The things I dream about

Recently I read about the Arthouse Co-op, they set up projects which anyone around the world can participate in as a really interesting way of encouraging artists to make art. The art sent in will then be exhibited in a travelling art library.

There are all sorts of projects (from one word defined on a canvas to filling a whole sketchbook) for different budgets (some are free!). I participated in 'The things I dreal about' project, here's my piece:

It was fun to make and interesting to work on a small space. I liked posting it off to its destiny in the project library... I must say I'm very curious to see the other pieces!

The longest days of the year

Just enjoying the wonderful sunny weather and long days where the sky is light until passed 10pm. Also, treated myself to some new art supplies to experiment with: stencils, acrylic paint, watercolour pencils, new paint brushes... Can't wait to try them out :-)

Thanx for reminding me to be grateful

I have a thing for websites where the blogger repeats one idea nearly daily, and today i stumbled upon this wonderful blog a collection of thank you notes to the most surprising things in our everyday life written with a lot of humour. I love how even the most mundane or annoying things become a source of gratitude.

Funny I should find this today since the last couple of days I have been working on a little booklet of things (big and small) that I am grateful for (more about that soon...).

I guess being grateful is the best remedy to being down or unsatisfied. It all comes back to the title of this blog, the key is to focus on what beautiful things are there and not what's missing:

As you ramble through life, brother, whatever be your goal,
Keep your eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole.

Dream, transform, inspire

Sometimes it's easy to focus on the wrong things and feel overwhelmed instead of letting them go. To me it seems like letting go means losing control, but in fact I need to realise I never had that 'control' as I can never anticipate how things will go, and all it brings me is a lot of overthinking.

My aim is to learn to really relax and slow down in order to grow space around the things that take a lot of my energy at the moment. I'm hoping to find there is more space and time than the limits my mind perceives, and that letting go allows truly unexpected things to take place.

Picture is a collage and words taken from keri smith's inspiration words picked at random (from her wonderful book 'Living Out Loud')

Falling into the mind's trap

Despite all my good resolutions my mind went completely crazy last weekend, spinning dark thoughts all over the place without control. Turns out I fell into my mind's trap again (it had been a really long time since I felt so down). Now I've realised it, I can spot it easier and avoid getting caught in negative thoughts and focus on centering myself again... This little doodle dragon was inhabiting my brain, I got him out on paper, hopefully he won't get me again.

Serenity and an open heart

At the moment I am struggling with letting go and accepting things as they come. I can feel I am tense and trying to keep things going the way I want or the way I believe things should go. It is exhausting and frustrating because in reality there is only so much I can control.

My reaction then is to want to completely give up on what I'm finding difficult, not even to give it a chance in order not to face my fears and potential 'failure'. But actually I'm realising I need to stop my constant thoughts and just accept to go along with what happens and see where it leads me, without tensing up and expecting the blow before I manage to make it fail. Maybe there is no bad surprise, maybe my fears and anticipation have nothing to do with the amazing potential of what could happen.

So I have written a magic message to keep in mind when I need to stop the thoughts in my head:

I decide to welcome whatever happens with serenity and an open heart.

Let's see if it works...

Forest of visions

This is the collage I made with the flyers I got at the awesome balkan music party. The name 'forest of visions' brings up all sorts of ideas in my mind, like seeing things before they happen and lots of intertwined visions... I love the cat with x-ray vision (funny enough I was to meet a similar cat in the next days... coincidence?!)

Random images

I've been busy trying to keep up with regular visual journalling. It sometimes feels like a need, spending a 1/2 hour on it really relaxes my mind. I also realise it leads me to having my eyes more open and picking out interesting images in magazines to play around with. This is an old car that was pulled out from a lake somewhere after many many years. A strange subject to start from but is was fun to work with.

However, I find that I am not always as receptive to images. Sometimes I can pick up a magazine with the intent of cutting out some pictures, patterns or words but I find nothing. At other times every snippet of colour is an inspiration.

I also start seeing the potential in other places too: I was handed loads of flyers at a concert last week and they were the basis for a collage. I'll post it once I have a chance to scan it in the next days.

Speaking of inspiration

I am addicted to blog surfing to discover new things and find inspiration. Here are two blogs that have made me smile and started ideas boiling in my brain...

Michael Nobbs has a made a free eBook with tips and ideas on how to start drawing your life. It is in a more readable format than the printable versions on flickr, and beautifully presented with his own drawings, lots of suggestions to just pick up and draw! (and it goes for anything creative really)

A wonderful series on mini-journaling written by Lisa Sonora Beam with lots of beautiful colourful pictures, ideas of things to do and advice about fighting our fears etc.

Inspire

While I was making this page in my visual journal, I picked out a random word cut out from my the Living Out Loud book by keri smith. The word was INSPIRE. It got me thinking a little about what it meant...

I tend to mostly think in terms of looking for inspiration, rather than actually inspiring, though I hope I do and will inspire people from time to time, even without knowing it.

Then the thought came to me that inspiration in French means both: inspiration and breathing in! It seemed so appropriate to me who is always trying to remember to breathe properly in order not to be overwhelmed.