Living in a Paper Doll World

15.5" x 12.375" Mixed Media Collage

I did this collage to show the struggles and hard work of living life, but it still needed something. As I was going through my stash of collage stuff, I ran across a paper doll that I had printed from Pinterest and it just seemed to fit. It wasn't until several days later, as I was questioning my choice to add it to the picture, that I realized what my subconscious was telling me. Life is a fantasy paper doll world.

I remember when I was younger, how "McCall's" magazine always had a page of paper dolls for kids that I would carefully cut out. I looked forward to each issue eagerly. Those paper dolls spoke of better things to me, happier times, a kinder world. Those paper dolls had an innocence underlined by a subtle direction of thought that guided my young mind.

 This morning I ran across an article about British writer Jeanette Winterson on Maria Popova's Brain Pickings.  The article was titled: "Jeanette Winterson on Time, Languange, Reading, and How Art Creates a Sanctified Space for the Human Spirit," which quotes a book co-authored by Winterton and Canadian broadcaster, Eleanor Wachtel. In it Popova writes:

...Echoing Henry Miller’s memorable assertion that "all is creation, all is change, all is flux, all is metamorphosis,"  [Winterson] adds:
Art forms must always change… You cannot stop in art, you cannot fossilize art in a redundant form, and you cannot take a point in history and favor it above any other point and say, ah yes, this is the way to do it....Readers, I think, are more sophisticated on the whole than critics. They can make the jumps, they can make imaginative leaps. If your structure is firm and solid enough, however strange, however unusual, they will be able to follow it. They will climb with you to the most unlikely places if they trust you, if the words give them the right footholds, the right handholds. That’s what I want my readers to do: I want them to come with me when we’re going mountain-climbing. This isn’t a walk through a theme park. This is some dangerous place that neither of us has been before, and I hope that by traveling there first, I can encourage the reader to come with me and that we will make the trip again together, and safely.

..."the artifice of language and its limitations,"
Yes, it is artificial, but it is, as yet, the best way human beings have found to communicate to one another their deepest, their most difficult, feelings. And that is the preserve of poetry and of true fiction, to put roots down through the surface into the subsoil of the human heart and to draw up those elements that would otherwise lie locked there, unheard, unspoken, perhaps unregarded. Language can do that, and I think that it is the duty of the writer to go on pushing language forward because if it’s not developing, if it’s not growing, if people aren’t using it in unique and different ways while at the same time regarding its tradition, then that language is going to start atrophying.
...For me, language is a freedom. As soon as you have found the words with which to express something, you are no longer incoherent, you are no longer trapped by your own emotions, by your own experiences; you can describe them, you can tell them, you can bring them out of yourself and give them to somebody else. That is an enormously liberating experience, and it worries me that more and more people are learning not to use language; they’re giving in to the banalities of the television media and shrinking their vocabulary, shrinking their own way of using this fabulous tool that human beings have refined over so many centuries into this extremely sensitive instrument. I don’t want to make it crude, I don’t want to make it into shopping-list language, I don’t want to make it into simply an exchange of information: I want to make it into the subtle, emotional, intellectual, freeing thing that it is and that it can be.

 ...[For the artist] it is a question of always going back and uncovering what is already there because the artist is something of a dredger: you have to let down your net and pull up things from the mud, from the silt, that are unrecognizable, that have been forgotten, that have lain disused and ignored for a long time. You bring them up and you clean them off and you look at them and you bring them back into the present where they can speak, where they have a place. I think it’s a dual role of dredging and of cleaning, but then also of re-creating so that you are always offering something that is right for your own time, that is new in itself.

 ...To learn how to heal yourself seems to me to be the most important thing that you can do because at that moment you are genuinely self-reliant, and if other people hurt you — as they will — it won’t matter because you have now in your own hands the tools of healing.

...I can see no reason to be bound by chronological time. As far as we know, the universe is not bound by it; as far as we know, it is yet another construct of ours, this worship of the clock and the idea that there is a past and a present and a future which trot along obediently in line and never swap places. In our own lives we know that that’s not true because human beings seem capable of moving imaginatively, backwards and forwards, of pushing out of the body. I think of it really as an out-of-the-body experience — that’s not something that only shamans and New Age hippies have. It’s something that we all have quite often in our lives. And I wanted to bring that into fiction because it seems to me to be a more honest reality than the rather dull reality of the clock.

...The journey that you make is not one of the clock: it’s an interior one, and in it you travel through time, through space, through place.
 
Winterson's views seemed to fit in with what this picture seems to be saying to me, or more accurately, what my subconscious was trying to say through my art. Words and pictures are intertwined for me and this is expressed in all my collages.

