FUNDAY MONDAY April 21, 2014 # 5 Natural Creative Instincts:

 An Earth Day Creative Celebration. This week we celebrate Earth Day! How does the natural world influence or inform your creative process? Do you incorporate or reflect your personal natural environment, the everyday environment around you, in your creative work? Do you seek creative recharge in the natural world? If so, where do you go in person or even mentally to reconnect with the Earth? Share some examples of your creative expression that reflects or was influenced by your experience of nature. Help connect us to the nature that most influences you. Whether you write a post or not, I hope you'll find as many ways as you can to celebrate our mother Earth this week!

I  celebrate our earth everyday and not just one week out of a year by working hard at leaving a smaller footprint, by recycling, repurposing and reducing my needs. I practice this in my art and in my home and in my personal life.  My contribution to this blog prompt is to post a poem I wrote a few years ago for a contest on the poetry site I belong to. 

Both of the photographs posted were taken in San Francisco in 2013.

Mortals

As the moonbeams touch down and turns the grass to silver
As the rays of the sun bow their heads and give way to the bewitching hour
As the breath of Mother Nature escapes her lips the earth shivers
Only then do we as mortal man know we are weak and have no power

We try to tame mountains and rivers and fly to outer space
We say we are only seeking to live together in peace
We all too often forget to 'live and let live' within our God's grace
And until we do, the winds of our torment will never cease

Until we stop judging each other based on our beliefs or race
Until we can live together with no walls to keep others out
Until we learn we are all God’s creatures who he wants to embrace
Only then can we  be happy of that I have  no doubt

No matter how far we travel in outer space
No matter how many mountains and rivers we tame
Until we are kind to each other and in Mother Nature's good grace
We will have no one but ourselves left to blame

Darlene Sperber
June 20, 2008

FUNDAY MONDAY April 14, 2014 # 4 Show and Tell

 Every consciously creative person I know has a stash of images, quotes, books, spices, garden ideas, etc. that they have been drawn to, and use as inspiration. 
SHOW something that inspired you and what it inspired you to create.
TELL: What do you keep as inspiration? How and where do you store it? And, when do you pull it out? Why? Whose work do you collect? Is there one person who inspired you to take your creative path? Maybe include links for others of us to learn from and be inspired as well.

Lee has ask us to do a bit of 'show and tell'  and share what, who, where and why of our inspiration. For starters I will do a bit of show and tell. 

Not long ago after seeing the photo that Ruth posted of a statue at the Ichno-Art Cat Palace on her FB page it inspired me to make my own statue. 

My inspiration..."A Garden Goddess by BlueFire MacMahon..Go here to see her site.

Here is my Pixelated Women inspired from Ruth's Garden Goddess above. You can see the complete assemblage of her here

Art, doll making and
sewing books

I have a huge stash of stuff I have collected over the years...I won't even try to list what I have...some of it is useless and some is non replaceable...all of it is getting sorted again soon but I think my favorite thing to have is my collection of books..I love books of all kinds and have since as far back as I can remember...I have books on doll making, and quilting and many types of art. I have quarterly's, monthlies and annuals. I have hardback, magazine types, altered and hand made books. And I just keep on collecting. I would part with my first born son before I would part with my books. I am kidding of course...I use them for inspiration, instructions and browsing. Sometimes just for reading. If it is written it is precious to me.  If you read you can learn anything, go anywhere and be anyone...all it takes is a little imagination...

More of my sewing books

Quilt books in back files and art books in front files

Here is a sampling of some of my favorite 'how to' books...My interest runs the gamut from altered art, to couture sewing to playing in concrete. The concrete book is where I learned the technique for sculpting the way the 'Pixelated Goddess is done.

One of my all time favorite artist is Kumiko Sudo. Her work is so gently elegant. I have collected all of her books to date and have tried to make something from each of them...

Here is a sample of a quilt I did from her book which I then taught to my quilt group a few years back. 

I also used an idea from one of her quilt designs for a page in my LifeBook 2014 that I am working on completing.
Someday

I have never formally studied art. I have no degrees other than a degree in patience to learn however I can. I have no one artist in particular that inspired me to start on the path of art. If the truth were known I was discouraged to do art at a young age by negative criticism from teachers and family. Somewhere along the way I found my self and embarked on a creative venture...It has led me to many different venues, mediums and people of like mind. I love going to museums, galleries juried art shows and I love surfing the web looking at art and for art tutorials. I enjoy looking at some of the artist on our DCP page and have been inspired by many of the member artist featured here. I especially enjoy reading their blogs...Sort of a like having a book with chapters in my computer. Have I mentioned how much I love books?

The  Weber Gallery is a small gallery located in the CFCC near my home in Florida. The exhibit changes each month or so and it is free...Free is good! I try to make it to each exhibit either with my hubby or a friend. I find looking at other's art is a great inspiration to me.

And did I mention I love books... !

FUNDAY MONDAY April 7, 2014... # 3 Thinking Outside The Box.

 Funday Monday blog prompt - thinking outside the box. and I mean this in terms of the tools you use - not just your everyday brushes and paint. Do you ever see a stick and wonder what kind of mark it would make? Do you ever - while cleaning the kitchen - wonder about the texture and color the coffee grounds might have? the burnt embers in your fireplace? If you are a musician - do you secretly listen to theTango music of Gordel, or maybe Katie Perry? If you are writer, do you look at The Enquirer. We'd love to know how you think outside the proverbial BOX. Show us what you have done if you can! We all learn from each other.

Vickie  has asked us to write about how we are thinking outside the box…That is pretty much how my life has gone over the many years I have been thinking for myself…or at least as far back as I can remember. I was never one to follow the rules or color inside the lines and because of that I spent many hours in the corner as a child and in trouble, albeit minor, as I grew up both at home and at school. I was never a follower, always swimming upstream, going against the norm and I hated when others tried to tell me how or what to do. That is not to say I have not learned and been influenced by others. But I have taken the information I have gleaned from others and played around with it, sometimes following the directions but many times making my own directions. But I learned and then if I liked what I learned I went on to do my own thing and if not I discarded the information or stored it away for future reference.

I stepped outside the box with my yard and with my ideas and my husband's very hard work we now call it our garden because it is no longer just a yard. It is an art gallery, a woodland, a butterfly garden, a place to display my collection of eclectic stuff and a place to relax with a good friend and a cup of coffee. I call myself a mixed media artist because I like trying everything and using everything to make art like 'stuff'. In fact I have calling cards that describe me as "a collector and creator of stuff." I have just never decided what type of art form or medium I like best so I do it all. 

Gear based statue

I like using what is available and not waste resources so I have gotten in the habit of looking at everything with a fresh eye which is something I learned from a couple of friends. Everything under the sun can be used for other purposes other than what it was originally intended.  Car parts can become stands for art work,peanut butter pretzel jars can be used for wonderful stackable storage, credit cards make great tools for spreading glue, paint or mark making. Oatmeal containers cut down make great holders for tools such as pencils and brushes. tissue dipped in Elmer’s glue and adhered to a piece of cardboard make hard durable surfaces for art work when dry. Tyvek and brown bags make great jewelry or faux metallic or leather surfaces.  And the list goes on and on.

The doll on left is made using a stick for an arm and branches for antlers. Here base shown below is wrapped with fibers from a palm tree root.

If you think outside the box art can be made with anything you can put your hands on.