Tag Archives: Maria Greene

art, art journaling, artist, inspiration, interview, intuitive, video

Julia Ostara and the March 2017 art prompts

February 28, 2017 Maria G

Julia Ostara is our guest artist for March in the free year-long art journaling journey 2017. It’s going strong and March has sneaked up faster than I could imagine. It’s not too late to join in the fun. You can sign up HERE for the email prompts. All the months’ prompts will be available all year.

I’ve followed Julia’s progress as an artist over the years and it has been interesting to see her art expression deepening over time. I think she has lived many lifetimes in this one life. 🙂

This from her website: Artist, Author, Brave Heart, Explorer, Farm Girl, Grateful Guide, Mystic, Mountain Momma, Playful Painter, Reverent, Sweet Sunshine, Thrivivalist, Wild Wonder-full Weaver… Exploring and falling in love with life through art and wonder in memory of my mom to carry on her legacy of love for self, others, nature, and life. Opening my hands, head, and heart… my being, to the wonder of creation, the art of living and loving. Offering creative courses, unique gifts, and art from my heart to yours.

I love her colorful art and also her view on life and how everything hangs together.

She hopes to inspire and encourage others to beat to their own drums, live their dreams, choose joy, respect others and nature, love more than fear, put our brave boots on, celebrate the variety and sweet in life, dance with the wild mystery, and thrive in harmony.

I share her views on life and being an artist. As an artist I’m visible, and with that I can hope to inspire others to step into their creativity whatever it is and become “more” of who they are. It can feel scary and uncertain for sure, but when you keep exploring the depths of who you are, it gets easier to face the unknown and to embrace the mystery. Revelations can be so inspiring and exhilarating!

More from her website: Art has been such a graceful and wonderful, healing, playful, spiritual joy for me. I consider myself a ‘born again artist’ because I lost touch with the artist within for too long. Now, I’m delighted to be guiding others to experience the magic possible when playfully creating by hosting online creative gatherings, courses, art playdates, and retreats to explore the wonder and nurture a playful creative community. Many of them are available as Pay What You Can/Pay What It’s Worth options! So, YES, you can afford to participate!

Approaching creativity from a place of play has really helped me open up, enjoy the process and get in the flow.

Julia has all sorts of offerings on her website, so check them out.

Julia’s courses and offerings.

She is also offering a quarterly e-zine titled Thrive True. If you sign up for her email list on her WEBSITE, you will receive her e-zines.

I interviewed her in a video yesterday and we laughed so much it was hard to get through the questions. If you want to get more of a feel for her and her art, please watch the VIDEO on YouTube. 🙂

I wish you a wonderful creative month.

Maria

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art, artist, creativity, inspiration

The artist is in the ether

February 23, 2017 Maria G 3 Comments

The artist is in the ether–waiting, just like we were a twinkle in our mother’s eye once. It takes inspiration and action to be born. If you want to be an artist, you feel it in the ether.

I looked up the word “ether,” and the literary meaning is: the clear sky; the upper regions of air beyond the clouds.

I really liked that description. As souls we dwell there and then feelings, thoughts, actions take place and we appear in this 3D world wondering what the hell we’re doing here.

How many people go through life wondering that? I bet it’s around 100%.

At one point, I’m not sure exactly when, something tugged at me. It wasn’t a hard tug, or a determined push, or a revelation. It was more of a longing to explore SOMETHING, maybe myself.

I started reading fiction as soon as I could read and became immersed in the world of books, the great imagination of the authors’ made up scenarios. My mom used to say I had a wild imagination, and she would look at me strangely as if I was not like “others.” But that was not true. I always made sure I fit in with the crowd, for the most part.

I always liked to draw and color and that has grown into an immense “calling” if you will. It’s how I record the energy of my life. I say energy because it’s more than depiction of 3D events and things.

I write about my life, but not with great trepidation. Writing flows easily without fanfare. When I paint, I’m always (every single time) faced with the immensity of starting.

It’s hard to explain, but after years of facing that feelings, I always boldly step forward with some paint and slap it on the canvas, and go from there. To start becomes easier with experience.

