Good Morning, bonjour, Bom dia… where ever you are, I am wishing you a “brilliant/sun” filled day! With or without sunshine. Make it a happy day, a productive day… most important … balance your day… make time to play.
Pl Precept # 20 Live maintaining equilibrium between mind and matter.
Oyashikiri
Good morning everyone. For a little while now I have been playing with different media, doing some of this and some of that. This all started when I began doing handmade cards for our church (Church of Perfect Liberty) (institucion Religiosa perfecta libertad)
The first Precept (1 of 21) #1 Life is Art This is not about how you paint or draw, but rather how you use your creative expression to get through the day to day challenges of life. How you see the opportunities that come your way and in accepting them, being able to grow and channel new found energy into your daily life.
. I love life, I love being alive, and the sense of wonder I get from even what most could consider a mundane moment. Death is a by-product of life. It happens. When you lose someone who has been a part of your life, there is a sadness and a feeling of loss. However, if you have lived loving and cherishing the person, there are no regrets. You live forming honest interactions – always – some people you connect with instantly and with others.. it can take a long time, or… it just never happens.
Important here, is to be true to yourself, not someone else’s expectations, or how other’s want you to act or do something. This is a concept not everyone understands, or appreciates. Again, we all have to live with our SELVES… To do something we like means to follow one’s instincts and do and use whatever makes it happen.
The above picture is a card that I did for ME. Not to put in the collection of cards at the church for sale, but for ME. My wise little sister once said.. remember you are making cards to sell, that means you have to make cards that people will want and like. Not her exact wording, but you get the drift. She was right. Handmade cards or any other craft, where you put your personal time and energy into creating or making something is a balancing act.
The “Artisan” “Craft” person can spend hours even months making something creating a piece they love, yet find that putting a “retail” value on it, is very difficult. Many people simply do not want to pay for something that they feel they can get at a dollar store.. the fact that what they are getting in these places is manufactured and basically are made in the 1000s, doesn’t matter. -” To each his/her own”
Because we are a throw away society, what is IN now , may not be in a couple of months or years.. I digress…oh dear… bottom line… we will skip the rest of this for now.. I’m sure it will crop up again =^_^=
Back to the picture. I hadn’t picked up a paint brush in years. I mean yearS. When I did, I found that I didn’t want to put it down. I have been trying for a distressed look on the cards, using inks, pencils and markers… but never felt I got the results I really wanted. At times not even close.
I had my own idea, or image in my head, it just wasn’t happening with the tools I had.. BUT when I took brush in hand, and some inexpensive water colours I found on sale.. POP, SHZAMMMM, I loved what I was seeing. Best of all the cartoon characters that I discovered in a shop in Montreal, Scrapbook Centrale, made me smile.. It was a new line for me, PaperArtsy.. you can find more about them at http://www.paperartsy.co.uk
I am letting go of what I think other’s may want, and maintaining my own sense of wacky, wild and wonderful.. I got up this morning and tweaked the card some more. It is fun fun fun.
PL Precept # 2 To Live Is to Express One’s Self
Oyashikiri
Artist Loft 4 n1 brush – Michaels ** multi functional great value
Cardstock – watercolour 130 lb. Strathmore
Artist Loft – basic 24 colour pallet – Michaels
Prang – oval 16 DeSerres
Yasuyomo – mettalics (16) DeSerres
Good morning everyone. these are a few of the books I’m recycling. A few have been worked on more that others. At this stage, they are really being prepped, or prepared for their days of adventure ahead
Some get collage, on half a page, some a full page, this is a start to revamping them into a collection of ideas, and possibilities. Each page is a new canvas. To work on the pages they have to prepared. By working this way, one gets to see how the media works on the different qualities of paper used by the book maker.
For example, glossy papers are not handled in the same way as pages from a dictionary or an older book that may have faded yellowed pages, that you want to keep, the page still needs to be prepped but you require a product that enhance and preserve the parts of the page you want to keep.
It took me awhile to begin working with recycled books, I was always taught to treasure a book. When I saw so many that were simply discarded, slowly my thinking changed. One of the books in the little grouping was an old library book with the little piece of paper in the back where it would have been stamped in and out by the library staff, and a small pocket for what used to hold the library card info.
The content pages of the book were all detached from the binding, some pages so faded and old they couldn’t be read or handled that much. When asked what would be done with the book, I was told it would be junked (garbage) It was a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Black Arrow. It had been published in London,W1 by Bancroft Classics, original sale price $1.25
Sorry friends, I bought it and came home with my prize. I’ve put aside the original text from the books, and reused the cover and spine, adding different card stocks and Kraft papers to build a new body for it. Not sure yet what I will do with the text pages, but I can use them .. and eventually I will.
When I am working on these books, I get to read the pages, and see where the book falls open to.. meaning the previous owner had looked at these pages often, and by the highlighting, they wanted to retain, and learn the lessons, this book provided them.
That quote by Thomas Paine is “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
The Sophocles quote ” One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is Love”
Life is for living, sharing and enjoying. Where a discard book is recycled, it once more shares “itself” with the world.
Oyashikiri
PL Precept #1 Life is Art
a little off center, but.. I did catch it before I bagged it.
Hope you have had a good day… I did.
Oyashikiri
Take a discarded children’s book, or any other book you have or find, and turn it into a working surface to paint, or create a new image on.
As an artist or crafts person, we are often looking for a place to try out different ideas, I first say pages being reconstructed when I saw a junk journal being made. In the video the artist was taking old flyers and other junk mail and repurposing it into a journal, where she then proceeded to embellish it so that it could be used for journaling, art ideas, thoughts, project possibilities… every scrap of paper, cardstock was recycled into a work of “personal” art.
