Life is a Collage

Pick out all of your favorite experiences, memories, colors, items, images, and feelings. Adhere them all in a pretty fashion on a stiff piece of, well, anything. That's collage for you. The freest type of art form there is!
Here are some excellent collages I've found.



1: unstrung65.deviantart.com | 2-3: doyveyant.deviantart.com



This one was done by my old drawing instructor, Sarah Dillon. On the older version of her portfolio website (http://www.sarahdillonstudio.com/) she mentioned me in the description of this piece. This is because I brought in a HUGE box of antique photos, newspaper clippings, papers, notes, and letters. ($10 at an antique store-- SCORE!) I shared the materials with the art class for our warm-up activity. Everyone was pretty jazzed about the whole thing, and even Sarah was pretty excited about it! Then, to my surprise, years later, I find this piece on her website. I'd remember that silly baby with the widow's peak anywhere. It warms my heart to see that a great artist such as Sarah Dillon would be so inspired by my gift to the class. :)

Here's one of my newest collages as well.

White bats are one of those critters that seem to follow me around. One of my oldest pieces that I still treasure is my albino bat, done in about 2007. Then, at Emerald City ComiCon (amazing as usual) I bought a handmade Honduran white bat figure!I was so captivated by the artist's skill and appreciation for such an obscure species of animal. (More of her cute dolls here: skinhorsedolls.deviantart.com) And then Pokemon Black/White came out, and the new pokemon Woobat and Swoobat are totally Honduran white bats and I don't care what you say.
So, I couldn't ignore the white bat's encroachment on my life. I needed to paint him. And thus it was.

It feels so good to be doing art again. For a while, my art block was miserable. I feel like I'm slowly picking my way out of it. :)

Meditations

Everyone's got their own way of eliminating, ignoring, and confronting stress. Some people go for a long drive with the windows down and music blaring, some people watch their favorite movie over and over, and others (like me) meditate.
I haven't done much meditations in my life. To deal with stress and hardships I normally just dealt with it in a usual way. But lately, I've wanted something more. So this is what I did.
I laid out some pretty silk handkerchiefs and a scarf I bought in France. I set up a diorama of sorts which included a few of my favorite objects to look at. A skeleton key, a couple animal skulls, beads, stones, feathers, bones, candles, a goblet full of water. I set a bundle of sage on fire and let it smolder as I leaned back, closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing.
It's not often I can not think about anything. It's the hardest thing to not think. Having a blank mind almost never happens for me. But I came close tonight. Breathing in and out deeply, noticing how my body moved as I relaxed, smelling the sage...
Needless to say, I overcame my bad day at work very well. Afterwards, stage two of my meditation began: painting and tea. Here's what I painted.

A simple portrait of my favorite animal in my favorite color scheme. Perfect for unwinding and loosing my pent-up negative feelings.
In my quest to become a freelance artist, I've discovered that at this point in my life that's not a very realistic career path. But I can still retreat into my art Zen mode to escape the world. That shall always remain.

Blow Out the Candles

When canines get scared, they appear angry and defensive. They're just trying to protect themselves and fend off potential danger.

I fear certain changes in my life, currently. This painting was basically me telling myself "It's alright to be scared, but things will be fine. Patience."

I always turn to maned wolves when I need to do inward reflections. They're the easiest and the most stress-free thing I can draw or paint, and when I draw/paint, I am focused.
So thanks, maned wolves.