Share a Coke and a Smile... Toy Story

As some of you probably already know, I LOVE it when synchronicity and weird coincidences happen in my life.
This is one of those crazy times that I just had to share...

I was painting some characters from the movie Toy Story onto a board to make a Head-in-the-hole Photo Booth for a school market day.
In the movie, the characters, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody, are toys that belong to a little boy called Andy Davis.

I very rarely drink fizzy drinks, but on that particular afternoon I really felt like some Coca Cola. (and crisps, and chocolate)

When I got home from the shop and took the can of Coke out of the bag, I had to laugh.  See what it says on the can!!?

Share a Coke and a Smile... ANDY!!!

How weird is THAT!!?

Painting Jessie, Buzz and Woody characters to make a Head-in-the-hole Photo Booth.

Share a Coke and a Smile... ANDY.

 

Setting up the Toy Stall for a school market day fundraiser.

 

The inside of the Toy Stall was painted to look like Andy's room from the movie Toy Story.

 

The completed Head-in-a-hole Photo Booth.
Jessie, Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

 

Tintin and Snowy - for World Book Day

World Book Day is celebrated annually in over 100 countries around the world. It's a celebration of Reading. A celebration of books, authors and illustrators aimed to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading.

Many schools celebrate by having a dress-up day, where children go to school dressed as their favourite book character.

Today our son, who is in Grade 2, went to school dressed as one of his all time favourite characters...

TINTIN,

accompanied by his loyal companion, Snowy.

Tintin and Snowy off to school for World Book Day.

Tintin and Snowy
(A hair gel and acrylic paint experiment. I hope it washes out easily !! :) )

 

Tintin and Snowy off to school for World Book Day.

 

 

And... you know how much I Love coincidences and synchronicity...

 

After dropping our son (aka Tintin) off for school,

my husband (who is a photographer) arrived at his location for today's shoot and was met by these gorgeous sculptures.

Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock

 

Captain Haddock, Tintin and Snowy.
Painted wooden sculptures.

 

 

Great snakes! and Blistering Barnacles!

 

Now get off the computer and go and read a Book!

 

 ...

(Tintin is a character from The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé)

 

 

The Colour RED

In the Colour Energy Course that I attended last year, we did an in-depth exploration into each spectral colour. Each week we focused on a particular colour and it's associated energy Chakra. We explored the colour's energy through senses, meditation and painting using only the tones and hues of that colour.

For each class we were asked to dress in the colour we were exploring that week. A still life, made up of various objects in the colour was set up in the studio. Little bottles of essential oils associated with that Chakra and colour were set out on a tray for us to smell. Even the food and drink that we had during our tea break was in the colour we were exploring.

We started with the colour RED.

Red governs the Base Chakra, also known as the Root Chakra or Muladhara, which is situated at the base of the spine. It is associated with basic survival, grounding, security (financial, career, home, physical safety, basic needs), vitality, stability and courage.

When we entered the studio on this day the sight that greeted us took my breath away. Red is my favourite colour and the beautiful and carefully put together still life had me in awe. I felt warm and energised.

 

 

 

 

It was interesting to witness other peoples reactions to this strong and energetic colour. There were only two of us that loved it. The others found the colour overwhelming. Dizzying.

 

We sat around the still life soaking in the colour, observing the various shades and tones of red.

We smelled essential oils like Cedar, Patchouli, Frankincense and Myrrh.

We then mixed up some paint making six different shades and tones of Red.

During the meditation I kept seeing images of a younger me, energetic, fit and healthy, riding my bicycle in foreign lands. :)

When we began to cover our canvas paper with paint I started to panic. I didn't know where I was going. It felt like I was making a big mess. The idea was to paint with intuitive spontaneity. I do find it hard to work freely and loosely without trying to paint a 'picture' or anything in particular. I used an Indian textile printing block (I LOVE them) as well as some bubble wrap and a piece of plastic mesh to apply paint and add texture to my page.

  

Marks made using an Indian textile printing block.

 

After our tea break we had a look to see if any shapes or figures were emerging from our work. I turned my page 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees and then back to the way it was. Nothing.

