Store Front Art!

Hi everyone!  Just because I haven't posted in a long time doesn't mean I haven't been making art!!  Our local Chamber of Commerce wanted to "beautify" the uptown area of our small town by having people paint art in the windows of vacant store fronts.  I submitted a proposal and it was accepted!  This past weekend we finished up the art and here are the process photos I wanted to share with you.  This happened over 3 days.  My mom and my daughter helped me too!

 Window before I started and the X was string I used to help me find the center of the window.

Guidelines I drew and I started to draw the design from the center.

Almost finished outlining the design. End of day 1.

Start of day 2 - we added tempera paints and cut up pieces of sponge to apply the paint.

we had to sign our names on the outside and then trace them on the inside - This is my mom!

My 11 yr old daughter helped too!

first coat of paint on!

view from the outside

my mom and me!!

Start of Day 3 we worked on the door. I had to add Bijou!  

Here I am again!

The door and the two together!  

CJS - Inspired by Nathalie Kalbach

Here is my page inspired by Natalie's Creative Jump Start Lesson!  Lots of layers and colors!

CJS - Inspired by Dina Wakley

Here is my journal page inspired by Dina Wakley's Creative Jump Start video Hold-On!  Very cool use of collage and acrylic paints.  It's hard to rip your piece into two!

Faux Stone Journal - More Creative Jumpstart Fun!

I had so much fun making this faux stone journal!  It was Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's submission for the 2017 Creative Jumpstart program.  Here are some process shots along with the final journal!

This is a close up of one spot on the journal - love the texture and color!

Now to add some words!!

Creative Jump Start Fun

For the past few years I have participated in Creative Jump Start.  You are able to watch short videos from between 25-30 different artists.  It's helped me try new supplies, techniques, and simply make things during the month of January.  You have access all year, but I'm trying to spend at least 30 minutes a day making something in 2017.

Today my 10 year old daughter and I worked on pieces inspired by Jodi Ohl on whimsical creatures.  It was a lot of fun!

 Here is a shot of my daughter working because she won't let me take a picture of her with her art.  I'm grateful for all the CJS artists who share their ideas with us!  If you are interested in learning more you can visit the website here .

Recovering Slowly

I'm finally feeling like I am back among the living!  Wednesday through Friday were pretty rough days for me recovery wise.  The pain was high and it was difficult to eat.  But, I turned a corner Saturday and have been doing better and better ever since.  I haven't been feeling up to art journaling, but I've been writing down ideas that come to me!

Here is a picture of my companions. 

 Here is a photo of the ice pack I wear pretty much all the time that runs 43 degree cold water through continuously.

 Here is the torture machine.  It bends my leg from 0 degrees to whatever flexion I can manage, right now I have it set at 60 degrees.  I'm supposed to get up to 125 degrees so I have a ways to go still.  PT starts tomorrow - cringe.

Art journaling, mindfulness, and surgery

Close to a month ago, I fell while playing softball and heard something tear in my knee as I went down.  I knew it was bad, but was hoping for the best. I had to have my first MRI and then the doctor told me the bad news.  I'd torn my ACL, which stabilizes the knee. He said it looked like two frayed broom mop heads touching.  It took all my energy to try to process what he was saying, surgery needed, general anesthesia, taking a piece of my tendon from my quadricep to graft to my ACL, drilling holes into my bones to snake the new piece of tendon through and attach to the demolished one and six months of rehab.  I got out to my car after the appointment and started sobbing.  I was so disappointed with myself for getting hurt.  How could I be so arrogant to think I could play softball and not get hurt. Now I was going to be a burden to my family, co-workers, and friends. We had to cancel a vacation that had been planned for 6 months to visit family in the Finger Lake region of NY.   

That evening, I sat down and made this art journal page.  

It felt good to create, work through my fears, and stamp a message that I needed to embrace.  In the weeks that followed before the surgery, I made several more pages.  With each page I felt like I was healing my emotions and speaking to myself with more compassion, as I would speak to a friend.  

The thought of the surgery still kept me up at night and made me queasy, but that's when I relied on my mindfulness training.  I stayed in the present moment and reminded myself that I was not in any danger and that worrying about the future would only rob me of my present time.  The morning of the surgery I pulled this mantra I had printed and looked at it the whole way to the hospital.  Instead of thinking about all the things that could go wrong, I focused on how I would be able to go for hikes with my family, walk to work, and get back to yoga.  The simple things that bring me joy.    

       

The surgery went well, but the general anesthesia did throw me for a loop.  I couldn't keep any crackers, fluids or pain medicines down.  But, that wore off in a few hours and I was able to eat a banana, take some pain medicine, and rest.  I know I have a lot of work ahead of me. However, I am proud of myself for going into the surgery with a positive attitude, which hopefully allowed me to not activate a stress response in my body that produces the flight or fight hormones.  I was able to speak to all the hospital staff from a place of gratitude, instead of fear, and told them that I appreciated their efforts before being knocked out.  It feels like a major win to me and a great lesson learned.