Atist Way Group with Suzi Blu

here... they're up to week 6... interesting comment by one participant saying that morning pages may be counterproductive for certain folk: She writes "I just read this from "The Way of the Journal: A Journal Therapy Workbook for Healing" by Kathleen Adams. It may help people struggling with the morning pages. I am in the process of healing from traumatic stress, as well as illness and anxiety. Hopefully this can provide some insight for people who are going through their own healing processes."A popular writing practice these days is "morning pages," a daily three-page free-write to be done immediately upon awakening. Again and again I have heard stories from clients and clinicians about depressives and traumatic stress survivors whose struggles intensified with morning pages. When this phenomenon is viewed through the lens of the developmental continuum and the tools of structure, pacing and containment, it quickly makes sense. Extended stream-of-consciousness writing first thing in the morning, when the membrane between the conscious and unconscious minds is most permeable, is a high-level journal therapy intervention that may not serve those whose "first voice" is often critical or fear-based. Applying guidelines of structure, pacing and containment quickly shifts the focus and alleviates potential problems. When clients follow suggestions to write one page instead of three, or walk the dog first (or shower or eat breakfast), or write “evening pages,” or intentionally bring in the balance of positive or humorous news, they report remarkable shifts back to writing that guides and resolves.”

I think back to Dianne saying (and Patty also) that journaling depressed them. Maybe this is why.

Poem

Variation On A Theme By Rilke

(The Book of Hours, Book I, Poem 1, Stanza 1)

A certain day became a presence to me;there it was, confronting me -- a sky, air, light:a being. And before it started to descendfrom the height of noon, it leaned overand struck my shoulder as if withthe flat of a sword, granting mehonor and a task. The day's blowrang out, metallic -- or it was I, a bell awakened,and what I heard was my whole selfsaying and singing what it knew: I can.

~ Denise Levertov ~

Memorial Day Tribute:Maria Kalman

Maria Kalman's blog at the NY Times...honoring Memorial Day...Interesting how she handwrites the text, scans it in and displays as images... white text on black (click image to enlarge to the size she displays it on her blog)

Quote

The purpose of life is a life of purpose~ Robert Byrne

Quote

"Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'"--Charlie Brown

Calligraphy by Janice

once onto someone's blog, I get caught in the vortex of beautiful things... Janice also does calligraphy. This is lovely. and a couple more beauties...

Beautiful Old People

Quotes: Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art - Eleanor Roosevelt

The other day a man asked me what I thought was the best time of life. 'Why', I answered without a thought, 'now'. - David Grayson

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been - Madeleine L'Engle

Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read - Sir Francis Bacon

I could not, at any age, be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on - Eleanor Roosevelt

Photographs on Journal Pages

a nice example by Janice of Canada. Her blog: "Nothing Special: Just Fooling around with paint and paper, pen and ink". Lovely. ... and below: golden ginkgo leaves and a lovely poem by an ancient Chinese poet (at Sitka Center in Oregon)

PR Weekend

What a great day yesterday at PR Weekend. So many sewn items to be inspired by. And a fun drive in to PDX with Pat. Now I gotta get sewing!!! So I'm perusing PR, and see this cute one... This version was done by Kristine Kay. How cute.

Quote: Goodbye World

Goodbye world, goodbye Grover's Corners, Mama and Papa. Goodbye to ticking clocks and my butternut tree and mama's sunflowers, food and coffee, new ironed dresses and hot baths and sleeping and waking up. Oh earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it- every, every minute? ---Thornton Wilder

Quote. The philosophy is kindness

There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

-- The Dalai Lama

True North Arts

Looking for direction? Find your True North thru art ... here by Collage Diva... "An Affirmation a Day keeps the Inner Critics at Bay"

Tool for Collage

Hockneyizer: Create a simulated collage from a single photograph...Create a unique collage from a single photograph. Choose one of two styles: a joiner style image without frames or an image created from simulated Polaroids. Every generated image is unique. This toy was inspired by the photo collages of the artist David Hockney.

YIKES. hp2004 going bad

Yikes. I'm worried. 2 days ago, B. pointed out that the old laptop is fritzing out. I can't get it to stay up long enuf to copy important things to a thumb drive. I hope that I can salvage something. I know I did a complete system backup to the external harddrive a couple years ago, and snapshot backups of doc's and pictures more recently, but not sure. I gotta look in what has been salvaged, and see if I can get it running long enough to salvage the rest. YIKES.

