Show me your...heART!!!!

It's Sunday...

So get outside and hug a tree - it's actually nice out today!

Got s'more updates for ya...

There are many new website updates to share - day by day, more art is being added to my Mixed Media Gallery, so keep checking over there.  In the works, besides selling prints and more, having a section of my writings, and other top-secret missions...is the idea of a social forum where you all can post your own inspirational stories, quotes, ask questions, and interact with each other on my site. 

My dream...

 My real mission is to create some kind of big foundation that advocates creativity and healing, and this is a very small stepping stone, just to get the conversation going and then to keep it alive and ignited.  I've spent way too many years in hospitals to understand that not only the mind and body are related, but also the soul, heart, passion and spirit.  There is magic and vibrant colors mingling within every organ, filling us with vitality and making ourselves our own little microcosm of the every day miracles in this world.  

The everyday miracle is that everything around us can send us whatever message we need at that time.

I had no diagnosis, no "cure", no expectations or predictions, no road map for healing.  Everything was judged day to day.  Basically I faked it till I made it.  And "faking" it was being the most authentic and real I've ever had to be.  I was forced to delve into my own personal resources, configure my own proverbial "creative toolbox" and find hope at the end of every minute, hour, day and year.  

I'd stock up on every creativity-related book I could get my hands on and read them like they were prayers.  

Eventually I did get that very first sip of water.

(And as I type this, I'm sipping on a smoothie!)

So anyway, my passion and mission to build some kind of foundation or center for Arts & Healing stems from the gratitude I feel for Creativity, because It has saved my life and continues to every waking hour.

My get-well plan?  Create...anything.

So the point of my shpiel was, I want to invite you all to participate in my celebration of life, so that is why a social forum on my site is in the works.  But in the meantime, I'd like to do something similar through Pinterest.  

What inspires you?

So let's get started!

If you go to my Pinterest Page, you'll see a bunch of boards - inspiring quotes I've collected, artwork of others that have inspired me, fun food recipes, (my wedding ideas!), and a board where I have collected some recent blog posts.  But there is a very special board that I've just added that I'd love you to participate in...

You can find this board HERE at this link:  https://www.pinterest.com/amyoes70/show-me-your-heart/  

If you contact me in any way - through my website, contacting me on this blog, on Pinterest, just no telepathy or bricks thrown at my window please - then I can send you an invite to post on this public board.  

The rules?

Just show me what inspires you!  Has an art project I've done recently inspired you to create something of your own?  Baked something yummy lately? Seen a funny cartoon?  Nice nature walk, cute pet photo?  Pin it to this board and share it with everyone!  I'm REALLY excited about seeing what inspires YOU, so c'mon, show me your heART!!!  

show me your heART!!!

(Be sure to contact me so I can invite you!  You'll have to set up a Pinterest account in order to post, but that's quite fun and addictive, I must say.)

And remember - it can be anything!!!

My favorite recipe for soft pretzels...

A silly little pillow I had made when I was little...

My finished jar of Spackle Plaster - I love finding new mediums!

The Yankees - okay, that's just me.

But you get the idea - I look forward to inviting y'all!

In the Studio...

So as we transition into Spring (finally!) I have been daydreaming about my trees transitioning, and handing over the baton to the next season.  I've been painting a lot about the four seasons, and here is what I created last week.

I started with four small panels, creating fun seasonal backgrounds for each.

I had this vision of all four trees dancing to each season - let' just say it made me very very happy/excited!

 I started to give them more details, and then once I put in their singing mouths, I became extremely giddy - trees are just...awesome, what can I say.

There is something even more than spiritual that I connect with when I paint trees.  I not only feel inspired.  I actually feel like an old friend is embracing me.  I feel so much life within these tree trunks.  They really do feel like companions that I'll have for the rest of my life.

So these were done entirely with acrylics, but I wanted to add just a tiny little embellishment to each panel, just to make it pop.  However, I was so proud of how these came out that I didn't want to screw it up in my usual Amy fashion and just add a ton of fabric, buttons and glitter to it.

What to add...????

(Although believe me.  I was tempted.)  

I added a cute little bumble bee to Summer...

A drifting leave to Autumn...

A cotton ball's worth of snow to Winter...

And a bright red bird to Spring.

What I tried to do in order to connect all the panels, was add one embellishment to each frame that was drifting throughout - so it's like the Summer Bee becomes transformed into the Autumn Leaf, which turns into the Winter Snowball, which turns into the beautiful red Bird in the Spring.  Everything is connected in a continuous loop, and that is how nature always makes me feel anyway.

YAYYYYY!!!!!!

 And I think that was just enough.  This makes me so happy I can't even tell you.

(Which brings me to my funny random link of the day:  

16 Hilarious Negative Amazon Reviews For Classic Books!)

And as I go...

So have a wonderful Sunday everyone - recharge before your Monday, take some time to appreciate the transition of the seasons as well as your own personal transitions and don't forget...

Remember...it can be anything....

 GO!

SEE YA ON PINTEREST :)