New Sketches

There are a couple of new sketches in my journal. :)

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Experimenting With Pigments

Today, my youngest son and I are experimenting with pigments again and I'm loving it. :)

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Still A Puzzle

Don't ask me, where this is heading to, because, right now, I'm not having the slightest idea. :)

Would you like to see some of the previous stages? It's possible here, here, and here .

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Another Intense Week

This week has been pretty intense again.

I'm settling in the flower shop and practically living in this corner of a supermarket entrance for the most part of my waking time. :)

Thank goodness, they have a free WiFi there and our old ASUS notebook works well enough to keep me online for the boring time, when nobody needs my services.

As I have to work long hours from Sunday to Thursday, there is not much time for anything outside the shop.

But being busy always makes me super prolific. So, not only does our home look cleaner and I cook regularly, but I even reorganized my room and put up an extra table for jewelry stuff.

For now, I don' t actually find the energy to make anything. So, my plan is to use the hours that I will spend in the gift shop for making jewelry. Let's see, how it works. ;)

Because of the life intensity I didn't add anything to my diary for 10 days, but, yesterday, I resumed writing in it again. I feel a real need to do it.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this article. Seems, like writing has many great benefits not only for me. :D

And playing with art supplies, most definitely, has them as well.

Last Saturday, I gathered leaves in the town and, since than, have experimented now and than using them and acrylic inks on the canvas I started last week adding some texture.

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Time of Big Changes

The last couple of weeks have been full of big changes for me inwardly and outwardly.

Weather is unusually warm, and on most days - sunny, but the trees know, it's autumn.

Love my hometown Liepaja! It (actually "She" in Latvian) is so beautiful at any time of the year! :)

Step by step, I'm returning to my usual cheerful and hopeful self, that sees beauty and goodness in everything.

And the sandplay therapy is helping me a lot.

And I have a day job. Since last Thursday, I work in a flower shop.

The salary is low and the working week is long, but there are lots of benefits as well. The biggest one: the shop is in a building right next to our home. :)

And things in the shop, that was ready to sell my creations, have started out really well, especially - regarding jewelry with semi precious stones.

The owner is interested in all kinds of cooperation with me.

So, I decided to spend a couple of hours every week in the shop to take in orders and jewelry for repair. And my desk at home looks mostly like this, when I get to it.

But I still started a new painting last night. :D

Thank goodness for the slow years and months before! My life seems gathering speed very quickly right now. And I love it!!! :D

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Another Tough Week

Last week started out really nicely with great time spent with friends online and offline.

And I worked on this painting.

And I added something to my diary every day.

And, on Thursday, I found out, that I can get 10 sessions with a therapist for free and registered for the first one. And I experienced real support and understanding in the social services.

Besides, the same day, 3 employers invited me to an interview. Two of them wanted me to start working right away.

I really liked one of the tailor shops. But it's a new business, and the income is too insecure.

The third one is a supermarket with really long working days, but at least guarantied minimal wage. Now, I'm not sure, what to do...

In addition, a tooth started bothering me on Wednesday. It has been problematic for years, and, mostly, it stopped aching after a couple of days.

This time, it seems to be really bad. I don't have money for the dentist. But, if I don't get it fixed, I, most probably, can't start working anywhere...

That's why I loved working from home, as I could do it even being sick and in my PJs. But that's not an option for me any more I guess.

So, I'm feeling really powerless, trapped in my body and circumstances again...

And Robin Williams took his life on Monday...

Thank goodness for the great course with GP Walsh! It helps me to hang on. (BTW: I can still get you in for $97. Just let me know, OK?)

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Feeling Down

During the last week, I have felt more and more depressed again.

First of all, it might be, because last of our rats died on July 31th and I was grieving (still am).

But my inability to earn decent income is pressing me down even more. Translation jobs are coming in slowly and are mostly very small.

Almost every day, I sent out my application to at least one employer, but none of them even invited me to an interview... Not that I wanted those underqualified jobs in the first place...

But, with every day without change, there is less and less hope in me...

Money is scarce, and the belief, that I'm actually living on the expense of my children makes me feel more and more like a useless burden to them...

When they were small, I felt like they needed me. Now, they might be better off without me...

Another thing, that depresses me, is the isolation. All my friends live abroad and so does half of my family. But the lives of my relatives, that still live here, are hard enough not to burden them with my heaviness...

This is not the inner state that makes me able to paint. I started and finished 3 more paintings, but was not happy with them, so, that's it for a while I guess.

For now, I'm barely keeping up with adding some paint to my diary pages like this, for instance.

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New Paintings

Last week has been really nice for me.

Most of all because I re-started painting after a year long hiatus. And it feel really good to be able to do it again.

These are 3 of the 4 paintings I started and finished this week. The #4 was finished tonight and it was too dark for a shoot already.

Besides, I swam in the sea almost every night and even rode a bike to and from the beach, which was something new and really brave of me. It all brought back something of the happy childhood feelings.