Everything is connected according to current quantum theory. We are what we think. Really. The reality of life begins in the mind, and, as Winterson says:

  "Art can make a difference because it pulls people up short. It says, don’t accept things for their face value; you don’t have to go along with any of this; you can think for yourself."

 I think that is the real message here. 


 

Art Is Everywhere!

Sidewalk Chalk Art courtesy of the neighbor kids

Art can be found everywhere! My neighbor kids were out playing with their sidewalk chalk yesterday and really scrubbed it into the cement. I love colors! It rained overnight and made the designs stand out even better when I went outside this morning. I had to share the joy!!

Daring To Be Vulnerable

Vulnerabilty, Mixed media collage, 11"x14"

 

 

"To be alive is to be vulnerable."

- Madeleine L’Engle

 

"No matter what gets done and how much

is left undone, I am enough…Yes,

I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but

 that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave

and worthy of love and belonging."

- Brené Brown

 

To embrace our vulnerability is the ultimate "daring greatly."

Bridges, Bridges, and More Bridges

Okay. I admit it. I have a thing for bridges, any kind of bridges—old bridges, railroad bridges, suspension bridges, covered bridges…. I love the architecture, I love the symbolism, I love the designs...you name it. Maybe it's the thought of connecting that appeals to me so much. Bridges are for connecting places, things and people, especially people. Connections. Relationships. Form and function beautifully displayed. Sigh. I do so love bridges. So, I thought I would share some of my bridge photos with you all. Hope you enjoy.

Red Wolf Crossing, Clarkston, WA - I think this bridge is beautiful!

Train Bridge, Lewiston, ID

Southway Bridge on ramp, Lewiston, ID

"New" bridge into Kooskia, ID from Kamiah

Southway Bridge

Southway Bridge

The Blue Bridge connecting Lewiston, ID with Clarkston, WA

Southway

Entering Lewiston from Moscow-Pullman or Orofino

Train Bridge on the prairie between Grangeville and Lewiston

Daring Greatly

 

 

It is not the critic who counts; not the

man who points out how the strong man

stumbles, or where the doer of deeds

could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually

in the arena, whose face is marred by dust

and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly . . .

who at the best knows in the end the triumph

of high achievement, and who at the worst,

if he fails, at least fails

daring greatly.

 

-Theodore Roosevelt

I found this quote on the inside front flap of Dr. Brené Brown's book, "Daring Greatly".  It became the inspiration for this artwork. The black and white photo I literally picked up a year ago when I found it laying in the middle of the street when I was out walking my dog. I couldn't throw it back down. I brought it home and stuffed it away in my file, knowing that at some point I could use it in my art. Ta da! Today was the day! I think it fits the quote beautifully. It also happens to be what I feel I'm doing in putting my artwork out here for all to see—daring greatly.

I think that's what every artist does. I also believe everyone is an 'artist'. They may not paint or sing or play music or dance. Instead, they are housewives and office workers and parents and cooks and poets and janitors...(put in here whatever work it is that you do). Living life is an art no matter what we do for a living. We can all live life with passion and a spirit of excellence in everything that we do. And, hopefully, at the end of our days, we can say that we truly lived our life 'daring greatly.'

Poem by Steve Rapier

Had to share this poem by my sister-in-law's brother, Steve. I could so relate...lol. My dog is named Daisy as well. Enjoy!!!

 

 

What is A Face, Really?

What is A Face, Really?
8-7/8" x 11-1/2" Mixed Media Collage

This collage is based on a quote by Barbz Lewinsky:

 

What is a face, really?

Its own photo?

Its own make-up?

Or is it a face as painted by such or such a painter?

That which is front?

Inside? Behind?

And the rest?

Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way?

Deformations simply do not exist.

 

You can find the original quote with an interesting photo at https://www.facebook.com/InspirationalPortraits which site I became acquainted with through Patricia Allingham Carlson's site. Both sites are well worth your visit.

I had recently joined Jennibellie's Monthly Challenge, the first of which had to do with a monochromatic black and white theme to which you could add one or two accent colors. This was my interpretation of that challenge. The quote just seemed to fit the black and white theme.

Springing the Fever Out of the Cabin!

Whoohooo! Technically the first day of spring is this Thursday, March 20, 2014. I am so ready. While cabin fever has not got the best of me, I was certainly ready for the sunshine and warmer temps we've been having lately. The dog and I have been getting out every day we can. We are both ready to get "On the Road Again", which is the name of this little collage I did yesterday.

