Out With 11 Things

Whew, it's been busy.  I've been sketching, knitting, baking, and doing some journaling, plus getting all the Christmas things ready.  Here's my latest journal page and some reflections on an earlier Reverb prompt...
Happy holidays, we'll see each other as we can over the next couple of weeks.  Best wishes for a fulfilling and joyful 2011.

 

(arches paper, acrylic, image transfer, collage, stamp, ink)

11 Things. Reverb, Day 11

What are 11 things your life doesn't need in 2011?

How will you go about eliminating them?

How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

Here are the 11 things I would like to release....

Thing 1: 25 pounds of body weight.

Thing 2: Pain in my arm and shoulder.

Thing 3: Old school stuff in the garage.

Thing 4: Old clothes in the closets and junk in the drawers.

Thing 5: Front and back lawns.

Thing 6: Headaches.

Thing 7: Trying to fix people.

Thing 8: Taking on things I don't really want to do.

Thing 9: Being judgmental.

Thing 10: Resistance to doing morning pages.

Thing 11: Too much time at the computer.

For the first step, I will do a real or vitual smudging ceremony, which one depends on whether I can get my hands on the sage. First, the sage and I will spend a little time together in my meditation area. Then I'll put each of these things on a small piece of paper, burn it with the sage torch, and let the negative energy be borne away with the smoke. After that, I'll take the torch into the garage and around the house.

The sage smudging ceremony is a cleansing ritual to establish positive energy, clear thinking, harmony of thought and healing. As the sage burns slowly and the smoke is released into the air, the negative energy sent away along with the smoke.

Obviously, I need to undertake other more concrete steps to make these changes. I'll post the list in my journal so that I can refer to it often and check on my progress.

I invoke the light of the God within
I am a clear and perfect channel
Light is my guide

Barbara B. 12.20.10

A Time of Completion

I'm taking my last watercolor class for the semester tomorrow and we are to bring in all the things we have worked on since August. As I line them all up in the spare room so that I can see what needs a mat, I'm so glad I took this class. I'm pleased with the progress and the new things that I tried, AND I I was able to see my way to finish some things that have been hanging around for awhile, and here are two.

The Air is Clear Out Here

This one was done completely without brushes. Q-tips, toothpicks, stirrers, and a plastic fork were used to apply and spread the paint. It was really fun! It sat for about 4 weeks before I could figure out what to do to finish it. Don't know how well is will show up here, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Fish, Fruit, and Fall

This is one of those that hung around unfinished for a year before I was able to finish it. Do you have any of those? I was really stuck and had been painting for only eight or nine months, so didn't have the experience to know what to do. I hadn't put in the background view through the windows and I had the values all wrong for the window mullions and the shadows. I was all hung up on making it realistic and got defeated with how it wasn't looking like the real thing. At one point (because I often work on the kitchen table) I spilled coffee all over it! I rinsed it off and kept it because I loved the rainbow trout, both the real one and the painting.

From time to time I'd take it out and have a look. Finally, it started telling me not to worry about what the real view is from the window, that it wanted fall foliage. Then it said not to worry about whether the colors were real, just darken the mullions so that the shadows aren't so strange. I've learned a lot from working on this one, and maybe the most important thing is to be patient and wait. It will unfold in its own way and in its own time. What a sweet lesson that is, and what a joy to bring this one to completion.

Barbara B 12/15/10