With Broken Wing

As artists, crafters, creators, makers, we often chat about getting into a creative rut.  One interesting tactic to break free is to limit the supplies at hand, to force new ways of thinking. I decided to ring in the New Year with a fresh challenge, with a different take on that advice:

What if I just limited the amount of hands I can use???

Brilliant!!  But, before I could second guess the reality of the plan, nor the logistics of implementation, the Universe slammed me down on the ice at a pop-up skating rink at our local shopping mall, and broke an arm.

That was December 30th.  Happy New Year.  Ring-a-ding-ding.

Oy.  I was already going to be off of work till January 12th and I had plans.  PLANS!!  Two-armed plans!!  Cleaning, purging, organizing plans!!  And after that, creative and crafty plans.

I asked the Universe, "What gives?  I thought my priorities were SO in line!?!"

Reflect...Analyze...Shut Up...Listen....

Do a little one-handed art journaling.

The One Little Word challenge for January is create something inspired by the word "Sing".  

I tried to sketch a bird with a happy face despite a broken wing.
 It sucked, so I settled with a feather to represent.

Hmmmmm.  I'm still trying to find the lesson here.  Though, I honestly think this was the Universe saying, "Hey, you do too much for the kids.  They need to step up and pull a little more weight around here."  Not that they don't when asked, but not much is really expected of them outside of personal hygiene, their studies, and a couple light chores.   

So, the kids have been quite wonderful, from cooking, to cleaning, to laundry, to just noticing me struggling to open something with one hand and quickly sliding in to take over.  They have made it easy to keep my spirits up, despite the obvious frustrations and limitations (imagine relying on someone else to button your pants and apply your deodorant.  Thank goodness I have developed some new strategies and flexibilities by now.) 

I'll tell you, though, I've been pretty antsy while laid up, side-lined in my arting and spending more time than I'd normally, poking around the web at what others are creating.  
Hope you are living, laughing, loving and playing today!
Thank you for stopping by!

OLW #84: LIGHT **Good Morning, Sunshine!**

The lovely Lisa Saunders has chosen "Light" as the Word Up this time around at One Little Word.  

I knew exactly the feeling I wanted to capture with this project, as I've been relishing it every morning now that the kids are out for summer break and our morning routine has become very relaxed.  

"Good Morning, Sunshine!"

Just some watercolor and black pen to document this luxurious nicety.  

Head on over to One Little Word to see what the Designers and other Wordsters have created this month!

Wishing you a lovely light and bright day! ;)

Keep Calm

Our family has a bit of a reputation.

We are an easy-going bunch.  No arguing, no bickering, no drama.  No rushing about.  No worries. We go with the flow.

Friends lovingly tease us about our family vibe, and "Flaherty" has become not so much an adjective or a verb, but more of an attitude, a way of approaching stress or chaos.

Keep Calm and Flaherty On.  

I hand cut the words to create a stencil and used flexible modeling
paste to "screen" them onto an old green T-shirt.  It was an
experiment, to be sure, but fairly successful.  Next time I would
cut the stencil out of card stock instead of flimsy copy paper.

It was the idea I had for the crown that pushed me to actually create this piece.  And with "Calm" being the Word Up at the One Little Word challenge, I had a deadline.  No worries, though. :)

Chill.  

It's a little wonky, but I was free handing the embroidery from
 a sketch I drew up based on a piece of clip art.  

Head on over to One Little Word to check out all the loveliness created by the design team and other Wordsters.  And, if you'd like to link up your own calm-inspired creations, you have till April 14th!! 

Have a chill day! 

Thanks for visiting!

Monochromatic Poetry

I have this funky CD, Death By Chocolate that I bought on a whim at some point because of the band name and the cool album art.  Turns out it is a bit of a family favorite.  It's kind of 60's-psychedelic-lava-lamp with British spoken word and school yard chants and school book recitations(?).  But it's, well, smarter than that.  Very hard to explain.

The One Little Word this month is "Color" and I immediately thought of some of the short tracks on this CD which are titled with a color's name and then a monologue of objects and feelings about the color are listed.  It's quite poetic.


