This Moment - 8/28

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 8/21

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 8/13

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 8/5

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

** This week, I'm breaking the rules.  This week, my moment is me - and I need to use words. 

This week I made the step to start seeing a therapist to finally start to process trauma and anxiety from the last eight years.  This week I rearranged my career and committed to working through the challenges I needed to become a better me.  This week I took an extra hour for myself, away from my kids to just sit.   Normally my moments are of my babies, my joys, things around me...

this week, my moment is me. ***

This Moment - 7/29

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

 

This Moment - 7/22

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

 

When We Were But Stars

I started a new painting (or three) today, with the idea of creating a visual version of a poem I wrote.  I've always loved art that comes in pieces, so this was done on three different canvases.  Normally I finger paint with acrylics on canvas, but today I wanted to play with spray paint.  This is a combination of spray paint and acrylic fingerpainting.

The poem:

I've loved you once before

maybe when we were but stars

the sky our playground

The lines that define will never be simple

the heart that is whole

will laugh and cry

Until we combine again,

dancing, shining, existing, love.

The painting:

The stars have tiny beads adhered for texture, a technique I was inspired to try by an artist I met in Las Vegas last weekend. 

This Moment - 7/14

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 7/7

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

 

 

 

This Moment - 6/30

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 6/26

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 6/19

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

A Verry Merry Unbirthday Party

I haven't been doing much in the way of art lately, because I have been completely consumed by preparing for my daughters' unbirthday party.

Both of our girls, now 2 1/2 and 4 1/2, are unfortunate enough to have birthdays the week of Christmas. So we decided this year, instead of trying to cram a birthday party for two kids in around the holidays, that we would start celebrating their "un-birthdays" in the summertime. 

We will of course have photos of the party, but here are some of the things we've been working on to make this the maddest of all tea parties. 

Four different kinds of iced tea (it's supposed to be 90 degrees, so we thought iced would go over better than hot tea.)  Each of the "drink me" tags has a label on the back to show what kind of tea it is.

Signs made with no intention of helping guests actually find anything

Hand painted pin the smile on the Cheshire Cat game

Mad watch pinata, made by Ben.  There's even jam and mustard in the gears, but we all know there's only one way to fix a mad watch....

Kool-Aid bottles, with instructions.  Guinevere said she was sure they weren't going to make her tiny.

    

Mad Hatter hats for the kids to decorate, and lots of fun stuff to decorate with.  Way cooler than their silly pointed party hat counterpart.

And of course the girls couldn't be the guests of honor at a themed party without costumes!  I didn't make the sun dresses, but I altered them accordingly. 

This Moment - 6/9

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

Body painting

I've always been intrigued by those models you see in magazines who have clothes painted on their nude bodes with such detail you have to take a second look to believe they're really naked. 

I've also always been intrigued by fingerpainting - the feeling of the paint in my hands makes me feel free and messy.  That same free messy feeling that I got when I decided to cover my entire body in paint and throw a canvas at it.

For any of you offended by breasts in art -  mine in particular -  you may want to skip this entry.  I've always found the female form to be very artistically intriguing, so breasts in art is something I'm drawn to.  And, between nursing both of my daughters, I'm not shy about people seeing my boobs, since they have been in out public more than I ever expected, but that's a blog for another day...

The lovely pictures of the process are by my brilliant friend Kyla, owner of Fearless Photography. 

You can't paint naked without wine.  You just can't.

Ben was the painter for this project.  It was awesome to become the canvas for someone else's art.

Ornery Ben = Scrunchy face

Not the most comfortable moment of my life, but all in the name of art...

And the finished painting:

And here's another one we did on a bigger canvas:

While I like the finished product, this was definitely one of those moments in creativity where the point of the project is more about the process than what comes out in the end.  That creative space that is meditative, childlike and playful.

This Moment - 6/3

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

This Moment - 5/27

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

 

 

Fine Line

Inspiration never hits me at convenient times.  At least not like it did today.

Driving to work seems to be when creativity hits me - maybe because it's the only time I have during the day to slow down and just be alone with my thoughts...

 
I used to get this spark whenever I wrote music... I would go into an almost trance like state, sit down at the piano, and in a matter of minutes a song would be written without a second thought. 

It's been over seven years since I've written a song.  The piano keys are dusty.  I'm not sure I could even plunk out the melody to "Hey Jude" these days.  So today when I was driving to teach my Tuesday night yoga class and the overwhelming inspiration hit me, I knew writing a song was not going to provide me with the creative outlet I needed.  I needed to paint. 

I felt like I kinda knew how some of the artists that are borderline crazy feel. (most of us are, truthfully.)  I had a primal need to cover a room in plastic, put on my sexiest bra and high heels, and let my emotions flow.  So after I got home, I did exactly that.  With some help from Florence and the Machine, I went to town. 

It's interesting how I never set out to make the art that I wind up with in the end.  I didn't know what I was working toward, just that I had a lot of emotions and intensity that was built up that needed to be released.  A combination of fierce passion... walking a fine line... grounding and flying all at once, and a little bit of being completely terrified mixed in... and here's what came out. 

Oh, and a side note...Thanks to my fantastic partner Ben for making an emergency canvas and coffee stop for me and for giving me the space to be a crazy lady who fingerpaints in underwear and heels.

This Moment - 5/21

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

New window

We are currently in the (overwhelming and very long) process of transforming our garage into an art studio.  One of the broken windows needed to be replaced, and the artist in me decided a plain piece of glass was much too boring.

 I started with a permanent marker and acrylic paint on the front side of the glass. 

Then I turned it over and painted the back side with acrylic paint.  Kind of like a stained glass window, the pretty side is on the inside so you'll have to come inside the studio to see it!

I can't do a project without the help of my bambinos!  They had their own pieces of scrap plexiglass to paint.

Sealed with varnish to protect the paint, it's ready to install! See, way cooler than just a plain old window.

This Moment - 5/14

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 5/6

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment - 4/29

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

 

This Moment 4/25

This idea was inspired by the wonderful SouleMama's blog.

{this moment} - A weekly ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.