I BELIEVE...

In front of me sits a 'storyboard' (a skirt hanger rack holding eight little sketches either drawn, colored, painted or collaged and with a given color as the only guideline for each.) They are done on used tea bag paper and now await their story. Up until this point the muses have had full freedom to express themselves. They have had their way and now it is my turn. It is up to me to bring the story to light.

I think this process has been about my beliefs. So what do I believe? Let's see what the pictures tell me about that.

As the story told itself to me, the order of the pictures changed. The bracketed number is the original order (for reference.)

[1] 1. If you spend some time alone dreaming, ideas will come to you. These ideas are important to you right now in the present moment. Remember these ideas.
[6] 2. There are helper beings that assist us in finding our way. We may never see these helpers. The important ideas are like little nuggets of valuable gold. They are like cash in the bank for our creative selves. We can withdraw the valuable ideas when we need them.
[2] 3. You do not have to travel far to find the valuable ideas you need. Wherever you go, there you are. Just open your eyes and look. There is one within sight this minute. Look for it. Believe you can find it.
[5] 4. Even if you don't know what to do with these ideas, pay attention to them. Honor them. Write them down. Keep them in a special spot for when you need them.
[4] 5. When the time is right, share your ideas with others. Listen to others' ideas. We are all teaching each other.
[3] 6. Feel free to fly without wings. You've been walking a long way amongst the golden nuggets and the gold has transferred to your feet. You do not need wings. Your feet will carry you as far as your imagination allows. Imagine BIG.
[7] 7. Even if your world is black with thunderous scary forces at play-you can find the silver lining. Even if it is not readily apparent. Look in the shadows. Mine the silver there.
[8] 8. With these beliefs you can attain great heights.

FINI

The Summer of Color has provided me with an amazing wonderful journey and I want to thank Kristin for her generous effort to allow us a magical summer. I thank you from the bottom of my heart!! *smiles* Norma

p.s. these pages will make up a little accordion book and have the messages somehow incorporated. It will take longer than a week for me to pull this together but I will blog about it when it is done. I have enjoyed the art that you all have made in this amazing journey together. So much fun!

Week Eight: Summer of Color (Orange)

Here is a close up of this weeks' color offering of orange. Really, the only three things that are actually orange are the eye, beak and legs (oh yes, the toes too!) ~ but there is a reflection of golden pale orange from the hot hot sun that the crane is flying in view of, on the body and upper wing. This guy was painted onto used tea bag paper with sumi-e ink, india ink, acrylic paint and watercolor paint.


Here you can see the grouping of eight tea bag paper sketches which will compose the greater part of a little journal.

Pop over to the Summer of Color event hosted by Kristin, and see what other artists are up to! This has been a very fun event for all. I want to thank Kristin from the bottom of my heart. Due to having to come up with something every week for eight weeks running now, I for the first time really have some sort of grasp on using paint brushes and india ink and acrylic and just generally more able to let go of the fear of failure in an attempt to make art. If I fail the sky does not fall in. I just throw the paper out and start again. Every attempt teaches me something. Every attempt is a building block to where I want to go.

Thanks for dropping in! *smiles* Norma

Look for the Silver Lining

It is said that every dark cloud has a silver lining. I say that if you can't see the silver lining in the cloud, look in the shadows of the cloud. That is where I mine most of my silver.
Week seven in the Summer of Color gave us the color purple to work with, with an addition of glitter if we chose. I chose silver glitter where the lightning strikes clouds and where the shadows of the clouds can therefore be seen and therefore where the silver linings shine brilliantly. Painted on used tea bag paper with acrylics. Sparkle added as well.
I am house sitting (cat minding) for my daughter so don't have my pants hanger display here.

Thanks for dropping in! *smiles* Norma

Week Five: Brown (Summer of Color)

Donkey (well yes he is a rabbit but his nickname is Donkey) keeps watch. He keeps finding golden round things and has started to collect them. He has two sections of his warren set aside to house them (he is thinking BIG and he is one of my favorite friends because of this trait of his) and so far he has about eleven golden round things. Where do they come from? It is a puzzle.
Week five of the Summer of Color asked us to use brown. I immediately thought of earth. So an underground habitat came to mind for me.

The sentiments of the hearers were various.

Summer of Color: Week Four (Yellow)

In the yellow house lived a lady with yellow hair. She was a soothsayer whom it is said, had the "sight." In the corner of her parlour sat a golden samovar that never ran dry. It was here that she told fortunes by reading tea leaves. Some believed more than others.

Do you believe?

Have a look at what others are doing in the Summer of Color.

Flying Pink Horse

Week three of the Summer of Color gave us the color pink! My story unfolds as we see a flying pink horse with gold hoofs passing by a group of houses. One of the houses, the bright yellow one, has a golden door. I wonder who lives there?

More blue birds...

The second week of The Summer of Color hosted by Kristin featured the color green with a hint of citron.
I started with the color citron to make yellowish-greeny flowers and then went from there. A green tree and the birds just came on their own. They happened to be blue so maybe I am thinking they will be related to the first blue bird. We shall see. When I was coloring in the blue of the eggs I got carried away and forgot I was working on tea bag paper which is fragile and so when I pressed too hard the paper broke through and I am not kidding I felt like I had just broken a real birds egg. The feeling is awful. So in the nest are two eggs and a broken egg. Such is life.
All of the birds seem interested in one direction and what are they noticing? Do they hear something? Smell something? Imagine something? We shall see!
Of course you know I am leaving a part of each picture unfinished in case I want to tie in a theme as I go along, or at the completion of the ten pictures.
Hope you are all having fun with this event, *smiles* Norma
P.S. I wonder what those gold round things are coming from the tree? Or are they coming from the sky? It is a puzzle.

Thanks for dropping in!

Blue Bird

The first week of The Summer of Color event hosted by Kristen has begun with the first color assigned being BLUE. I am working on used tea bag paper and have left some wiggle room for additions to my drawing in the event a story unfolds (of course it will!!!) and I might want to add an element or two later.


She sits on a branch looking out...dreaming...


There will be ten drawings in all to fill a skirt hanger. The next color is GREEN! So let's see where that takes this bird.

Thanks for dropping by! *smiles* Norma