Ommmmm-m-m-m.........

Taoists believe that in order to be near God we must seek him in simple tasks like chopping wood and carrying water. This I believe. And I also believe that God is in creating things. At least that's where I feel closest to God. My art will never hang in an art museum, but doing it on a constant basis is, quite literally, necessary to my well being and my sense of oneness, whether anyone else ever sees it or not.

I've been working on a large painting for our new Sunday School classroom. If it turns out okay, I'll show you. Otherwise, I played one day with some really low tech media, including Crayola crayons, a travel iron and cheap shaving cream.

Encaustic wax painting is an ancient art technique; I've never been able to convince myself that I would like it well enough (or be good enough at it) to spend the money on real wax color cubes and tools, so the crayons and travel iron are a fun substitute. My canvas is a sheet of freezer paper. With a little practice, (or no practice at all) you can create landscapes, seascapes, and abstracts worthy of matting and framing. It's just a happy little exercise that gets your juices flowing.

You may have made marbled paper in elementary school art class. I like to make stacks of marbled card stock for later use in collages and note cards. Just pump the shaving cream onto a flat pan, drip watercolors, acrylics, or even food coloring onto it and pull a comb or other tools through it to make swirls. Lay your sheet of paper on top and press firmly enough to push it into the paint. Raise carefully, wipe away excess and let dry. It takes a lot of shaving cream, so don't forget to buy your husband another can.



........and then we decided 10 month old Marley needed to be neutered. Our perfectly house trained Shih Tzu was having testosterone surges and marking hither and yon throughout the house. He was also becoming more prone to run from us outdoors and even to growl at us if we picked him up when he didn't want to be picked up. All the signs said that our puppy needed his hormones reined in. Those of you who know me know it was a hard decision for me, but the deed was done on Monday, an interminably long day, and I brought him home about 4 PM and dressed him in a onesy to keep him from chewing at his stitches.

Long story short, we've had a rough rest of the week. He had more pain and got sicker than I expected, and I got a killer migraine. Along with the hellish, blinding pain, migraines (and the meds) take away my hope and my connection with God; I'm always sure that this one is never going away. When it's time for me to die, I hope I have a migraine, and I won't mind going as much.

The reverse side of the coin is that once a migraine is gone, I'm sure that's the last one I'll ever have. I woke up this morning with no pain but still drugged from the Maxalt, still worried about Marley and needed to make a quick run to Wal-Mart. On the way there, I got behind a white SUV with license plate "200 MMN". Maybe I was looking for something to pull me out of my pain induced drug haze, but I began to hum.....Ommmmm-m-m-m......... and to meditate as I drove through the morning school traffic.

Meditating is listening to God. I figure God gets tired of being told what to do. Be still and know that I am God. (Psalms 46:10) More than keeping my body still, it means to still my mind and my tongue and open myself up to the mind-altering majesty that is God, who has had some pretty spectacular ideas all on his own. By the time I got home, I felt the connection returning. Marley is slowly getting better, and I'm working on a couple more painting projects. Life is good. Ommmmm-m-m-m

The Best Medicine

If you drop by even occasionally to check my blog, you've no doubt thought I had abandoned ship, but no, I got some sort of stomach virusy-bacteria-creeping-crud-thing, and I'm just now feeling normal again. Some folks press onward when they get ill, but not me. I prefer to withdraw in order to savor fully just how sorry I feel for myself.....and I'm finding that when I'm sick, a fuzzy, happy puppy is the very best medicine of all.

Anyway, even when I'm not blogging, there's a tiny brain cell or two dedicated to scavenging ideas for the blog. This time, I was planning to show you how I've been organizing everything from my art room to my clothes closets and took pics of the Kia stuffed to the rafters with things to donate to Goodwill, including an Imelda Marcos-like box of shoes, some dating back to my teaching/counseling days. I've also been experimenting with painted canvases for another project I've got in mind, as well as a gelatin plate monotype technique, and I took tons of photos for a mini-tutorial, but I somehow managed to delete them when I was transferring some photos for Jim (Oops! I forgot he says I can't talk about him in my blog anymore. Forget I said that.)
These are some after shots of my closet. After all these years it finally occurred to me to separate dresses, shirts and blouses by color. When you're about to get dressed, what do you think of? I'm going to wear my new jeans and the pale blue blouse. Voila! No more searching for the pale blue blouse.
(This photo was in my other camera.) The gelatin plate monotype wasn't as messy as you might think, and I plan to try it again. The recipe is all over the net and on YouTube, using plain gelatin and water; just mix it up and let it chill in a flat pan overnight. Paint on acrylics or block printing ink and then apply sheets of paper. I used handmade paper and got some interesting patterns that I may use to make artsy envelopes.
The most fun painting I've done lately were these pieces of canvas (below). Earlier, I had used grape leaves and acrylic paints to stamp impressions on them, and then soaked the fabric with water and loosely painted Pebeo Seta Color fabric paint on the wet cloth and placed leaves and other found objects on them and set them out in the sun to let it do its magic. It develops in about 15 minutes, and when they were completely dry, I splashed Jacquard Lumiere metallic paints on them.



