Wordless Wednesday

wordless

Tea Time

A wonderful packet of French Lemon Ginger tea was friended to me by Oddchick recently. (You can visit her shop of tea and balms for the body and soul here).  It's refreshing and has some mysterious flavor combinations that make me want to have a sip and then another sip right away to try and figure it out.

If you've read Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way, and you do your "morning pages," you'll know that morning pages are like this tea. Except the mystery is you, not tea, and rather than sipping again and again, you are finding yourself wanting to wake up to write another 3 pages to try and figure out what that mysterious ingredient is. That mysterious ingredient in you that is making you feel the way you feel. Do the things you do. Dream the dreams you dream. 

Basically, "doing morning pages" is just getting up and writing 3 pages 1st thing in the morning. For your eyes only. No grammar. No punctuation. Just thoughts put to paper. It's through doing morning pages that I have found courage to no longer self-deprecate and do the bare minimum creatively, "because who's watching, who cares and it's all crappy anyway." Morning pages have a way of bringing up lost flavors, mysterious ingredients - a "hey, what's that?" and "I want to explore that some more." Sometimes, though, I will admit - it's too much work. It's sometimes easier to float along and not paddle for a while. I've spent the winter on that "life-raft," of what is easy. I will say, though, that the Disintegration Project has in it's quiet way brought out some personal things I've had to look at more closely. Life imitates art? or art imitates life? It's a silly question when they are quite simply entwined together.

"Disintegration Project" coming into week 6 now

Visit my "other" blog today and you'll find more thoughts on tea - thoughts that sprang up out of sitting down and doing morning pages again.

365 days in a year

art in red wagons is one year old!

I'm taking a leap and starting another blog tomorrow - in celebration! I really feel like there's something to celebrate here in bloggerland - artistic growth, personal growth, friendship, challenges, possibilities, inspiration, support, feedback ..... the list goes on.

In this past year, I've rediscovered my love of writing. I'm hoping to grow in this coming year by committing to keeping up my new writing blog: words on paper scraps. It will be a less colorful but simpler, calmer, more serene place to visit - and I hope you DO visit it! My posting energy will most likely start out slow. I'm hoping to post something at least twice a week (starting with a special piece about tea and other things tomorrow). 

I also have a little birthday gift as a giveaway. If you leave a comment on tomorrow's 1st post at words on paper scraps - I may be picking your name out of a hat for the below pictured 4X6 piece "Friendship Windows" (described in this earlier post).

I have so appreciated my new friends here. You know I love your blog as much as you love mine ;) ..... isn't it fun to look forward to another year together?

UR Gr8

paper box (before)

box (after)

box (closeup)

ABAA's theme this week is to alter a plain paper box. I went to the dollar store - hoping to find one of those plain paper mache type of boxes that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes - they had none. Then I just didn't want to drive 15 miles to the next town to buy one - argh. Well - I had this little empty candy box floating about, so I've recruited it for this challenge! It works.

Ingredients: Empty candy box, gesso, previously stamped and inked background paper, mona lisa image, paper flowers, german foil scrap, fake pearl stick ons, clothing label, egyptian newspaper, velveteen ric-rac, ink, glue, sandpaper......

Saturday Pink Shadow

Pink Saturday

Latitudinal Attitudinal

Northern Latitudes

"People in the North call such a boat a kay

ak ...." these words from an old storybook fit perfectly with my Alaskan Pale Ale beer label and "made in alaska" bottle cap ....

This hanging art piece is entirely re-used materials: a canned pineapple lid, beer bottle label, beer bottle cap, electrician wire, an old storybook, cereal box cardboard and beads - but I guess the beads don't qualify (as recycling) - along with the fishing line and glue. Today's theme over at Theme Thursday is something (anything) nautical or beachy. And yes, there are beaches in Alaska - even surfing!

Southern Latitudes

... and here we have the southern latitudes represented by my Dad. He e-mailed this picture to me last week and I love the colors and composition. Oh, to be in short sleeves on a sunny day!

Ash Tree

charcoal and ink