Out of One Comes Many

These are some of the Christmas gifts I've made for family members over the last week. I've been playing with Ice Resin and bezels. Fun! I love the Ice Resin. It is so clear, it's amazing! With some of the pieces I embedded little watch parts. Others, I just left as is. Sorry my photos are so bad. Here is the second set:

It took quite a few "duds" and these aren't perfect but I'm happy enough with them to give them as gifts. I have a ton of different sized bezels but wanted to start with the bigger ones just to get the practice. I painted a sheet of watercolor paper with some acrylic paint in my favorite colors and started cutting it up for the bezels. Here is what I started with:

So, out of one painting comes many gifts! This is my entry for Paint Party Friday.

I want to wish a Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates the Holiday!

Heal

I Want 

by Mary Oliver

I want to be

in partnership

with the universe

like the tiger lily

poking up

its gorgeous head

among the so-called

useless weeds

in the uncultivated fields

that still abide.

But it's okay

if, after all,

I'm not a lily,

but only grass

in a clutch of curly grass

waving in the wind,

staring sunward: one of those

sweet, abrasive blades.

This is my (late) entry for Paint Party Friday. Check out all of the wonderful entries from the other artists. You won't be disappointed! 

I Heart Art...

"...We name life 

in relation to whatever we step out from when we

open the door, and whatever comes back in on its own."

-- from the poem No Ideas But In Things 

by Jessica Greenbaum

This piece is just an exercise in frustration for me. It's what happened after a long day of working on another painting that I was very excited about when I started it. When I came up for air and actually looked at it hours later, I was ... not so much. :(  Something happened between the idea I had when I started and the thing that transpired onto the canvas. So I put that away to let it rest for another day. I haven't given up on it but I'm not ready to go back to it right now. *sigh*

Not wanting to leave the studio just yet, I decided to slap some paint down with my hands on some watercolor paper just to see what would come of it. I love to use my hands as a paintbrush when I get into a mood... After a few minutes I thought I saw the outline of a heart and took it from there. Voila. Frustration worked out...  

I had a selection of poems on my desk that I have been using for inspiration and the quote I used at the top of the post has really stuck with me. Those are the last lines from the poem and I love them. I'm working on a couple of paintings right now. Hopefully something can be salvaged from one of them. 

Turning

Turning

Going too fast for myself I missed

more than I think I can remember

almost everything it seems sometimes

and yet there are chances that come back

that I did not notice when they stood 

where I could have reached out and touched them

this morning the black shepherd dog 

still young looking up and saying

Are you ready this time

by W.S. Merwin

I loved this poem when I first read it. It describes perfectly how things have been for me lately. It seems that time keeps getting away from me and I'll just marvel at how much I've missed. I'm trying to make an effort to slow down and appreciate more of the things and people that are important to me. I don't always make much progress but I am definitely becoming more aware. 

This is another art journal page and my entry for Paint Party Friday. This was a loose sketch I did one night a while back and I just decided to paint it today. Still loving those watercolors I used in the background.

Another thing I want to try and be better about is visiting all of you more. Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post. They helped me more than you know. I look forward to visiting all of your blogs in the coming days! Big Hug to all of you!