All posts by Maria G

I'm a multi-media artist and writer.
art journaling, declutter, life, motivational, nature, transformation

Life is fleeting.

I had a reminder yesterday that life is fleeting. We tend to forget and think we are eternal. I believe we are, but this particular 3D existence can end at ANY time.

I lost a friend to sudden death yesterday and my own ignorance slapped me in the face.  She was in her prime, happy and healthy, and bam! Gone.

It is shocking. Sometimes it takes a shock to shake me out of everyday complacency.  It got me thinking and re-evaluating what is important.

  • Appreciate life every day, or every moment if possible.
  • Don’t hold on to grudges or petty grievances.
  • Forgive those who have wronged you. Not speaking to people or having to be right only prolongs suffering (usually for the one holding the grudge.) FORGIVE and move on! It doesn’t mean you have to be friends with those who hurt you.
  • Pray every day even if you don’t believe in a higher power.
  • Do what you love or life is wasted.
  • Don’t stay at a job you hate.
  • Find beauty around you and appreciate it.
  • Love yourself and be at peace with the whole of who you are, warts and all.
  • Finish things once started.
  • Allow yourself to be the best you can be.
  • You CAN’T take your junk with you. De-clutter and donate. Don’t leave a mess for others.
  • Honor nature and as you do, you honor yourself since every molecule of you is part of nature. Spend some time in nature every day and breathe.
  • Laugh and pet animals as often as possible. Dance with children.
  • Don’t put off until tomorrow. Do that thing now.
  • Listen to others, truly listen.
  • Make art.
  • Grow things.
  • Go with the flow. Change is good, and change is the only constant. Don’t fight it.
  • Excuses begone!
  • Take charge of your happiness and don’t play the BLAME GAME with others. You will always lose when you do that.
  • Be responsible for your shit and be truthful to yourself about your shortcomings. When you are, they seem to disappear.
  • Last but not least: Listen to your intuition. If you don’t know how, find out how to do it.

A friendly reminder to myself… if it fits, apply some of these. Forgiveness is maybe the biggest one.

I made an art journal page about transition.  It was a sad day yesterday and I had weird dreams. Today, the sun is shining again (as if nothing ever happened.) In a sense, that is eternity.

DSCN2159
Life is fleeting.

xo

Maria

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my free newsletter you can do so at the top right hand corner of this page.  Lots of good stuff!

art, creativity, inspirational, painting

Art as energy work.

Have you noticed how art can be energy work?  It brings healing, contemplation, and speaks to our inner self. Sometimes it comes across as something repulsive, but maybe that is because it triggers something repulsive within.  Art is a mirror of our own state and that shifts all the time.

Great art is timeless. It speaks to the universal truth of self and has a much larger scope than, say, a whimsical picture of a cat. Not that I have anything against cute cats, but to feel the greatness of my own life, I can go to any art museum and immerse myself in the great art of the world.

I remember when I went to the Met in New You and saw the Impressionists. I have never seen a “real” painting by Renoir before and the light that he had captured with paint took my breath away.

Renoir_-_The_Two_Sisters,_On_the_Terrace
The two sisters on the terrace. Renoir.

How do you paint light?  It’s not all in the technique obviously. Somehow he pulled it out of himself and the vision of light and shadow he had was superior.

I admire different aspects of different painters, but they all have one thing in common; they never strayed far from their original style (except Picasso maybe, haha.)

My favorites are the painters of the Impressionistic style. There is an innocence and joy about the art. They captured an era when people took pleasure in the simpler things.  Much of the modern art has such hard edges that speak of our harsher more stressful times.

I like to go up to art at a museum and feel entranced, not disturbed. Yet, honest art speaks the truth about the times we live in and it’s not all milk and roses.  Far from it.

One time when I was an art student a friend and I got a wild hair and spread open an umbrella at a museum of modern art. We stuck it on the floor with a tag that said “Umbrella.”  People stopped and looked at it, walked all around it, pondering.  We thought we were very clever.

Then a guard discovered the abnormality and the game ended abruptly.  It was fun though. That brings up the question: what is art? That is a discussion that can go on forever.

Personally, I like to be blown away when I go to view art.

I can only aspire to have people like my own art, and some really do. I guess my mission is accomplished if one person likes my art. All is good!

This concludes Day 8 of the 30 day blog challenge.

What are you working on today? What beauty are you bringing out to the world?

xo

Maria

P.S. I have some beautiful art for sale in my etsy shop. 😉  HERE.

art, creativity, mixed media, polymer clay mosaic

Polymer clay mosaic tile tutorial

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For years I used to make polymer clay mosaics.  I don’t know if you’ve heard of Laurie Mika and her fabulous book, Mixed Media Mosaics?  I was smitten while reading that and used some of her techniques for making my own boxes and frames.  I have made many, but I got burned out on making them.  They make great gifts!  I took photos of the process, but I struggled to get good pictures.  I will post them anyway since the mirror I worked on is done.