After that, it’s anyone’s guess if the painting is going to be something that speaks to me, or not… It happens more often than not that I paint over old paintings.

That is how an artist comes into being. Each day is new. I reach into the ether to create myself every day on canvas or other art methods. When it flows it flows, and when it doesn’t I curse the universe for being such a stingy muse.

An artist is not born per se, an artist is born and born again through manipulating the ether. That is how I feel when I stand in front of a canvas. Each day something will be born, either a glorious rendition of energy, or something that is beyond ugly.

But it’s all glorious!

This above painting had so many layers and started out with a super ugly face underneath it all, and when all was said and done it turned out to an imagined Jane Austen. Go figure!

That is art. Pulling the rabbit out of a hat, or a piece of art from the ether is magic. A grand adventure indeed. What is the ether calling you to do?

P.S. I have a free 2017 art journaling journey going with monthly prompts from various artists. If you want to be involved you can sign up for the prompts HERE.

art, craft, creativity, mixed media, mosaic, polymer clay mosaic, process

Polymer clay mosaic tutorial.

August 8, 2016 Maria G 2 Comments

People have been asking me about more polymer clay mosaic tutorials.

I have posted before on how to paint the baked tiles, and there is a YouTube video on how to paint them as well. CLICK HERE.

Here are some pictures on how to put the mosaic together with the finished tiles. Since this is a star box I had to fiddle with and cut some of the tiles, which is tricky since they break pretty easily. It’s much easier to make a square or rectangular design.

polymer clay mosaic tiles — painted tiles ready to be assembled

I paint the lids black to hide any gaps between the tiles. If the gap is too big I place some glue and drop some seed beads to fill the gap.

finished design — Tiles fitted and glued down

Here you can see some blue seed beads in the top two corners. The tiles were too big to cut for size. Seed beads are great and they lend some sparkle to the project as well. Choose a color that matches the main color(s) of your design.

I painted the box on the outside with acrylic paints.

I spray paint the bottom and the interior with gold paint before I paint the rest.

What do you think? Pretty colorful. I had fun making this, and so many others.

I made a mirror that promotes PEACE! I thought that was a worthy thing to be reminded of while looking into a mirror. Peace begins within and it’s a choice. I even had a Buddha charm I embedded in the clay and baked.

The mirror part distracts from the frame in the bright outdoors, but there it is. Polymer clay is so versatile you can make almost any design.

I use old buttons, rubber stamps, charms, found objects, and lettering to imprint the tiles. You can use anything that makes a nice imprint.

If you enjoyed the tutorial, please leave a comment.

Please visit my new etsy shop, Earth and Faery.

Have a great creative week!

Maria

art journaling, craft, creativity, giveaway, mixed media, tutorial, video

Giveaway!

July 5, 2016 Maria G 8 Comments

I have a giveaway on my blog today. It’s Day 29 of the 30 day blogging challenge and I have made it through so far. I’m celebrating by giving away this FUN ink blot art journal I made from a manila folder and some ink blot art. I made it today and figured it would be fun to give away. It’s definitely a one-of-a-kind journal!

Here are some pictures and the video on how I made the journal. You can enter the giveaway or you can make your own journal. 🙂

ink blot art journal — handmade art journal

An idea for you how the pages look. I added a bunch of blank card stock pages as well to fill out the journal. Here is the video how-to.

The winner was Jean Marmo. Congratulations!!! 🙂

art, counter-productive, doubt, motivational, process

Stop beating yourself up!

July 2, 2016 Maria G

Sometimes we set impossible goals, or goals we’re not quite ready for, and then we beat ourselves up for not accomplishing them.

It’s good to have a schedule or a plan and to stick with it, but if it’s totally overwhelming it’s going to be counter-productive.

If you discard a goal and feel bad about it, know that today is a new day. How can you modify the goal and feel more at ease? Life is not a race and what others accomplish has nothing to do with you.

I made a goal at the beginning of 2016 to offer something free or paid art-wise to my artist friends. I followed through until June and when six months were almost up I realized so many things had been counter productive.