I thought I would do my own version, using the same colors from the album but with my own associations.  Knowing there would be a lot of handwritten words on the page, I opted to collage my title from letters cut from a magazine.  I think it also speaks to the seeming randomness of the poems themselves:  a bunch of unrelated words that together create cohesiveness due to the single color they conjure; the letters, all of various color, font, and size yet they come together to form words.

MUSTARD YELLOW

large envelopes

high school jackets

Pee Chee folders

#2 pencils

baby food and jaundice

Cowardice

rain boots

banana slugs

curried chicken

school buses and taxi cabs

flowering weeds

pollen, saffron, sulphur

Burning nostrils

caution tape

Yield

Slow

Bump Ahead

 SKY BLUE

cotton candy

swimming pools

worn denim

Mom's eyes

bubble gum ice cream

cartoon elephants

tropical seas

chlorine and clean laundry

toothpaste

robins' eggs, candied and real

Restful napping in a hammock

For a couple  of the colors, I couldn't think of enough items to fill the space I'd painted, so I just repeated my words to fill up the area.

ORANGE

sunsets

popsicles and Happiness

orange peel smiles

basketballs

pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns

carrots

kumquats

monarch butterflies

campfires and construction vests

tigers

orangutans

Fall leaves and Halloween

cantaloupe

San Francisco Giants

OLIVE GREEN

wallpaper and carpet

my teenage telephone

frogs

grass stains

damp forests

eucalyptus scented lotion

army men

dinosaurs

split pea soup

Frankenstein

spinach and herbs

concert smoke

Pop-pop's face after a roller coaster ride

I painted this face on a piece of deli paper placed over a magazine ad, loosely tracing the model's face with black paint.  Once collaged onto my background of blocks of color, perhaps you see that the idea was inspired by the CD's cover art.  

RED

ladybugs

fire trucks

cheerleaders

scraped knees

stop signs and stop lights

spaghetti sauce

Embarrassment

red cheeks

Kool Aid moustaches

Valentines

Santa's suit and Rudolph's nose

cherries

strawberries

Chapstick and cough drops

Passion

Anger

Love

Thank you for stopping by and checking out this creation!  Head over to OLW to see all the fabulous and COLOR inspired pieces by the designers and readers alike!  I'll be linking up to Friday's Art Journal Every Day feature on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog, too!

OLW #75: DO

Word Up at OLW this month is "Do".  And, to go with the theme, I decided to participate by just DOing the first thing that came to mind.

The Force was with me.  I thought of Yoda and his famous wisdom:

I stuck him into my art journal, and then scattered a few glow-in-the-dark stars across the page with the intention of misting over them, but I got a little scared of the reactivity with previous layers of color and water-reactive media that were already on the page.  This was a "Do Not" appropriate crossroad.

I love how the layers built up and that alphabet stamp. :)    

Instead, I pounced some acrylic paints atop the stars with a baby wipe, then used a white pen to better define their shapes.  

So, while this is sage advice from the great Jedi Master, as far as quotes go it can't rival my favorite from Bart Simpson:

"I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try…"

How's that for commitment? 

I'm off to make a Might Do list for today.  Lol!

And you?  For one, I'd head over to One Little Word and check out the awesome inspiration put forth and then join in on the fun!

Wishing you a wonderful and PRODUCTIVE Monday! 

OLW #74: WANT

I laughed out loud when I checked out the August "Word Up" at One Little Word and saw that Karla had posted a video of the classic scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where Veruca Salt demands a golden goose:  "I want it NOW!!!"  Yes, a classic for sure, and oft quoted in a fit of jest with, perhaps, a pinch of sincerity in an effort to loose the internal pressure of impatience.

WANT.

I closed my eyes and focused on the word.  Thoughts of wanting for myself quickly rippled out to encompass more and more people, things, my family, the nation, the world.   Ideas discarded one after another as being too small for such a powerful word.  Kind of like being careful not to waste one of the Genie's three granted wishes.

I collaged bits of a paper towel I had been using to blot and wipe ink and paint from another project.
 I love the texture, and enhanced the red radiating lines left from a stencil with red paint.

And then, my thoughts drawn back in again. To me.  What do I want?  What could make me a more powerful center that sends ripples into the world?  Well, something has been invading my peace, my ease of being, my ability - even my desire - to interact with the world.  My hips.  My hips don't lie.  

