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Day 24, six more days to my 30 day challenge.  This art piece started out to be woven in a pattern, but turned into a sunset across the dunes.  A friend and I visited a local weaver’s shop today and the patterns of her lovely work was mesmerizing.  I marveled at each item studying her scarves, intricate table linens, looms and shawls.

As I look at my artwork, other thoughts come to play.  On a below freezing day this week, and when the tide was extremely low (moon low tide) my husband and I decided to dig for clams.  It was frigid, but gratifying, to dig on the flats that we cannot normally access.  Abundant fun.

To read about the weaver’s work and studio, visit: Amy C. Lund Handweaver

 

“Once in a Blue Moon” is a phrase I have used to relay the rarity of an event or to indicate just how special something was. We are going to experience a Blue Moon on January 31st 2018 and this fact has been on my mind.  As I did my art work today, I reflected on special and interesting times in my life.  Like the time I was a chef aboard an 80′ yacht in the Caribbean, or ice skating on our neighborhood pond at night under cover of stars with my sister, or whooshing around the dance floor in a full on Viennese Waltz with a magnificent partner and the perfect gown. With the ringing in of 2018 comes a gift to us all.  Make “Once in a Blue Moon” memories this year.  Here’s to many Blue Moons!

Read up on what a blue moon is here:

http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/blue-moon.html

On this very first day of 2018, and the 22nd day of my 30 day challenge to do art, I found myself being very excited about this year.  I was encouraged by the fact that we have a Supermoon and a Blue Moon in this very first month leading off 2018.  My festive mood carried over into my artwork today as I see confetti & fireworks galore.  So welcome to my New Year’s Day party!

My picture today was more of a way to release some anger.  I had two friends call me today both with family issues to release. Both have legitimate complaints, frustrations and anger surrounding these family members. And of course, any way someone is feeling is legitimate as those feelings belong to them.  As I listened, I was reminded that we all, at various times, have frustrations with family members especially this time of year.  I reflected on these two friends’ stories and the high level of frustration both were experiencing.  We all have these times when we feel helpless, angry and manipulated.  So today, I felt like putting what that looks like for me on canvas.  I tipped over my easel as I jabbed the paint onto the paper!  It was deliciously fun and I managed my anger!

 

The other day I watched a video on Facebook of a woman who is a healer. She explained that she saw issues in others as ribbons that are tangled or torn and she is able to untangle or mend the ribbons thus healing the issue. It has been on my mind.  How interesting.  How different.

As I began today’s challenge, I wrote down some adjectives. Here they are: Supportive, protective, understanding, like-minded, kindhearted, spiritual, sharing, intuitive, friendly, giving, orange, yellow, red, blue, turquoise.

And this is the artwork I created.  It has what looks like ribbons and all those colors I wrote down.  I see a brown silhouette of a woman, I will call her me.  Perhaps these attributes are me? Or what I look for? As I painted, and as a brush stroke lost it’s richness of color, it made a ‘break’ in my ribbons, which I went back and filled in.  Maybe I was repairing my own ‘issues of ribbons’.  In any event, I really enjoyed painting this.

Today is day 18 on the 30 day challenge to create intention art. But today, I decided to paint, no intention. I watched a live video on Facebook by a woman who painted her live impressions of the energy for 2018. She was articulate and authentic. I decided to just paint with no intention today. Here is the picture and I am still pondering the meaning. Would love to hear  your thoughts, you can post them on Facebook.com/powerfulart

Today is Day 17 of my 30 day challenge to create intention based art.  My intention today was to examine my impatience and wonder how hard it would be to take a step back and assess a situation before moving with my first reaction.  What does a second response look like?  Where does that impatience come from? I’m glad I don’t stuff my voice and with articulation comes responsibility to look for that second response.

Once I set that intention I grabbed my paints and just started painting.  No set idea of what  I would paint.  And here it is.  At first I thought how odd, but then I revisited my intention and it makes sense to me now.

The very first thing I painted was the darker red line, like the EKG line for a heart monitor. Then I did the series of blue, then lighter red, lighter blue till I got to the green.  I feel like this is the calming blue of the second response covering the red hot of the first response until the green calm softer waves roll in.  It made sense to me, and that is the point.  This is my visual reminder that the second response takes work, but can be done and brings a calmer outcome.

 

 

 

I was pondering my next adventure and what that might look like as I painted…. It is finished and  I am seeing a fish below the surface moving effortlessly through some pretty turbulent water.  This fish feels tropical and definitely moving.  Maybe all the turbulence is created by the fish as she moves. That’s it.  The stagnant waters are being pushed aside as she swims forward.  Looks like I am going to be moving pretty fast soon!