Since we have traveled the entire rainbow now (and more), you'd think the metallic gold would be what we found at the proverbial end. No such luck, but I did find some beautiful golden things on a Buddhist altar.
To see what golden things others found, go to our hostesses' Jennifer Coyne Qudeen and Julie B. Booth's blogs for the links.
I hope this post won't offend you or bore you, but it might. I wrote it, mainly, as a reminder to myself, and for anyone else out there who may need it.
Can't see the forest for the trees
Sometimes things just don't go the way they should, or, rather, I should say, the way we think they should. This winter has been one of those times. My closest friend struggles to come to terms with the senseless death of someone very close to her. Another friend has a severely disabled husband to care for, without the financial means to do so. My problems are small compared to theirs; I continue to add to a collection of health problems brought on by a job that becomes more and more stressful each day, and can't seem to find a way to resolve the situation. Yesterday I learned that someone from whom I should be able to expect support had made some very negative comments on my yearly evaluation. At first I was hurt and angry, but I've been through enough in my life to know that these feelings won't do anyone any good- to say the least. I recalled the Buddha's famous quote:
"Your greatest enemy is your greatest teacher."
Seems a bit confusing, right? To illustrate, Pema Chodron tells the story of the great Buddhist teacher, Atisha, who brings a very unpleasant servant with him to Tibet, because he fears the Tibetan people may be too nice! Read more about it here. Or, to hear another explanation in Chodron's own voice, watch the video below.
I'm trying to internalize this idea and put it into practice. In the meantime, the immediate challenges remain, and I'm no closer to figuring them out than before. But just when I think it's time to give up, someone puts inspiration right in front of my face, quite by accident. In this case, for instance, I had not looked at my notices from facebook, (which go to their own inbox apart from my regular email), in a very long time. I've just been too busy, too overwhelmed to even think about it. So, on this snow day, I was getting ready to delete all or most of the 854 facebook emails, when I thought, wait- maybe I should check first to see if there's anything important in there. The first thing I noticed was that I had missed a blog post by my dear friend Donna Iona Drozda. As I read it, I was so moved and inspired by the story of one woman's courage in the face of terrible odds, and by the beautiful art she made as a result, that I wanted to share it with you.
I saw a video of this little boy on the news the other night, and was amazed by his energy and positive attitude. You may have heard of him; his name is Robby Novak, but he calls himself the "kid president." His PEP TALK cracks me up and makes me feel better, no matter what.
According to the CBS Evening News, Robby loves to dance, but for him, dancing can be a problem. "Robby has osteogenesis imperfecta, a disease that makes his bones
brittle. He has had more than 70 broken bones and 13 surgeries. He has
steel rods in both legs.
But Robby says he doesn't worry about breaking things.
"I
don't worry about -- like, that's my point!" he exclaims. "I'm trying
not to worry about it. Like, I want everybody to know ... I'm not that
kid who breaks a lot. Like, I'm just -- I'm just a kid who wants to have
fun."
The Buddha said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
It's all about how you think, what you choose to see, and the attitude you choose to have each day. I have to try to remember that.
Oh, and I have to share one more Buddha quote, which may be my ultimate favorite: “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is
more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and
that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as
anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”
Try not to forget that.
Well, that's it- the end of the preachy post. I hope it inspired you, but if not, next time I'll be back to the regular art stuff, I promise.
"In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true." -Prince Gautama Siddharta
Sky Buddha
ingredients: vintage book page, map fragment, decorative papers, image transfers, cut outs, various artist pens, watercolor pencils, acrylic paint
“How is it I haven’t seen this lofty sky before? And how happy I am that I’ve finally come to know it. Yes! everything is empty, everything is a deception, except this infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing except that. But there is not even that, there is nothing except silence, tranquility. And thank God!” -Tolstoy, from War and Peace
This was another of the pieces I was working on for the postcard show. I feel like I should explain the long and somewhat bizarre title of this piece, in case you're wondering. (And who wouldn't, right?) So, here's the story:
1. I started by gluing down a bunch of old book pages and stuff, then did the image transfer of the Buddha grid, using acrylic gel medium. It worked quite well.
2. I proceeded to paint it and color it and glue more stuff on around it.
3. After a while, it got all muddy and floopy-looking, so I covered it with more book pages and did the transfer again. Again, the transfer came out perfectly.
4. I then commenced to mess it up once more, chiefly by way of adding some metallic crayon stuff that I didn't like. (You never know until you try it, right?)
5. I had one more copy of the Buddha grid, so I thought: why not? Yep, you guessed it; I covered it with some more vintage book pages, and did the transfer ONE MORE TIME- hence, the "3-layer" part of the title. This time, the transfer didn't go as well, mostly due to the crappy metallic crayon, which the transfer didn't want to stick to. So, I thought:
6. It looks like doo-doo, so what's to lose? I started pulling the layers apart, just to see what happened. Of course, most of it came apart in pieces. This is where the "deconstructed" part of the title comes in.
7. But, I had most of the top layer, and a few other pieces that were interesting, so I tried putting them back together to form a semi-complete image, fitting them together like a puzzle. I felt almost like an archeologist (which I have always wanted to be), piecing together fragments of some broken, long-buried artifact. Okay, you can see how pathetic my life really is, but I was having fun! I'm sure "reconstituted" isn't what they actually call it, either; I think that's orange juice, or powdered milk. Whatever.
8. At this point, I started to like it more, and not just because I got to pretend to be an archeologist. I now had a sort of pieced-together Buddha made from acrylic gel, kind of a very bumpy and stretchy decal.