I'm actually embarrassed and feel quite vulnerable admitting it here. :(  Yes, my hips, especially the left one are in constant, CONSTANT pain.  I think it's because I am physically crooked.  My hair stylists have always had to deal with my off-horizontal shoulder line.  Since Junior High I always thought I had a knack for picking out pants in which the right leg was an inch or so shorter than the left.  I can only sling a purse on my left shoulder; it just slides off the right.  

Sitting at a desk job seems to exacerbate the condition, and stretching, yoga, walking, and ibuprofen don't seem to be making a lick of difference.  I feel like such an old lady.  I try to mask the pain in public, but when I get home my family gets to hear me whine and wince and groan.  It's debilitating.  I'm so over it.

So here's what I WANT:

"I want my pain to go away.  I want my strength and flexibility restored.  I want a solid plan of action.  I want to know my intentions are rightly focused on the path to health.  I want to dance and run and leap.  I want my life back.  I want to feel like myself.  I want to know that there is "getting to the other side" of this, because I want out."

Sometimes I feel like world peace would be easier…

Thanks for listening.

OLW #73: FIERCE

Revlie put forth the word FIERCE for this month's inspiration at One Little Word.  I quickly slapped the word onto a piece of scrap paper and posted it in my art-ing space.  What does "fierce" mean to me? 

My first conjuring while contemplating this powerful word was Tyra Banks and her modeling mojo. But, I already blogged about that, so I continued my meditation.

Tigers.  Tigers are FIERCE.  

I pulled some newspaper out of the recycle bin to see if I was capable of painting such a majestic beast, roaring with fierceness.

The section of paper I grabbed caught me off guard, and my mind-picture of "fierce" was wadded up and reborn with powerful metaphor and a comparative feeling of smallness.

The Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite firefighting crew in Prescott, AZ, who lost their lives on June 30, 2013 battling the Yarnell Hill fire

I decided that I would continue with my idea to paint a tiger on the newspaper.  These 19 men epitomize fierceness.  

In an article at CNN.com Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo described the Hotshot crew:  "These are the guys that will go out there with 40, 50 pounds of equipment and walk five miles. They'll sleep out there as they try to develop fire lines" to protect homes.  Roy Hall, an incident commander with the state forestry commission said, "They are the elite of the ground firefighters.  They're highly trained and highly specialized.  They are a younger generation.  That's the tragedy of it, that lives would be lost of such a young group," 

I added the names of the nineteen to the flames.  I am humbled by the courageous choices so many men and women of the world make, that they are able to sign on for danger, go through extreme training and preparedness to step up to protect others; not just acting on impulse when a situation arises, but planning aforehand to be the one to call.

Thank you, with fierce appreciation and gratitude.

OLW #72: CRAZY

This month's Word Up at One Little Word is CRAZY, put forth by the lovely Denise Morrison.

Ooo, did that word sing out to me!  Yes, in actual song.  Which made me think of all the songs that have "Crazy" in them like:

• Crazy by Patsy Cline
• She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals
• Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
• Crazy For You by Madonna
• Let's Go Crazy by Prince
• I Go Crazy by Paul Davis
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen
• Watching The Wheels by John Lennon

There are a lot of them.  And, yes, I realize I am dating myself with the selections cited. ;)  Whatevs.

It was the John Lennon one that struck me.  

"People say I'm crazy, doin' what I'm doin'"

There are a lot of choices I've made in life that others think are crazy--from adding a pet to the family to quitting high salaried jobs--and there are chances I've taken that are crazy by my own retrospective measure (remaining tight-lipped as the statute of limitations may not have yet expired. Lol!).

Journaled with a Speedball fountain pen and Higgins waterproof black ink
on a piece of Disney Princess drawing paper by Mead.  :)
(It was here, it was 9x12, and it had the weight I was looking for.)
I colored the paper with a wash of several Distress Inks and Dylusion mist.

I started journaling with the intent to obliterate some crazy confessions and over-journal with my crazy dreams.   I realized that I don't hold regrets for any of the crazy stuff I've done.  It all makes up who I am, the past experiences, close shaves, exhilarating risks, and leaps of faith.

 "Crazy" is subjective--what seems crazy to some may be completely sane to others.   