When I was taking these photos, Marley came in and said that's enough pictures of cloth; it's time to focus on me.

So I did. Follow your bliss everyday; mine happens to be all kinds of art. It's what keeps me going, along with my li'l fluffy shadow........ See you later.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Actually, we haven't gone on vacation this summer, probably should have gone to the Gulf when Belinda and Bobby did in the spring. We had planned to go after school started in August, but with the black blob enveloping our favorite playground, we decided not to go.........maybe forever. We discussed other places, but I'm not going without Marley, and Jim thinks this is a huge added travel burden. Life's not easy when you're Jim. Anywho, a while back, I realized that the best part of traveling was coming home. I'm insanely (probably the key word here) happy puttering about in my own little nest.

So, in lieu of photos of us standing in front of interesting sites, I thought I'd share with you some of the stuff I've been playing with this summer. There are always UFOs (unfinished objects) all over my house, so some of these are works in progress.

I liked these 2 old tables too much to throw them away; after a few winters on the deck, they were needing a paint job anyway, and I'd been wanting to try this primitive, playful style of decorative painting, so they were the obvious victims. I'm not sure this style has a name, but it's fun, and I wouldn't want more than one or two pieces in my house. I sanded them a bit and then began painting bright acrylics on them. I added rubber stamped stars, colored twine, some brass hardware I bought at Home Depot, and some pieces of old jewelry. The Scrabble tiles on top say, "Time is a River", which is something I say to remind myself that hard times aren't forever, and "What I do is me, for this I came", my favorite John Bradshaw quote. It was a slower process than I'd thought and took almost 2 weeks from start to finish. I was fairly happy with the results.






My next project was to brighten up the living room and entryway; theTumble Weed (dark taupe) walls were feeling dreary after 7 years, but I wasn't up for painting all the walls, so with Jim's help, I taped off four 8-foot panels (the same size and shape as the windows) and then painted them with China Doll, the color of the ceilings. I'd found these enormous dandelion stencils that I really love; I've done a lot of brush stenciling, but these suggested using a foam roller, which was tons easier, especially for such large images, but I hadn't figured on just how hard the giant stencils themselves would be to handle. I kept thinking Colleen would know a better way to do this. I painted them in taupes and white. I'm not totally pleased with them and would use brushes next time, but they do look interesting and brighten up the room.

Here's my first attempt at origami. I made 21 little cranes one evening. I love how once they're folded correctly, you don't have to worry that they'll unfold, probably not my next great passion, but when you've done a few, you gain respect for origami artists...........it's not as easy as it looks.

I've been seeing these miniature houses online, and you can invest hundreds of dollars in pre-fab appointments for them (which would be a total bore) or almost nothing and create your own decorations; I've opted for the latter. It's a project that I hope to work on for months or maybe even years, a concept Jim can't quite grasp. He keeps asking if it's finished. What I've done so far is to glue together a plywood house (only 18 bazillion unmarked pieces; the instructions said, "Look at the picture".) as well as some basic pieces of furniture that I got at Michael's. The look I'm going for is a Faerie House, and that's what I kept in mind as I painted it inside and out. For the "tin roof" I ripped apart corrugated cardboard and painted it silver. Kitchen and bath are floored with hand cut stained glass tiles, and the bedroom has a floor cloth made from a black canvas I painted with acrylics. There's also a living room, and of course up in the attic is an art room. I've got plans for tiny curtains, bed linens, etc., and in the eventual backyard, a Secret Garden.


I recently started going to classes at the local stamping shop; I enjoy them because it's a group of happy women playing. Greeting card making is big business these days, and some of the ladies have thousands of dollars invested in creating their cute little cards for family and friends. I'm not that enthralled with gluing Cricut cut-outs onto card stock, but after each class I come home all happy and relaxed, with 2 or 3 cards and possibly an idea or two.

