An Explosion of Art

So, I'm gonna be 59 in a matter of weeks. It sounds OLD to me. There's no way you can make "almost 60" sound young! I can feel the changes in my body. I am slowing down. My arches and ankles hurt, which makes getting a decent cardio workout difficult. There have been changes in my work site and work responsibilities that make the job more demanding than it used to  be. I could stand to lose 40 lbs. My vision is blurry now, due to a cataract and high blood sugar.

But on the other hand, I have been practically prolific in creating art! I am doing it on an almost daily basis. I have found ways to work around the poor vision by using paper and ready-made images. They can be digital collage sheets or magazine images or just doodles and images from rubber stamps. Whatever, I just am not drawing and painting from life. My focus is now on making "pretty pages", art journal pages, a kind of collage.

I love this post card! Two weeks ago I went down to Ocean Grove, NJ. It's where I go when I need to rest and regroup and listen to myself think. I often do this when I attend an art retreat. That's what I did this month. It's been a whole year since I've been at Ocean Grove. The past 12 months have been an agony of stress related to my job, my money, my mother's health and recovery, her adjustment to being unable to live alone, struggling with my landlord, and having to find a lace to move into, being taken advantage of by the movers. It has all been overwhelming and seemed never-ending!

I was a basket case by the time I got to Ocean Grove!  The weather was blustery, damp, and gray. But it didn't matter to me. I was there! I saw some people who were former retreat guests, as well as seeing people that I really have developed relationships with. It felt embracing to be among people who valued my presence so much!

I spent 2 days immersed in art. I left my expectations of creating "perfect" art behind and devoted my energy to "playing" with art. And I came away with art that I actually enjoyed making and enjoyed looking at later.

Snowed In and Makin' Art!

I had 2 weeks of vacation to use by March 1 or I'd have to forfeit it. I couldn't afford to go anywhere that's warm and sunny. I didn't want to go anywhere that was grey, cloudy, and cold! As it turned out, I got to enjoy that right at home here in New York City! But I had my plan to make this a great vacation, no matter what. I'm always lamenting about not having enough time in the week for all the things that need to get done PLUS have time for art. Well, I've been noticing that the balance has been changing over the past 2 months or so. It's changing because I am making the choices that make it easier for me to do art. For this vacation I decided that I wanted to create a collage and make more greeting cards.

I planned out exactly what prep steps I needed to do in order to really make the collage. I chose the photos, got the copies made, bought my acrylic mediums and paint, consulted my art books. I was ready! That's more "ready" than I've been in a long time! It felt good. The act of just preparing to create was a release in itself. It counted as "being creative".



As the snow came down, and came down, and came down...I set to work last week. I was able to complete the collage if about 4 days. So, now I have a total of 3 collages that are all mine!

The past 3 days have been a total card-making extravaganza! I've been experimenting with stamping and embossing, blending colors, color compliments and color families, pushing my creative edge. I've had some ugly mistakes and some real beauties. There have been enough beauties for me to have incentive to make more and to use the same technique with different colors. I've been pushing myself to work with what I have on hand - which is quite a lot of paper and stamps, and a ton of reference books at hand.

The energy that this created has been awesome! It was enough for me to search online for card boxes and stretchy cords, and to list my cards on Etzy.com. I've had an inactive shop for months because everything seemed to be too complicated. Suddenly, it wasn't complicated today. The shop is open and there are 3 designs available. And I till have the entire weekend to do more cards!

I was an artist this week. I fed mt soul. I feel satisfied and abundant. Not everyone can be creative and they don't understand the healing power of art from a personal point of view. I wish they could. Creativity is inside all of us and it costs nothing. You can create on paper envelopes, shopping bags, napkins. You can use a simple pencil. A doodle is art. A bunch of doodles all together tell a story. The story can be told in words. Everything all comes together.