Showing posts with label figure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label figure. Show all posts

The Universe Is Smiling: "Heading towards Dreamland"

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: Cozy up with your dreams and make your dreams come true.
"You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream."
- C.S. Lewis
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
- Harriet Tubman

The Universe Is Smiling: "Listening"

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: Listen and receive with an open heart :)
"The first duty of love is to listen."
 - Paul Tillich
"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
- Winnie the Pooh
"Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand."
- Karl A. Menninger

"Arabella's Inner Life"

Dear Visitors,

This will be a very different post. I have gotten myself into something I have never done before: a poster competition :) This is part of the Marbletown, NY, Founder's Day celebration. The assignment is to fill with images, colors or shapes the blank white space inside the founder’s body on one of the posters pictured below. The posters are printed on canvas and stretched over 26” x 68” frame. The figure itself is about 4 feet high. The deadline is July 11th. The posters will be put on public display in and around Marbletown to promote the Founders’ Day festivities to be held on July 26th. The posters will then exhibited and auctioned off at the end of the event to benefit Stone Ridge Public Library.


I got the notice about this event last Friday, the 11th, was humming and hawing about participating but the deadline seemed too short. Saturday, however, I was still thinking about it. Then my boyfriend convinced me to dare and so we picked up "The Lady" :)


I gave her the name "Arabella" and called the theme "Arabella's Inner Life". Now what? I was completely clueless how to fill in the white space, but was and am still counting on the Inner Voice Drawing process to guide me.  I have decided to document each step and let you in on the development of the piece. The surprise of each step will be yours as much as mine :)

STEP ONE:

close up
























I am getting a first feel of Arabella's personality: reflective
with an inner fire ....
5 more days until completion.


STEP TWO:











Arabella's personality is coming out more: playfulness with a bent for gentle pranks. I am curious where this will go. Are you too? Stay tuned. 4 more days until completion.

STEP THREE:


close up
This is the last sketch. The next step is adding color.  3 more days to go.  Stay tuned :)

STEP FOUR:


This is still a very rough color draft. I am working with acrylic on vinyl. It's a slippery surface and makes it more difficult to have a smooth and even paint. Layers are the solution. 2 more days to go. Stay tuned :)

STEP FIVE:



Arabella is shaping up :)  I hadn't thought of outlining all the forms with a black marker, but when I did one I liked the look: the forms pop out more and remind me of stained glass patterns.
One more day to go. Have a good evening and let's meet here again tomorrow for the final :)

THE FINAL:




This was a fun project. I had some trouble though with the writing part. I had bought several light colored markers (sharpies) to write on the black background, but none of them worked on the vinyl material. Challenges can make you creative, so the solution was painting an acrylic base and using the black marker on top of it. Voila :)
I hope this post gives you some ideas and the courage to stretch yourself - at least a bit. You can do it!
And don't forget to make someone smile :)

The Universe Is Smiling: "Contrast"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:
Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: Let's live our contrasts and contradictions with ease :)
"But someone once described the contrast between a good life and a godly life as the difference between the top of the ocean and the bottom. On top, sometimes it's like glass -- serene and calm -- and other times it's raging and stormy. But hundreds of fathoms below, it is beautiful and consistent, always calm, always peaceful."
- Bill McCartney

The Universe Is Smiling: "You hold the key"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:
Q: What is today's wisdom?
 A: "You hold the key!"
"In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti  

The Universe Is Smiling: Leave your doubts behind!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
 A: "Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother."
 - Khalil Gibran
"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go and get busy."
- Dale Carnegie 

The Universe Is Smiling: Our Beloved Nature

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: "By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."
- John Muir

The Universe Is Smiling: Exploration

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: "You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere."
- Buddhist Saying
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
- T.S. Eliot    

The Universe Is Smiling: Protection

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

I was listening online to a live stream of HH Karmapa's teaching, given at the Buddhist monastery in Woodstock today. The Karmapa is one of the most highly revered reincarnations in Tibetan Buddhism. When he talked about refuge to the Buddha and his teachings of compassion,  I kept drawing in good old Inner Voice Drawing fashion of "not-knowing-what-to-expect" and - voila this rather funny bird appeared :) Even though the drawing may look a bit bewildering, it evolved during the teaching session, and may therefore carry some blessing right to you.

A: "The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your day."
 - Lao Tzu
"I wish I'd seen you as a little girl, without your armor to fend off the world... I would have kept you underneath my wing... I would protect you from everything."
- Source unknown 

The Universe Is Smiling: Taking a Stand

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: "We acquire the strength we have overcome."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Knowing others is intelligence;
Knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
Mastering yourself is true power.
If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly rich."
- Tao Te Ching 

The Universe Is Smiling: Take a Step!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: "The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult."
- Madame Marie du Deffaud
"Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience."
- Masaru Ibuka    

The Universe Is Smiling: "I am Awake"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's message on this auspicious day of Chokhor Duchen, the first time the Buddha taught after attaining enlightenment?
A: One of his students asked Buddha, "Are you the messiah?"
"No", answered the Buddha.
"Then are you a healer?"
"No", Buddha replied.
"Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted.
"No, I am not a teacher."
"Then what are you?" asked the student, exasperated.
"I am awake", Buddha replied.
 

The Universe Is Smiling: Dancing in a Complex World :)

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: Keep dancing in a complex world :) 

The Universe Is Smiling: It is time for us to kiss the earth again ...

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
 
A: "A little too abstract, a little too wise,
It is time for us to kiss the earth again,
It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies,
Let the rich life run to the roots again."

-   Robinson Jeffers
 

The Universe Is Smiling: Environment & Responsibility

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What on earth is happening (oil spill etc.)?
A: "If we continue to address the issue of the environment where we live as though we're the only species that lives here, we'll create a disaster for ourselves."
- Gaylord Nelson

The Universe Is Smiling: Give Birth to Your Images

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: "You must give birth to your images.
They are the future waiting to be born.
Fear not the strangeness you feel.
The future must enter you long before it happens.
Just wait for the birth, 
For the hour of new clarity."
- Rainer Maria Rilke

The Universe Is Smiling: Facing the Storm

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: No matter what the case, 
keep your faith and pace.
"The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

The Universe Is Smiling: Art of Life

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is the art of life?
 
A: "Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art"
- Leonardo da Vinci 
" Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes, your easy smile is your museum."
- Anselm Adams

The Universe Is Smiling: Teeter Totter of Time

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Dear Followers, I am overdue with posting a drawing, because I spent every minute this week tweaking my website for the visibility on different browsers and I am still not done yet. So, I was about to put the drawing off for another day, but my "inner voice" said:

Come on now! Don't be so serious. Keep it simple. You can balance the teeter totter of time - and so can YOU :) 
 And here is the perfect quote for the day:
"I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free"
- Thich Nhat Hanh

The Universe Is Smiling: Gratitude

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Having received so many signs of love on my birthday, I asked:
What is this day about?
A: Gratitude, of course!
Thank you, thank you. May those signs of love return to you manifold.