One Artist Journal – The Book – Giveaway & Blog Hop May 18, 2012

I’ve been posting my journal entries on my blog over the last four years, piling them up one above the other. I wanted so much to take them back to their original tactile state: the paper, the visual journal, the book. I envisioned the intimate experience of cradling it in my hands, turning its pages, enjoying them forming a whole and then returning to the individual pages, immediate mini worlds, to expand my journey. Now that it’s out, I picture others having a similar but their own experience with it. I have the grand wish for the book to inspire others to restore their own spiritual resources and create from a newly courageous, yet innate, place. Through the book I hope to perhaps even nudge individuals to also share their vulnerable expressions with others, gently, in ways that are tangible, personal, leading to individual progress, and in new enthused ways that awaken a humble sense of oneness. 

I am so filled with contentment. It’s here, available to be enjoyed.

Spread 170- Presenting To You May 7, 2012

The fruit of burdens and dreads of today. At times that’s all I have to offer my pages, my online journal, myself, and you. Gotta be honest about it.

Spread 169- Sweet & Gentle May 1, 2012

Not at all times.

Spread 168- Push-Pull April 23, 2012

Allow me to say something in-between.

Spread 167- And In The End… April 14, 2012

…I think that it’s all about unearthing our own individual ways. It’s most valuable to open ourselves up to seeing as many of them as possible as long as it leads to clear ways, ones that can be called one’s own. Then, these ways ought to be trusted to the furthest extent.

Spread 166 – The Last Artfest April 3, 2012

Just came back from Artfest in Port Townsend, Washington. My 13 year old daughter Maya joined me this time. Beautiful change is always evident when teaching at an art retreat. But this time more than before, as this was the last Artfest. There is nothing sweeter for me than witnessing profound individual human transformations, being it of visionaries of art celebrations like Teesha and Tracy Moore, of friends, new and old, of individuals of all kinds, of my daughter, and of myself. No one is holding back in such occasions, only creating, expressing, bonding, humanity soaring!

Spread 165 – Another Time March 16, 2012

Physiological or mental, it’s all the same. It’s carried out by or taking place in my mind.

Spread 164 – Dire Conclusions March 7, 2012

In The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery tells: “…after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
They answered me: “Why should any one be frightened by a hat?” My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. Then, I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.”

The Pulse March 5, 2012

“Listen closely…can you hear it?

Can you hear the voices? Thoughts, insights, confessions from the creative community sharing ideas, trading secrets, venting frustrations; asking and answering questions such as, “What color rarely shows up in your work?” or “How do you express vulnerability in your art?” Or “What is one current trend that you wish would go away?” As artists, we are curious by nature and there is a longing to see inside the hearts and minds of artistic souls of our own kind. That is the beat of our lives – The Pulse of Mixed Media!”                                                                                                                                       

Join Seth Apter at his blog The Altered Page as he celebrates the release of his book The Pulse of Mixed Media. “31 Artists, 31 Days” is the event taking place throughout March where you’ll be introduced to the 31 spotlight artists featured in his book. In the end of the 31 days, three books will be given away.

I was honored to be asked by Seth to be one of the 31 invited artists to contribute to the book and to participate in this exciting launch blog party. Today is my day. Day 5, and I am excited. I cannot wait to get my copy of the book, to touch it, to turn its pages, to swoon over it.

From what I gathered so far, I concluded that Seth is a lot like me, like you, like all of us, a being with many beautiful contradictions. He is a pack leader, yet a loner. A nature boy, yet urban natured. Organized yet spontaneous. Shy, introverted, yet social, communicative. Driven, mature, yet childlike, playful. These contrasting elements make for a fascinating individual with a definite strong “pulse”. Seth Possesses an immense life force and significant capabilities to connect and collaborate with other like-minded individuals. His disposition to community is commendable and selfless.   

I am grateful to Seth, it is through his visual challenges and keen questions that I found a piece of my soul, one I have not known before.

These are my two images appearing in Seth’s book: one is a self portrait and the second answering the question: How do you express vulnerability in your art?

Veiled

Just Roll With It

Spread 163- All Things Are Two February 23, 2012

As I was finishing these journal pages, emerging were the faces of Vincent van Gogh and an unknown Mayan person. If I’d be simplistic for a moment, to me, one represents living solely in the confines of one’s own mind, and the other, living modestly as a small part that makes the whole, the grand earth. Together they represent the opposites that reside in us all. All things are two. We are too. Conflicted, yet embraceable. I didn’t plan these pages to say all this, they just did. They always, somehow, sneakily,  find a way to reveal the schisms within.