Friday - My Health and My Future With Art

 My grandson's 18th birthday party was at a skating rink. He and his friends had so much fun!

On Wednesday, I had an eye exam to check for glaucoma. Not only do I have it, I have cataracts as well. However, none is bad at this point and I'm taking that as the blessing that it is. I've got eye drops to help with the pressure and swelling that glaucoma sufferers experience. Right now, my eyes are okay. Saying a blessing and am so very grateful.

When I initially thought I might have glaucoma I suspected I'd have to stop creating art. That's not the case much to my relief. I will keep going until I can no longer go. I believe that's not for quite some time yet. However on Wednesday I had a broken heart. I'll be okay for a while and that's the good news. The cataracts aren't bad yet and glaucoma is labeled "suspected". I'll go back in November, just before Thanksgiving, to get checked again. And will continue every few months, I do believe, to keep checking on it.

Meanwhile, there's art being made!

This is a doodle I decided to start last night.

 

I want to use markers for this one. At least in the background. I'd really love to replenish my alcohol ink markers soon. Since September is my birthday month, I might just splurge and get myself a few gifts and replenish a few things that are in need of replacing.

Look what's in the "to be grouted" pile! Yay!!

Yesterday I started making plain painted papers with no designs or stencils/masks on them at all. I'll share photos of the entire collection next week when I've got them all dry and sorted. Sometimes a plain blue piece of painted paper is necessary for my collage art. I don't have many plain ones so I started building up the colors once more which is always fun anyway because it goes quickly. I love to play with paint. It's a wonderful thing.

These are embellished papers from what I refer to as "roll offs". Cleaning the roller can sometimes give me some really cool looking papers to continue creating on. I doodle mostly but have been known, as I've shown previously, to add stencils and different kinds of paint on them as well.

I plan to start on the requested mosaic using the broken pieces of vase now. I'll share as I go.

Have a great weekend! 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

If you'd like to support the artist go to BuyMeACoffee and buy me a cuppa. It's always greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. 👄💝 

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Wednesday - Website Updates

There's a lot going on this week! From updating my website (a small blog entry is also on there under the "Blog" tab) with a few more mosaics to doing some small art pieces. Even a doodle or two has come through.

 The bowls were added this week. As I said within the listing of this one shown below: "I’m especially proud of creating useful art like this — a perfect example of recycling with purpose. By giving this bowl new life, I’ve helped conserve valuable natural resources and kept something beautiful out of the landfill."

And of course there's some great small art pieces being created. Some 4x4 inch painted pieces using bubble wrap and acrylic markers, collage pieces using scrap pieces of painted papers and some fun in my art journals.

 

Your attitude determines your direction.

Art journal entry using painted papers cut out for the vase and flower, dots punched, and an old business card for the center of the flower.

I recently shared on social media that I picked up a book by collagesoup - and I’m really enjoying it. It’s designed to inspire you to rip, cut, and glue using its pages for your journals or pieces of art --- or both. The pages are rich and beautifully illustrated. Many pages will be used as inspiration hits. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. They have many books available for collage fun.

One page in particular really spoke to me last night. I started with a sketch which was just okay but not bad since drawing like this is not my "thing", then transferred it onto another page using carbon paper giving me the freedom to add some colors to it and play with the angel's wing. Angel wings fascinate me. I'd like to be able to incorporate them within my doodles in some way. But until then, this is a great way to practice drawing them. I added colored pencils, ink, and one of my favorite quotes to finish it off.

I glued my drawing into my art journal as shown in the last photo below. I’m holding onto the original from the book until it feels ready for its journal spot. ☺️

"You've walked through storms that others never even saw. You kept showing up, kept believing, kept growing. Don't wait for someone else to notice ... thank yourself today. You are a miracle in motion."~Power of Positivity quote

 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Friday - Weekly Wrap Up and the Summer Solstice Begins!

This week I decided to do a little dot painting. It's been a while since I've done one and it's wonky but in my own way, I adore it because it is wonky. I'll be hanging it on the Groovy Peace Wall as soon as it's been protected with matte medium.

 

With the leftover paint on my Gelli plate—acting as a palette for moments like this (because who wants to waste paint?)—I managed to pull six new pieces of collage fodder. In the photo above, the piece on the right started as an ink painting with black ink and colored pens. It wasn’t going quite as planned, so I set it aside. Now, though, I’m actually really into the way the leftover paint has interacted with the colors underneath—it almost looks like flowers. Pretty cool!

 

A year ago I made this mosaic and was disappointed in it because the white lettering faded into the mirror unless I held it like so. I finally decided to use a paint marker and ink brush combo on the lettering in black.

 

I love it! And it's back on the Celestial Wall where it belongs.

 

It's hard to believe but the end of June is almost upon us as well as the Summer Solstice beginning today!

I'll be heading away from the social media scene from Monday, June 23rd and will return on July 7th.

Lots of naps with the fur grandbabies are predicted.

 

In between those weeks I'll also be celebrating a few family members birthdays, a major holiday involving hot dogs and fireworks and a lot of time enjoying playing with paint, working on art journals and maybe even the next mosaic. Time will tell. I'm going with the flow!

Enjoy the first days of summer and expect to see a slew of photos once I've returned.

 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Mosaic Monday

Happy Monday!

I'm working on my Etsy listings tweeking the titles and descriptions (with a little help from AI!) and have quite a few to go yet. However, this one is updated and was smiling at me prettily so I thought I'd share.