I can just give up or beat myself up about it ad nauseam, but that is even more counter productive.

I learned something along the way about the process and that is priceless. If I hadn’t taken the action I would still be in the dark.

It’s not about discarding the dream, but to make it more streamlined to who YOU are, not what people might expect. Or even bigger still: what you expect of yourself.

Listen to your own drumbeat.

I have always been a doer and sometimes I forget to listen to my own drum. But it’s getting better. Nowadays, I don’t get as far away from myself as I used to do, and I truly want to offer the best me to the world.

I don’t compromise while creating my art, but how I bring it out to the world the best way is still somewhat of a mystery. All I can do is keep exploring and see what responses I get.

One thing I do know. Your dream is important and when you talk about it, you might help someone on the other side of the world as you pursue your own process.

I often get comments like, “oh, I really needed to hear that today, thank you.” Then, what I thought was a half-assed blog post or art offering, means something. It’s verification that I’m headed in the right direction, and that I inspire others.

That makes every step worth it.

To find the right way sometimes takes many tries, but there are no failures, only experiences.

Believe enough in yourself and keep the dream alive. There really is no other alternative!

So, STOP beating yourself up from now on. 🙂

Maria

P.S. If you’d like to try one of my evergreen art journaling e-courses, go HERE to check them out.

craft, creativity, passion, trend

Adult coloring books and planners.

June 24, 2016 Maria G

Awesome artists, I have noticed the trend of adult coloring books and planners sky-rocketing. I was wondering why that is, and thought about people’s search for something fun and gentle to add to their life. In this stressful world we look for something that has meaning and a calming influence. It brings us back to our childhood when the world was full of wonder and color.

I remember when I was a kid I was into paper dolls and beautiful bookmarks, Victorian roses and kids in vintage clothing mostly. I loved them for their intricate detail and elegance.

I also loved coloring books and would not color outside the lines. 🙂

My best friend and I used to take a composition book and fold the pages in half. In some of the folds we put bookmarks we wanted to trade. We would each take a turn to pick one of the folded pages. It was always an adventure to see what bookmark I would get. This was an ongoing thing. I treasured my folded paper book and would look inside often and change out the bookmarks.

That was the old style “planner” for me. I recognize the same wonder and excitement in ladies who buy their planners and all the accessories to create their very own version of planner. There are stickers, embossed labels, special pens, lists, pockets, sayings, and pictures to add. It is guided creativity.

I think we have forgotten how to create on our own, so we turn to kits and guided painting classes. Nothing wrong with that, and it may spark the individual to explore and continue with their creativity. In other words, unleash their inner greatness!! 🙂

Mandalas are big too. Many of the coloring books are nothing but mandalas.

star-1220784__180 — another gorgeous mandala

Mandalas are like snowflakes, each unique. Some are so beautiful they take my breath away.

I think planners and art play books help us to heal and explore our own creativity. The time has come to be more of who you are. I think there is a strong inner urge for creativity as a unique expression and method for growth.

We grow through creativity and it is a GREAT thing!

I have a planner, but it’s not the artsy kind. I have to write everything down to remember stuff, but there is space to journal if I feel so inclined. I have at least three journals going right now. One is for business, one for personal stuff, and one for communication with my guides.

The journals all have their place, and I start every morning journaling while having my tea. I sit outside in my backyard, partially to keep an eye on my kitty who gets to go outside one hour in the morning.

I find so many things to be grateful for, and I write those down. I write down my intentions and needs. Ideas sometimes find their way onto the page. It’s a great way to start the day.

How do you start yours?

Much creativity to you this weekend. 🙂

Maria xo

P.S. I have some handmade low-cost art journals for sale in my etsy shop. CLICK HERE.

Maria Greene @ Greeneearth

Tag Archives: Maria Greene

Julia Ostara and the March 2017 art prompts

The artist is in the ether

Polymer clay mosaic tutorial.

Giveaway!

Stop beating yourself up!

Adult coloring books and planners.

Artist and writer