I tore the journaling into strips, mixed them up because my past and my dreams for the future, no matter how crazy each might be, are a part of me, perhaps the essence of me.  I wove them through a little self-portrait that I'd done with a Stabilo All Pencil, watercolors, and oil pastels.  (Kind of a mess…)

Check out all the crazy, wonderful inspiration on the One Little Word blog, and join in!

Thanks for stopping by!

OLW #67: RESOLUTIONS

January's Word Up is "Resolutions", and in 2013 I intend to FOCUS.  I will have to work very hard focusing on focus.  Even as I sat down to write this post last week, I got up to refill my coffee cup, noticed dirty dishes because the dishwasher was clean, emptied part of the dishwasher before I remembered that I had laundry to put in the dryer, took one thing upstairs to hang dry, used the bathroom while there, decided I'd sit and read for a bit, showered, came downstairs to find the dryer had never been started, the dishwasher hanging open, the dishes still in the sink, my coffee now cold, and a flashing cursor mocking me at the end of my post title.  *sigh*.  So, my work to focus is clearly cut out for me--if only I can manage to get out of my own way!!

My true mission, however, is to focus on who I am, what I'm doing with my life, and where I want to go with it.  I think if I am able to quiet the noise I allow in my consciousness, I will be able to find the clarity and the FOCUS to clear a more meaningful path for myself.

I have to laugh at this meandering, knotted thread I added to go with the metaphor in my journaling.  It looks like a bunch of buzzing flies, doesn't it??  Lol!  Maybe I should have chosen a color other than black.  The buzzing, direction-less fly also works to suggest how I'm feeling, though, so I'll keep it.  

Modeling paste, stamps, water colors, thread, marker

The journaling reads, 

"All your thoughts, chaotic thoughts, tumbling around in your scattered mind, leading you to action, then fleeting and sending you on a tangent or a different course.  You are baffled by your inability to stick to a task until completion.  That all ends today.  Today you find focus, clarity, strength in attention.  Every thread of action is a piece of your fabric.  Even as that thread wanders, twists, and turns, gets snarled, hung up, or knotted, it is still your thread, your path to stitch and follow.  So, start being more conscious, take the precautions needed to keep on.  Leave the tangle behind and continue on your way.  It's okay to look back and eke wisdom from the past, but today lay focus on what you are looking for."

OLW #65: DARE

This month's One Little Word is "Dare."

It's not that I am afraid of heights, but I tell you, that poem on Ronda's blog is still resonating deep inside me, like a constant hum that I must give attention to.  The word "dare," another strike on the gong, sending a new wave of sound rippling through me, adding amplitude to the wake up call.

I immediately thought of a cliff, of a diver, of someone choosing to make the leap, their faith strong and freeing, such that they descend from great height in grace and joy.

Well, this little honey doesn't quite embody that trust and confidence, perched uncertainly on the edge of her diving board, but I like to think she is mustering courage and summoning the inner-strength needed to move forward and take the dare!

I love that these One Little Word challenges truly make me stop and ponder.  My consciousness is awakened to the word and finding the power and meaning I need in them at this moment.  The word rolls around in my mind and soul as I create the art, as I think about creating the art, and as I step into living each day.  I feel a bit electrified as I consider being more daring, of finding composure in taking action, even if the results are unknown and the worst is scary.  I want to be enveloped in a graceful descent, not fall in a sprawling mess of flailing limbs, fruitlessly clawing the air and waking all of mankind with a deafening scream. 

I choose to dare.

OLW #64: CELEBRATE

The latest challenge over at One Little Word is "Celebrate!"  

Here's what I came up with:

I mostly used my October Cocoa Daisy Kit, "Aspen Grove" and the patterned paper add-on "Hidden Lakes" to create this layout.  The sun is from an older kit.  But, that dark green paper is from a worn out hanging file folder.  I rescued it from the trash at work, and it just screamed for me to doodle on it with white pen!  The wide striped ribbon came in the kit, and I threaded it through the edge of the file where you would normally put in a plastic tab with the file label in the slots.

"As terrifying as terror is, let us put aside our panic for this one day and...CELEBRATE!"