Credit Cards

I must cancel NW Visa by end of May, i.e. TODAY!!!
Delta.... no (Exper)

SoulCollage Blogs

1. KaleidoSoul Inner Surprises by Anne Marie
2. Sacred Ordinary
3. SoulCollage Studio
4. Soul Fragments
5. Soul Collage TalkAbout
6. acapellasoul
7. acapellasouljourney

Photo Paintings by Ann Baldwin

I took a collage class from Ann a couple years ago at Art and Soul. Excellent!!! I'd love to get this book.... workshop-style book, oriented to the wide community of crafters and artists including those interested in paint, surface design, mixed media, and collage, which explores a wide variety of innovative and experimental paint techniques. Chapters cover composition, abstraction, texture, layering, using found objects, encaustic, integrating text, and adding digital imagery. .

Ann Baldwin (Vallejo, CA) was born in London and lived there until 1990 when she came to live in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband. She began painting in 1991, after being a teacher of literature all of her working life. Within 18 months she was exhibiting landscapes in local juried shows.

Initially self-taught, she began studying art history, painting, color theory, drawing, and design she became known as an abstractionist, and later developed her text-and-image collages. As a full-time artist, she continues to break rules and experiment, currently with encaustic. ... more here ...

ATC by Michele at CollageUnleashed

Don't forget!!! Little Book Swap

at collageunleashed: 12-20 page book that one could carry in one's purse to jot down notes. Something about 3 X 4 with an artful cover and pretty paper pages. It would be best if the paper was something you could write on with just a regular ball point pen. Each player would make one for everyone else Whatever kind of book you want to do will be great! The making is entirely up to the individual. If you're an experienced bookmaker you might want to do something fancy, but if not, just a little book with some pages inside will be perfect. You could decorate the cover, add some fibers, do something clever to the pages, include a dangly pencil, make a special closure...just do whatever pleases you. Make 10 and mail by June 15 to Donna Barnitz, 4961 Kokopelli Dr NE, Rio Rancho, NM 87144. Include $5.00 for postage.

Dont'Little Book

Dont'Little Book

Favorite pens

Kelly Kilmar talks about her favorite pens(see her site for more details...)...her criteria:
1. I must try it and must LOVE it.
2. it *must* write on (obviously, dried) acrylic paint without skipping, jumping or getting all gunked up!
3. it's non toxic or doesn't have an odor to it. I can NOT use a pen that smells in any way. Regular sharpies-NO! (Besides they leave a halo effect on your pages over time). Anything oil based-NO! Anything with xylene-NO! Anything with a bad, scary warning label-NO! I might sound like a pain in the ass, but really, it's what works for me. My boy only has one kidney and I'd like to keep both of mine in case he needs one-or both ;)-one day.

When I want a pen fix, I go to Jetpens. They are one of my most favorite places on the planet to buy pens. I LOVE them. They have free shipping over $25 and they are FAST. Seriously. I LOVE this company. It's a small mom and pop company, too-yay for mom and pops! Get on their email list, too. I LOVEEEEEEEEEE their pens. They're the ones who sold me my latest pen case that I LOVE...it holds a shitload of pens.

Gelly Roll Glaze and the Gelly Roll Souffle Pens both from Sakura-


All gel pens are NOT alike! The Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze and Souffle are the *only* gel pens that I have found to work 100% and NOT skip. I go through the black and the white pens though a lot (I use them a lot though!!)

The difference between the Glaze and the Souffle is the glaze are a "gloss" finish. The souffle are a "matte" finish. They write on most surfaces (including glass, but I don't care about that, I just want to use them in my journals!) The Souffle will write and actually show up on virtually any background-I love them. Keep in mind though, with all of the pens, how they "look" on a page, depends on the background color and the pen color you are using. That means if you are using a red pen on a red (or pink or orange) background, the color will not pop or be as vibrant as if you were using a green pen, for example...

Another thing you need to know, the Glaze pens-there is a white pen and a clear pen. The clear pen is a "resist" pen -think of it like invisible ink, write with it, let it dry and then use a brush marker over it, voila! The white pen is a real white pen (the following is true for both the Glaze version and the Souffle version): it will write clear but dry white! It is a REAL white pen. It is the BEST white pen on the market, IMO. It's $2 of easy love.