It was only when we had about 10 minutes left to paint that I saw the shape of a snake's head appear. The texture that I'd created with the plastic mesh and bubble wrap looked a lot like snakeskin.

I have always believed that I can't draw from my imagination but in this instance, with no reference pictures of snakes available,  I had no choice. I closed my eyes and tried to picture a snake curled up and raising its head. I wasn't sure which way a snake curled, inward or outward, so I just painted what I saw in my picture by adding a few shadows here and there.

 

'Snakeskin' texture created by applying the paint with a piece of bubble wrap and a piece of plastic mesh.

 

My final painting. A RED snake.

 

 

As I sat looking at my painting, I remembered that a coiled, sleeping serpent was the symbol of the Kundalini - the latent female energy believed to lie coiled at the base of the spine. It was something I'd learnt about many years ago when I practised Yoga regularly.

I immediately thought, "How predictable. How obvious. How contrived."

But thoughts of a serpent, Yoga or Kundalini hadn't entered my mind while I was painting. It wasn't something I'd purposefully done. It really was the result of painting freely, intuitively and spontaneously.

The other thing about my painting was that the serpent was not sleeping.

It had been awakened from its slumber. ;)

 

About Kundalini Energy:

"Kundalini is a dormant energy within most people.
In Hindu mythology, Kundalini is a serpent goddess who lies asleep at the base of the spine, coiled three and a half times around the first chakra.Her name is Kundalini Shakti, and she represents the unfolding of the divine Shakti energy, the energizing potential of life itself, a living goddess who enlivens all things.
Under certain circumstances, the Kundalini energy awakens and begins to rise through the body, piercing and opening the chakras as she moves in her undulating, snake-like fashion. As Kundalini releases stored and blocked energies, her movement can be quite intense, sometimes painful, and often leads to mental states that seem out of this world.
Circumstances that stimulate Kundalini awakening are many and varied, but are usually triggered by such things as extended periods of meditation, yoga, fasting, stress, trauma, psychedelic drugs, or near death experiences."
Source: http://www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/kundaliniawakening.html



Links to my blog posts about colour: RED  ORANGE  YELLOW

 

 



Giraffes

As I mentioned in my previous post, "Geisha", the second term of my process art classes focused very much on letting go of our inner critic. This was done in a number of ways, from passing your work around the class where each student got to add something to your work, to working with a blindfold on.

 

In this class we started off blindfolded once again. We used inks, tea, coffee, charcoal and chalk pastels to fill the page with random markings. We covered a number of pages, working fairly quickly, without much thought given to what we were doing.

The pages looked something like this:

 

One of the textured pages created using a mixture of tea, coffee, inks, charcoal and chalk pastels.

 

We lay the pages out on the floor and were asked to choose one that "spoke" to us. One that seemed to have a hidden image or images.

I unfortunately don't have a photo of what my chosen page looked like before I worked into it, but what I saw at first were 3 GIRAFFES! Two of them were quite humorous and cartoon-like, and another was more realistic. I also saw a couple of birds. I used a wash of black ink, some charcoal and chalk pastels to help define the shapes that I was seeing.

 

My final artwork, "Giraffes"

 

I was horribly disappointed at the end of this class. Not only did I end up with what I considered to be a really ugly picture, but I also didn't see any obvious meaning or feel any connection with the giraffes. The end result is not meant to be important, but it is always a bonus if it turns out well. I hadn't particularly enjoyed the process either, so I went home feeling rather cheated :(

 

The following day, on Facebook, a friend shared how her daughter had been gored by a tame boar and needed stitches in her leg. In her status update she said, "It has forced us to slow down. Assess, and figure out what this "Boar Medicine" means."

Boar Medicine? I had no idea what that was so I did an internet search. My search took me to a page about Native American Animal Medicine where I read,

"The Native American practice of "animal medicine" embraces an awareness that reveals itself when a certain animal crosses our path."

And, 

" Animal Medicine is that which you need to learn RIGHT NOW! and the lesson that is coming across your IMMEDIATE path. Another animal may come cross your path tomorrow. Your attention may be called to one of these animals through television, conversation, daily experience, etc. Regardless of how one of these animals comes across your path, study the message and apply to your daily Life . . . they have a message for you!"

 





Detail of "Giraffes"





 

The Giraffes...

