Happy Holidays and best wishes in the New Year!

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel and blessings this Winter Soltice!  Dear creative kindred spirits I wish you all a plethora of creative opportunities in the new year!  I am happy to say that I have begun my efforts to develop a more creative habit of mind than I have currently.  I pushed myself to enter a painting in a show through the Berkeley Art Center.  BAC had a call for entries for their winter show and a friend sent me the announcement.   I just felt it was the writing on the wall to get out there and show my work.  In the flurry of trying to get the piece framed and delivered to the curators, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Silly me!  In anycase, I am proud of my effort. 

The wreath above is one of the creative efforts I made for the holidays.  I use to go into a Martha Stewart mode and decorate, bake and make for many years but my job in the last 5 years took all the joy out of my spirit and I haven't done anything for years.  This year was different.  With a job change, I was able to release the bad karma of the last job and take on one that gave me a sense of Joy and freedom that I use to know.  So, with that said, I have been crafting, baking and making again.  What JOY! 

So, to 2012 I look forward to continue what I started this holiday.  Year round crafting, painting, sewing, baking and making.  My heart is full.  Best wishes to you all and your families.  Cheers.

The colors of Winter

In the spirit of the holiday season I have been indulging in making decorations for the house.  For the past 8 years I have been sleep walking through my life and have not felt anchored in what makes my heart sing and dance.  In 2011, a change in my job situation has enabled me to clear the cobwebs in my heart and I can breath again.  Essentially I lost my job but gained a new one in which I am paid a bit less but I have more personal freedom and time.  As I adjusted to the new job this past fall, I was looking for something creative to do but was 'creatively blocked'.  Reading my favorite magazines, I found repeatedly artists talking about being blocked and they would say - 'When blocked, just do something!  Anything!'  So, I did.  I created a mood board.  I showed it in my last post: http://astheartflies.blogspot.com/2011/11/art-every-day-challengechallenging.html

The board is in my kitchen and is a cork board with a frame that I covered in an oatmeal colored linen.  I use silk pins to pin up the images and papers to create a temporary collage that symbolizes the season.  I enjoyed that so much that I've decided to do one for each season and regularly change it to satisfy my creative moods and decorate my house. 

My holiday decorations are focused on red and white as a theme.  Does my theme change every year?  Yes, it seems every year.  I don't do a 'tree' so I make it up with lots of garlands, wreaths, flowers and all.  For some reason red and white resonated with me, this year, and I have followed theme.  As my house is evolving into a space that has black and white furniture, and accents that are black, white, red and burlap beige I decided that I would make my winter mood board around those colors. Here is the result:

The whole board complete.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

What I like most about doing these temporary collages is it allows me to play with images, colors and textures without worrying about permanency.  Art on a whim, then living with it and tweaking it and just enjoying the process of playing.  A lot of the images are from my favorite magazines like Marie Claire Idees (France), Country Living (British), and Somerset Life (US). Other images are from Christmas cards from years past including some I collected at flea markets from the 1930's.


I hope to share some of my new holiday decorations. I made two wreaths...no, three!  I made one for the front door and I have made two more to hang inside the house in various places.  So, more posts to come, stay tuned!