Also another plus, you can paint over these pens! YAY!! They are permanent.

One thing: the slower you write the more "raised or embossed" the pens become. You have to write reallllly slow for them to be really embossed. I don't care about this feature of the pens. I just love the pens!!

The only thing I don't like about the pens: they don't label the damn pens. To find out which of the pens is clear vs. white, I have to hold the pens side by side to figure out that the cap that is the most opaque is the real white pen.

The other thing that I don't like about the pens: there aren't any new colors. C'mon, it's May 2009. WHERE are the new pens?!?! I'll never forget asking one of the "suit men" at CHA a couple of years ago if they were coming out with new colors. He looked at me strangely and said "Aren't the 20-something colors we have enough?" Um. Are you frickin' serious? No. Come on. Get off your lazy ass and come out with some new colors. NOW. please.

I *LOVE* these pens. If you only buy one kind of pen, I would strongly suggest either of the glaze or Souffle! I've used other Sakura pens and other gel pens but they are not the same as the Glaze and Souffle. Trust me on this one.


Uniball Signo white gel pen- I started using these several years ago when they first came to the U.S. I loved how vibrant and crisp the pens were and cheap, too. About $2 a pen. I recommended them to everyone I came across. They were a great pen. The bad thing is: they dry out/run out very very quickly. Also, they are NOT permanent. Once Sakura came out with white pens in the glaze and souffle, I tend to lean towards those instead.


Uniball Signo DX 151-I LOVE this pen. It's tiny tiny tiny. I love it for all of my tiny writing. Waterproof, too! It doesn't always work well on acrylic paint, but so what-I LOVE this pen. I almost always have one with me.

Uniball Signo Broad UM 153 Black-Another favorite pen. Unlike the white uniball signo, this one doesn't tend to skip as much. It's another fave that I usually have with me.


Sharpie Poster Paint Pen (waterbased)- I love these pens. LOVE them. They are cheap too. They run about $3 each. They come in several different "nib" sizes. The only nib size I do NOT like is the one that looks like a big, fat bingo marker and costs about $7. That is the only one I do NOT like. I LOVE the extra fine pen. I Love all of the different tip size options. I love the colors-oh wow, wow WOW. My favorites are the Black, White and Flourescent pink. I have them in every color but those are the colors I use the most. I wish they'd make one in Paynes grey...
One thing, if you buy them, make sure you get the WATERBASED and NOT the oil based. I don't like using anything oil based. Nope, not for me at all.

Another great thing, unlike most sharpies, these don't smell!!!

When you first buy them, put them upright, and press down once on the nib. It's called "burping the pen". It will help with the air that is inside the pen and makes them last longer. Then shake and pump the pen like the directions say...

I loveeeeeeee these pens. You do need to try the different tip sizes-they rock!!

Update-The water-based poster paint pens have been discontinued by Sanford. There is NO substitute. I've been asking people to call Sanford and tell them that WE want the pens. They will tell you that they are still available-yes, but they are no longer making them. The pens were never easy to find. They weren't well marketed, hence that's why no one really knew about them.

Photo Scratching

Technique for scratching digital photos for art purposes... from book by Paula Guhin...This book teaches the reader to think of a photograph as a canvas for a wide range of artistic manipulation and coloring techniques. Once upon a time, you hesitated to even take scissors to a photo (even an imperfect one) because if you lost its negative, you’d also lose that moment in time forever. In this day of digital images, photographs are easily duplicated, so you never have to be concerned about preserving printed photos. You can cut, color, collage, and camouflage to your heart’s content. The photo is now an art medium that can be altered physically or digitally to create all kinds of effects.

