Allspice & Acrylics: Out of this world and into the canvas

Oh it's Monday...cheer up!

The World Awaits...

News news news.

There are also a few updates over the weekend and beyond...

Website: The little guys in amyoes.com sure are running around like crazy lately! There are more and more updates every day...

***More images (with titles, finally) are being added to my Mixed Media Gallery.

***You can now share your own inspiration with me by posting on my public board, which I talk about in yesterday's fun post. Just follow the Pinterest board Show Me Your heART, send me your Pinterest username, e-mail or any contact info you feel like, and post away - anything goes, it just has to make you smile :)

Show Me Your heART and pin, pin, pin away!

***Also, feel free to send me your own personal stories by contacting me through my website. There is a box to check off if you wouldn't mind me sharing your story, completely optional of course!

***A section with my poetry and other writings will be up shortly

***And yes, that magical day will come when you can purchase prints, cards, coasters, the moon...

Artist's Talk: For those of you who were interested in catching my Artist's Conversation at the Beechwood Blue Gallery, you can watch it here. It was a very lovely time - you'll get to hear a bit ore about my process, inspiration, my story, see some very old art, up and coming works, and more.

My work at Beechwood-Blue Gallery in Westport, CT

In the Works...stay tuned for more updates on Beechwood Art's Arts Immersion Salon on Resilience: Using Art to Heal through Trauma, May 31st. I'll be featured with some other wonderful artists who have each used their art in order to heal through a difficult time. One of the artists is an amazing man and composer David Friedman, who I first met when I was on the Today Show in 2011.

David was my mentor who really guided me in helping me eventually put together my one-woman show, Gutless & Grateful.

This book just came out - Resilience means so many things to so many people - what does it mean to you?

It will be a wonderful event and tickets sell out very quickly, so if you're in the area, or even not, stay tuned for updates on this wonderful arts immersion event.

Anyways, lots going on! Oh, and I'm getting married in June. YAY!

Oh, Papyrus. You rock.

In the Studio...

But the art-making is still my first priority these days, besides school. It just starts my day off on a wonderful note.

I've been painting for 4-5 hours every day...

If you haven't noticed, I've been very into the transition of the seasons lately...I've been melding all four into one canvas several times this week.

A four seasons background I am brainstorming what to do with...

Like seasons, we change. Ever falling leaf – or flower petal, acorn, snow ball – we encounter is a new moment, picking up one leaf with every step, only being in one individual moment at a time, like Hansel and Gretel picking up breadcrumbs.

The Seasonal Jubilee!

In nature, I am my most present. Each leaf of a moment wraps me up in the NOW like a crescent roll, making me feel so part of nature, part and parcel, a microcosm of this awesome universe.

Painting nature is my meditation.

So anyway, here's some fun little whimsical stuff I messed around with last week.

I covered a canvas in newspaper..

Painted over it with gesso to give it a white kind of wash...

Added some more splashed of color with paint and other fun liquid things...

Okay, now, ever since my Home-Depot/DYI-loving fiance introduced me to spackle plaster, I've beeb OBSESSED!

It adds such wonderful texture to things, is so easy to use, and cheap!

You can really make any kind of pattern or print you want onto it! Paint over it, and voila!

So once my canvas had dried, I decided to add trees over it with the spackle and let it dry

Once this dried, it was so easy to paint over, plus it created wonderful texture for the bark.

It was a small canvas, so I risked it just being wayyy too busy, but I did it anyway. I put all four seasons on this tiny 8 x 10 canvas...

"Teach Me To Change" - Mixed Media & Acrylic - and love!

This is the first time I have a little baby tree and an older mentor tree - maybe the next phase of my tree series? I have a Winter scene on the left, an Autumn scene on the right, the baby tree is Spring, and the elder tree is Summer. I think it's sorta cute.

More seasonal obsessions in the studio...

So then I was on a roll, so I decided to use the same motifs and give this pair of trees a bigger canvas (slightly) to romp around in.

I've had these old background lying around for a long time, and there was one left I hadn't done anything on...

Now, one "might" say that these four backgrounds were fine as is. They probably were. But you know me. I like stuff. The top right one, I ended up leaving as is, and I do like that. But here's what became of the other two...

So, finally I did something with this one!

Using the Spackling of course...

The spackling gave that nice tree trunk-ish texture again.

There you have it - all four seasons.
This time from left to right, Spring, Winter, Autumn and Summer.

"But What Is This Now?" - Mixed Media & Acrylic

I think it's an endearing little series. Who knows. Maybe I'll have a huge tree family next - tree babies, pets, parents, grandparents...oh you know me and my trees.

Words can't even describe how I feel painting nature. And now that Spring is emerging slowly but surely, I'm looking forward to wonderful nature walks that will inspire some more art. The studio is wonderful, but the source is even better...

Out of my world and into the canvas - it's a great trip.

...The world awaits me. The sky is fair, innocent, naïve with bright blushing cheeks, blush on newly fallen snow, shining with tiny diamonds and sky-crystals. I walk outside and the world feels instantaneous, like I could grab it right then and there, or let its joyous chorus sink deep into me and swirl and glow inside my body, dancing some sort of sensual, entranced samba.

A page from an old journal, after a nature walk.

The sky is my palette, my mind’s waterslide and extends for miles and eons. It jets me across infinite worlds and unforeseen possibilities.

It's a little chilly today still, but do outside and take some breaths. It's a beautiful moment, a beautiful day, and it's yours. And when you come back in, pin something inspirational about it on the Show Me Your heART Pinterest Board, comment here, or just appreciate your aliveness and have an awesome Monday...