My Joy of Many Colors

From my Joy List this week…

Maple orange in my back yard.

My last orange rose and some yellow orange friends (which may or may not be from my neighbor’s garden), saved from the hard frost and placed in my favorite turquoise vase.

This kooky but cute doll who is a new little happy in my studio.

She is a creation of artist Linda Willis, who taught and sold her colorful, whimsical and perfectly off the wall art at Art is You. I had to have this Mini-Zombie doll. She called to me. My mom had given me $$ to get myself a treat at the Art Trunk show for my birthday,

and this little one, now named Little Heart Walking,

and her beautiful treasure keeper bag were my little happies of choice !!!

Thanks, Linda, and thanks so much, Mommy !

There is some other colorful joy in the studio this week.

I created this painting on a 9 X12 piece of watercolor paper using the techniques I learned in Tracy Verdugo’s “Sacred Marks” class.

It is kind of crazy and frenetic in some ways, but then again, so is my brain some days !

There are many sweet spots that grab me though…

Like this “Cat Creature”.

Or this “Bird Nose Beast”.

It even has little landscapes in it, I think…

“trees against a red sky”

“throw a rock in the pond”

I really like this piece and I love this style of intuitive painting, using symbols that mean something to me, that are my artistic language of sorts, and building layers upon layers by defining sweet spots.

I am excited to do more work in this style! I think my creative soul has some things to express this way !

I have a few have-to’s to work on as well. Momma’s gotta keep her art supply fund liquid !

But these have-to’s are colorful joys too.

I am making these “Moment of Quiet” boxes as holiday gifts for my mom’s office employees from the big boss’s wife.

Open the tiny decorated box and…

have a moment of quiet breath…

ahhhh…

Sweet gifties, no ?

I hope your week is full of colorful little happies and strong, solid joys, Beautiful Ones.

Love and light to you !

For more joy, join the joyful gang at Meri’s Musings.

Art is me….

Art Is You was

all about just being YOU.

Comfortable in your own skin…

Enjoying great times with loving friends

(Patti, Linda, Terry, Me, Terry, dominos, wine)…

Tutu and tiara wearing ecstasy…

(fellow fairy, Linda E. & me)

Getting to meet and learn from inspiring peeps in person…

Like Pam Carriker, who is an amazing, and oh so knowledgeable teacher !

And long time on-line friend, Mary-Beth Shaw, who is not only uber-talented but just plain adorable and fun !

And then there were my two days spent exploring my own artistic language with the awesome, Tracy Verdugo. I feel so lucky to have had that time with Tracy, who is from Australia, and traveling around the US right now, sharing her talents and her love of intuitive painting.

My 30 X 30” canvas went from this

all the way through to…

this final product that I brought home with me.

I love it a lot.

It is filled with all kinds of sweet spots that remind me of all the steps it took to create the final piece

Each little sacred mark is a little piece of me…

and a reminder of what it is like to “Be Here Now.”

Art is You was a great time, creatively and socially. I am home now, and though I am kind of exhausted from go-go-going and not sleeping so well for my 4 nights there,  my creative juices are filled up. And it was great to spend so much time with such awesome like-minded artist people!

Now it will be time to settle in and put all that good stuff to use !

Happy Thursday, Beautiful Ones !

Haiku my Heart–Do this first…

Be kind. Show your love.

Be present. Show compassion.

Do this first. For you.

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Off to the wilds of Stamford, CT.

Have a great weekend, Beautiful Ones.

Big Love!

Haiku my Heart at recuerda mi corazon

My Own Shades of Grey…

This week’s joy list was a little harder to focus on than usual.

You see, other than for about 3 or three hours of sunshine, it has been grey, grey, grey

for about 8 days straight here.

That has taken its toll on me, it would seem.

Perhaps it is because it is coming at the same time as the darkening, the shorter day light hours, the autumn season…

All I know is that I seem to be feeling pretty grey right along with the weather.

Oh, I know!

You are about to launch into advice, remedies that you know work, say something you think will cheer me up…

Please don’t bother.

(Though your commiseration and love is, of course, always welcome and appreciated !)

You see, I am kind of okay being grey right now.

This moody, brooding, grey me

is in fact kind of full of creative juices of a different kind that I am kind of into exploring.

Plus, I know it won’t last forever.

My Joy and Love for Life are too vibrant to stay grey for tool long !

From this week’s Joy List :

- little pamphlet stitch bound, painted paper books in little dyed woolen pockets, the perfect place to hide moody messages, and the rocks and rusty bits that go along with them.

- naps in grey afternoons, curled up with a dog and cat

- organizing art supplies to go to Art is You (Me and my moody self leave tomorrow am !)

- Quick Lube oil change guys who vacuum your car when they change the oil

- giving some special Rock Fairy love to a woman who I saw sitting in the car parked next to me at the grocery store. Turns out she had just left the hospital after major foot surgery and was waiting for her boyfriend to bring her her pain meds from the pharmacy inside. She loved the “be” and the “ok” rocks, and I loved connecting with her heart and giving her a bit of comfort.

-friends who get it, don’t try to fix it, or me, and just love me through it.

 

I hope your Thursday is full of joy, Beautiful Ones, where it is grey or not !!

For more Joy (and probably less grey joy) visit Meri at Meri’s Musings

The Cocoon is calling….

September ended with mums and time with Mommy…

(nature’s crochet – sand on rock after rain)

and all the beauty that that entails.

Now that October has come, and the light is changing,

(little art altars everywhere – dyed cashmere, silk, wool and other bits)

I can feel the cocoon beginning to call…

The need to go inside…

to create…

to explore inner landscapes…

and go where the Artist in me wants to go…

(Intuitive doodles on rusted paper, Faber-Castell artist pens)

There is an inner glow that has begun…

and I am happy

to go with it…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the call to go inward is hitting me, I still have some away from home adventures that I am excited about. Yay for October !

I am packing and getting ready for Art is You in Stamford, CT. I am heading there this weekend for some fun time with girlfriends and to take some great classes to jumpstart my creative time.

I will be taking a class with Pam Carriker called “Get the Lead Out”, and a two day class of intuitive painting with Tracy Verdugo called “Sacred Marks”.

I get home on my birthday (the 9th) and then will be heading up to Canada for the following weekend to visit the family and celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving a week late with my favorite peeps !

Like the caterpillar, I am fattening myself up with good social time and lots of soul food, so that the season of the cocoon will be a cozy one !

Happy October, Beautiful Ones !

Big light and love to you in this dimming time.