9. I put some more stuff on the background, and then glued it down, glued on some more stuff, and- Voila!
I'm pretty sure the "cherry on top" is self-explanatory.
Ingredients: map pieces, parts of vintage book pages, stamp, woodblock print, acrylic ink, watercolor pencil, magazine cut-outs on Rives BFK paper.
Working on this piece was, for me, a meditation of sorts. Like many of you, I have been following the moon with Donna Iona Drozda's inspirational "Luna See". I was inspired by this post, in particular the part regarding the solar eclipse of July 11, to "move into the proactive realm of a vision." On the night of July 11, I could not sleep. Lying awake with so many thoughts and visions swirling through my consciousness, I felt an energy propelling me to fulfill my life's true purpose, to bring these visions to manifestation. I know it sounds pretty corny, but that's what it felt like to me- the light was green (hey, Donna!), and I had to hit the accelerator, or get off the bus. Well, I'm not getting off.
"The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become." - W. E. B. Du Bois
I think I've come one step further in my quest to make a more collage-y collage. To quote Richard Dreyfuss from the movie What About Bob, I'm taking "baby steps". I am rarely able to just make a quantum leap from one style or medium to another; it generally happens as a progression of experiments, adjusting one variable at a time. It sounds pretty scientific, but to me, it feels more like wandering around in the dark until I bump into something- a bit scary.
Trying to make a change in your work, or embark on a new series, seems to be a difficult transition for all of us at times. I was reading someone's blog recently, late at night, and found these words, which for me, summed up exactly what I'm going through: ... "feeling a bit uninspired, like I'm treading the same ground over and over while itching to try something new. The challenge is this: anything new and different takes time, time to experiment and make mistakes and try again. That means time away from [making the easy things]. But fear doesn't produce anything interesting and beautiful- one must be brave. So I'm going to try to be brave, and make something new and thrilling to me and trust that it's the right thing to do even if it might seem impractical." - Black-Eyed Susie
So well said! Susie makes makes amazing art dolls; please visit her blog.
So, I'm being brave, and going where I haven't gone before, on my way to who-knows-where. Here is my newest baby step:
Paradox, 8" x 8"
ingredients: Arches watercolor paper, acrylic ink, book pages, joss paper, image transfer, watercolor pencils, Caran D'Ache crayons, magazine cut-outs, acrylic gel medium
This was also my first attempt at image transfer, and I couldn't believe it actually worked! I used acrylic gel medium to transfer the Buddha image from a photocopy onto the collage. I don't think I quite got all the paper off of it, but the transfer was starting to tear, so I left well enough alone. I should probably also mention that the two areas that look white, near the Buddha's left shoulder and right of his head are in fact metallic silver, so it looks much better in person. The scanner doesn't pick up metallic colors very well.
All in all, I consider this experiment a success, because I learned from it. It's not easy to be brave in the dark, because you might bump into things- if you're lucky.
I have actually reached my stated goal of having these two pieces finished by today! Unfortunately, the weather would not cooperate, so the photos aren't the greatest, but here they are.
Transformation 41
Ingredients: monotype prints using oil-based litho inks on Rives BFK paper, Caran D'Ache crayons, watercolor pencils, acrylic gel medium, PVA glue
I think of this one as the seed entering the earth, hopefully completing a trilogy with the other two pieces the client bought. When I posted this piece before, a couple of people felt it could use more "rootiness" (thanks for the word, Don), and I agreed that it needed something on the bottom to balance it out. I tried about 47 million different things, and this seemed to work best. Okay, I could be exaggerating a bit, but it felt like 47 million. I'm not sure I'm completely satisfied with it, but this how it will remain unless/until I think of something better.
Butterfly Buddha Child
Ingredients: FW acrylic ink, maps, book pages, chiri paper, watercolor pencil, Caran D'Ache crayons, ginko leaves, metallic oil crayon, metallic paint pen, Rives BFK paper, on Multimedia Art Board
Butterfly Buddha Child- detail
Butterfly Buddha Child- detail
Sorry about the wonky photos, but I hope you enjoy these nonetheless!
I've been working on this piece off and on for a couple of weeks. It's one of those that started out to be something completely different, but seemed to take on a life of its own, and evolve into whatever it wanted to be. When my original idea didn't work, I tore off the top layer I didn't like, and expanded the underneath layer into a more finished piece. Of course, other layers were added along the way. I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow, along with Transformation 41. A girl's got to have goals, right?
I'm not sure what to call this; I mean, I've never done anything with multiple images before. I'm not an Andy Warhol fan, so I don't think that's where this is coming from. Maybe it's from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of deities having multiple aspects- such as the Medicine Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, etc. I once took the initiation of the twenty-one Taras, which was quite lovely, but no one has ever explained to me why there are so many of everything. Tibetans seem to have an obsession with numbers, but I find it a bit confusing, myself. But I digress, I guess. For whatever reason, I just like these images together; I hope you do, too. Namaste!
Yes, another in the Buddha series- I'm sort of obsessed with this piece and all its permutations. I hope you're not too tired of it, because I'm not finished yet, so stay tuned for further developments! By the way, all of these will be for sale as soon as I can figure out the cost.
A little more Photoshop fun. I took this photo of a statue at my friend's house, and have been playing around with it to see what I could come up with. This is the 3rd of 5 or 6 versions. Which do you like best so far?
Is it just me, or does this kind of remind you of a seventies blacklight poster? Of course, those memories are a bit fuzzy, so I could be wrong. Let me know what you think.