I love taking walks with Daisy and taking lots of photos. I used to do that before mom passed away and would load all the pictures on the computer for her to enjoy, too. That was the only way mom was getting out into the sunshine, especially towards the end. This little past time helped us both. Mom got to see the world through my eyes, which was a whole lot different than hers. I'm known for taking closeups of lots of things, be they normal or 'weird' and Mom found herself liking a lot of my odd photos. You just never know what might become the idea for a picture or collage. I'm always looking for inspiration.

For this collage I used some leftover map scraps and found that cute little silhouette car graphic in my graphics program. I looked up the lyrics to Willie Nelson's 'On the Road Again'. It stilled needed a little something so I outlined everything with black sharpie marker and voile—a painting!! I just love it when a plan comes together.

Catch the Moment

Be here now. I've been telling myself that for several years now. Pay attention to what is happening right now for 'now' is when and where life is lived and felt.

Emotions only happen in the now. When we think of past events, we often relive the emotions we felt back then, but those emotions are based on a thought, a memory. The event is in the past, not the present. We can choose to change the emotions that went with a past event. Or not.

Instead of reliving the past like an old rerun we can choose to 'catch the moment' and live in the present. We can choose to make this moment all that it can be. We can be all that we can be right now. Life is lived in the moment. Period. One moment at a time. We can choose to pour our emotion, our passion, into getting the most out of this very moment. And we can live that way every moment of our lives. Wow! Amazing!

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.

So I suppose the best piece of advice I could give anyone is pretty simple: get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you developed an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast while in the shower?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over the dunes, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over a pond and a stand of pines. Get a life in which you pay attention to the baby as she scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.

Turn off your cell phone. Turn off your regular phone, for that matter. Keep still. Be present.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.

Get a life in which you are generous. Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take the money you would have spent on beers in a bar and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Tutor a seventh-grader.

All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.
 - Anna Quindlen  

I want to give a shout out to Patricia Allingham Carlson whose art is really amazing!!!

I Am The Road Map

This project came about because of an art challenge I am a part of. The challenge was to create a vision board for the creative aspects of my life. This was my version which I have titled "I Am The Road Map".

I thought I would walk through the process for anyone who is interested in collage.

I started with a 24" x 30" canvas board. After tearing up brown paper grocery bags into assorted sizes, I used a mixture of half white glue and about half water. It helps to wrinkle up your paper before you apply it to the canvas board in order to get better texture.

With the right colors applied after drying you can make this look just like leather. I love this texture. I applied several shades of orange, followed by transparent washes of burnt umber and burnt sienna, building up layers of color.

 

I cut the shape of a woman out of an old map and pasted her on, adding a face and sunglasses.

I then cut the shapes of puzzle pieces out of various pics, gluing them together. The moon in the upper left corner and the heart shape came from some used coffee filters that I had painted during a day of experimenting. I then added the phrasing and there you have it.

 

 

Hope you like it.

Susan

 

My Inner Child

Inner Child

I joined a creativity challenge for the month of January. Week two was all about speaking your truth. This was my 'truth' that week. I was dealing with my somewhat recalcitrant inner child. In fact she was driving me crazy that week.

I've been reading three different books, one of which is John Bradshaw's Home Coming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child. I finally feel like I'm actually in touch with my inner child who is not at all happy I might add. It seems that our intellectual intelligence and our emotional intelligence to do not necessarily mature at the same rate. Who knew!! It would also seem that stunted emotional intelligence is possibly at the root of a great many emotional outbursts amongst the members of the human race—myself, being a prime example—and my current truth that week was that I was feeling about four years old emotionally. I'm sure you can imagine my dismay and the uncomfortableness in my life considering I am a few months short of turning sixty. Eeeeeekk! Fortunately, I was going through this childlike display alone in the comfort of my home.

People who go on longer fasts in order to detoxify their bodies, often experience a series of events that they call a 'healing event' or a 'healing crisis.' Me, I just call it a detox dump since that is what the body is doing—dumping a load of toxins. What I have discovered is that you can do a detox dump emotionally as well. And that, my friends, is where I found myself, in the middle of an emotional healing crisis/event minus the fasting. The artwork "Inner Child" is what I did to post for the challenge.

I have discovered within myself a rather strong passion for art as therapy. I've pretty much used art in this manner for most of my life but didn't really think about sharing it with others too much. Hence, this post on my blog. There will be more of these coming. I hope that others will be encouraged to do a little art therapy of their own.

Lessons in Nature

What wonderful lessons are available to us in nature if we would only look and see.

The lesson I see here:

In adversity greater numbers are better, providing companionship, warmth, and courage to make it through. Kind of describes life in general, doesn't it?

24 swallows huddling together to survive the harsh winter weather.
Photographer Keith Williams, spotted the scene while out walking his dog on a trail beside the Yukon River in Canada.