Lesson Six / The Art of Self Worth

http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/displaycourselesson.cgi?pf=1&clid=5477&aff=

Lesson Five / Radical Self Acceptance

"Accept life as it comes and you will find it a blessing."
-Nisargadatta


http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/displaycourselesson.cgi?pf=1&clid=5476&aff=

Great title for this lesson and a wonderful theme for the week ahead. Not only self acceptance but also acceptance of what IS vis a vis the sale of my house. With only about ten days until the end of the month thus far I do not have an offer that has it's subjects removed. But I remain ever hopeful and I'll keep praying and reciting my mantra.  I AM a resident of Vancouver Island. I AM grateful that my house sold. I AM looking forward to an expanding future of possibilities in my post-elementary teaching life and a return to Mexico for the winter of 2012/13. And so it is...

Random Posting...

http://elisha07.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/the-beginning/

Have you ever done a google search on your name?  Well, it's amazing what's still floating around in cyber space!  I took this social media/technology course at UBC Kelowna about five years ago in the summer and my posting is still on wordpress. Perhaps we really are immortal after all...in some cyber virtual form that is.

http://cyberteacher0.tripod.com/

Circles

Today's 'Second Floor' Challenge is Circles which I like a lot and will explore later today in my Intuitive Painting Class. But for now, here is the challenge 'as is.'

Today is the fourth Second Floor challenge!  Are you ready to take it to the second floor?  What does that mean?  It means trying something vastly out of your comfort zone.  Doing something that might not work.  Experimenting with a crazy idea.  It's all about pushing yourself.  If it works, awesome.  If it doesn't work, awesome!

The challenge this time around is to create something inspired by circles.  Whatever that means to you or however it inspires you.  The prompt is simply meant to get you started.  The level of challenge you aim for is entirely internal and up to you.

All About 'Second Floor' Challenges

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/second-floor.html

For some reason, I awoke with a bit of free floating anxiety that I'm sure will be dissipated once I rejoin my Tuesday night Intuitive Painting Class tonight. Yesterday, I didn't produce any visible art per se but my performance art was driving to and from Kelowna in my 2002 Mustang Convertible with naturally the top down on a hot, sunny day in the Okanagan. Pure blissssssssssssssss... If you could capture this feeling in a bottle you could pour it in your coffee cup and drink it on those gray and gloomy days that the interiour and yes, Vancouver Island is prone to in the winter when I hope I'm not gonna be in Canada but back in the charming Mexican lakeside village of Ajijic, Jalisco!

Lesson Four / Celebrate Your/My Uniqueness!

http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/displaycourselesson.cgi?pf=1&clid=5475&aff=

A wonderful theme for my birthday week and Mother's Day which is today. My mom, Olga Babiak of Edmonton, Alberta was a very unique and special woman who left us far too soon at age 62. Remembering you, Mom and missing you on your special day...  Love from your oldest daughter, Joanne


"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting".
-e.e. cummings 

Artist Participant 526

http://creativeeveryday.com/2012-creative-every-day-challenge

To mark my 57th birthday since this year I'm having an ultra low key one I decided to register myself as the 526th participant in the Creative Every Day Challenge. The motivation for doing this is to actually work at developing an artistic practice much in the same way as people develop a yoga 'practice' or a meditation 'practice.'  Since I've long considered my birthday or really ANYONE'S birthday to be their personal new year I am publicly declaring my intent as I continue to stumble my way through finishing and packing up my Okanagan life and relocating to Vancouver/Gabriola Island. Four showings on my house this week AND an offer is pending subject to the subjects being removed by next Friday...I hope/pray. Update:  Five showings as there was a noon showing on Mother's Day as well so this has been the most activity on my house since I first listed and there was a flurry of interest! And an immediate offer that regretably fell through...

On Friday, which was my 57th Birthday I just didn't feel like going out so I stayed home and painted a canvas of how I was feeling and what came out was a woman caught between two worlds with her arms outstretched and one had is tethered by three blue streamers or ribbons and the other is free to embrace the future. There is a water feature on the lower part of the canvas interestingly enough and a sort of smoky cloud hanging over the woman's (my?) head.  I did a collage for my 56th birthday when I was attached and hoping for a birthday to remember because I had a b/f. Well, it was memorable and I did go to the spa with my old friend from Grade 7 but alas, I did not get flowers or a card from the b/f. Or even just a small token of something that would make me feel special and loved. Fast forward to 2012 and I am unattached and sort of emotionally adrift and once again between two worlds wanting to SELL and MOVE but not knowing what my life will be life a year from now si Dios quiren (Spanish expression meaning 'if God wants.'

Lesson Three / Divine Awareness

The aim of life is to live and to live means to be aware; joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."
-Henry Miller

http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/displaycourselesson.cgi?pf=1&clid=5474&aff=

As always, this is a most interesting and provocative lesson on sensory awareness and how it relates to one's chosen artistic expression.

Finishing the Edges of a Canvas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElwMRrKl4M&list=UUECPFG9j_82Bq4h0HeAUujw&index=2&feature=plcp

In my email box today I got a link to this Vancouver artist's site who shows a great technique for finishing the edges of a canvas. I like a dark edge unless I just continue the abstract lines over the edge. Good technique!

Lesson Two / The Freedom of Play

http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/displaycourselesson.cgi?pf=1&clid=5473&aff=


"It is our duty to awaken understanding of our inner self and know our real inner greatness…therefore meditate on yourself, honor and worship your own self, kneel to yourself and see God hidden in your own heart."
-Swami Muktananda


The theme for the second lesson is play and I'm all for it except I have to get the house and yard ready for viewing Number 14. I just know that the buyer is out there and it could very well be viewing Number 14! So it's work, alas, before play today...sigh...

It is Sunday and almost noon and I'm just getting going for the day. I slept in and remember having the most delicious dreams. I recently saw 'The Raven' with one of my favourite artists, John Cusack and amazingly enough he also starred in my dream. In the movie, not my dream, John Cusack is Edgar Allan Poe. I'm not sure if I ever read anything when I was in school but I did remember what the raven said....'nevermore.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raven

And now to have a quick look at my favourite movie site, www.rottentomatoes.com to see what the critics say about this movie which according to my preliminary look at the Edgar Allan Poe wikipedia listing has played a bit 'fast and loose' with the facts of Mr. Poe's life and the people that he knew.

Lesson One / Empowering Myself Through Creativity

http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/displaycourselesson.cgi?pf=1&clid=5472&aff=


"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"
-Marcel Proust


I've started a 12 Week Journey of Expressive Art using the tool of Art Journaling, something I've looked into for quite a while and have done some pages in my blank book. This coming up week I'll be travelling to Vernon on Tuesdays for four weeks to experience something called Intuitive Painting that totally resonates with me especially since I brought back a bag of wonderfully vibrant acrylic paint in Mexican colours from my time in Ajijic/Guadalajara in the winter of 2011/12. Let the painting/drawing/journaling begin!