And I've got several projects not far enough along for pictures, but I'll show you an altered book I started. For a book lover like me, it's a hard decision to deface a book, but when an old book has outlived its usefulness, I figure it's happier getting all gussied up and living a brand new life. This one has a little drawer for hidden treasures. I carved out a place for a box, using an exacto knife after I fused the page edges with Gel Medium.

And of course there's always time to play with my little shadow. He's definitely not a "dress-up" dog, but sometimes I try for 2 seconds. These starry-eyed sunglasses lasted for not quite that long. Lately he's sporting a Tinkle Belt because the marking isn't quite under control, and Jim was about to divorce both of us. Marley doesn't seem to mind the belt, and Jim loves us again. Life is good.

Who's Gettin' Fixed??

Hey, whaddup? I'm 8 months old, weigh 8 pounds, and Mom's books say I'm a teenager! Whatever......There's a lot of talk in our house about whether or not to get me fixed. Tell you the truth, I didn't know I got broked. Dad has bad knees, and mom's back hurts sometimes, so you'd think they'd be getting fixed, 'stead of me, but who can tell about peoples? And they're all bothered because I'm marking. Hello! I don't have thumbs; how am I gonna hold a pencil or one of mom's paint brushes to mark? Anywho, I'm sure they'll let me know what they decide about who gets fixed.

Oh yeah, and Shawn and Sadie came to see me! Sadie is a beagle with sad, pretty eyes; she's 7 years old, which is middle aged, and she's patient with me, except once or twice when she snapped at me and said "Go away, kid, you bother me!" I fall in love with all dogs, even the older gals (Or boys, no I'm not that way; I'm just practicin' my technique on whoever shows up!)............and sometimes my moose. Haven't found anyone who's as interested as I am yet, but I am not givin' up. Mom's been trying to get me into some obedience classes. I don't have a clue why, I do what she says if I'm not too busy; the only ones she found were already started, so we'll have to wait till the next round begins. I figure maybe I'll meet some babes there.

And you're not even gonna believe this, but last week, right out of the blue, 3 loud, sweaty guys showed up and pulled out most of our carpet and took it away and put down a slip-n-slide floor in its place! I wonder if Mom knew they were gonna do that......I miss my old carpet. It was all soft and smushy, and a guy could stretch out on it for a nap after supper, and it made a great napkin, too, for wiping your whiskers, and best of all, if you didn't feel like going outside to pee you could just slip behind a chair, and nobody would know.....usually. The new floor is shiny and hard, and sometimes when I get the zoomies and race around the house at 90 miles an hour, I totally lose it on the corners. Good thing there's still carpet in the bedrooms; hope the sweaty guys don't come back for that!

It's still waaay too hot here to play outside in the daytime. Mom said she brought me home in February and that it was really cold. I think I like cold weather best, and she might buy me a bomber jacket this winter; I can hardly wait for the girls' reactions when they see me decked out like a fighter pilot. Hooyah!

Paper Sculpture

If you're like me, your inspirations come in waves. When I admitted to myself (after 4 intense years) that digital art wasn't doing it for me anymore, I went through a fairly scary dry spell, but lately, the waves have been crashing on shore so constantly that I'm making lists of inspirations, lest I forget some of them. How do I know when it's a worthwhile inspiration? I forget to breathe. That, and my heart beats faster, and sometimes I get tears in my eyes. Sounds like a religious experience, doesn't it? It is, sort of. When we create something from within, we're connected as though with an umbilical cord with El Shaddai, The Great I Am, Cosmic Consciousness, or whatever you choose to call It. Anyway, it's a rush, and it makes me happy and gives me a reason to get up in the morning, to wake up expectantly with plans already milling around in my scattered little brain for my current art victim.

I was working happily on the project I thought would come next in this blog when I went rummaging in a supply/storage closet and came across 2 paper lamps I'd bought years ago at Pier 1. One of them got damaged when visitors were rough-housing in the living room (nobody ever admitted to the crime; I guess it jumped off and impaled itself on the table corner), and I liked the lamps too much to throw them away. They're useless as a light source, but they give off such a soft, golden glow. How could I not love them? People talk a lot these days about repurposing objects. I like that term. It's good for the planet, and it speaks to the reverence for the stuff we bring into our lives.

