using Faber Castell pens…

Isn’t this looking promising?

Promising ?

Or too pretty?

Need to add an edge to represent what I am feeling today?

Suddenly, before I really knew what was happening

burnt sienna ink covered the page.

And not in a good way.

I started frenetically scribbling over the whole thing with a sketching pencil.

Then came out came these messy words…

This kind of left me feeling defeated.

No magically beautiful page was waiting at the end of this time in the studio!

But then how many times have I said to other journalers and to myself,

that art journaling isn’t about the end product.

That it is about the process.

About letting yourself just be,

in that space, in that moment.

After sitting with the page like this for a few moments,

I added these words…

And that is the truth, isn’t it ?

So this less than perfect,

way less than pretty, page is remaining like this in my journal.

And while some of the crabby is lingering,

I am left remembering

that no matter how ugly life may get,

to keep on looking for those sweet spots.

Happy Tuesday, Beautiful Ones !

Love hard and Make Art.

Haiku My Heart–Light Work

Many hands make Light Work.

Mine do. Bring the Light on through.

Live open handed.

 

 

(art journal page in process, henna hand stencil from Traci Bunkers, pink Ganesh figurine a gift from e.b.,, flea market glass hands, small open hands candle holder a gift from Mommy, purchased at Ten Thousand Villages.)

Happy Friday, Beautiful Ones !

Keep up the good Light Work.

For more haiku goodness, visit rebecca and the gang at recuerda mi corazon

Riding the wave…

This week has flown by.

Most of it was spent in the preparation for the Manchester West High School Theatre Knights Holiday Craft Fair that is taking place on Saturday, December 3rd from 9-3pm.

It has been a joy to see ideas,

like pieces of wet clay,

get formed into things I am proud to put my name on…

While crafty things that will sell well at a craft fair don’t provide the same Soul satisfying feeling as my more intuitive art does,

there is still a lot of joy in seeing my own personal style and artistic expression

shine through in everything I present.

I am also very happy that the craft fair I choose to participate in is a fund raiser that helps keep the theatre program at Manchester West High School flourishing.

I know the importance of keeping the Arts in our schools !

While most of my time has been spent with my nose to the grind stone,

True Artist Kim did come out to play for a bit.

I took about an hour and a half or so to create this page in my art journal yesterday.

Finding joy in the present moment is what it is all about.

Right, Beautiful Ones ?

I hope your Thursday is filled with sweet joy.

Come and share it at Meri’s Musings !

Let yourself fall…

A Haiku for the Maple Seed :

I let my Self fall

Trusting that where I fall is

My true place to grow.

*********************

It is a spectacular Fall day here in New Hampshire today.

Even right here in my backyard !

Check out this Maple !

I love how the tree colors are reflected in the window of my neighbor’s garage :

What do you see in the reflection?

It looks kind of Chagall-esque to me.

A weird horse head below with an angel holding a baby above ?

Speaking of art that is open for interpretation…

Here is my latest journal page.

I actually only have one page left to complete in this journal.

I have been adding to it for almost two years.

This page was created by just letting paint and ink and black gesso tell me where it want to go.

I am digging the white doodles…a little like the crazy thoughts I have in my brain sometimes…

Not the happiest of pages. My woman with scars looks like she is dealing with a lot.

Like so many of us in this world.

But I think she still sees the beauty…

I know I do.

Wishing you a day filled with trust, beauty and some good haiku !

Big Love, Beautiful Ones !

 

Get your haiku here : Recuerda Mi Corazon – Haiku My Heart