In addition, we got some rain yesterday and the temps have dropped a bit, but it's still warm enough for me to sleep on the balcony. :)

And I had one more sale on Etsy.

So, yes, this was a really nice week,

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Hibernating in Summer

The heat is gone. There were a couple of chill and rainy days, but, now, it's sunny and warm.

It would be nice to be outside, but... I'm mostly sitting inside reading or watching movies.

And dabbing or doodling over my diary pages now and than. From the finished spreads, this is my favorite so far.

Thank goodness for the need to walk our dog (although those walks turn out pretty stressful sometimes) and to buy groceries, or I might not leave the house for weeks.

Have sent my CV to at least 10 employers. One of them even invited me to an interview. After that - silence... Didn't like most of the vacancies anyway... But how to live and feed my 2 youngest kids and our 4 pets without money in this world? And how to feel worthwhile without anybody ready to reward my services?

Listed another of my works in my shop on redbubble.com. But what change does it make? Depressing...

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Dabbing & Doodling

There is not much to show off. For the last 5-6 days, a heat wave is my main excuse. 

Temperatures next to +30C are really hard to bear here in the North. Thank goodness, it's starting to cover up and chill down today!

But I'm still playing in my diary at least a bit every day. This is the page finished today.

I'm not particularly happy with it, but I love, that after not touching any art supplies for almost a year, it all feels new to me again.

And I don't know, for how long I will do it in these old altered books, as the pages are definitely too fragile for my method of working in many layers and using a fair amount of water.

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Nature Inspired

I'm still not creating much. Would have plenty of time for that: I still haven't found a day job and am not getting serious translation jobs lately.

But not being needed and payed for it makes me feel pretty depressed and not creative at all.

So, most of my time is spent with sleep, books and movies. Would love to knit, but my left hand isn't healed enough for that.

So, I'm still playing in my diary. This is the page finished last night.

It is even good enough for the Journal52 project, as this week's prompt is Nature Inspired. :) Many flowers are blooming here in Latvia right now. And I love them all!

It is all super simple, and I'm not very happy about that. So I feel a longing for getting my hand on a "real" painting rising again. We'll see, right? :)

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Baby Steps

After months of not touching any art supplies, I'm starting to add color to my plain and boring diary pages and doing it more or less every day.

Nothing fancy, just playing with water soluble soft pastels and acrylic varnish. But it's a start, right? :)

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Going Deep

As I had not a single acceptable translation job offer since the beginning of the year, I have more than enough time to work in my 2 new journals and for other stuff.

Although the lack of jobs makes me a bit nervous, I'm really thankful for this time with less outside and much more inside work.

Art journaling makes me go deep, always. Or I don't see any sense in spending time and supplies for it.

It feels like this year might become a turning point in the life of me and my 2 youngest kids.

And these 2 year long art journaling projects are helping me: one of them mostly to deal with the past, the other - to make decisions for my next future.

These are some of the pages I have worked on during the last week.

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Loving The Process

So, I have participated in those 2 free year long art journal projects every day so far: pondering the prompts, selecting images, shooting pics, gluing, painting, brayering, layering, doodling, writing, interacting in the respective Facebook groups, and, generally, having much fun. :)

Yesterday, I even stumbled upon this great material about the therapeutic benefits of art journaling.

This is, how my covers and first spreads look for now.

(Sorry for the funny direction of the last one, but blogger wouldn't flip it back :D

As far, as I know me and my style, I'm pretty sure most of them aren't finished yet. And I'm taking my time, as I really love to be in this process again. :)

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The Feather Project

Do you remember my post from last week about starting to work at feathers for Yanik's project. They are finished and on their way to Canada now.

As I often do, I chose a different technology than suggested. That made my process pretty challenging. :)

At first, I just splashed and spritzed inks and acrylic paints onto pages from my kids' old school workbooks. Layer after layer.

I had 6 sheets going on at the same time, but didn't want to flood Yanik's project with my feathers. So, I chose 2 of them to draw stylized feathers on with a gold marker.

I selected 6 I liked the most, but, when I started to glue them down, they all started to scrunch and bleed.

Obviously, the very fluid acrylic varnish I used was not the best for this type of paper.

When the sheet was dry, I was happy to see, that most of the feathers looked still usable.

So, I grabbed my scissors ... only to discover, that the good heavy cardboard was too sturdy for them. And my punch turned out to be too weak for the job as well. :)

If I wanted to give my feathers any good chance to reach their destination in time, waiting until I get new supplies was not an option.

So my old paper knife and awl had to do the job.

At the very end, I refreshed the gold marker, inserted a fuzzy yarn into the holes, and sent them out to Yanik. I really hope they arrive in time :)

(Sorry for the poor quality of the images, but day light has been scarce here lately.)