Okay, so it may have been a bit desperate of me and really silly to have wanted to find meaning in the work I'd done the previous evening, but I couldn't help myself...

I looked up "Giraffe Medicine" and found this:

 

"Today Giraffe is letting you know that it's time to stick your neck out. Start making new connections, stretch yourself, reach as far as you can. You are up for the challenge."

 

And yes, of course it made sense to me... I'd just finished making a list of gift shops, online shops and markets that I could approach about selling some of the goodies that I make. Seriously!

 

So, the next time an animal crosses your path... ;)

Collage work - Process Art classes

Earlier this year, in the fourth Process Art class that I attended, we were required to do a collage using pictures from magazines.

We started off (with the help of a guided meditation) by writing about a memory from our childhood to do with a book or story that someone had read to us or told us.

Mine was 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. I used to have a recurring bad dream about that story when I was little. In my dream the bears were at our front gate, coming for me, and I had nowhere to hide and nowhere to run to. I felt such fear of getting into trouble for doing something I'd been told not to do.

We paged through magazines and tore out pictures that caught out attention and resonated with us, not necessarily pictures that illustrated the story.

I was never a huge fan of collage work and found it hard to get into. I did not enjoy the class that much. I was also disappointed with my work at the end of the lesson.

In those early days of Process Art classes I was still hung up on the final artwork or end result and hadn't quite got into the 'process' yet.

The collage that I did in one of the first Process Art classes.

A month later, we did another collage. This time we started with wax crayons, inks and bleach before paging through the magazines and tearing out pictures to paste onto our work. Amazingly, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was completely unconcerned about what the end result would look like. I was actually humming happily (but very quietly) while I worked. I was surprised at the end result but this time did not focus on it as an 'artwork' or place any judgement or criticism onto it.

The collage that I did a month after the first collage.

At the end of that term we were given all our work back in a large brown folder. I laid my work out on the floor to get a good look at what I had achieved and it immediately struck me that these two collages had strong similarities.

All the work done during the first term of my Process Art classes.

From top left: Guardian Figure, Flower - Symbol, Silenced Love, Gateway, Flow, Immerse Yourself, Creative Block, Untitled

The Two collages:

Both collages have a path leading to an open doorway positioned more or less in the middle of the picture.

At the start of the pathway in the first collage, is a jumble of torn pieces from a picture of dried autumn leaves. They look a lot like flames.

In the second collage there is the shape of a lotus flower made up of petals cut from a picture of flames.

In the first there are rays of light coming into the picture and in the second there are rays going out from the centre of the page.

While doing the first collage I felt stuck, frustrated and irritable. While doing the second one I felt free and full of joy!

I can read a lot more into both of these works, but for me the most exciting thing is the idea (or even the proof) that my subconscious is hard at work during these Process Art classes.

A friend asked me what it is that I gain from doing these classes. What 'therapy' am I getting from them?

I think what it is, is that I'm giving my subconscious a voice.

 A bit like analysing ones dreams?

A way to feel connected to something greater.

ASTAR Art Course

I love to Believe that synchronicity and coincidences are a sign that you're on the right track.
I'd heard about the ASTAR (Awakening Spirit Through Art) art classes through a friend but at the time was not in a position to do a course. Six months later, in December a friend of my sister came to buy one of my Origami Nightingale Mobiles which she wanted to give as a gift to her Art Teacher. It turned out that she is doing ASTAR Art classes.
This term a space became available in her class and she asked if I'd be interested to join. I had just been paid for a large order of Bird Strings that I'd made before Christmas, so I eagerly paid my deposit to secure my place.
I then started questioning... had I signed up for the right course?... will I be spending my money wisely?... was this course for me?...

I wanted to share some info about the course with another friend but the website link, for some reason, was not working that day. Frustrated, I did a search to see if there was maybe a Facebook page. This is what I found ... - Note the cover photo :) (two pebbles, one with the word "Believe" and the other with the word "Make"...)

The cover photo on the ASTAR Facebook page that I came across was of two pebbles,
one with the word "Believe" and the other with the word "Make"

 

 

I just had to smile. This was the affirmation that I'd needed. A message from the Universe, don't you think?