more art

Happy Birthday to my nephew, Keith.

...make it and show it!

I was looking at Celtic art and ancient warrior shields yesterday and reading about Creation Spirituality. I had made a leather string sculpture or something with beads and small bits of rock and shell which looked artistic a few days ago and last night, I grabbed it and decided to rework it into a "real" thing I could take with me and "use" instead of just viewing as quaint but "useless" art. Notice my judgements around art. Not pretty. But I'm working on changing that. ... anyway, I came up with something that I thought I could live with -- something like worry beads to have when I want peace, and after reworking it a few times more - when I noticed I had left some beads out or wanted to change the position of a rock, etc., I came up with this. I am very happy with it and immediately thought of sharing it on my blog. Especially since I haven't felt motivated to write much in awhile (for which I apologize).

What I made is really an amulet, or talisman since that's kinda what I was thinking of when I made it. See Wikipedia:

An amulet (from Latin amuletum; earliest extant use in Naturalis Historia [Pliny], meaning "an object that protects a person from trouble"), a close cousin of the talisman (from Arabic طلاسم tilasm, ultimately from Greek telesma or from the Greek word "telein" which means "to initiate into the mysteries") consists of any object intended to bring good luck and/or protection to its owner. Potential amulets include: gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants, animals, etc.; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—(Latin, "go back, Satan"), to repel evil or bad luck.

Below is an Omamori, a Japanese amulet (also found on Wikipedia).

Here's to you discovering your passion and hidden talents! You know you have them! I know I do! Now, let's get out there and use them!
Blessings, Lauradeanne

What I think is that when there are no more words (I haven't written in ages), it's time for art.

Enjoy! I drew this around 1988 and enjoyed it immensely.

It's that time of year....

It's that time of year and I'm not talking taxes...I'm talking butterflies and daffodils and bluebonnets...and wind whishing in your hair as you ride with the hood down....it's April and all the associations that come with Spring..... new beginnings, regeneration, celebration, joy, growing (my favorite activity), spurting (okay, we'll leave that one alone), etc. Anything that's not frozen, but running freely... like me through green meadows barefoot .... you get the idea.

In that vein (or stream), I am showing a picture of a painting maybe a decade old, but which fits the time of year..... I hope you like it. I have more and will post them from time to time.

In my mundane life, I just found out that the electric lawn mower I had that went kaput, is running after all ... after I took it to two repair shops. Embarrassed, yes, but I will trade that embarrassment anyday for finding out that an appliance is not broken after all. In fact, I will care more for it now and treasure it as I believe I wasn't trusting it enough. It was more hardy than I thought (!) I guess that's the same with me sometimes too. ; )