REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

A Virgin a Day: Advent 2 Mary via Art Journal

This is my entry for the second day of Advent and Rebecca's Twelve Days of Mary. I am very fond of iconography and I picked this image up originally from a Christmas card, but used several tools in my art journal arsenal to create this page. It's far from perfect but then I'm very hard on myself when it comes to art. I did get to play with Derwent Inktense pencils, lots of stencils and ink, Portfolio oil pastels, stamps, Sharpie Post Paint pens, and a bunch of other pens. There is a bias in art journaling toward those teachers who think there "should" be writing as well as art on every page, but my journals are my journals and sometimes I just don't want to put any words. I just want to use the page for going within and then feeling what happens. 

An Art Journal Page to Lorna in Wonderland

When my generation and my mom's were young we had pen pals. And sometimes we got to meet them. Now we have the Internet and I've made many friends in cyberspace, many whom I've had the privilege of meeting. Lorna in Wonderland is one of those people. I try to think back how we tripped across each other and I think it was on a blog called Kay's Thinking Cap. 

I created this art journal page tonight for Lorna. She recently sent me a box with some gently used clothes; I adore her taste and she knows it. I've been wearing the shirts continuously and my daughter is wearing a peacock blue top for work now. 

Here's to you, Lorna. 

It's Time to Think About Dios de los Muertos

Right now it actually feels more like fall than it does like summer, so my mind turns toward Dios de los Muertos. I just checked the date for San Pedro's annual event and it is Friday, November 1, 2013. We had such a lovely time last year. But, I hear that the annual event at the Hollywoodland Cemetery is November 2. Hmmm. Maybe a field trip? 

Below is an art journal page I made today: "Mariposa Woman," and it's the last page of a very thick journal that I've been working in for 18 months. She is the first in this series of 2013 Muertos art.

We Americans are so death-phobic and I guess celebrating All Saints and All Souls days in the Latino tradition feels like a celebration of life to me. And it's a very special time to remember the ancestors and friends who have died over the years. It's a way to continue carrying them in our hearts. 

Mondays With Mary: Art Journal "Our Lady of Cobre"

This is my offering today for Rebecca's Mornings With Mary at Recuerda mi Corazon. It is an art journal page featuring the 1944 Thomas Merton poem called "Song for Our Lady of Cobre."

Though the photo will enlarge if you click on it, I'm including Merton's poem below for you to enjoy. The late Thomas Merton, Fr. Louis,  has been a powerful teacher to me in the 1970s. 

Song for Our Lady of Cobre - Written in 1944 - Thomas Merton 

The white girls lift their heads like trees,

The black girls go

Reflected like flamingoes in the street.

 

The white girls sing as shrill as water,

The black girls talk as quiet as clay.

The white girls open their arms like clouds,

The black girls close their eyes like wings:

Angels bow down like bells,

Angels look up like toys,

 

Because the heavenly stars

Stand in a ring:

And all the pieces of the mosaic, earth,

Get up and fly away like birds.

 

 

 

 

Monday Mornings With Mary: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Another Monday rolls around, glory alleluia. And that means Mornings With Mary hosted by Rebecca at Recuerda mi Corazon. 

My offering for this beautifully sunny morning is from my art journal--Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is such a famous image and I'm always fascinated to see how different artists portray her. This particular focal image was traced from a Our Lady of Guadalupe coloring book from Dover. 

Rebecca's community of Prescott is still reeling from the loss of the 19 firemen a week and a half ago and her own entry today is in honor of them. 

Kelly Kilmer: A Great "Journal This" Class at The Word is Art

What a great way to spend a Sunday--with Kelly Kilmer, mixed media art journaling teacher extraordinaire. 

Many of you who visit here already keep art journals in your own styles, but if you've wanted to and didn't know where to start, I recommend Kelly. She was the first teacher I had in mixed media and it is great to periodically go back to the gas station and get a fill up. She's always got new "stuff" going on. 

I have had the pleasure of taking classes with several different teachers during the past 10 years, but Kelly is literally in my own back yard, and I sometimes forget this. She teaches not only in California, if you check her class schedule at her blog, you may be pleasantly surprised to see that she is coming to a place near you. 

Another delightful surprise today was my introduction to The Word is Art Gallery in Culver City, CA. It is a great space with lots of wonderful art on display, but owner Renee Troy also has many classes she hosts there. She had a nice space in the back of the gallery for the four of us to work today with Kelly. Sometimes intimate is nice. I went with my friend Marion who hadn't worked in art journals before, but she is hooked, I can tell. 

I'm never satisfied with my work, especially when I take classes because templates, other techniques, and new pens and inks are being introduced I'm not familiar with. But, I am a good student because I am willing to go along with the program. Kelly's suggestion for this page was that we all use print in the background and one focal image. Because I am growing old myself, this is what I created today. It is very poignant for me.

So, check out Kelly Kilmer and her classes and The Word is Art Gallery. You deserve it. 

Monday Mornings With Mary: Hail Holy Queen

Here is a page from my art journal I call "Hail Holy Queen." Be sure to drop by Rebecca's Recuerda mi Corazon  to see other folks offerings for the day. This is a great way for me to start the week although I have to get "in the habit." Rebecca's theme is peace and I like to think this tearful woman is praying for peace in her own country. 

