JOY!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Blessing

Another Gut art painting

Looking toward the light. I had the recurring dream

of walking through a field of flowers, every color I could and could not think of..........

He's Sweet I Know 1 & 2

These are more examples of pulling stories from the canvas, she is still telling me her story.

David Dance

Dancing Like David Danced

Title changed on me. I saw a friend's blog a while

ago about David dancing. And then she said, "I want to dance like David danced." So, that's the name

of that tune! My dh came in the house with these

flowers just after I added the yellow flowers. It gave me goose bumps. Thank you Patrina.

You make me feel like dancing

This is one of the first paintings in this story.

Just paint, and pencil. I drew around until

the figure appeared.

I thought the above caption would be the name of the painting.

Story Telling on Canvas

I am taking a free on-line canvas story-telling class with one of my favorite painters, Mystele

(www.mystele.com). She is one of the most creative and generous artist that I know.

Mystele says (I feel like a student saying this is what my teacher said), our marks are the stories we tell, and our stories are bigger than just us.

There is a difference between painting a pictue and telling a story, and you are that difference. You are the missing link, what you feed your creativity shows up in your painting. Your life is whatever you need to step into or back away from-------

I realize that I have beeen painting this way however; Mystele has helped me to find the words to describe what I do. Be sure and go down to the first painting and see the progress. Thank you.

Have Mercy Final Stage of painting (I think)

This is the last one, I noticed that the 57 Psalm was on her dress, that's when I knew the name of this story, Have Mercy. That Psalm is Be merciful unto me O God, for my soul trusteth in thee...

The lights in the city ended up looking like faces that needed help.

Third canvas

Still coming, more paint.....

Part 2

More paint, more paper pages from an old Bible

I could now see what looked like a dark troubled

city with the lights on in the buildings.

First Canvas

I started off just smearing paint on canvas. Taking a look, I saw a person looking at a dark city.

You are my home.

This was done in Sharon Tomlinson's art class.

It's time she came out to play.

Hopeful. Mom&Dad 1945.

"Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd

never end. Those were the days, oh yes those were

the days." Days of hope, dreams, anticipations.

God Alone Is Enough

Claudia Mair Burney has a new book out! God Alone is Enough.

A sincere look at St. Teresa of Avila's prayer warrior life journey with God. This is published by Paraclete Press.

I have been chosen to blog on the second chapter of this book. I've not read the entire book... yet. I have read Chapter 2 three times, and I love it!

This chapter has been a revelation to me. Selah. I have often wondered what that word meant while reading and rereading the book of Psalms for most of my life. I would gloss over the word and keep on reading. That wonder about the word would disappear for a while, then I would read at a different time and think, "I've got to ask someone what "selah" means." Then, I would be shamed to ask, thinking it was such a silly question. So, I just stayed 'stuck" in my "wonder what selah means" mode. (No, it did not cross my mind to google the word.)

Voila! I got it. From reading Chapter 2, the words jumped off the page. Selah means, "let those with eyes to see and ears to hear, pause, rest and contemplate." It's kind of like a BIG comma---not a period! Thank you God!

God Alone Is Enough is written to help us find God's home, which is inside of each and everyone of us. How will we get inside? He has already paid the fare, and it is stamped "paid in full!" All we have to do to enter His home is to pray.

Claudia Mair calls this book a prayer pilgrimage, looking at Teresa of Avila's major teachings on her troublesome prayer life and hopefully learning from her experiences.

A light bulb moment for me. Prayer does not have to be complicated? Go to your own private space and just be there. Simply and honestly. She says, "This is your Father you are dealing with and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply." Sure, I have read these words before; however, this time I saw and heard the words.

Claudia quotes from Mike Yaconelli:

"A Terrible Prayer"

I have always been terrible at praying.

I forget.

My Mind wanders.

I fall asleep

I don't pray enough.

I don't understand what prayer is

or what it does.

If prayer were a school...

I would flunk praying.

And, so would I.

I am looking forward to spending time with this delightful book and learning from St. Teresa, who also thought she was a prayer failure. Claudia has a wonderful way with words.

I have enjoyed reading her books and her blog, Raggamuffin Diva. I am so glad our paths have crossed. Pick this book up and join us on this prayer pilgrimage.

Thank you for being here and reading.

Memorial Day Tribute

A special thank you to all who have served. This is a photo of my dad from WWII done in

a friend's altered book.

Who would have thought??

Playing with my portfolio crayons and thoughts and ink blots...............

Zentangle Mother's Day

Wonderful day to all who have mothered. Decided to color

with coptic markers...........

Beauty Zentangled

This Zentangle is done on an 8x10 piece of paper. I thought it would be difficult to fill up, I was wrong again!!

Ragamuffin's prayer handbook

A friend sent me a praying hands book, it was a children's board book. I altered it to fit my life. Thank you, Sandy.I am from Eden, not the Garden of, on the right is a photo from the '50's of my downtown.
My Mother prayed for me. Brenda's Mother, Ruby.

Always, always loved books, could not imagine a world without them.

A prayer. This was written by my friend to be used as a part of her

"going home" celebration. The most beautiful closure of this life that

I have ever experienced. One of her gorgeous quilts covered her

going-home casket.

She Prayed for Me

I was just playing around with waxes on clayboard not looking for anything in particular. A blank canvas is intimidating, so I was just melting and pushing the wax around. . All of a sudden I saw a face, then the back of her head with long hair. She appeared to be on her knees praying, looking towards the light.

Daughter Michele's Book Cover

Just wanted to share one of my favorite book covers I have done in wax.

A Paint Brush in the Hand of God

I cannot decide which one I like the best.

This is for Patrina, God has colors we can not phantom, we can only mimic.

He Got the Whole World in His Hands.

This has always been one of my favorite songs. I go through spells where I think of her a lot. She had such a haunting voice. Now, that I think of it she and Nina Simone kind of hit the same chord in me. I'll have to explore an art piece with Miss Nina.

Zentangle

Took a Zentangle class yesterday, I doodle all the time, this is suppose to be organized doodling, they don't like that word. We shall see.

colored woman

Went to an art reception tonight, came back home and she appeared. I don't think she is through coming..................

Art doll,core elements

I took a class last week in handwrapped art dolls by Rukiya. I am NOT a doll artist, but I love certain type of dolls, and I wanted to be around some creative folks. I heard rumblings in the class about how she should make one to show us; but, she wanted to tell us and let us make our own dolls. I thought my doll had a very masculine face, gotta get her some eye lashes. This was my first time with clay, but I tried to go "with the flow." She has not told me her name yet. She has a tree branch with various fabrics, ribbons, feathers and stuff. She has a dress with children, coins, keys, pictures, jewelry and forgotten things. She was born on Jan.14 2010, but she is an old spirit.

Memorial to Father&Mother Inlaw

This is suppose to be on my blog. I made this collage for my father-in-law when he passed in 2004. It was the cover of the program for his funeral service. He loved cross word puzzles, hymns and chemistry with his handwriting. His wife loved flowers and butterflies. It was a tribute to them both. I used papers from his 1937 chemistry class. He was a very conservative man. So, the words, about rigidity seemed correct to me. I love how the wax forged all of the memories. I finished this collage in 2 days. That means finding all of the pieces, listening to where they wanted to go, going to Kinko's telling them, I don't wanted this to be a sharp and clear piece, I wanted it murky, and layered that is how memories are, we can all be in the same place but remember differently, convincing the church staff that I would do the program. And, it flowed. It worked, It was scary, there was a flow and a feeling that I cannot describe.

My House

This is my house and I live here, journal page from January 2009.

What will I say for this year2010???