art is love.

It feels like ages since I last posted, but that's good because I was up until five thirty and finished three spreads :) I never cease to be amazed at how a spread can come together over a week or so. I painted the background for this a week ago and was stumped with how to proceed. Could an abstract painting stand on it's own? What more could I possibly do with it? But last night the paper, words, and eyes found me. "You made me feel like the one" are lyrics from the song Dakota by The Stereophics which came on while I was staring at the black spaces. Happy dance!

For Valentine's Day, which was amazing because I have an amazing lady friend :)
I never realized the art-heart connection. My heart was so filled with her that there was no room for art. The burning in my chest was the same.

An exercise in randomness: green style. I was looking through the how to wreck a journal flickr group for inspiration to do a little desecration of my own to the moleskine. There is only room for one more spread, it's no time to get soft :)
Have a great week!
-♥-

Falling....

Today's Hat:

Chef style

Today's Journal Entry:
Falling for You
Wrapping paper, photos from Spain, aluminum tape, and other good stuff.

It's true, the judges agree.
-♥-

No me...

I'm so going to get down to business with my school work tomorrow and not get carried away with Greasemonkey, installing flickr scripts, rss feeds and yahoo pipes....my inner nerd ran rampant today :) School should always be put off when the art journal groove gets revved up interdisciplinary style anyway.

Besides, if I had been studying Spanish instead of getting stuck outside a pool hall, I wouldn't have learned that coat hangers are very handy when your friend gets locked out of her car; especially when you can pull off the side view mirror and duct tape it back on.
-♥-

paletas, totopos, y cafe!

Playing with gesso, holeless beads, paint, and foil and inspired by my adoration for Aldi and their delicious mango paletas! I hated it at first, but I like how it's random and carefree.

-♥-

Imbolc.

"Tomorrow is Imbolc. Time for meditation. Light a candle, dress in something white. So will I. Lets be in this wordless prayer together..."
-An email to my mother from her friend Ellada in Latvia.

Imbolc is a Gaelic festival that takes place in the very beginning of February. It is equidistant between Winter Solstice and Spring Soltice so one should focus on the future (spring) and not let the past (winter) interfere with the present. To illustrate this transformation, Christmas greens are to be burnt (or taken down) and replaced with flowers.

My mother made an altar and conceived of a ritual which we performed with her friend Linda.

Burning secrets from the past in order to put them behind us.

Our hopes for the future were imbued into pebbles and placed in the glass bowl with fresh flowers.

The candles were lit as Imbolc is a festival of light.

We slipped into togas for white.

My mother and I after the wine toast.

And a journal entry about the whole event. The left side represents the first part of the ritual and the right the second. Imbolc is similar to the Christian Lent so I used purples and blacks. Underneath the SECRET are the pieces of burned paper that were left over. I wanted to obscure them and the pictures to represent the past. The childlike painting is of Brigid (the goddess associated with Imbolc) and the green looks to spring.

It was so relaxing: calming music, good company, candles. I was shocked at the release I felt after the burning. It truly felt as if a weight was lifted. The togas were the most fun, second only to getting Linda to participate in our flight of paganism :)
-♥-

winter birches and adventure.

This week has been amazing with four wonderful snow days (some self-declared) and resulting adventures. I've been thinking a lot about how to connect with others and am working to forge new friendships. I feel lucky every time I have the pleasure of meeting someone who is eager to reach out to others. They encourage me to reach out back and to reach out to those that are more apprehensive and less trusting.

On Monday night my lovely lady and I went to a beautiful bohemian apartment located above a storefront, being rented by two of the warm people with whom we have become recently acquainted. We had a couple beers, chilled to music, and talked for hours. I'm always pleasantly surprised to encounter warm, hospitable folks my age. It seems to be on the decline with my generation.

On Tuesday, we watched Across the Universe with my mother, which only furthered our collective love for director Julie Taymor. If you're into the late sixties, it's a must see. The characters are modeled after sixties greats such as Ken Keasey and Timothy Leary with Terry Gilliam style animation.

Yesterday we trekked to a big box store and Jewel in search of sleds with a friend of mine from high school without any luck. But we did have a dance party in the cramped flower refrigerater and played with the squash at Jewel. It seemed like a good idea to drive behind the shopping center and dumpster dive for cardboard boxes to use as sledding implements at the time. We did not anticipate getting stuck in the snow though. After half an hour of shoveling and pushing we managed to escape unscathed (unless you count the snow ball fight). We dragged our boxes up the hill with the aid of tequila only to learn that cardboard is not as conducive to sledding as we had been led to believe. Fortunately, there was an abandoned deflated air bed that was the perfect size for all three of us to slide down together. There was also a skateboard deck that picked up mondo speed :)

It seems all to easy to succumb to one's hermitic tendencies in the winter, especially when it snows for most of the week. In sending out the right energies though, opportunities present themselves that entice one out of the house . It was just the ticket: a little fun and adventure.
-♥-

photocopiers are almost as cool as photobooths.

If like me, you envy the elegant and funky photo strips in people's journals or amalgamated on Photobooth Friday, I present thee with a cheaper, bigger, and more dangerous alternative: photocopiers! Grab a friend (or not), a pocketful of dimes, and head to your local library for oodles of fun encapsulated in a sheet of 11x17. Why is it dangerous? Because snooty library gestapo and office snitches lurk behind every corner, so a lookout is a worthwhile tool to avoid being reprimanded for the misuse of facsimile equipment.
I challenge you to make some photocopy self portraits (or group shots) and use them in your journal or for decorating your walls :)

....
Things that made me happy today (from 43things):

Finally installing Photoshop on my laptop and playing with it (i.e. the images above and the one below)
Watching indie flicks with my madre
Blogging at my favorite local pizza joint
Thinking about her
Writing down my 2008 list
-♥-

This year I want to (in no particular order):

Fall in love
Get a job
Take risks
Go on a roadtrip without a predetermined destination
Visit a spiritual vortex (Burlington, WI or Sedona, AZ)
Overcome my irrational fear of my sewing machine
Watch the sunrise on a beach with my lady
Skinny dip
Camp
Conserve more
Go to a French or farmer's market at least once a month
Perfect my Russian and British accents and add French to the repertoire
Create meaningful friendships and see my friends more often
Be less of a hermit
More bufu morning dates
Explore Chicago
Attend at least five concerts
Throw three theme parties and a dinner party
Visit the public library once in awhile (return stuff from two summers ago)
Art museums!
Learn sign language
Dedicate more time to learning Spanish
Make a mondo blanket fort
In summer dance barefoot outside in the morning once a week
Ride my bike
Get my driver's license (finally!)
Convert my room into an organized, inspirational space
Complete three assignments from Learning to Love You More
Send out RAOK's, postcards, mailart, and letters again
Finish a new journal every two months
Keep blogging
Make a shrine
Show my love more
Make some money
Live a more creative life
Be less fearful
Figure out what I want to do/study
....
-♥-