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Origami Vision Boarding, part 3
After matching actions to colors and creating a collage, it was time to paint. Some people in the workshop opted to work with other mediums, but I grabbed my big box of acrylic paint and had some fun. I actually painted two paintings. The first one (pictured above) felt wrong, so I abandoned it and…
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Origami Vision Boarding, Part 2
After defining my actions and assigning them colors (see part 1), I got to work on a collage using origami paper. I began by cutting some random shapes and moved them around on the page until they started to tell a story. I filled in the details as the story unfolded itself in my head.…
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Happy 2024
Wishing you all the best in the year of the Dragon. And here’s a peek at the creative process and rejected designs for this 11th in the “Elephant as Zodiac Animal” series:
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Making Botanical Colors
Surrounded by so many plants through the seasons here at 555, I decided to try my hand at making art supplies. It’s fun to experiment with the process of extracting color. If you decide to try this – and especially if you are using unknown or inedible plants – please do it outside or in…
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Duetting with Dad
As a housewarming gift, Jenny shipped me a piece of Dad’s glass art. When I unwrapped it, I wept. I am so happy to have another piece to hang in the windows here. When Dad was learning the techniques of glass painting, he copied the church windows of medieval glass masters. Here’s what he wrote…
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Nengajou jollity
Today I sent out our nengajou, the holiday cards that are delivered on January 1 in Japan. I am not 100% sure that’s going to work properly for my cards this year. I didn’t buy the special pre-franked cards the post office sells, instead drawing my designs on postcards I already had on hand. So…
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Death and memories
Taking time to remember a person is how I grieve. This may not be the most classic way to process grief, but it works well for me and is influenced strongly by two books: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. In this book, a plague has wiped out all but one woman…
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Intuition session with Christine
I recently enjoyed an intuition session – a sort of psychic reading – with my friend Christine from Clarity with Christine. I find it useful occasionally to get perspective that’s outside self-reflection. I interpret and absorb what she describes into a deeper understanding of myself. Christine’s readings are a creative experience. As you would expect,…
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Receive, Release, Give
Our hands are one of the most important tools we have to connect with the world – we use them to touch, explore, grasp, work. In this Drawing Meditation we use them as a conduit for connecting with our inner world. We let the drawing distract our conscious mind so that our inner thoughts and…
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NaNoWriMo 2023
It seems like every few years, I sign up for NaNoWriMo. Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days? Sure! I “won” in 2010 with my YA novel, 9 Point Plan, and failed in 2004 and 2018. So maybe 2023 will be a winner. UNLABELLED is a hero(ine)’s journey – a coming of age book…
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