Friends Inspire, Art Heals, Nature Uncovers, and I use "excess gleefully!" (Lessons of the Weekend)

Monday
amyoes.com - more gallery pictures of my art and new nature article published up today!

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

Helen Keller

Love Gives You Wings - in my online gallery!

Bridal Shower Weekend!
I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Mine was filled with surprises - flowers growing virtually out of their stems, and of course, a huge surprise of my bridal shower on Sunday!

It was a bunch of fun - the biggest surprise was DJ Chef - who won Cutthroat Kitchen - not too shabby!

You can watch me jam out with DJ Chef here!

He was a very fun guy - and Cutthroat kitchen is an awesome show!

But boy oh boy is Alton Brown evil...

It was so wonderful being surrounded by friends and family, fun little bridal shower games, good food and old faces I hadn't seen in forever.

Momma and Me!

Plus - the gifts?  Art supplies and favorite recipes!  Who could ask for anything better?

Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.— Gary Zukav

College...half-way there :)

I got my final evaluations back from Hampshire - I finished my second year of college - HOORAY!

YAY!!!

But I just had to share with you these two lines out of my evaluation in my abstract art painting class:

I "used excess gleefully"

"Bloom" - excess?  YES PLEASE!

and..."Although I do not expect that Amy’s work will swing towards a minimalist aesthetic, I did encourage her to set tighter boundaries for her work in both visual and conceptual terms. "

(I guess I shouldn't tell him I've already jazzed up some of my "minimalist" paintings from his course?)

I've been told that this painting I did is "fine as is..." but it's JUST A BACKGROUND!  come on people - it needs STUFF on it!!!

Another fun quote...
"Texture from the overlay of paper and other materials activated the space in a assemblage like manner.  Color was full polychrome, painterly, and complex. "

Okay...I guess you could say that :)

I'm very excited that I really have completed my first studio art class - even though it was relatively abstract and free-form.  Next fall I'll be taking more of a sculpture class, so I'm very excited!

Speaking of sculpture, I found some crazy sculptures online...made of spray foam! From a can! Crazy.

Finding new artistic voices...

I am looking for ways to expand my range as an artist.  Yesterday I discovered this wonderful book about painting on alternative surfaces:

I looked online and found this great Pinterest page by Norma Pitzer-Kelly on aluminum can crafts.

This rose is from Jamie Brock's great blog

By urbanwoodswalker

More pictures of my art - yay.  More on the Gallery!

A few images at a time are being uploaded to the Mixed Media Gallery on amyoes.com and I love how the new photographs came out!  You can see a bit of them on the 10th and 11th (yay!) AND 12th! page of my gallery.

Yay!  My painting isn't blurry!  Oh, silly smart-phone camera...

More pictures to come - my altered lamp and globe turned out great too!

Life and Nature's Rediscovery - and a new article published!

Preparing for the Resilience Salon at Beechwood Arts has caused me to really reflect on what this decade has meant for me - all the blessings and the curses.  27 surgeries have left me with some medical nuisances that I would rather be without.

My body has changed more times than I can keep track of.  But the one constant - besides my amazing and loving family - has been nature.  How the trees have always been my friends, my eye-candy, my confidantes, my advisors and anchor.  I write about them in my article Life's Rediscovery. 

I was overjoyed this weekend to find that these little nature/life musing were published on Love Live Health.  Read the article HERE:

Life's Resdiscovery - some reflections of mine...

I hope this makes you ask yourself - How would it feel if - every day - you experience every sensation as if for the first time?  Good or bad - just to feel whatever comes your way as an interesting sensation you've never had run through your body before.  It's a nice little way to live life anew, curiously, an explorer of your own environment, never taking anything for granted.

(You don't need a coma to remember all you have to be grateful for...)

Practicing my monologues for the resilience salon, a big theme of what I'm talking about is how creating art gave me a voice through my ordeal.  Having a voice and being able to document what I was feeling through this voice was incredibly empowering.  It made me feel human again.

That is why now, I want nothing more than to help others find their own voice through hard times or any time, by using creativity as their compass, their anchor, their heart.


Art Heals...
I love the Art Heals Organization.  I am listed as a healing artist there, and there are a ton of great resources to check out.   You can find out all about organizations in your area that advocate for the arts and healing, other blogs about these kinds of inspirations, classes and workshops you can take, and other artsy healing fun things.  I've been contacting a few of these places to see if they would be interested in my art and the story behind it.  There's nothing more I'd like to do than to give back and teach others the gift of accessing their own creativity.

Speaking of art healing...can't wait for the Resilience event I'll be part of very soon!  Today I'm spending the entire day at Beechwood arts to finally hang all of our inspirational quotes over the giant Beechwood tree.

That glorious ol' beechwood tree

Before I go...
Well, I'm off to Beechwood Arts now.  But...

Watch this artist do something incredible with clay...

and...
The True Story Of This Great Dane Time-Lapse Video Is Even More Moving Than What You've Heard

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.— Ursula K. LeGuin

Breathe...