So far, so good...more to come, maybe..

Here is my encaustic challenge piece with a bit more detail, some collage elements and lots more copper.  It is begining to get there...maybe it is done, or maybe not.  But the articulation of the archway is a bit more honoring of the playful and happy young women they were at that time in their lives.  I will post a more completed version when its done, but I must sit with it a bit and  see what calls to me...and what the piece seems to be asking of me.  I really enjoyed working with the nylon and pattern piece.  Nylons actually are a very good sculptural element for encautic...who would have guessed.  

Encaustic Challenge Process

Where to begin....what to do?  Here is what happened

As part of the etsy encaustic artist "Beeswaxteam Challenge"  I received a panties pattern and a nylon stocking in the mail from another encaustic artist on etsy.  The challenge and it was one to start with, was to create an encaustic painting incorporating any part of the items received.

At first I really had no idea where to go with these seemingly random but connected items.
Then I started going through some vintage family photos thinking something might click and I came across several of mother as a young woman with her friends.  I vacillated between two photos then decided I like this one of my mom and my "aunt Margie"  under an arbor.  These two were life long friends. 
The other image I considered was one of my mom and her friends actually in their panties outside probably on vacation somewhere.  I saturated the cradled hardboard with encaustic medium and dipped the nylon in it as well.  The nylon began to form a sculptural frame for the image...hmmm,
I began to apply some transparent colors of encaustic paint....ie R&F paints very diluted with encaustic medium.
I wanted the words from the pattern piece to show through.  However I wasn't really enthralled by the colors at this point.

The center where I was planning on tranfering a copy of one of the photos was too lumpy over the pattern so I scraped it down to the medium.
Placing the copy onto the board I burnished and then peeled away the layer rubbing it with water.
Here is Addie and Marguerite peering through...I love the mystery of photo transfer.

From this point on I kept adding color and playing with possiblities
Hmmm, not sure about the gold rickrack but it needs something...
Its a bit dull and needs more contrast and something more done to it
Taking it another step with more color and starting to carve into the wax a bit here and there.
Then I decided to darken the blue a bit...This is where I left it after the first day of working on it. One thing is for sure, this challenge has challenged and inspired me.  It has been a while since I heated up my hot plates and worked at it again, and this really got me engaged and excited.  More to come..

My Slowly Evolving Mandala

I have been slowly working on the Mandala I started at the last Illuminated Mandala summer retreat day.  My focus was creating a visual prayer for the earth.. It has changed a bit and will continue to evolve over time.

As color has come in, the central focus has been come a spiral at the center of the earth rather than the earth itself.   It always amazes me how images have a life of their own and take form of their own accord.  I just follow the inner prompts and see where it takes me.   I have to remember to stay out of judgement and into the witness.  I guess just getting out of the way.
I will post more images of this mandala as it evolves. 

Where I Roam for Inspiration....

Whenever I need a hit of inspiration I go to Lanie Gerity's  14 Secrets For a Happy Artist's life blog.  Today while waiting frustratingly for some repairmen....I went online an checked out her blog and came across this wonderful music video for Tanya Davis' song ART by Andrea Dorfman, all  about Art.  Check it out for a reminder about ART , ART art..... in a delightful song and visual watercolor journey.

4 Elements Mandala Workshop

Our Mandala Workshop focusing on the Four Elements was a lovely, inspiring day for everyone who attended.  The Cosmic Cowgirls Studios was bright and vibrant.  Some of these photos give a sense of the colorful walls filled with the art of Shiloh McCloud, founder of the studio.  We felt invigorated by the surroundings, and inspired as well.

Here is Diana Rose helping us in the morning with set up putting prismacolor pencils at tables all around the room.

The walls show off the paintings of many Cosmic Cowgirls...our altar is in the center of the space, surrounded by tables forming a circle, so we all can sit and view each other as we drew.
Getting ready in the morning as participants arrived.
Here is Patricia and Diana Rose.  Patricia and I have been facilitating the Illuminated Mandala Retreat days for over 10 years.  We are both Certified Facilitators of Judith Cornell's Healing Mandala Process.

