Park your broomsticks - welcome to the party!

My sincerest apologies for the slight....unpleasantness....with the punch. The pixies have been sorted out, and it's time to come in! Welcome, welcome...please park your brooms by the rusty gate and help yourself to a velvet robe, a cauldron of the newly magical punch, and a wafer of moonbeams. I'm very glad to see you here!

Don't forget - if you'd like to see any of the pictures more closely, just click on the picture and it'll magically get larger!

Now that you're here, why don't meet some of our guests? Please come right this way. We'll be going through the magical gardens to reach the party. Be careful of the fountain, he doesn't bite of course, but sometimes he's been known to climb down and splash rather a lot of magic water onto our friends. You know why it's magic water, don't you? Because it disappears whenever you sit down in a puddle of it!

Aren't the gardens lovely at this time of year? If you look closely, you'll see the rare Peacock Bats rising next to the bench - they like to come over and nestle on your shoulders, so I hope you don't mind them. They're very gentle and I assure you they don't bite.

No time to smell the moonbeams and lavender - walk over the blue bridge where the urns are now, the rest of the party is dying to meet you! I have it on very reliable account that a contingent of Steampunks has made an appearance. Their locomotive is hovering somewhere near the horse-drawn hearses, so I sincerely hope their steam doesn't make everyone dewy.

Oh yes, there they are, over on the left. They're behaving themselves, guess they're not feeling quite punkish. In fact, ah, I see they're watching our Gypsy Dancer! Madame Zaza has appeared, clearly the Gypsy King doesn't know what he's missing out on....I see some Victorian Explorers are searching for the source of the Nile - no no, I assure you it's not in the fountain. Looook out! Ah, splash......I knew it. Never mind, they seem quite envigorated from their magic water dousing. Where is our Enchantress when we need her? Oh, really? She's off to sort out the Pixies again...yes, there she is walking out of the picture on the right.

I must say, things are going swimmingly at the First Annual Soul Journalers Halloween Bash!

Now what are you costumed as? I like the Faerie wings - they are fairie wings aren't they? No, they're part of your Renaissance attire. I must say, I didn't think that Queen Elizabeth generally wore wings, but right you are ma'am - and a lovely interpretation it is! Do enjoy mingling with our other guests now....I have to see about the broomsticks.

A busy hostess is never done - just as I thought, the Steampunkers Locomotive seems to have gone off on a ramble over the nearby fields, so I must fly myself. Please do enjoy the refreshments, and I'll see you all very soon in the Land of Blog Comments. After I catch that runaway locomotive, I think I'll stop by the other blog parties going on tonight - I hear there are some beautiful and festive parties to attend! Thank you Kathryn Antyr and the Soul Journalers group for sponsoring this fabulous event!

Thank you so much for joining me! I'll see you at your house!

One moment please :-) We're almost ready!

Slight delay in the party plans - yes, party will definitely be here in a very few minutes, but there is a slight....incident with the punch.....a couple of pixies spiked it! So if you can just circle around the block on your broomstick a couple more times, then come back to my door, we'll be ready to greet you. Can't wait to see your costumes!

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Are you a pirate - swept along by the tides of fortune from the blazing cannons of the Spanish Main to the secret blue grottoes filled with treasure on uncharted Caribbean islands? Does the moon ride the dark seas as a galleon with you at the helm?

Or perhaps you're an enchantress, mixing herbs and magical potions kept in your Book of Secrets - lavender, moondust, mist from an enchanted pond caught in the light of the stars?

An explorer? Seeking the lost tribes of the Amazonian basin, rafting up crocodile infested waters in search of the source of the Nile somewhere in the Mountains of the Moon?

A gypsy Queen, silk veils dance before your dark eyes in the fires of the camp. You feel the earth's pulse through your bare feet as you perform the ancient dance to capture the heart of the King of the Gypsies?

Well, whoever you are (not your mundane self, your true self, the gypsy, the mystic, the dancer) come one, come all to the Soul Journal Blog Party - one of your stops is here! On October 26, by the light of the waning moon, visit my blog and see what my art journal has unearthed.

As you can see, I've decorated spookily, uh, I mean, specially for the event.