While it didn't directly relate to my creative process, this song has been stuck in my head for TEN DAYS!!!  Ever since the OLW "word up" came down!  Just thought I'd share.  Lol! If the next word up inspires a song, I hope it is something equally as dear to me as "Wicked"!  :)

(I chose this YouTube video because I think the sketch art is pretty cool, and I couldn't bring myself to promote one of the bootlegged tapings from one of the Broadway performances.)

So, what little things are you celebrating today?  I'd love to hear!

One Little Word: "Unlock"

I like to believe that "there are no coincidences," that everything happens for a reason.  Sometimes those reasons are BIG and other times they are so small they can be overlooked.  But, if you can stop for a quiet moment you may be able to pick up on a message in the seemingly serendipitous.

That said, I'm not sure what this chain of events really means, but I was touched, inspired, and am OPEN to the message.  Here's what went down:

I have recently discovered the beauty of podcasts as a way to stay in touch with my creative side while I am busy doing mundane tasks around the house.  So, you can imagine my joy when Julie Fei Fan Balzer announced that she and her mom would be broadcasting "Adventures in Arting" last month.

Julie's first guest was another inspiring artist I love, Ronda Palazzari, who I met through Cocoa Daisy.  Two faves in one place?  What fun!  I was able to listen to that first episode, "What is Failure?" on Ronda's blog before I was able to find it available on iTunes, and at the end of the post she had a poem which I'd never heard before.

"Come to the edge."

"We can't.  We're afraid."

"Come to the edge."

"We can't.  We will fall!"

"Come to the edge."

And they came.

And he pushed them.

And they flew.

-Guillaume Apollinaire*

I was stunned and overcome with emotion!  I felt my chest tighten with Their fear, and caught my breath when They were pushed.  And when They flew, I broke down in tears of relief!  Whoa!  What a ride!  What power in those few words!   And, to be honest, then I said to myself in a condescending manner, "What the Hell, Lisa??"

* There is some controversy that this poem is often misattributed to Guillaume Apollinaire because it was written on a poster advertising an exhibition of Apollinaire's art on the 50th anniversary of his death.  Logue had written it as a tribute at the request of the the show's curator, with the title "Apollinaire Said--", hence the confusion.    

As I regained composure I continued to browse through Ronda's blog, reading her previous posts, and came across the relaunch of One Little Word, "Celebrating the Power of Words" art challenge.  The inspiration word was "unlock" and I connected that something in that poem had unlocked something in me.  Yes, I needed to pour this emotion into a creative piece.  It took me a while, but yesterday it finally fell together.

"Unlock Your Fears"

The very first thing I did was to cut a stencil for the lock out of cardboard and built up modeling paste through it to get the shape.  I cut a keyhole shape, colored it black and pressed it into the wet goop.  I also spread modeling paste over two pieces of a Starbucks coffee cozy for the doors.  It all dried overnight, and then I finger painted both of the pieces.

"You can't shine if you don't step out into the sun."

I wanted to portray the butterflies as being plain as they came out from the doors, and then having gained more and more color and brilliance as they flew out into the light.

 I love that the Glimmer Glaze I used to paint the lacy ones created a thin, transparent film over the holes.  Cool! 

Lastly, I want to share a poem that my 15 year old, Jillian wrote, with her permission. It is one of the "coincidental" happenings I alluded to at the beginning of this post.  I finished this layout, was cleaning up the table, and picked up this random piece of paper.

The Self-Fulfilling Bubble

 From inside her bubble she looks out in fear,

"Are they all out there while I'm in here?"

They casually do such impossible deeds
She's comfortable here, but still she needs

To wander around if just on a quest

But when she breaks the bubble, she often regrets

For each time she wanders about she will find

That something she's done makes her think in her mind,

"I shouldn't have done that, oh golly, oh my,

Is anyone any more stupid than I?"
And back in her bubble she dwells on that thought

And the memory starts to decay and rot

And it causes the bubble to grow in its strength

'Cause the list of her fears has grown in its length

She says "Oh, I can't leave! It's impossible to do."

And because of that mindset the statement comes true.

She is brilliant, I tell you! She says that nothing in particular happened to spark this poem, she just at some point felt inspired.  Gosh, how I do love this girl!

The latest challenge is up at OLW, and the Word Up is "Celebrate."  What are you celebrating?  Wanna play along?

Thanks for visiting!