We work in circle  paying attention to the center of our beings opening to the light within and the compassion of heart energy.  I love seeing the winged heart hanging over the window in the background.

We begin with small black and white mandala's practicing the scale of light, imagining our pencils to be light wands that connect with the divine light within and bringing it into form on the procreative dark ground of the womb of the paper.


Here is a small mandala done as a Healing Mandala for Harriet Wadeson, one of the grandmother mentors of the field of art therapy, with color added.


In the afternoon we began our larger pieces, focusing on the Four Elements and our associations with them as well as how the elements of earth, water, fire and air resonate in our bodies and our lives.
We always give participants permission to do whatever they are impelled to these workshops, and it is always a gift to witness what evolves and the personal healing the occurs as a result of the drawing process, meditations, visualizations and personal intentions for the day.




Each mandala is as unique as the individual who creates them.  At the end of the day we share the inner stories that unfolded as a result of the process.  It is such a blessing to do this work.

The Four Elements

Unfortunately, I did not take photos of many of the completed mandalas.  By the end of the day I was a bit exhausted and since  our timing went over a bit, everyone was ready to move into the rest of their evening.  But these images give a sense of the ongoing process and the day.  I have begun a mandala and will post it's progress on later blog posts.  Most people don't complete in the day.  Drawing mandalas and  working with prismacolor pencils is a slow and meditative, dreamlike experience that  often take a while to unfold into completion.   The next Mandala Retreat Day will be in September right around the Autumal Equinox, I will post the dates here, when we have settled on exactly where and when we will facilitate it.  Blessings to All .  Enjoy the Summer!!!!  

Sun Mandala- Finally Complete

As I prepared my supplies for teaching tomorrow's mandala workshop, I pulled out this mandala that I did at last years summer solstice retreat day.  It just didn't feel complete and I realized that it needed something more.  I found myself wonderfully lost for hours several evenings in a row, drawing in more rays to  make it more of a Sun Mandala.  Here is the completed ( at least for now) mandala.  

I definitely like it a lot more now and it really expresses the energy of expansion that the summer, and the sun makes me feel.   Mary Oliver has a wonderful poem about the sun.   Here it is.

The Sun

 

Have you ever seen 

anything 

in your life 

more wonderful 

than the way the sun, 

every evening, 

relaxed and easy, 

floats toward the horizon 

and into the clouds or the hills, 

or the rumpled sea, 

and is gone-- 

and how it slides again 

out of the blackness, 

every morning, 

on the other side of the world, 

like a red flower 

streaming upward on its heavenly oils, 

say, on a morning in early summer, 

at its perfect imperial distance-- 

and have you ever felt for anything 

such wild love-- 

do you think there is anywhere, in any language, 

a word billowing enough 

for the pleasure 

that fills you, 

as the sun 

reaches out, 

as it warms you 

as you stand there, 

empty-handed-- 

or have you too 

turned from this world-- 

or have you too 

gone crazy 

for power, 

for things?

Mandala Workshop REFLECTIONS

Summer Solstice is upon us and this Sunday we are facilitating  the Summer Solstice Mandala Retreat Workshop.  In honor of this   I thought I would post some of my Summer Solstice Mandalas,   as  well as one of  Mary Oliver's most powerful poems.  

Through the ages  there have been traditions and rituals upheld during this 

time, from the Native American Indians to the Nordic and the Celtic people.  Awed by the great power of the sun, the amazing Mandala in the sky, the cycles of the seasons, the earth we live on and the great circular womb of creation, civilizations celebrated the first day of Summer. 

In ancient times, it was considered a time of fullness, worldly blessings and celebration.  Not much has changed for us as we live outdoors, celebrate with friends,  connect with the bounty of the earth with all of  its beauty and  savor life.  I love the experience of stopping   time when I draw mandalas.  When we transition from season to season,   honoring this change and  reflecting on my life  cycles, in always enhanced when I create mandala's in community with others.  This Sunday we will pay homage to Earth, Water, Fire and Air,  the Four Elements in our Mandala Workshop.  I look forward to seeing the that  art will emerge from this day, I will post images next week.

       

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

 

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

  

 

~ Mary Oliver ~