First layer of paint after baking the polymer clay tiles.
I didn’t get pictures from the tile making process, but you knead a block of polymer clay and roll it flat like cookie dough with a rolling pin.  The slab should be about 1/8″ thick.  I then use rubber stamps, old buttons, charms, and found objects that make good indentations.  I cut out the tile with a polymer clay blade.  I put the tiles in a baking pan and put a same-size pan on top, bottom up, like a lid.  I secure the pans together with binder clips and bake in the oven per manufacturer’s instructions.  Carry the pans outside, release one of the clips and slide top pan open to release fumes.  I like to use Sculpey III, but I’m sure Fimo and other brands are good too.  I tried self-drying clay for a batch and it was very difficult to work with.  You can use any color clay since you’re going to paint over the tiles, but black will make the tiles darker.

 

Charms embedded in the clay.

Here is a close up of the jewelry charms I baked into the clay.  They add bling!  These are the tiles after one coat of paint where I usually fill in all the indentations and wipe off the rest.  Looks messy at this stage….

 

Mirror frame painted black front and back.

This is a mirror frame.  I took out the glass part and painted the frame front and back with black craft paint.  It seals the wood and also adds “tooth” to the surface, which makes it easy to adhere the tiles.  Attach a sawtooth hanger on the back before adding the tiles.  There are sometimes holes for hanging, but it’s difficult to use those and get the mirror straight on the wall.  (At least I find it so..lol.)

Second layer of paint

 

Second layer of paint.

 

Same two pictures in different light.  This is the second coat of paint.  I usually smear it on with my fingers.  I try to vary the colors to get more tiles to choose from for my project.

 

Last layer: embossing powder
Finished tiles
Basket of tiles!

Third coat of paint, which is embossing powder in different colors that I also smear on with my fingers.  I use Perfect Pearls.  See how it all came together?  Now the tiles don’t look messy at all, but handmade for sure.  Embossing powder smooths everything out and adds a nice highlight to any ridges.  Where there is white shining through from the tile, I usually go over it with a paint pen or a fine brush, or fill in larger areas, like the purple star and sun with more of the same paint.

A basket of yummy tiles!  Now my mirror frame is dry too and I sand the edges.  Then it’s time to match up the tiles for the design. This is the fun part…  It can be painstaking, but I have never done a project that didn’t come together just perfectly. 🙂

 

Tile selection and adhering.

When the design is done, I put the tiles in order on the table and spread LOTS of glue on one area at a time.  I use Aleene’s craft glue, which works great, but Weldbond is also a good brand of glue for mosaic tiles.  For the wings and heart on the center piece, I used E6000 jewelry glue, which is heavy duty.  I really like my pieces to be solid.  Where there are small gaps between the tiles, I pour in a string of seed beads.  It adds bling and gives the piece a finished look.

Finished!

 

Finished!  I painted the edges with good black acrylic paint.  I also like to paint the back one more time to make it really look good.  I sign it on the back.

Are you willing to try one of these?  It’s not hard, but it looks hard. 🙂  What are you working on now?

xo
Maria

P.S. I don’t have any mirrors for sale in my etsy shop, but I have paintings and mixed media HERE.

art, art journaling, creativity, mixed media, tutorial

Art Journaling stuff.

Day 6. I have been doing some art journaling lately, experimenting with a lot of background techniques, which is fun. It’s an adventure since you don’t know how it will turn out. Art is very forgiving so usually everything turns out okay in the end.

In the two pictures below, I wet my heavy duty journal paper thoroughly with water. Then I used very diluted acrylic paints and dripped them on the water-logged paper. The paints spread in a nice, sometimes subtle way. You can use any craft paints or finer art paints as long as they can be diluted with water. Watercolor paints would work well if you want a more soft and subtle background.

Star angel

This is another version on my freebie art tutorial Star Angel. You can get that video tutorial HERE.

Splatter background detail

In the picture above, you can really see the background variations. Lots of fun. 🙂

Leather effect with tissue paper.

The one above is a faux crinkled leather background. I used medium spread liberally across the paper, and then I glued tissue paper over it. It’s important to crinkle the tissue paper into a ball in your hand, and then spread out the wrinkled paper on the medium. Let dry thoroughly, and paint whatever colors you like. I used some raw umber on my fingertip to brush over the ridges as a last coat to make the creasing more dramatic.