Remember, my blog, Oct. 26 - we're dying to meet you.

Soul Journaling - Doodles

I should have spent more time today working on art, but I'm exhausted from working in the garden all weekend, and have got "weekend warrior" syndrome (strained lower back from planting about 20 plants including some large palm trees, bug bites, and a lovely bruise where I took on the edge of the barbecue grille one too many times) Add to my excuse list that a friend sent me one of those "why don't you join Facebook" notes, and although I've always maintained that social networking websites are for kids...well, I have spent far too much time today messing around with it.

Anyway, Kathryn's prompt for the Soul Journaling group was to create doodles and put in your journaling somewhere in your doodled lines. I kind of took it to the next level.....see above. I have to admit, I LOVE this page! It's all about my fantasies of exotic foreign travel, including India. Unfortunately my husband has beyond no interest in visiting there (although he's a great and patient travel companion in all other respects) so this may have to continue to live in the realms of my fertile imagination. Perhaps for the best, I'm sure it doesn't really have spice-laden breezes wafting in from the swaying palms of the Indian ocean....

I've been tagged!

So my friend Kathryn Antyr tagged me - I've never been tagged before but feel as though I've landed in the land of the popular kids - wow, if only they'd had this when I was in Junior High school and was officially the second least popular kid in the seventh grade!

Anyway, here is Kathryn's website, so stop by and visit her (she's a really wonderful person) :-) http://www.collagediva.com/Site/Kathryns_Blog

So, six random facts about me:

#1 - I collect ghost stories. No, I'm not a Halloween junkie, I just like going on ghost tours, and consider books of regional ghost stories to be a great vacation souvenir. I do believe in ghosts. I also collect books on outhouses and bathrooms. I believe in those too.

#2 - I held a lion cub when I was 9 years old. There's a picture and everything. He was fuzzy with a little pink belly - I was living in South Africa at the time, and we were visiting a safari park. I am not likely to pick up random lions.

#3 - I have rarely failed in getting knots and snarls pulled out of necklace chains. It's a zen thing.

#4 - I'm afraid to the point of phobia of the following things: parrots, helium balloons, hard taco shells, heights, confined spaces, and lightning. If you wanted to get rid of me, make me hold a parrot while eating a hard taco in a room where a balloon is being inflated, or just handled. Really.

#5 - There's few things better than velvet. Particularly the silk kind that practically glows and costs $75+ per yard. Now if I could only sew.

#6 - I've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark at least 100 times. I think I know every sound effect, line of dialogue and frame of film by heart. I haven't seen Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at all. Perfection is best left to stand alone.

Here's the tagging rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Now, I'm tagging.....

Cindy - http://cskawins.blogspot.com/
Shelly - http://shellystick.blogspot.com/
Sarah - http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/
EB - http://elizabethbunsen.typepad.com/be_dream_play/
Karen - http://karensaltereddreamz.blogspot.com/
Pattie - http://www.writingaffirmations.blogspot.com/

Go forth and tag, my friends!
Soul hugs,
Jane

29 Gifts

My Soul Journaling friend Kathryn sent a link to the Soul Journaling group about a website called 29 Gifts.org - the idea is to give away something - an item, your time, a smile - for the next 29 days, and observe how your life changes inwardly as you give away items outwardly. It's a rather Buddhist concept, which I love, and I've signed up to participate. Here's a video all about it - perhaps you'll be interested too:


Find more videos like this on 29-Day Giving Challenge

Paddling Upstream, a new Soul Journaling page

The soul journaling process up till now has ended, and the new era with the Soul Journaling group has begun. One of the moderators - I greatly appreciate all three moderators volunteering their time to keep a good thing going - created the group's first prompt - the Instant Gratification exercise. Clip out a picture from a magazine, then paint around it and draw concentric rings around the picture with journaling. I went to town and went a bit beyond the idea of "instant journal." As you can see, I got so busy with layering that the rings of journaling kind of disappeared, but that's what so great about visual journaling. It brings you in touch with symbolism, and the subconsious, and often what you don't say winds up revealing itself by what you paint. I truly love it.