Whoteheartedness

Judy sent me a snippet from "Crossing the Unknown Sea" by David Whyte in which he describes a conversation with a wise friend who said "The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness." ... "You are so tired through and through because a good half of what you do ... has nothing to do with your true powers, or the place you have reached in your life. You are only half here, and half here will kill you after a while. You need something to which you can give your full powers. You know what that is; I don't have to tell you." "You are like Rilke's Swan in his awkward waddling across the ground; the swan doesn't cure his awkwardness by beating himself on the back, by moving faster, or by trying to organize himself better. He does it by moving toward the elemental water where he belongs. It is the simple contact with the water that gives him grace and presence. You only have to touch the elemental waters in your own life, and it will transform everything.. But you have to let yourself down into those waters from the ground on which you stand, and that can be hard. Particularly if you think you might drown." "...takes courage, and the word courage in English comes from the old French word cuer, heart. You must do something heartfelt, and you must do it soon. Let go of all this effort, and let yourself down, however awkwardly, into the waters of the work you want for yourself. It's all right, you know, to support yourself with something secondary until your work has ripened, but once it has ripened to a transparent fullness, it has to be gathered in. You have ripened already, and you are waiting to be brought in. Your exhaustion is a form of inner fermentation. You are beginning, ever so slowly to rot on the vine." ... I gave a shiver at that last image, and recoiled from the prospect. It was a prospect of an early death experienced while still alive and it jolted me out of my exhausted torpor, as if some imaginative adrenaline was now beginning to flow through my system. I looked back at him, and realized that simply in the act of coming awake for a moment, my tiredness was falling away. His words had helped to lower me deeper into myself, down into some imaginative buoyancy, had plucked me off the vine; whatever the metaphor of harvest or arrival, it was happening right there in the room. From outside the window you would have seen a younger man and an older man speaking intently over two glasses of wine, their books put aside, You would see the younger one lean forward, purse his lips, say something, laugh, and sit back again. You would have seen a moment of light intimacy; you would not have known anything had changed profoundly for the younger man in that instant. But everything had changed.

I said, "That's it, that's it exactly." I sat back. What came to my mind even as he was speaking, were the faces of all my colleagues in the organization, with whom I would have to have those difficult, courageous conversations in order to change my work; change my work more toward teaching, more toward speaking, more toward poetry. It was a daunting prospect, but I wouldn't be put off the task. I was so shaken by the moment in the doorway earlier that day and by the strong, pivotal words of Brother David's that I took those conversations as a felt challenge and discipline from that moment on. I realized I had nowhere else to go.

Fry's letter to 16 year old self

Stephen Fry's letter to himself:
"Dearest absurd child...Just who was the young, arrogant and confused man to whom Stephen Fry recently felt compelled to write a long and heartfelt letter? Himself, 35 years ago......Read the entire letter here... "My eyes fill with tears just to think of you. Of me. Tears splash on to my keyboard now. I am perhaps happier now than I have ever been and yet I cannot but recognise that I would trade all that I am to be you, the eternally unhappy, nervous, wild, wondering and despairing 16-year-old Stephen: angry, angst-ridden and awkward but alive...I finally know now, as I easily knew then, that the most important thing is love...(other issues) shrivel like a salted snail when compared to the towering question of love...Gay people sometimes believe that the preponderance of obstacles and terrors they encounter in their lives and relationships is intimately connected with the fact of their being gay. As it happens at least 90% of their problems are to do with love and love alone: the lack of it, the denial of it, the inequality of it...

Lots of copycat letter to my 16 year old self are popping up on blogs everywhere. How's that for an idea.

Quotes

"I decided many years ago to invent myself. I had obviously been invented by
someone else - by a whole society - and I didn't like their
invention." ~ Maya Angelou

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
~ Galileo Galilei

piceruption.com

Enter a search term and piceruption will bring back photos under the creative common license.

Archetype cards

Archetype cards by Carolyn Myss...link...came across these when I googled on "wisdom cards", in hopes of finding alternatives to soul collage...

Scarf Dress...for marimba

sunset by *GoRdE* featuring Juicy Couture bracelets

Friends

The Centre for Ageing Studies at Flinders University studied 1,500 older people for 10 years, finding that those who had a large network of friends outlived those with the fewest friends by 22%. Why is this so? ...good friends discourage unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and heavy drinking. And the companionship provided by friends may ward off depression, boost self-esteem, and provide support. Also, as people age, they may become more selective in their choice of friends, so they spend more time with people they like. Read more at WebMD

Photoshop actions

Once I get set up with the new updated version of Photoshop Elements, I hope I'll have access to "actions" cuz this site here has some cool ones. Above is "cracked wall". Below is postage stamp.

This is "polaroid"

Arrived to Cherry Blossums

Yay. We arrive Saturday at 6. Took til this morning to get internet. The guy had to reinstall the dish antenea cuz they'd taken it down over the winter. Now I'm so back up on email stuff. Gotta catch up.

easy peasy art journal binding