Believing

This quote from one of my favorite fairy tales, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis sums up my thoughts on believing and faith.  We are at a time when choice of who and what to believe in abound and I see a lot of believe what I believe or I will unfriend you.

The character who made the above statement was being presented with all kinds of arguments as to why he should not believe and that it would be desirable to just agree with what was being said.  He believed in what was right and held fast to those beliefs.  It is a simple message, about faith. There are a lot of area in our lives that need faith. A belief that is unshakeable and resists change, a path to follow.  This can go for your religious views, or just simply a goal you wish to achieve.

Me, I want to be an artist. I want to bring magic and beauty into everyday life. I want to celebrate that which is good about living.  I am on the side of beauty and everyday magic, even if they do not exist. I am going to live a life of beauty and magic, knowing that Narnia exists and not listen to those who tell me otherwise.

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Where have all the posts gone?

Wishes on the Wind was originally published  at http://rennatatropeano.com/growingunique.

That is pretty much where I am posting these days. I drop by here occasionally to share a post.

There is something compelling about a simple dandelion, or as I have called it here, a Dandylion. Most people will agree that they are a weed, but they are featured in many pieces of art, literature, tv shows and movies. Close your eyes and imagine blowing the seeds free to fly on the breeze, make a wish and dream.

I usually struggle with titles, but today the blog title came easy.  Wishes on the Wind.  I was looking for an image to set the scene for my next chapter and came across this lonely dandelion.  It was perfect for the scene, but I decided that instead of using the picture, I would play with it a bit to draw attention to the structure of the flower, rather than the white puffy ball.  Each wish that is set free on the wind will lead to another cluster of wishes.

Amazing, and a Labyrinth too.

This month has been amazing. I feel like I have accomplished so much while at the same time, I have been inspired to work on all kinds of new and fun projects.

Someone painted some wonderful Labyrniths, and I was inspired to try and learn how to create my own.  I followed the instructions for making a labyrinth found at The Labyrinth Society.

A local Eagal scout just put one in at my Church. It was wonderful to be able to go and walk it last Sunday.  I decided I wanted to try, so lacking the time and space and materials to make a big one, I decided to create a virtual one.

While I am sad to be finishing up the AEDM challenge, I am looking forward to this coming year and the challenges it will bring.

Memories

Memories, ©2010

Lots of words yesterday. More words today, but I played around with what  I want for  a cover for the story I am writing.

I did not manage to create the cover, but I did like this image.

The needle felt is on hold while I get a little more caught up in my word count.  I am thrilled that I am stringing a series of green days together, I just need to make up for some of the yellows and oranges now.

Just a little box.

Time to get out of the yellow

Today was a publicity sort of day. New classes posted at the co-op art gallery, so listings and announcements were needed.

Yesterday I decided I wanted a new little icon of the AEDM, so I created this one.  Feel free to use it, but be sure it links back to Leah’s page for AEDM.

Lots of words and not much else.

Life with a Sound Track

 

This month in the year long Create Every Day Challenge the optional theme is the senses. I have a new phone that has the option of playing Pandora.  I am amazed at how much the music affects my mood and what I am doing.

It makes me think of all the over the idea of  visualizations and intentions and so much stuff that has been over done and over dramatized.  I have seen people buy into the concept of  If I say it and see it, It will happen.

 

The skeptic in me says “No way is saying it and seeing it are going to make it happen”    What so often gets left out is the actions that it takes to get from one place to another. It takes a lot more than just intending to have something happen, to make it happen. It takes work, sometimes lots of work.

Going back to the soundtrack idea,  My energy level is much higher when I am listening to the Go Go’s than it is when I am listening to a Don Mc Clean’s Vincent.  Today I was reading The Spark, a book about the online site  SparkPeople,com *  it is more of a lifestyle site than it is a diet site.

In the book the author makes a point about how many times we tell ourselves, we can’t, it is hopeless etc. as opposed to telling ourselves we can.  It hit me, in a way all these visualizations, affirmations etc. are part of the sound track of our life. We can choose to encourage ourselves with positive thoughts or listen to the negative.  While there is a beauty to a sad song like Vincent, the same can not be said about the negative self doubts.

I still do not think that if I affirm it enough, it will happen, but it might be time to change the station and listen to something upbeat while I do the work to get where I want to go.