SoulCollage® Card: Queen of Evil via Polyvore

For those of you who know me, I began dabbling in art about seven years ago, pooh-poohing myself all the way because I was a writer not an artist. Writing had long been my passion and I both wrote for a living as a PR person, and then fell in love with Ira Progoff's National Intensive Journal in the late 1970s. I studied with them to become a consultant and began offering workshops in 1984. I did that for many years and have long had general journal groups for psycho-spiritual exploration in my home and in the commuunity when I am asked.

Then I was introduced to rubber stamp art and mixed media collage. In 2003 or thereabouts, I first read about psychotherapist Seena Frost's method of SoulCollage® in an issue of Somerset Studio. A psycho-spiritual method in the Jungian tradition, I immediately ordered the book and self-trained myself to make cards for about a year. SoulCollage® cards are an excellent spring board to journal writing and I was able to combine both writing and art for the first time. Next I went to Santa Cruz for training as a SoulCollage® facilitator in 2005. 

Though I do not lead large groups, I do work with an ongoing small group and many of them use their journals to write about the cards they make. 

I've played around with digital collage in PhotoShop for years, but never became proficient in digital layers until Meri Magic introduced me to Polyvore in December. It was devised originally as a fashion site but many artists quickly came to find the site a real boon for digital collage art. I've written about it before here. 

So, this afternoon I came home and made a template for SoulCollage in the classic 5" x 8" format on the Polyvore site and made my first card above. The average person who uses SoulCollage will never want to create cards digitally, but it's one more thing I can do to continue exploring myself. You know the old saying, "The unexamined life is not worth living?" Well, I tend to overexamine. 

So, this card is called "The Evil Queen," an archetype card in the Council suit of SoulCollage. It could also be used as a classic death card. Using the "I am the one who" statements, I wrote: "I am the one who can cause havoc and doubt when trying to live a spiritual life, but I am also the one who makes it possible to tell the difference between good and evil. Yin and yang, anima and animus. Evil is a loaded word, and you could have named me more gently."

If I could ask a question of this card it would be, "OK, I named you too harshly, but can you tell me how I can sometimes kick up my heels and not be so preoccupied with outcome: death?"

She immediately answered with a laugh, "Check out Woody Allen's old movie 'Love and Death.' Both Woody and I have something to contribute to your question." 

By the way, when posting to Polyvore, several friends have told me my art is improving and I have to counter that doing art by hand and digitally are two entirely different things. Digitally I am largely using images of my own or others and digital effects, then altering them. My hand made art is still very kid-like, but very healing to me. It's just like writing by hand in your journal and writing journal entries in your computer. They are two entirely different things. Different parts of the brain are used and different outcomes happen; both can be beneficial for what I use writing and art for. But, if I really want to work something out in depth, I still have to handwrite in my journal or create art with my hands, paints, pens, pencils, etc. 

By the way, now I'm incorporating bits and pieces of both Polyvore and SoulCollage in another passion: art journaling. There simply aren't enough hours in the day considering I still work three days a week, volunteer in my community, take classes, spend time with family and friends, watch movies and love the Internet. But, you know what? I'm rarely bored. 

Art Journal: Images of Amaria I

Finally--I got around to creating a few art journal pages. In my organizing/clean-up mode, I back-burnered the art journals during December. 

One of the things I did recently was sort, discard, keep and catalog all my art-related books. I was shocked to see how many I had. The one I'm currently enjoying was a Christmas gift: Traci Bautista's Doodles Unleashed.  I donated several to the Malaga Cove Library used book sale today. 

What I always enjoy are the variety of styles all the different pros use. A dabbler myself, I pick up what I can and am finally becoming pretty comfortable with process and final outcome. 

This is the first of a series I call Amaria. Amaria is an inner wisdom guide who came to me in my journal retreat work more than 30 years ago during an Ira Progoff' National Intensive Journal workshop. She has long been one of my journal, and now art, muses. This image is the same one I used on my Christmas cards this year. 

Mornings With Mary: Our Lady of Sorrows, Day 10

Because I do so much mixed media collage, art journals and SoulCollage®, I am forever scanning through magazines (many lovingly given me by neighbors and friends), discarded books from the library, and the endless march of catalogs that seem to come daily in the mail. If one has to have an addiction, my scrapbook plastic boxes filled with potential images for my stash, and my endless leafing through magazines, is probably healthier than some addictions I've let go. (And I admit I'm still dragging around a few I'd like to lose.)

So, this art journal page is called "Our Lady of Sorrows," and the images are from my stash box. Around the edges I've written some of the rosary prayer Hail Holy Queen. When times are bad I always remember the line about the valley of tears. 

Hail, Holy Queen

            Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!
            Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
            To thee do we cry, poor banished 
            children of Eve, to thee do we send
            up our sighs, mourning and weeping
               in this valley, of tears.
            Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
            thine eyes of mercy toward us; and
            after this our exile show unto us the
            blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus;
            O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.

            Pray for us, O holy Mother of God

            That we may be made worthy of the 
            promises of Christ.

So, this is my offering today for Rebecca's Mornings With Mary at Recuerda mi Corazon. If you have time, please visit there and take comfort from the divine feminine created by Mary lovers around the world.