Safe at home

A few summers ago, I went to the Bahamas with my son and husband for a friend’s destination wedding. We stayed in the most amazing resort hotel I’ve ever been in—terra cotta floors, ceiling fans, fancy post bed that felt like a cloud, fresh pastries delivered daily. We felt totally pampered. But as good as staying in a place like that feels, nothing matches the comforting feeling of walking back into my own home—dust and clutter and the oven that always needs cleaning and all.

As I reflect on the “home” theme for Creative Every Day this month, I’m constantly drawn back to the same images of comfort, safety, security. Home feels like an embrace. That’s what this mixed media work on 15 1/4 x 16 paper  is about. The world around me can be in total chaos, but home is sanctuary—the place where I can breathe the sigh of relief that releases all the tensions of the day.

Today as I napped I felt wrapped in blanket of comfort  as I listened to the familiar “noise” of my 10-year-old son as he roamed the house. He retrieved things from his room, returned to watching his movie, opened and closed doors, sang the wrong lyrics to the hip-hop songs. In a world that is so full of things that can go wrong, I am so happy to have a place where my son doesn’t have to worry about any of it—yet.

Each day when I awake and each night before I go to sleep, I thank God for my home and the family it protect and nurtures.

Home #2

Never too far from home

No matter where you are,

No matter where you’ve been,

You’re never too far from home.

For me “home” has always been a state of mind that is not necessarily tied to a particular place. I grew up in Alabama, where my family still lives. That is home for me. I now live in Massachusetts with my son and husband. This is home for me, too. Both are places that serve as anchors, keeping me secure.

This mixed media collage on paper (about 11 x 16) for this month’s home theme for Creative Every Day captures this concept with the use of map pieces and drawings I did on tracing paper.

Home #1

Home.

Such a small word for such a powerful place. It sets the stage for everything that happens in life. If home is full of love, warmth and support, life is good—even when there are challenges. If it is not, everything else seems lackluster and harder to face.

I’m truly blessed to have a home that I love in every sense—the physical space, as well as the love and laughter with which my husband and 10-year-old son fill it.

I created this sign for the first entry for the “home” theme for Creative Every Day. I’m looking forward to exploring this subject this month.

The sign is on a 14.5 inch x 7 inch wood panel. I used acrylic paint with a gloss medium. I’ve written the words love, laugh, forgive across the letters in the word home. I believe that home is the place where there should always be the place where we can count on love, laughter and forgiveness when we make mistakes.

Body work No. 10: Curve appeal

I’m heading into the final week of working with the body theme for Creative Every Day. I was inspired to finished this 11 x 15 mixed media work on paper. I began this several years ago as a sketch, working from a reference photo. The subject is a jazz singer who performed at a summer party at my home. She was so curvy and confident that beauty radiated from her very core. I want that feeling. For now, I’ll settle for capturing that emotion here with my watercolor pencils.

The funny thing is that this sat so long untouched because I didn’t like the initial drawing, and I didn’t know how to fix it. Suddenly, after working on art every day thanks to the Creative Every Day Challenge, I have more confidence. So I just plunged in and let what happened happen. Feels good.

One body: Human

Watching the devastating stories continue to unfold in Haiti after the earthquake, I’m thinking about how we are all connected. No matter who we are or where we live, tragedy can strike. And when it does so on such a dramatic scale as in Haiti, it is so heartening to see people from all over the world pull together and offer help to a country that already had nothing and now has even less. At times like this, we tap into the fact that we are all a part of one body—the human body, in the broadest sense. For the body theme of Creative Every Day this week, I created this mixed media piece on paper using a map to create the figure and paired it with circles indicating our connectedness.

“We are all cells in the same body of humanity.”—Peace Pilgrim

Fruity talk

So now even our fruit is involved in picking at our body image. A friend recently shared this sticker she found on a banana. “Lose Weight” it says. I say, “shut up banana, you don’t tell me what to do!”

Of course, the sticker is just the company’s way of encouraging shoppers to eat the product and go to the company web site. But, hey, I have enough things telling me to lose weight, including my pants. Maybe I’m just getting cranky after nearly a month of thinking about “body” as the theme for Creative Every Day this month.

Maybe we should print up our own stickers to stick on fruit. Here’s what mine would say:

“You are fabulous!”

“Keep up the good work!”

“No, your butt does not look good in those pants…and so what if it does!”

What would your stickers say?

Body work No. 8: Soulful painting

As part of the Creative Every Day Challenge, I’ve been working on this painting since I created a sketch (see below) based on this quote by Wayne Dyer: “Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.” The sketch was very loose, and I had hoped to capture that feel in my painting. I didn’t achieve that.

This painting (tempera, acrylic and collage) seemed to have a mind of it’s own no matter what I did. I loved the background and tried not to touch it too much once it was established. But I’ve worked and worked on the body, trying to capture the duality of the soul and body. I think it is a work in progress. I’m not sure I’m done. Part of me wants to leave it alone and let it be what it seems to be insisting on being. Part of me says rework it keep going. What do you think?

Soulful

Body work No. 7: The heart

I have given much thought to the body this month as part of the “body” theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge. But what is the body without the heart? The heart drives the body, as well as the spirt.

“Feelings” play such a big role in life. An emotional hit to the heart physically manifests throughout the body—the pulse quickens, the breath shortens, the mind clouds with racing thoughts trying to comprehend the situation and figure out how to get through/over it.

Taking this into consideration inspired me to create this piece. An image came to me and quickly grabbed a scrap piece of paper and scribbled it down (see above). Wish I had better paper at the time. The second drawing (below) was done in my sketchbook, based on the first. It is more control and lacks the emotional immediacy of the first, but I like both.

This is about self love, taking care of self, as well as loving and adoring the people in your life that you hold dear.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with heart.”—Helen Keller

Body work No. 6: Soulful

Soulful

Inspired by another quote while thinking about the “body” theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge, I created this sketch. Quickly scribbling across my 9 by 12 sketch pad, I pondered the words: “Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.”—Wayne Dyer

In this drawing, I imagined the soul to be a mass of movement and the body nestled within it. I wrote the quote along one side of the figure. Currently I’m working on a mixed painting based on this drawing.

I like rethinking the body this way. My soul definitely deserves more attention. What if we fretted over our souls as much as we do our bodies? What do you think would happen? What if instead of worrying about whether we are thin enough, we worried about whether we are kind enough?

Body work No. 5: Sacred

"Sacred"

As I continue to think about the “body” theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge this month, I’ve started looking at quotes about the body that I find inspiring. I found one by Walt Whitman earlier this week. It inspired me to create this drawing in my sketchbook: “If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred.”

The body is not just something to look at. It is our sacred vessel, holding the essence of who we are as human and spiritual beings. When I think of the body that way it seems really trivial to worry about the extra rolls around my waste. They do not define me. They do not tell people what is truly special about me.