Quick Post Before the Holiday Weekend

One of my blog-land friends is having a giveaway, so check out Shari's blog.

Hope you're about to have a pleasant three day weekend for Labor Day Weekend. I am. Saturday to Sunday we're cat-sitting for one of my daughter's three cats. Saturday I'm having lunch with a very good friend. Sunday we're going to my son's house for a cook-out with him and his wife and the two grand-kids (3 years and 2 weeks). I did a project with the 3 year old today (I had a black circle that I had cut "snowflake style". She glued different colors of tissue paper on the back to show through the holes in the front. It came out beautifully!). Can't wait to teach her beeswax collage and art journaling in the years to come!

"We shall never have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is." Arnold Bennett

This Week's Prompt

Three more collages. The first two are photos I took and I think the third is a Dover image. The second is a photo from the campground we go to in Wells, N.Y. (Where we were this past weekend and believe it or not.....NO RAIN!!!!!)

I have spent virtually the whole day putting hardware and labels on collages for the show next week. I am vowing right here and now not to let collages pile up again without putting that stuff on them when I do them. It would be so much easier to put it on 2 or 3 at a time than spending the whole day doing it. This is NOT the fun part of art work. Oh, well. I'm almost done.

The prompt for this week goes along with the quote for today. I read an interesting novel while camping and the quote is from there, so thought I'd pair it with a prompt. -- Think of or write down your name. Your first name. Now think of what the name says to you. What does it say about you? Do you think that you'd be the same person you are now if you had a different name? Now either do art or write about your name.

"There are cultures in which it is believed that a name contains all a person's mystical power. That a name should be known only to God and to the person who holds it and to a very few privileged others." from the novel The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Pretend it's Monday and not Tuesday A.M.

Monday got away from me and here it is Tuesday morning. My only excuse was I spent a few hours visiting my terrific grandchildren - 3 1/2 years and 3 1/2 days - and totally lost track of what day it was!

Two of these beeswax collages have real dried flowers incorporated into them. It makes for kind of a neat little touch. The third one has tiny seashells.

The prompt for this week (remember we're *pretending* it's Monday!), is as follows...

Think of something that you've had occur in your life once and only once. Now make art or write about that or from that feeling or however you want to use the memory. It could, of course, be a happy occurrence or a not so happy one.

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." Picasso

My 50th POST!

These are some more recent collages. The top one is tiny 2 x 2 3/4". Next is 3 x 5" and then 6 x 8". The bottom one is one of my photos and one of my favorite lines of poetry (by Mary Oliver). I've been collaging alot this week, too. I want to be ready for the 3 artist show the beginning of September!

Well, my beeswax is melted again, so will just end with a quote for now.

"There is no human being who does not carry a treasure in his soul, a moment of insight, a memory of love, a dream of excellence, a call to worship." Rabbi Abraham Herchel

Rainy Days and Mondays

The first picture is one I took when we were at Lake Ontario (my trip with my daughter to the Renaissance Festival). The other three are 3 of my watercolors from the 4 week watercolor class I just finished. The colors are actually less muted than this.

I taught two 45 minute workshops yesterday and had a great time. This particular art organization really values their artist teachers. They pay very well and support the artists and the arts in any way they can. I was interviewed by the local newspaper (not the big time, but it's a start) when I was done teaching and am quoted in tonight's paper (The Leader Herald).

I've been asked to teach a 6 week series of Beeswax Collage in Albany through the Women's Building on Central Avenue. If we get enough sign-ups it will be held for 6 evenings starting in September. I've done a 6 week series of classes before and it's fun!

This week's prompt - Think of a place in your life that was special. Make art about that place, with a picture of that place, or just with the feeling that thinking about the place evokes. Have fun with it!!

"...if you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living." Joseph Campbell

More Beeswax and Being Brave

A few more collages ranging from 2 3/4" square (hand with bird) to 6 x 8" (the girl).

You may notice a new badge along the blog right hand side "One Thing Be Brave". If you click on it it'll take you to what it's all about. It's based on Eleanor Roosevelt having said "Do one thing every day that scares you." I'm not trying for EVERY day, but just more often to try and conquer fears. I've just completed one thing that had me scared to death - my watercolor class! I was really scared of taking that 'cause I've never been a painter. Well, I actually enjoyed it and have 3 completed. I'm hoping to get some photos done tomorrow and then will post them.

I'm working on collages for the show I'm in the first Friday in September. Three local women artists showing at the women's building in Albany as part of the Albany First Friday art event. Unfortunately, I won't be there 'cause that was the weekend my oldest daughter was able to get a cabin for the weekend and we'll be there (why is everything all at once!!).

Right now my piece and Dyani's are at the Greene County Show in Windham. That will be going on until September 20th.

Today's quote HAS to be the aforementioned one - "Do one thing every day that scares you." Eleanor Roosevelt

Oh yeah, YESTERDAY was Monday!

After a very busy weekend, I TOTALLY lost track of the day of the week, until my daughter asked me this morning where was yesterday's prompt! I guess, after spending the whole day Saturday in the Renaissance, I forgot about blogs and such! Anyway, the festival was lots of fun (professional actors in period costume that walk around the grounds performing and also have staged performances, artisans, games, man powered rides, and food galore) and Sunday was, too. Sunday we went to a State Park to see Lake Ontario...nothing short of amazing...I'd never seen one of the Great Lakes before...it's like going to the ocean...waves and everything!! Then we visited Lake Oneida. Very pretty and very large. We had lunch at a restaurant in a place called Sylvan Beach and the restaurant was basically right on the beach. You could eat and look at the water. Just lovely!

The prompt for this week is a single word - Pandemonium. Your art/writing could be your reaction to the word OR could be a representation of the word OR you could turn it around and do the opposite of the word.

"One reason people often hold back is a fear of making mistakes. But the idea of "mistakes" is almost not valid: A mistake is an unforeseen opportunity. It is a way to generate previously unimagined ideas and to find and create new possibilities." Deborah Putnoi