The idea of recycling books no longer wanted or enjoyed as they were, struck me as a good one, especially I had books and magazines everywhere that I could use to jump start my imagination.
I found this product, Sludge by Tri Art on the shelves of the local DeSerres Art Supply shop. Gesso was more expensive, and the colour selections I had with the Sludge offered a challenge that I wanted to take. Where at one time I had a brush or palette knife attached to the end of my arms at all time, it has not been the case for many many years. Now when I enter an Art Supply place.. it is a brand new experience.
In PL, Perfect Liberty, we believe that everyday is a brand new experience. To an artist of life, it presents us with a brand new canvas. It is up to us, to be as creative as we can be, to find happiness, and share that happiness with others.
On their label it says.. “be a sludge head” enjoy the satisfaction of helping the environment You can find out more by visiting their website.. http://www.tri-art.ca
Made in Canada…(Kingston, Ontario)
You might not paint, or be a paper crafter, but I bet you know someone who is. Check it out.
PL Precept # 1 Life is Art
PL Precept # 2 To live is to Express One’s Self
Oyashikiri
The black is intense!
The green -forest- check the batches, different batches will give a slightly different colour.
Black gesso is messy.
Black gesso really works, and using the brand that works for you, helps a lot.
When working with black gesso.. wear gloves, it really is black
practice, practice, practice…..
So far I’ve tried it on different papers, waiting for it to dry, then I’ll press the papers over night. I had tried using white gesso with a black paint, but the results were not the same.
Learning to work with a new product, and to get results that please you, for your own personal style of expression, takes patience and the willingness to experiment. Taking chances, it is through mistakes that we learn, what we want.
This philosophy applies to our experiences in life. Sometimes we have to try something a few times, in a number of different ways to get what we “think” we want at the time. Each new steps, leads us to further discoveries. We need only be open to “change”
Oyashikiri
What do you think? Does this suggest to you that it is cold outside 🐱
The sun shone so brightly today, for the first time EVER in my life, I out on a second pair of sunglasses over the ones I was wearing so that I could drive safely. Even then, the glare was so hard on my eyes, it actually began to feel painful. My eye balls wanted to retreat deep into the recess of my skull.
The sky was the purest of blues, if not for the constant reminder that we were under a frost bite warning, and a caution that it was going to get colder as the day wore on, AND with the wind chill factor, it was like minus 30 degrees Celsius .. Note I am a Canadian that relates to the weather, as seen above in Fahrenheit.
I have been told, snow is coming, it was clear and bright today, but it seems certain that over the next 24 hours, we will have snow. The snow will come and the temperatures will raise, so that we will be in for freezing rain/sleet.
Knowing this, I have prepared myself for a day of creativity indoors. I am lucky that if I decide not to go out, I don’t have to. The joys of being retired.
Yes, snow does have to be shovelled, or getting out of the laneway, could be a challenge, but for those who love to be outdoors, skiing, whether downhill or Cross-Country, snow is welcome. When was the last time you sailed down a snowy slope on a toboggan
LOL true, once at the bottom, you have to make your way to the top again. Great way to stay in shape, and it is something the whole family can do.
Yes it is cold, Yes it is going to snow, Yes it could get slippery, but you know what, you have managed all these years, you know how to deal with the Canadian winter, or the Colorado lows… where ever you are, use common sense, dress accordingly, drive safely, enjoy the world around you.
Catch a falling snowflake on the tip of your tongue, see how long you can hold it there =^_^=
Oyashikiri
pictures.Bing search
** remember the weather forecasters, are not the ones who “control” what you do, YOU are the master of your own “world”
Gather information if you want, but YOU decide how and what you will do .. and when.
.
Forgive me, I have had this song on my mind for days.. DJ Phoenix from Nova Scotia played it during his set, and it stuck.
If Blues isn’t your thing I understand if you pass this post on by. =^_^= I am indulging my need to “feel” the music that “speaks” to me.
All this because I got to hear Mess O’ Blues again tonight, in fact twice. It was like going back for that second piece of fresh baked pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream.
Tomorrow it could be country blues, or no music at all. the beauty of enjoying every minute of the day, is that tomorrow will be brand new. I will wake up eager to see what the Universe will introduce my way.
Music can unlock the doors into chambers of yesterday, or through portals into a totally new dimension of thought.
We move off the treadmill into energies and adventures that will expand our horizons.
Oyashikiri
DJ Phoenix ( Phoenix Enigma) can be found InworldZ
http://www.inworldz.com @ club local colors http://places.inworldz.com/RedNeck%20Riviera/187/150/22
white against a back ground of green
what a lovely picture you’ll see
the fragrance of a flower in bloom
will touch your senses
with a magical sensory tune
white against a sky of blue
a sigh will escape your lips
as you dream of a place
under tropical skies and
lazy sun drenched afternoons
yet white against a sky of gray
can make for a very dull day
the white is still white
but we see it in a totally different way
think about it
how many times
have you looked at someone in a different way
only because
their background
coloured your way of seeing them
my sister painted me a hobbit house
sometimes, I think
yeah, this is where I want to stay
lost in a meadow of sheep
where I can while away the day
and at night, turn in for
a fitful sleep.
everyone needs a place to stay
when they need time
away
from a world that can in disarray
Q
Oyashikiri
a child’s expression
so much innocence
the emotion just happens
as we mature
somewhere, some how
we find ways
to hide or not show
how we truly feel
and in time
we ourselves forget
that the facade
is really just that
an outer face
and not what
we are feeling
at all
PL Precept #15 all is a mirror
Oyashikiri
dymoonblog 