Beelieve

Bee Wise...

...Invite Peace!

It has been a while since I have been able to participate in a challenge.  When I saw IF for this week challenged us to be "Wise", I felt it hit the nail on the head.  I only hope people see it, and hear it and live it.

The political posts have been everywhere.  My decision on who to vote for was made by me, it was private, it was not for everybody else nor was I influenced by art blogs or going to influence anyone through the blog world. I just skipped over them as much as I could.  Kept my mouth shut until after the election where I voice an opinion with someone who felt the same way.  I was deeply saddened the other day when I thought I was going to discover a new art inspiration and hit a link that took me to something that made me want to shut the computer off for the rest of my life.  Support is one thing, cruelty, disrespect and lack of adult self control in regards to "trashing" the opponent is another.  What is wrong with people?  I can only pray these people who are so disrespectful to other humans are not breeding...I would hate for that offspring to reach a point in life where they might have to take care of our generation.

A bit of advice to anyone out there on cruelty to others.  Your cruelty does not weaken the person you are targeting.  Your time and energy add energy to the person you disrespect...hence taking it away from who you are rooting for.

Next,I suggest you "Invite Peace" into your life...bee wise!  I have hidden with a clear marker in this art work Gandhi's quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world" .  As soon as I top coat it with a gloss medium it will probably not be legible...but it is there.  I also have it pasted to my wall where I work, of course I had to change one letter in "Be" to Bee".

So to those who have been cruel this electoral season...should you ever end up here...thank you for stopping by...Now it is time to read my opinion!

Bee Wise...

Invite Peace...

Bee the Change you wish to see in the World.

The President can not make you a better you, that is your responsibility.  All those waiting for a "Change"...why?  you should have already been working on that....try it...it catches on and pays itself forward. 

To all my friends out there, my dear, dear friends...I am not in any way talking to you and when I calm down a bit I will tell you all about how I did this art piece.

Detach

took today off...had enough rain when my skies should be blue

had more than enough chaos...

found some blue sky...

and a sound loud enough to drown out the chaos...  (pause the playlist)

And was able to...

DETACH

The idea for this post stems from Illustration Friday's theme "Detach".  I am the art for the day and here I detach from it all. 

This is not a submission to IF, this is Life!

Sail-Illustration Friday 8/8/8

I had several ideas for this weeks Illustration Friday's theme of Sail.  One was visualizing the seeds of a dandelion flying away with a little sail on it.  I played around with it in my sketch book....then took it to the altered book.  Got here and decided I like it with the words in the book...no little sail boat.  Was not going to submit, just use it as sort of a blueprint for the future.  Then I saw the theme of "sail" was suggested by the American Cancer Society.  So I had to post.  Wouldn't it bee wonderful someday, sooner than later, for anyone with cancer to SAIL through their treatment and anchor themselves with a cure!

Poof!-Illustration Friday 8/1/8

...poof!... he was gone...I finally had room to breath.

Accidentally had fun with this week's theme "Poof!" from Illustration Friday.  I finally had a day to myself, sent Lauren to camp for missing Monday-she is back to being the healthiest kid in the world again.  I took the day off from everything to start a fun altered book/journal.  This is something I have been wanting to do and found that it is a great way to play when you just want bee random without wondering how it will turn out on a canvas.

So here is my first ever altered book pages and Secret #1 from my past, which is quiet funny on how it all came together.  More about that below the picture.

It all started with wanting to do an altered book.  Hmmm, which one.   I looked at several and it was tough  because I usually buy old books for content to use in other art.  So I settled on "How to be Beautiful or Women's Secrets".  Very intriguing to say the least which works with the whole idea of journaling in it. I opened up to a page on proper ventilation for beauty, perfect for the day since I finally had a day to breathe, to not run and run and run to this, that and the other thing.

MY STORY:

The subject matter also worked well with a flashback I was telling somebody about recently.  So that became the subject to journal about.  You might be able to click on to read it on the larger view,  pardon the handwriting.  In a nutshell it is a story from my single days and the ridiculous torture of night clubs we for some reason could not stay away from.  I wonder how many people out there have done what I have?  We used to use "alias" names when we went out to the clubs, my favorite was "Wynnd" (as in Wind) then I would spell it  "W-Y-NN-D". Then give a silent stare.  This was as in "blow away idiot".  My friend John (aka. Johny Rotten) told me not to tell people that, it was spooky, I would scare men away.  To that I told him, "I am not looking for a man HERE, I am just looking for "room to breath".

THE ART:

I have been trying to do more sketching and drawing of people and faces...something I have never put much focus on as it has always intimidated me.  I drew this girl (obviously not me but could be Wynnd) the night before.  I decided to scan her in, enlarge a bit and print a copy for the journal page.

For the rest of the page I wanted maybe "bubbles to blow or poof away" so started cutting circles from pages of an old Botanical Society date book that featured orchids, my all time favorite flower.  The colors were not meshing and "Wynnd" here was too revealed.  She needed a mask, as did I back then.  The page I cut flowers from turned out to be just the thing for her.

