What's Next?

I love manipulating fabric and one of my favorite ways is with bleach. I love those moments when something clicks and that is exactly what happened with this piece. I took a cheap, simple grass rubberstamp and used it to create the image. I am pleased and stuck. I don't know what to do next. The muse is remaining silent. She is like that some times. I've considered writing text in the center. I've thought about borders or making it a part of something larger. I love the Irish proverb ,"It is in the shelter of each other that people live," so what are your thougths? Maybe you can help me coax my muse out of hiding. Thanks!

Lots of Cleaning and a Little Art

I got the cleaning bug today. I do believe this is related to the Art Every Day Month challenge. I think I want my environment to reflect my artistic mindset and besides, it felt good and it feels good!  I did made a little ATC. I am new to making ATCs and love them. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to trade so if you're interested let me know. Enjoy!

Putting Stretch Marks on My Comfort Zone

When my friend Elizabeth Owen asked me to participate in a Tarot card exchange, I said "yes" even though I truly don't know that much about Tarot. However, I like to occasionally do things that frighten me. The cards needed to be based on a work of Edgar Allan Poe. Well, when I got the Page of Wands panic is exactly what I did for days. This was not going to be easy. I read Poe poetry for days and my panic subsided a little when I came across his poem "Dreams" which seemed to fit.

Dreams

Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awak`ning, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow:
Yes! tho` that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
`Twere better than the dull reality
Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,
And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,
A chaos of deep passion from his birth !

But should it be - that dream eternally
Continuing - as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood - should it thus be given,
`Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!
For I have revell`d, when the sun was bright
In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,
And left unheedingly my very heart
In climes of mine imagining - apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought - what more could I have seen?

`Twas once & only once & the wild hour
From my rememberance shall not pass - some power
Or spell had bound me - `twas the chilly wind
Came o`er me in the night & left behind
Its image on my spirit, or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly - or the stars - howe`er it was
That dream was as that night wind - let it pass.

I have been happy - tho` but in a dream
I have been happy - & I love the theme -
Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life -
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality which brings
To the delirious eye more lovely things
Of Paradise & Love - & all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.

My first attempt failed. I tried to not let it get me down and now that the second card is finished, I'm actually quite happy the first attempt failed. This is done with a collage technique that uses polymer medium and heat. I'm new to it and really like it. I drew the sun and colored it in with Prisma color pencils and rubber stamped the stars and "Page of Wands." Since the Page is young, I found a photo of Poe as a youth. The checkerboard is from an envelope. I do love them. Anyway, I stretched, overcame fear and failure and lived to tell another tale. Now I can only hope the other artists are happy. I am.

Time for Play

Whenever I finish something that has taken a lot of time or has required a lot of thought, I try to just play. I think it is important to play. Remember when play was such a large part of our lives. Last night I was thinking about all the falling stars I wished upon as a child. I wonder how many were granted that I have long forgotten. And more importantly, when did I stop wishing upon them. I am preparing my next wish. When did you make your last wish.

Okay, back to the art. I wanted to do something that express "growth" so I doodled and wrote until I settled on "grow where you are planted." I've moved a lot in my adult life and this has been something I have tried to do. I've been saving the old glass leaf beads for years and I love them not only in the piece but also because they are no longer in a drawer in my closet. I'm finally stopped saving and started using. It feels good!

Going Organic Part 2

I worked more than 8 hours yesterday and can now report that it is done! The piece is difficult to photograph but I think I got a decent enough detail that you get the idea. I really like the copper beads and have decided to call this piece "Points of Light." It continues my theme of connections although this is not what I intended in the beginning. I love using Laura Wasilowski's threads
artfabrik.com. This one is called burnt marshmallow. I managed to loose two skeins of it in my travels. One on the airplane returning home from Houston. I got three rows of people looking with no luck. The other was left behind in a motel in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I hope the maid kept it. I don't know the fiber content of the fabric but it was scratchy. I can tell you it stretched and won't stick to the batting not matter what I tried so I simply gave up. I just tried to flow. It's 18" by 25". I think today's piece will just be playful but I'm still not ready to give up handwork. Enjoy!

Going Organic

It took me years to figure out that I could let work rest until it was ready. Sometimes my muse just isn't talking so I have learned to be patient. This is one of those pieces where at the time (several years ago)I just wasn't sure what to do so I set it aside. I've always loved handwork. I find it meditative, relaxing. When I took it out of storage, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I've spent more hours doing the embroidery work than I care to admit but I'm really liking it more and more. Sorry for the bad photo. I'll try to post a better one tomorrow.

Anais Ninn Day

This morning when I turned my Brush Dance calendar to reveal November, I was greeted by a quote from Anais Nin, "The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself," and the word "growth." Last night I was reading and came across another Anais Nin quote, "People living deeply have no fear of death." So these quotes have been on my mind as I work today and are fitting for my month's work. How can I live deeply? How can making art contribute to my living deeply? I do know that I often want my art to educate and so in that spirit, I offer my Woman of Juarez Spirit Doll.