A few years ago, I began doing paper sculpture. I didn't know that was the name for it. Actually, I thought I'd invented something when I began cutting shapes from paper and gluing them together. Then I saw online that artists had been doing it for a long time, even making a living from it. So much for my invention. I did several ambitious pieces, one of them being a 4-foot picture of peacocks in a tree, all white. I never was satisfied with it, but Jim made a frame for it, and it hung on the wall for a while. Then I decided I couldn't take it anymore, but I'd spent hundreds of hours cutting out those feathers, and I couldn't throw them away. Do we see a pattern forming here? So I stripped them from the backboard and stuffed them into a couple of Wal-Mart sacks and stuck them in the closet. Here's a detail of the feathers, and the image at the top is a shot of an iris watercolor/paper sculpture that hangs in the hallway.

So, there were the lamps and the feathers, waiting to be repurposed, together; Breathe, Cat, just breathe.....I abandoned the other project for the moment and began feverishly gluing feathers to lamps, making sure to cover the damaged spot. It took about an hour, and I could hardly wait till dark to see the full impact of my new lamps! Well, I'm in love with them. They're not really repurposed; they're still lamps but with a new attitude. Hard to do them justice in photos.


'Scuse me now, I started yet another project yesterday, and it's the kind that involves the house, and Jim will be impatient with me till I get it finished and everything back to normal. He likes my art, just not the messy part between inspiration and ta-daaah!

Essentially Repellent

This one is for Belinda because we were talking about the problems we have in the mid-south with biting bugs in summer, and she asked for my essential oils insect repellent recipe. Where commercial repellents have side effects and smell yucky, essential oils have health benefits and smell like the best of nature. It's a no brainer.

Some of us simply attract bugs! When I was a child, we roamed the fields and woods, picnicked alongside gurgling streams, waded through waist high sage grass to get to the swimming hole, and I can't ever remember getting bitten by ticks, chiggers or mosquitoes. These days, they'll crawl, fly or hop past a dozen people to get to me, and when I'm bitten, it's red and itchy for days. Global warming? I dunno, but they never bite Jim. I resent him deeply for that. He says it's because I don't drink enough alcohol. I tell him it's because I'm so sweet, dang it! Anyway, I'll digress here and tell you my favorite remedy for insect bites: Wipe the inside of a banana peel on the bite. It works better than Benedryl, and you get to eat the banana. When we're out of bananas, I have pieces of frozen banana peel in the freezer. It works just as well.

If you're new to essential oils, buy the good stuff online or in your health food store, but when you find a display where all the oils are the same price, walk on by. They may smell nice, but they're mostly filler because true essential oil prices within a brand can vary from $4.95 to 50 bucks or more, depending on how rare or expensive they are to produce. They are the essence of plants, flowers, berries, seeds, bark, rhizome, resin, peels and roots. Store the bottles tightly capped in a cool, dark place, and they'll last a long time. The uses are infinite. I believe they were the first medicines and are capable of making our bodies and homes healthier. (I think I've already shared with you my using Tea Tree Oil for dust mites and Oil of Cloves for ants.) I love nice perfume, but I don't wear it in summer because it attracts insects. Instead, I wear a dab of my favorite oils.

Many essential oils repel insects, and you can learn about them with a little research. The ones I've used in this recipe are simply some of my favorites.

Lavender Oil.....If I could have only one essential oil, it would be lavender. It's used in perfumes, is calming, anti-depressant, treats skin problems, is anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, is used for burns, migraines, muscle cramps, digestion, asthma, allergies, menstrual cramps, and insect repellent. I have a diffuser pad where I can drop a few drops of Lavender Oil and plug it into an outlet in my bedroom; it fills the room with tranquility.

Cedarwood Oil.....Of course we know cedar keeps moths away, but among its many other uses are tonics for muscles, skin, digestion and brain disorders, also an expectorant, insecticide, fungicide, and sedative qualities.

Lemon Balm Oil (Citronella)...... has traditionally been employed against bronchial inflammation, earache, fever, flatulence, headaches, high blood pressure, influenza, mood disorders, palpitations, toothache and vomiting. A tea made from Lemon balm leaves is said to soothe menstrual cramps and helps relieve PMS. Researchers have found that using lemon balm also improved memory and lengthened attention span in individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This effect may be due to its content of antioxidants, which are thought to protect body cells from damage caused by a chemical process called oxidation. And a few plants in your flower bed repels insects.

Orange Oil .....Gives relief from anxiety, anger, depression, inflammation, is a detoxifier, and boosts immunity, and insects avoid prolonged exposure to it.

Rosemary Oil.....has been a symbol for remembrance since ancient times. Aside from the fact that I love the smell of this herb and have a huge bush about 4 feet wide just outside my back steps, it's excellent in cooking, relieves muscle pain, is calming, lowers blood pressure and inflammation and treats wounds. Sometimes when I'm walking past it, I break off a long stem and rub it on my arms and legs just because I enjoy being enveloped in its scent. Oh yes, and bugs don't care for it.