I used some petals and leaves we pressed in old books from last fall to decorate the page border with, loved the idea of them blowing in the wind.  Poof! she is done.  Some day I will reveal "Veronica", my other alias.

*A fun tip just occurred to me.  Time to get out those huge old text books, dictionaries, what have you,   take them outside and fill up the pages with wonderful flowers and leaves.  We like to do this to have summer flowers as treasures in the middle of a freezing cold Adirondack winter.

Enough-Illustration Friday for 7/18/08

This week's theme challenge for Illustration Friday is "Enough".  So I decided to actually illustrate my version of "enough".  However, when is "enough"...enough? 

Where I live it is summer but it is not "really" summer until the track opens at Saratoga.  The official race season begins this Wednesday.  The foo-foos ,fa-fa-las, and the Mowreys all migrate to Saratoga like they might have back in the Victorian days.  There is a tradition of donning your most unique hat, the "Hats Off To Saratoga Festival" will be held next weekend so I decided to design my hat.

Do you think it is ENOUGH?

Can you guess what the "bee in MY bonnet is???  Seriously, when is there ever such thing as "ENOUGH" shopping. 

"Bee in my Bonnet" is an inspiration I finally drew based on a convo I had with soul-bee, Bee who is freezing down under in Australia right now.  Hey Bee, how cold is it there?  We could use some cool thoughts up here where it hit 95F today!  Look forward for a weather report, even if it is a bit of a "late fog".  hee hee

Hoard-Illustration Friday for 6/20/08

Hoard is this week's theme for Illustration Friday.  I giggled forever when I saw that.  Honestly you could open up the dictionary and see a picture of my hive under the definition. 

hoard [hawrd]

(past and past participle hoard·ed, present participle hoard·ing, 3rd person present singular hoards)

store a supply of something: to collect and store, often secretly, large amounts of things

Since I did not have a canvas the size of Texas to glue me on top of  with a mountainous pile of all my bits and bops, I will debut my hoarding muse I have rustled up for this inspiration topic!  This is "the little bird who told me to" so I have aptly named this art piece...

"Little bird hoards... me too!"

Forgotten-Illustration Friday 6/6/08

Forgotten is this weeks theme on Illustration Friday and the older I get the more the jokes about the word fly.  Forgotten can be dangerous, funny, serious, or maybe a nifty twist in fate.  Recently I did a more serious piece that I could submit that many have seen here.   I have been having so much fun with the painted book pages, I took on another 11x14 piece.  I have named it "Gone but not Forgotten".  I think it tells many different stories relevant to this time of year, and time in my life. 

1.  We have several bird nest on the property and more namely, the house and porch.  There are 4 on the front wrap around porch alone.  (it is about ready to be demolished and rebuilt so there are some exposed rafters.  I am waiting for the mourning dove to leave before I call and start bugging the contractor)  So in any case, the mom birds are watching the babes leave the nest.  They are gone but not forgotten.

2.  School is almost out for the summer and the teachers are proud.  The students are gone but not forgotten.

3.  My little bird, Lauren, is going to enter Kindergarten in the fall (most of you already know that).  As much as I view it inevitable ,it is still bittersweet.  Our freedom to move through life as we  know it will now be disrupted and dictated by school schedules.  Our freedom of  movement is almost gone, but definitely not forgotten.

4.  If you see a story in this picture, I would love to hear about it.  I promise with all my heart, your story and comment will never be forgotten.

 

Baby-Illustration Friday 5/30/08

Small me, Big world.

I have been having so much fun with all the challenges but as far as"Baby" on Illustration Friday , I thought I might sit out.  With spring and the nicer days I have to put some attention outside.  Well as I am busy about the yard, I get the feeling of something watching me.  There, in the midst of a carpet of ground cover made of periwinkle, peaking, watching, curious, was this tiny chipmunk.  I instinctively started talking to it, saying "hey little baby".  Oops, baby, that challenge topic I was not going to do called me.  Ok, but it had to be short and sweet.  I forced myself to paint this as fast as I could, maybe an hour or so.  It was more of a challenge to myself to see what I could whip up without too much thought, just a vision.  A vision of how big and dark the world must be to this tiny critter.  This one is, however, curious.  He ventured to the edge to see a brighter day.

So quick and sweet was this visit... and this painting. Isn't that always the deal with babies!

Worry-Illustration Friday for 5/23

Let it Slide

 

This will be my first time submitting to Illustration Friday .  I had been hoping to do one soon and  now was great but they listed the challenge topic as "worry".  Ok, this was about to become a worry for me since I don't "do worry".  That is it, I DO NOT "DO WORRY".  To those who know me, have you heard this before?  "I am just tossing that one out there and letting it figure itself out."   Since  I had so much fun with the IMT this week of whimsy, the rest of it just came to mind instantly.  Lauren asked me why "she" is throwing the cute toy out.  (Some how Lauren believes this little girl is her)  I told her it was the "worry wart" trying to take over her imagination and "the little girl in the picture" needed to get rid of it so she could be happy.  Yeah, explain worry to a 5 year old with no worries, when you do not even want her to know that worry exists.