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Besides: there is still time to join Yanik's project, if you would like. ;)

Just a Couple of Strokes

Time and energy just seems to be seeping away through my fingers, so my "piece" for this week are just a couple of charcoal strokes on a large painting I started in this one day course with Shiloh Sophia McCloud back in July :)

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Working With My First Chakra

Last week has been pretty turbulent for me and my family because of my son and his spouse visiting us from Canada.

So I'm really late with my post, but better late than never, right?

Last Monday, I discovered the ChakrART FREE Workshop with Simona Cordara. Somehow, the idea really spoke to me, so I joined the Facebook group and worked with my root chakra more or less every day of the last week. And this is, how far I got with my process yesterday.

It's something really unusual for me, but I really liked the process and am still adding patterns to it. :) I have never been good at doodles or zen tangles, but the process is very meditative for me and I really like to spend my time with it. Might start working with the next chakra tomorrow.

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Creativity Wave Spreading

Image source

We are still celebrating the Sun with a global creativity wave!

To my ancestors, the June (summer) solstice - Jāņi - was a very special celebration with loads of fertility rituals.

Not many of us know and observe them now, but this is still the most important festivity of my nation, the Latvians, no matter where in the world we are scattered.

My plan was to create (or at least to start) a painting devoted to the Sun as our energy source and the symbol of God/Source around noon yesterday and to start it with a meditation outside.

My plans changed, as it was much too hot for me to leave the house. Believe me, +30C is a huge load here in the North! :)

So I gave in to a strong urge to clean and tidy up my space, then, I did this meditation and started a painting drumming on the canvas and spreading gesso over it.

When I started to glue down scraps of paper a thunder storm broke out behind my studio window, so I created the first layer of my work accompanied by thunder and rain! That was so super cool!!! It felt like the nature and the Sun her/himself was powerfully supporting my work.

By the end of the storm I put down the first layer of paint with my hands drumming on the canvas again.  But that was all I could add to it yesterday.

After the thunderstorm, it got hot again pretty fast and all the evaporating water made the air so humid, that the acrylic paint I used (even with less water than mostly) did not dry at all.

Usually, I'd use a heat gun, but that was not an option yesterday, as it was too hot for me already.

As many of the more than 70 participants haven't finished their works either and we will have the largest and brightest full moon of this year at 23 June, I decided to extend the event and to include the celebration of Moon as well.

Some of our nations are traditionally celebrating the Solstice on another date anyway, including most of the Latvians. :)

This is, how my mixed media piece looks today after some more drumming on the canvas :)

I hope you continue connecting with the Heart of our planet system and our only natural satellite and the energy coming through them.

Please, share the way you are doing it, your WIPs and finished creations, so we all can become enriched!

Places to share:

Open Event page on Facebook

Event page in the closed A Piece A Week group on Facebook

Creative Every Day

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My Creative Space
A Piece A Week

If you need guidance in connecting with our Source-star, there are loads of great suggestions online. This is one of my favorites

And, here, you can listen to some Latvian solstice music

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Dark Mother 2

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you must already know, that, last week, I got inspired by the Dark Mother and started a painting dedicated to her, practically an icon, as I had no plans whatsoever, before I started it, and, I believe, the Dark Mother itself guided me to start it and through the whole process.

To be honest, we had some pretty tough moments together, especially, when she decided to show up naked. :) These are some of the phases we went through together.

I'm not sure, if we are completely done with each other already, but we most definitely are coming along well again and this is more or less, how the manifestation of the Dark Mother looks right now.

Now, I have to complete the week 2 assignment for the Introduction to Art course.  As my youngest son is having his graduating party this coming Saturday, I have to push myself a bit not to miss the deadline. :)

Update: We seem to be done with each other now

To see more of the stages we went through, visit this album on Facebook.

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The Dark Mother

Last week has been a bit of a crazy with my 55th birthday on June 3, both of my teenagers and me having health issues, while my youngest son is still in the middle of his graduation exam session, me having teleclasses one after another desperately trying to launch a new business to start earning more money quickly.

But, after The Sacred Dreamer with Shiloh Sofia, it was so hard not to paint. It feels like it's my mission now to let the Divine use me as a channel to materialize aspects of him/herself in forms tangible to people's physical senses.

Besides, look, what my oldest son sent me for my birthday!

On Wednesday, I was surprised to find a black feather lying right in front of our house entrance that felt like to be meant for me. So I picked it up and tried to figure out its message.

Somebody mentioned the Dark Mother. I looked it up on the www and started to feel a strong urge to create a portal for her to show up. So I started a painting with one of my new inks and water.

Then, I added some more inks, water, and even alcohol. It sounded like drumming, when the drops landed on the stretched canvas, one by one.

I always love this phase of painting the most, the unpredictability, the flow. And all the yummy prints and drops on the paper sheets I use to catch up the excess ink and water.

On Thursday, I found another black feather and the Dark Mother started to make her appearance step by step leaving me in the dark about what she wants until it was the right moment for the next detail to be revealed.

A truly mystical experience. This is, how far we have got today.

Our journey has only started. Stay tuned for updates!

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