Sandalwood Oil.......This is the most expensive essential oil I own. At Rose Mountain Herbs, 1/4 oz costs $42, but it's an awesome scent, found in many of my favorite perfumes, and it's all the good stuff, like antiseptic, deodorant, tonic, memory booster, etc. You'll notice bugs don't like anything antiseptic.

Patchouli Oil......I'm probably more drawn to this one simply as a scent than any other. There's a site called Basenotes, where I've learned tons about why we're attracted to certain scents. When I plugged in all my favorite perfumes from throughout my life, Patchouli was a common denominator in most of them. It's also a fungicide, insecticide, anti-inflammatory, tonic, etc.

So, take a small bottle, preferably one that has a pump, and fill it to within an inch from the top with a good oil. You can use Sweet Almond Oil or even a high grade olive oil. Now begin to experiment with quantities of your essential oils. Start with a dozen drops of each. Let your nose be your guide; you inherently know what's good for you, if your trust the process. Shake well before each use. I apply it to my arms and legs when I'm finished showering, wiping it on my wet skin and then letting myself air dry. Some of the scents evaporate before others. I notice the Patchouli lasts longest on me.

I wore this to my uncle's cookout on Memorial Day. It was a typically humid, sticky summer day, and everyone there was getting stung repeatedly by those dratted little sweat bees. I never even had one light on me. Proof enough. Let me know if you make your own repellent and if you come up with any new additions. The possibilities are endless................. Oh, and one more thing, I don't use commercial repellents on Marley. Some of the most popular ones have proven to be lethal to small dogs. When he gets his weekly bath, I put a few drops of essential oil, usually Patchouli, into his rinse water, and he's protected and smells a little like Jim does when he's wearing Polo.

Mosaic Dulcimer

Well, it's finished; it took about 3 weeks, beginning with cutting my tiles from sheets of stained glass. I cut about 90% of the tiles in this project. I like to do that because the finished piece seems more like mine than when I buy them precut. As you'll see, the tiles for the back of the dulcimer are, shall we say, untraditional? My way of doing mosaics appeals to me, mostly because it challenges me to make do.

I grew up poor, nothing wrong with that, and mostly I'm glad I didn't have the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth. We were country poor, and by that I mean we had food, shelter and clothing, and most everyone around us was poor, too, so we didn't consciously know it or dwell on it. A few people in town, like C. C. Pierson, who owned the hardware store, roller rink, furniture store, and movie theater were considered rich, but by today's standards I think even C.C. wasn't that well off.

Back then, nobody ever thought of having the government support them, and we knew that we only could have what our parents provided with their hard work. That's a good thing to grow up knowing, and another thing, probably the most valuable lesson that my mother taught me was how to make do with what's at hand. She's creative that way, and if she wanted a flower bed out front, she gathered rocks and a sack of concrete and went to work building one. She sewed most of my clothes, and I'd walk down to the mercantile store and buy 3 yards of colorful fabric for $1.00 and a 35 cent Butterick pattern, dream up my own version of it, and she'd sew me an outfit as pretty as any in the J.C. Penny catalog. Once a friend gave her a long, wool coat, and though it fit her well, and she didn't have a long coat, she took it apart, cut it down, and gave it to me. I thought it was beautiful. And that's the feeling I get from creating with mosaic tiles. Here's how I did this one:

I used a glass cutter, grinder, snips and breaking tool, sand paper, alcohol, tweezers, glue, marking pen, and grout. I'd had the dulcimer for 30 years and thought it looked nice on the mantle but didn't have any remorse at taking it out to the shop and prepping it by roughing it up with sand paper. There are several ways of laying out and applying tiles; my way is to experiment with small sections and then glue them down.

The only part I don't like is the grout. It's messy and ugly, and once it's applied, it looks as if my jewels got stuck in mud, which is exactly what has happened.

Grout is meant to be a drab background for the sparkly treasures, but I experiemented this time and applied an acrylic, pearlized wash over it; I love the look, just enough of a sheen to compliment my sparkly tiles.

Actually, I was pleased with the whole thing, after I created some faux frets and added new strings.



Oh yeah, and here's the hypertufa leaf I made a while back. I painted it after the 28 day wait for it to finish drying. Waiting is the hardest part. And now I'm off on a couple of new artsy crafty adventures; I'll share them with you when they're finished. Have a happy, creative day!