Midsummer Musings

Happy solstice and new moon blessings! I was reflecting that 20 years ago, I was in Alaska on Summer Solstice, working in a fishing Camp on the Nushagak River!! I took this photo, looking across the river at 10:30 PM! 

What a lovely summer, (despite washing thousands of dishes!!) Slept in a tent, drew lots of earth energy, saw eagle, cariboo, moose, and are lots of fresh salmon! It's one of the few scrapbooks I actually competed, and I'm glad I have memories of the summer in this format!

One of my intentional Creativity SiStars, Amber, is offering her semi-annual Woman Unleashed event, and Shiloh had us paint our Succulent Woman ... I worked in my Smashbook! 

Dakini of the Divine Dance

Another IC friend, Sajar J, brought the blessings of Cancer, inviting us to draw/paint a crab, with the constellation superimposed; and get in touch with her messages.

One I received was the claws, which both grasp something new, and release what's no longer needed! What in your life is ready to be released? Another, mentioned by several, is the crab walk, a sideways approach is sometimes more effective! This weekend I'm offering a Smashbook class, and it will be fun to show these page examples.

This Moon's Sacred Path teaching is on Divine Connection, and we put on music and added pattern to the garments of our ladies. Shiloh connected she does this often, just steps into the Divine flow with pattern

I loved the flow of this step! Next - lights and darks on the faces, which are so rich right now, ....

Blessings of the Sumner, and happy Paint Party Friday!

Good Medicine

 For this week's inquiry In her year long art Journaling class, Come to the Fire, my IC SiStar Heidi asked,
"What's in your Medicine Basket?
"In ancient times (and in modern day) many cultures turned to their medicine Women for healing body, mind and Spirit. They knew certain women carried the healing wisdoms of their ancestors. Each of these healers had their own special bag or basket of medicine.  These medicine bags or baskets contained things like herbs, crystals, a drum or rattle, a chant, feather, and perhaps a red thread to help heal the people."

Medicine Basket

My grandmother Mary knew some herbal remedies, to help family and friends when we're ill, she could give a good back rub, and share a pot of tea with neighbors. 

I don't know if she spun, but she and my mama made quilts with carded wool, using a pair of the wool cards her own mama's family brought along on the wagon train, and made beads from our heritage rose.

I do spin, play harp, Native American Flute, hand drum, give a pretty good back rub, tend gardens, make herb tea and flower essences. I enjoy painting, crafts of all kinds, and sharing the creative spark with others in my art and classes ... what are some of your gifts? 

In this week's Red Thread Circle, we explored our medicine gifts, and brought them to life on paper and in our Smashbooks. It was a sweet session, with three beloveds making good medicine. We added leaves with wishes to the Witness Tree in the main gallery before our closing circle. 
I have three more events coming up this month, starting with Red Thread Reiki 1 this weekend at a water birth center. Our class Musé of Creative Fire is part of the Intentional Creativity Guild's International Muse Day series. This will held in the Eugene area with my cohort, Sepha, our first venture into that community.  

Next, I'll lead a group through creating their own Cosmic Smashbooks at the cosmic Inner Oasis! I love opening creative and healing doors! 

What are some of your Good Medicine Gifts?
How do you share them with your community?

Good Medicine

Happy Paint Party Friday, enjoy your weekend! 

Creative planning

Yesterday I saw a Facebook post by an art biz coach who advised doing a progress review at the end of each week, noting at what happened, and what goals you met. Coupled with his observation that all to often, artists let the business portion of being artists lag.

... while I appreciate his suggestions, I was reminded of why I love the whole brain, Muse led approach, which we favor in Intentional  Creativity! Our biz-coach, Stella Mac had us "Create a business plan using your winged eye – you have to know how to look with a visionary lens to craft a business that reflects who YOU are." 

And Maestra Shiloh wrote: "I answer the call to create, without feel long I am taking away anything from something or someone."

Biz-Plan

One of the biz tools I used last year was taking the year long plan we created during our teacher training, and doing a monthly Smashbook spread with my goals splashed about, "popcorn" style. Some were specific to that month, while others are ongoing (hosting monthly Red Thread Circles, painting, blogging)
I could see at a glance what I accomplished, and what I still wanted to work on. I'm about to start a new Biz-Musé journal, and will include creating these monthly goal pages! 

Red Madonna - Sacred Path

I blocked in my ladies on my Red Madonna canvas this week, and look forward to seeing where they lead! I love the little Phoenix and dragonet! 
The canvas is repurposed, from our Habitat ReStore, and is two 24x30" screwed together! (So 48" wide). It was a simple big sky landscape, and under $10! I'm one of the Hearth Tenders for this online offering, and love the rich teachings from different cultures. 

I did another of lights and darks on Mary Magdalene this week as well. She is emerging.

Happy Paint Party Friday! 

Blessings in the New Year!

The Monkey has been wiggling its tail these last few weeks, getting ready to jump aside for the Rooster! It's cold and clear here in the Pacific NW, and a great time to clean up and rearrange my Atelier! This article offers some tips and inspiration.

Much of clean-up time is simply getting out the broom, dust pan, garbage and recycling cans and applying some elbow grease, LOL! Stuff does pile up, at least in my studio, so next comes reorganizing what's there. (I like the suggestion by one artist to tidy the studio daily, .... or "not at all!" Since creativity often generates a certain amount of stuff!

I continue to work in acrylics, so have my paint containers pretty well organized: one oz in a chipboard container, 4 oz in containers on a higher shelf. Stencils and interference paint are housed in two smaller lidded containers. Then there are my Smashbook and Art journals (shelves), brushes (containers in a cleaning caddy), spritz bottles, rags (T-shirt squares). And in our Intentional Creativity tradition, I have a area set as am altar with fresh flowers, a candle, crystals, incense and things to represent the elements.

Before the dethug

I currently have the brushes and other supplies both on a small rolling cart and a table. I'm thinking of switching shelves from another room with the table, to have more room for painting, and for storage on shelves. There's also an armoire which houses my laptop and some of the supplies. 
This year I will journey with Shiloh Sophia in Red Madonna, following the Sacred Path. I am honored to be one of the Hearth Tenders in the online Red Tent, holding space and honoring the other travelers. Shiloh filmed a little video recently of the art supplies we commonly use for these classes.

I'm partway through the "elbow geese" portion, always the most daunting! I hope to share the"after" view next week! 

Happy Paint Party Friday!!