 

Crescent Moon decorative mosaic plate, candle holder or trivet 7 inches 

$45.50 USD 

 Isn't she magical?! Here's a few more photos.

 Head on over to my shop for this mosaic and check out more photos plus the awesome description included.

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Wednesday - Life in the Purple Palace

In case you didn't know, the Purple Palace is actually a lovely walk-in closet within my room painted in the most glorious shade of deep purple. It was painted this color by the previous owner. I immediately knew it had to have a proper name and stay just that color. Hence: The Purple Palace Art Studio.

I've been kind of busy with the mosaic part of my life but I'm not moving quickly at all.

I started the process of cleaning every piece of tesserae I have in dishes this week. It requires a little time to dry because I don't have the space to lay them all out once they're clean. What I've been doing is weighing some pieces, trying to keep it around 5 pounds, and then getting them clean for storage and eventually selling. I really hope someone sees the value of these pieces for their own background mosaic artwork. Cross your fingers and everything else you can! I could use the space as this is under the desk of my work area where I create mosaics.

The mosaic shown below has finally moved to the grout pile. I really dig this one. It reminds me of important things in my life in this one piece of art (love when that happens!). In no particular order: pretty colors, spring flowers and FAMILY.

To keep the juices flowing between larger pieces like the one above, I pulled out some lids to mosaic. These will have either holes and a twine string for hanging or a magnet attached to the back, depending on the heaviness of the mosaic within the lid.

Other than that, there could be a spontaneous burst of energy to do something I had not planned. These bursts are always welcome and I invite them in to come play with the muse(s).

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Monday - Finding my sea legs after a brief absence

I've been away from social media for two weeks. It was a nice break. It felt just long enough and not nearly long enough at the same time.

This time, I did some writing in my journal making notes about the moon phases and my energy levels. I seem to be in tune with the moon more than I was aware and am doing what I should, when I should as far as self-care goes. That's pretty cool. I have had a long love affair with the moon. It seems to help me when I need it the most. Intuition is wonderful and I'm grateful for it. However, it also seems if I truly focus on manifesting what I'd like to have happen in my life during a certain time in the moon's cycle, I find it easier to record my thoughts about art, life and manifesting for the few weeks in the future when I will be creating something new before the next break.

As well as caring for myself during these two weeks I figure out the next phase of art life for myself. Really focusing on it and writing it down! It's always evolving. There doesn't seem to be one thing I love most that I'm doing now. It's all important and a part of me now. It is why I write a daily "chore" although it's not a chore at all, prompting me to spend the day working on an art journal page, for instance. If I don't feel the pull to do that, I'm okay with doing something else, but almost always if the list says it, I do it. The guess work and confusion is gone when I do it this way.

While I was gone I got a small mosaic ready for grout which will go into Etsy once it's finished (sometime this month). I'll share that post separately; actually all I want to share I can do in one post or five. I decided on three for this week.

During Memorial Day weekend, we had a nice visit from the sun. Our precious pup and I did our best to enjoy the rays for a few minutes. It's been windy when it rains; the trees have been throwing sticks onto the deck which we both ignored because the sun was just too inviting to care about cleaning up the deck.

My family made a small bonfire and roasted marshmallows for S'mores during the evening. I didn't have any (too sweet for this diabetic) but I enjoyed the fire quite a bit.

While meditating one evening using InsightTimer (download this if you can and use it often - I'm not getting paid for this advice, I freely give it - it has changed my life) I saw this quote from Zig Ziglar. Please look him up if you don't know who he is. He's one of the best motivational dudes with great advice on life in general as well as specific things like business (mostly sales but not limited to).

 It seemed fitting to save and share.

Now that my sea legs are getting slightly stronger, for the next few weeks I'll be continuing with my art in all forms and sharing it on my social media fav spots. You can find all the links to the right of this post.

Next post will be on Wednesday!

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

 

 

My Collage Art

Well, as predicted, my collage art is starting to take over my room and my life!

A photo of the bin currently holding the collage art tags, canvas panels and wood pieces using my own collage papers.

 

Every day I put a little time aside to work on something. I write down a week's worth of "to do's" and each day I do what the list says. Monday, for example, is to work on a sticker book (I have two going at the moment) and so I eventually gather up what I need and spend an afternoon doing what I love.

Right now, I have added collage art, altering collage papers, making more collage fodder to the list. I'm busy and LOVING IT!

Don't forget I still mosaic as well, but not as often. I love that too. It makes a mosaic making day very special for me and I'm always happy with the time I spend making them. My hands, however, are 70 years old and it's harder to hold the tools for very long associated with making mosaics. There are some wonderful products out there for a hefty price (for me anyway) to help those with carpal tunnel and arthritis to continue making mosaics. My answer was to slow up on mosaic making and I found the world of collage and mixed media to be a great substitute.

I tried the layered collage technique in a book I use for practice and it came out really well. Keep in mind it's got a few layers of papers, paint and matte medium on it. Didn't even buckle a little! Yay!

This photo shows the top area or left side of the book with all these layers. The bottom page is the start of a layering process in paints mostly right now. Testing the paper to see if it'll buckle. So far, it has not.

I added a few cut outs and words to it. Really love this.

Here are a few others I've made over time and that are filling up the bin rather quickly!

 

Layered collage bottle with paint stain and an earring, top has twine wrapped around it.

Collage Sun in blues, whites and yellow. "Find Your Tribe".

An array of collage art on my beautiful blue table.

"Dream big, work hard, and never give up"

"Chase your dreams, not perfection"

"Create Magic"

"Gratitude"

"Embrace the Present"

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com