One of the things I LOVE about this process is that you are perpetually surprised about where the art leads you - and I wound up doing a page about "paddling upstream." I've taken on quite a few new challenges in my professional life lately, that are making me really have to work on balance. Sometimes achieving it seems a bit impossible, other times I know it will all be ok, I just have to hold a steady course. I'm sure this is one of those lessons that I'm supposed to be figuring out. As my friend Alice says, "It's a buddha that's been put in your way to teach you something."

It's been interesting to see how my art style and colors have changed and grown so much in the three or so years that I've been doing it. I see a lot more confidence and honesty with it. I no longer concern myself with whether it is pretty, or makes sense to anyone else, I just know I'm happy with it and I feel like I'm really doing the stuff I want to be doing. In the end, that's what it is all about. I truly feel that it helps me stay sane!

Soul Journaling - Day Twenty Two, the end and the beginning

Finally we come to the end of this first round of soul journaling, thank you again so much Sarah my soul friend for the inspiration and the good solid techniques that have given me so much confidence. I really like this way of working, and synchronicity being what it is - when I was ready, a teacher appeared. I hope you, dear reader, will find your own synchronicities with your art. Remember, there are so many people out there who will help you - you just have to have a curious mind and take a look!

If you would like to do Sarah's soul journaling method - just click on the link for Caspiana on my blog roll.

The final assignment was a self portrait using only your fingers for paintbrushes. Yep, that's right. Only your fingers, even to mix paints, and nothing else. Oh my. The cave paintings of Lascaux it isn't, but I think the figure looks at least passingly like me. It gives one all new respect for our ancestors who did paint those masterpieces in caves so many millenia ago.

Thank you for following with me on this journey. Now it's my turn to take up the journaling challenge on my own - so a beginning again.

Soul Journaling - Day Twenty One

Today's exercise was about misfits - make a random doodle, see what shapes emerge (I love how this process is both therapeutic, exploratory, and a darn fun way to learn new techniques), and create a figure from them that represents when you felt like a misfit. Of course, my squiggle looked like nothing until I turned it upside down, and lo an behold, it was a person's face! Of course my misfit was only revealed upside down. That's why it's a misfit, right?

I decided the image must be related to my being the runner up misfit (the second most unpopular person of my seventh grade class). If you had a good middle school/junior high experience, then congratulations - you must be the only one! I'd love to tell you that I grew to accept myself as I am and was no longer concerned with fitting in, blah blah blah. Not true. I grew acutely conscious of exactly how to fit in, and I became quite good at it by high school. Not that I was "A-list" popular, but I actually really enjoyed high school and am still friends with my best friends from then to this day.

However, I don't think I really got to be totally cool with who I am - and believe me, I still am a misfit in lots of ways, but I actually enjoy them now - until my 30's. I would be bored and disappointed with myself if I wasn't who I am now, but it took a long time to get there. So, here's to misfits - enjoy your eccentricities for without them, you'd be just like the rest. And who wants that?? Seriously.

Soul Journaling - Day Twenty

All the way up to day 20 - only three more to go - I find myself missing the process already. But, it's also great to actually take a project to it's conclusion, and very satisfying. Of course, the point is not the destination but the journey, and in the case of art journaling that IS the point.

This page was good fun, I didn't think it would work out well at first (I never do) but of course it did. Sarah's guidance is never wrong! This was a collage of three previous soul journal pages put together by tearing papers into strips and putting the images together in new combinations. It is tied together with a wash of paint. This is really, in my mind, what collage mixed media art is all about - combining existing images in new ways so that they appear as though they always went together, they should always be together, and they create a new statement or idea in doing so.

I actually think this is my favorite page. I'm definitely going to do this technique again.

