The Guest House

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them all at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi ~

Migraine!

These past two weeks have been murder on my head! I have been getting migraine headaches in clusters of three at a time. So six of the last 14 days I've had these darn migraines! Yuk!! If you've ever suffered from them you know what I'm talking about. These have been particularly debilitating for some reason.

Thank God for Imitrex! It does help and I don't know what I would do without it. The side effects, for me, are a numb feeling in my face and a general blah lethargy. But it beats the excruciating pain of the headaches so I go with it.

Anyway, I put this little piece together to try and express my frustration with having to live with these things so often lately. I've changed it a couple of times since first posting it so I decided to just re-post the final (I think) version. It isn't pretty because it's not meant to be. Hopefully, the headache today (the third in the latest cluster of three) will be it for awhile.

Never Lose That Little Girl Spirit!

I was browsing through the book, "1,000 Artist Journal Pages" and saw a page that had the caption, "Never lose that little girl heart". I loved that! I changed it to "Never lose that little girl spirit" here. I have a nice big file of vintage images and I've always loved this little girl! She just looks like she's up to something adventurous. Just thought I'd make a fun piece today.

By the way, the book is awesome! It has tons of eye candy for art journalling and countless ideas for your own pages. I'm working on my pages and hope to have one I can share soon.

Color My World!

Just something silly I threw together today. I absolutely LOVE the designer Christine Honsinger's work over at ScrapArtist.com. Most of these elements are from her kits. She makes up the most awesome kits! I'm just loving the Spring colors that are blooming all around me right now and thought I'd make something celebrating COLOR!

Woodland Wonderland

I decided to create a magical place... a world where it's NOT rainy, cold, windy, or any of those other blah things that MY world is experiencing today. So I invited a few of my familiar friends from other works I've created and they decided to give it a try. ;)

I was experimenting with some functions in Photoshop last night and accidentally hit a wrong button which opened up a whole new menu of options I've never seen before. That software is always surprising me with more and more areas I've yet to discover. The companion book that I've had for awhile, "Photoshop for Dummies", is almost as thick as a dictionary so there's no way I'm going to sit down and read it. But I find it very helpful when I'm wondering about certain functions or tools or menus. I still wish they had a more remedial version of THIS book but I try to muddle through. I'm trying to talk hubby into getting the newest version. Wish me luck.

Cocoon

Well doesn't she look luxurious! I found some awesome images of textures and this one just grabbed my attention. I think it's a photo of silk curtains. Anyway, as soon as I saw it I thought wouldn't it be wonderful to just wrap up in these! So I found a suitable "model" and put HER in instead! She looks very comfy, I think.

It's a blah rainy day here today so I thought I would "cocoon" and stay inside playing with my art. Now off to find some more textures and experiment...

Mystery

This is a digital montage I put together over this past week. I'm still not sure what to call it. I originally had the title, "Remembrance" but the more I look at her the more I wonder about her story. She does seem like a mysterious lady that has a lot of secrets hidden away. I think I'll stick with "Mystery" for now.

I'm trying to break out of my blues palette and branch out. ;) I don't normally use reds/oranges but they are starting to appeal to me. I recently ordered some Shiva Paintstiks and now I'm falling in love with iridescent colors! So, expect some of those to come along very soon!

Moonlight Magic

I've been doing more experimenting with Photoshop tutorials and always wondered how to get the "reflection in the water" effect. It's so simple! Just flip the image and adjust the transparency. Duh! The image of the woman was from a tutorial that I found for adding effects for fantasy art. That is something I want to learn more about. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out a way to print out the tutorial! I can't work from a screen. Call me anal but I need written directions in front of me to read as I go along with each step. Everytime I tried a new way to print out the directions my computer froze up, so now I have this great image and no way to learn the effects I want! I'll try again later. That's not the only site that teaches such things.

I'm still drawn to my ttv lenses (frames). I like the effect of looking through the lens. Also, I'm very excited that this piece is now a featured photo over at the Creative Souls website! If you click on photos it will be with the other featured artwork (all beautiful!) at the top of the page. I love that website! The artists that show their work are tremendous! There is so much talent and inspiration when you browse through the different artists' albums. It IS an honor to have my work featured. :) It is a great boost for the beginning of a new week!

Balancing Act

As you can see I've been experimenting again with different Photoshop elements. This piece has been ongoing for awhile now and I'm still not sure if it's finished. I love the colors and the textures...so far this is the version I like the best!

It's funny how you can discover new elements of Photoshop; things you've noticed before but never really experimented with. I'm finally getting over my fear of the unknown commands! :) The book, Photoshop for Dummies has been a big help. Sometimes, though, I think I need an even simpler version like Photoshop for Imbeciles! I'm managing to stumble through some of the sections with happy results.

At Home With Color

I've really been enjoying Pam Carriker's Visual Journalism 101 journal workshop. It's nice to get some pages going with backgrounds! This week we are just concentrating on getting color onto the pages and creating interesting backgrounds. I've got about 7 pages colored and have started some more. My colors have been in the blues/pinks/oranges shades. I'm really liking most of them. Those that I'm not so crazy about I'm going to tweak with some Titan Buff.

I've also begun a project for an art trade with a friend at the Artella site. We are making 8 x 10 collages to exchange. I need to get more done with that project this weekend. Playing with all of this color and paint and texture just made me want to create a little digital journal page until the "real" one is finished! These elements are all from the designer Christine Honsinger (Fiddlette Designs) at Scrap Artist.com. I love her style and have been grabbing up her kits as fast as she creates them!

Magic Time

Yes, it's another ttv frame! Loving these!! I'm also loving a couple of workshops I'm in right now. The art doll workshop from Nancye's Art Dolls is FABULOUS! I'm still trying to sculpt a face in polymer clay that doesn't end up looking like an alien. I'm getting there...slowly. But I love what I'm learning. Nancye is an awesome dollmaker. Check out her link on my sidebar.

Another class I'm starting today is a journalling workshop with Pam Carriker through Creative Workshops (see sidebar). It's called "Visual Journalism". I'm determined to start and maintain an art journal. I just don't know where to start. She's going to help with that. I'm off today to get a decent journal to play in. I don't want to use a fancy one, just one that will be ok to experiment in. I have a 50% off coupon from Michael's so look out.

If and when I get a halfway decent doll face I'll post it here. It could take awhile...

Resolve

Here's another ttv frame (see last post)! These frames make me want to use my vintage images. I'm also working on layering my backgrounds more. I'm starting to make my own backgrounds now after always using pre-made scrapbook backgrounds. Those are nice and I have some beautiful ones that I will continue to use but I want to make my own, too. I'm pretty pleased with this background. I think there are 20 layers to this piece...but it's the effect I wanted.

I don't work much with reds and oranges so I thought I would branch out and incorporate those colors in a piece. I'm always drawn to blues first... :) No doubt more ttv frames will follow.

Her Kind

I found the coolest thing: ttv's! Through the viewfinders (ttv) is a flickr group that uploads images of viewfinders and you fill in with your photos or art. These are addicting! I've downloaded so many...my favorite contributor is Nesster. His viewfinders are in focus and really done well. So...I may be playing with these for awhile in my art. The options are endless! Check them out at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ttvdust