 

 

 

*I do get spark points if you click and join Spark People, but not a financial gain.

Candy Art

Artist Trading Card

Rennata M. Tropeano, Candy Art, Digital Print 3.5×2.5 inches ©2010

A Balancing Act

I love journals and writing in them, so naturally they are a favorite thing for me to make as gift.  I love selecting the paper, the cover  and putting the book together.  It makes me smile that binding these journals is a perfect use for the warp ends that would otherwise be waste when you are weaving with linen.

At the art gallery, we have had a number of requests for journals with art work on the cover, so I made a small one.  Like many other handmade things, the materials are not the expensive part, it is the time that goes into them that is valuable.  As a result the cost of this journal is more than I would want to pay for a journal. I did some research and my price was on par with  most of the handmade journals.

The feedback so far is that lots of people pick it up, look at the price and  then set it back down, and then ask if we have any other journals.  I have been playing with the idea of having  a local printer do the labor for me.  They can print out the image and bind it in several different formats, all at a price that I would pay for a journal, but it no longer has the beauty of the hand bound binding and instead of a piece of original art on the cover, it is a print.  It is a balancing act, the balance between commercial and art.  Today’s art creative effort is for the test journal,  to see if I can achieve a balance that I am happy with.   I may have them bound with the background paper as the cover and then either cut the cover into a mat for a print, or attach a matted print.

I will be adding these seamless background textures to my flickr photo stream under a creative commons licence.

Black Friday

 One of my favorite creative resources is Second Life.  It is an online 3D virtual world. I am part of a creative community in an area called Wind River Territories. It is a group of Writers, Artists and generally all round creative people.  New York Times Best Selling author  Mike A. Stackpole holds office hours at which you can ask him questions about writing and how he markets his work.  There are thousands of online virtual Art Galleries from all around the world.

There are a lot of Colleges and Universities that offer lectures on various topics.  I have been to listen to lectures being given in London, Australia, and Arizona all in one day. 

I find it is an excellent place to explore other lives.  I had always wanted to work in an Art Gallery, so I created one in Second Life.  I got a lot of positive feed back and encouragement. It gave me the courage to make the leap and now am part of a cooperative Art Gallery.

One of those other lives that I get to explore is that of a fashion designer.  I always loved the idea of taking one of my pieces of artwork and making it into a grand dress.  In Second Life I can, as you can see this is the dress I made from my work entitled “Juxtaposition”.   Although I enjoy it, I do not think I will be become a fashion designer, the dance costumes I make are close enough to that for me.

 Mira Caerndow is the name of my Second Life Avatar. 

Zen Tangle and Another Fractal

Having seen the Zentangles on an number of sites, I had to try one myself.  I also played some more with the fractal filter.  Both images appeal to me in that they have a strong sense of rhythm.

Todd Henry in his podcast and website Accidental Creative talks a lot about rhythm, and it has made me  more aware of it.  If you have not hear of this podcast or blog, please go check him out.   Rhythm is one of those things that is often lost in our modern society.  We have become obsessed with Now! and New and Improved.   I always want my art to be constantly improving and getting better.  When I hit an ebb part of the tide, I think of it as bad. The creativity is going away, what I am doing is not working.  What I made is trash. 

These negative thoughts are destructive and wrong.  Like the tide, creativity has a rhythm, it cycles through low and high periods.  These periods of low creativity are the times for processing  and for refilling your personal well.  I also like to think of them as times for sand castle building.  Sand Castles are a great low tide activity,  all that bare sand, a blank canvas, but a low pressure blank canvas as you know the tide is going to return.  Sand Castles can be works of art, but they are a joy to create, simple to make. It is the process that is fun.

I found this Zentangle to be an excellent sand castle type activity.  It was fun, it simple to make, but can become complex.   Like many before me,  I found it to have a meditative quality to it.  I found myself thinking of  the things I am Thankful for, A very seasonal thing, and  I found some answers to some artist problems.   I had been working on a series of tiles, I had decided to make some seasonal tiles.  Flowers for spring and summer.  Leaves for fall, but when it came to the winter tiles, my Christmas tiles fell very flat, too found at Walmart and kitschy.  It was the same for snowflakes, the more religious tiles and the others.  They lacked rhythm.  The flowers and leaves worked because they had rhythm.   I feel like the tide is coming back in on my tile creativity.