Soul Journaling - Day Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen

Our soul journaling assignments for these three days were a wonderful challenge - select items from a list of "to do"s (use a fork to paint with, moosh paint between the pages and see what comes out, add some metal to your page, write what you did today) the only caveat being that you can't put the items in the order they're given. Note: for those new to the blog, I've been following Sarah Whitmire's soul journaling project for the last month - some of the posts here are the results. http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com

I highly recommend visiting her blog and checking it out - I'm sure you'll get interested in visual journaling/art journaling/soul journaling (whatever you want to call it) too. Here are the results of the three "potpouri" days:

Day 16 - magazine stencil and words (mostly)

Day 17 - Rorschach-esque paint blobs, imprints of your hands

Day 18

I really liked looking for hidden symbolism in the images - there were things that didn't even occur to me until after I had scanned the pictures to upload here. I see a swimmer in the picture above - swimming through weeds. In the red painting, for one thing, I realized I use a lot of hot pinky/red (nothing that would have occured to me, I'm known for brown!) in my paintings. The color of intensity and passion! That teal blue is so nicely a butterfly. The yoga girl picture (I wish I was) didn't strike me any particular way until my husband said it reminded him of a jungle, like in southeast Asia. I realized that I have been thinking a lot about my waterfall/zen garden that I'm planning on putting on my back porch (woot - we're getting a screened in porch built on our house!) and what a great area it would be for exercising in a peaceful manner. None of this go-for-the-burn stuff for me, thank you.

I'm almost near the end of the journal project - and looking forward to doing more of my own pages. Thank you Sarah for giving me the guidance to go so far with this project, and keep going in the future.

Sights from Olympia

Where I spent my summer holidays.....

I spent my summer sleeping in a terrarium with a view of the stars and moon, spent my days on the ocean sailing past fjords and stepping over old lava floes in the cold waters of the northern Pacific.

Ok, so I didn't spend my whole summer doing that. But I did spend a week doing precisely these things - does that count? Of course it does!

We went to Olympia, Washington on August 8 for my sister-in-law Jodi's wedding as well as to pay a long overdue visit to my sister Kay, whose been inviting me to see that part of the world for the last 30+ years. I would have gone a lot sooner if I'd known just how special it really is! I truly felt at home here - I joked that given another 36 hours in Olympia, I would have opened a dog/human yoga and art studio in downtown and started serving berry cobbler from organically grown vintage raspberry bushes.

I met so many wonderful people, ate some of the best food (always a big vacation make or break area for me - I LOVE food), drank some good beer, and just relaxed in nature. I've been wanting to go to the ocean for a while, but it's not really something you want to do here in Florida during the summer - too hot. I loved that the ocean is just a normal part of people's lives up there, you take a ferry as a viable mode of transportation. You can see the ocean, and the mountains, and the tall trees around every turn. It's also a very environmentally and politically conscious place - when you go to a wedding where everyone brings their dogs, there are people of many races, ages, and circumstances and they're just people together without judgement, and there are readings from Native American, Buddhist, Christian, and Sufi philosophy as well as a sing-along in Sanskrit, well, I've found my people.

But enough words, this is an art blog, so I know you want to see pictures. The picture you see at the top of the post is the view from the guest room (aka the terrarium) at my sister's house. I'm calling it the terrarium because the bed is built into a window that juts out from the house into the forest that is her backyard. At the foot of the hill is a small lake that we went kayaking on after a breakfast of the shiniest plumpest Ranier cherries, organic cheeses, and fresh baked pastries from the local farmer's market.

Speaking of farmer's market! Olympia is reckoned to have the "second best farmers market in the state" - presumably after the rather better known Pike's Market in Seattle. I've been to both, and I have to say, I liked the Olympia one better. Beautiful produce and flowers, handmade clothes, soaps, organic everything, a jazz band, it was awesome. Here are some local blueberries - don't you just want to grab a handful?

We also went to visit my sister's property out on the south Puget Sound - next time we visit they'll have built their weekend beach house out there - clean rain-swept wind, ocean mists and wildflowers...
Here's a few images from my sister-in-law's wedding - it was a very informal relaxed wedding by the shores of Capitol Lake in downtown Olympia, followed by a reception at their friend Tibor's farm (two pastures over from their house). They live in a small house in a wooded valley with a little stream rushing past the farm and fields that eventually ran to the Puget Sound.

Jodi and Doug had a beautiful day - it was rainy in the morning, but right on schedule at 4 p.m., the heavens cleared, the sun shone, and Jodi was married under a canopy of silk banners and hand-painted batik windsocks with a carpet of wildflowers and lillies at her feet.

Enough for now - got to work on my art journal - in the next post, I'll continue with my adventures in the Pacific Northwest with our visit to Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and Saltspring Island, plus my visit with Nick Bantock.