Art journal page with glued paper background.

Fantasy flowers painted on top of decorative paper, which was glued down in my journal.

art journal page

Just for fun!  Grow wild and free. Hell yeah!!!

What are you working on today?

Please share in the comments.

…because Life happens NOW!

xo

Maria

PS. If you’re interested in a fun self-study art journaling ecourse, please check out my e-course site HERE.

art, inspirational, life, motivational, passion, self help

Raining on your parade?

Lots of people like to rain on your parade, but nothing new there, right? It’s all in how we allow it to affect us.

So many artists say that they get a lot of negative feedback about their choice of career.  This affects their self-confidence, but it doesn’t have to. If they feel passionate about art they need to stand tall and make the decision that no matter what, they are not going to cave to other people’s opinions.

The choice is about who you hang out with. If we have low self-confidence we hang with people who put us down.

A boost to your self-confidence: DITCH the people who put you down.

If you feel heavy and anxious around them, they don’t belong in your universe. Simple, right?

My dad used to say when I came up with some good idea;
“that will never work,” with sarcasm in his voice.  I proved him wrong a number of times, to his surprise.

DITCH the people who hog all the attention all the time and those who are envious of your progress.  They never followed their dream, but you don’t have to drink their poison.  Ditch the angry people.

The friends who only show up when they want something from you BECAUSE they know you did all the research already (on your own.)

People who make you feel angry for no obvious reason. Those are the “needle-nose” manipulators.

People who drain your energy in a sneaky nebulous manner. I call them the “black hole vampires.”  They don’t have a life, only a black hole.

I DO feel compassion for people’s predicaments, but there comes a time when you have to make a choice. Do they stay or do they go?

If you don’t make the choice someone else will. You don’t want an energy vampire to choose what you do with your energy, right?

Hang out with those who cheer you on and uplift you in every way.  If you don’t have such connections, find some.  Find some friends who are passionate about their own lives.

As an artist you let your vulnerability hang out for all to see via your art, and the beauty of your vision feeds their soul. Being vulnerable is your offering to the world, so don’t let anyone rain your parade!

  • Know your worth (as a person and artist) and if you feel that yours tips toward minus on the scale, find a way to remedy that.
  • Know that if you get lots of criticism and “hate” comments, you’re doing something right. 🙂
  • Don’t worry about others and their feelings, follow your passion. You’re not hurting anyone.
  • You are responsible for how you feel and how you take criticism. Try not to take it personally and don’t allow DRAMA into your life.
  • Don’t argue or try to prove yourself.  Just smile like Mona Lisa and carry on.

Passion grows and nothing can stand in its way. That is the power of passion.  You’re in it for the ride.

Create with passion today!

xo

Maria

P.S. I could use an art sale from my etsy shop if you feel so inspired.  Check ’em out HERE.

art, creativity, life, nature, transformation

Appreciate peace

I was sitting down by the lake appreciating peace this morning at about 6:30am. I live with my back yard facing a big city park that borders on a pretty big lake full of gators.  Day 4 of the blog challenge.

I was sitting in a grove of trees feeling the peace coming out of the trees and the ground. It was indescribable.  More often than not I don’t notice it as I hustle by on my power walk.  But lately I have taken the time to sit down on a park bench and let myself be washed through by this sense of belonging.  I feel the park is holding the positive energy in this busy area where I live.  So I thought I’d join with nature and send out some peace and love to the area and beyond.  It’s even possible to send it around the whole earth just through the imagination.

I pondered what the art would look like if I attempted to paint the feeling I got.  I’m going to drive over to that grove with my art supplies soon and see if I can capture the feeling on paper. So elusive but still tangible.

I think we portray in art all the strands of energy that come across our path daily.  That why a basically “ugly” painting can have such a draw. The energy draws you in. So, I think it’s important for artists to  be connected to the larger picture (no pun intended) to get more depth in the art.

When we give ourselves time to slow down and ground, we open up the door for more authenticity and a deeper connection to the source of all art and life.

Slow down to hustle.

I know, it sounds ass backwards, but what do we gain by running so fast through life?  Nothing  positive.  Disconnection and stress. Have you ever taken the time to really look at a person and HEAR them, not just listening to the words?

Same with nature. Do you hustle by it mindlessly or do you stop to feel your place in the fabric of creation?

I’m learning to live more in tune and show up to really see and hear what is going on around me. That is the best support you can give to anyone, just as nature supports us daily with comfort and oxygen.

Take a breather today!

And create some lovely art?

xo

Maria

P.S.  I have some cool paintings for sale in my etsy shop HERE.

You can also check out my self-study art e-courses HERE.