Beeswax Valentines workshop: there's still room for you!

"Kisses", Collage and beeswax, COPYRIGHT 2010 JonesMoore

Spend the afternoon creating fabulous valentines (with me!) while learning the basics of collage, and how to use beeswax with various items such as lace, rice paper, oil pastels, found text and images. Your friends and family will truly appreciate your small works of art for Valentine’s Day!

When: Saturday, February 6, 12:30-4:30pm
Class fee: $40., materials fee: $12
Where: Class will be held in downtown Everett, Washington. To register, call the Arts Council of Snohomish County at 425-257-8380.

Encaustic experiment...

Beach Walk #1, encaustic, Copyright 2010 JonesMoore

Inspired by sea glass I recently found on the beach...carving into the wax and rubbing in pigment was especially fun. It's much more "luminous" in person. View it large (click on the photo)!

Magic on the beach...

Sea glass from North Beach State Park, Copyright 2010 JonesMoore

"Magical" finds from my beach walk at North Beach State Park, near Port Townsend, Washington. The quality of the sea glass here is extraordinary, all of them worn down to perfect "pebble-sized" pieces. Rare colors too: yellow, dark blue, light blue, pink and so on. I had heard (and read) that there was a fabulous sea glass beach near Port Townsend. I don't think I made it the THE beach, but, nevertheless, the "finds" were amazing. These little gems are inspiring me to do some encaustic art based on the colors and luminosity of the glass...

Just do it...for Haiti, especially for the children.

Haiti earthquake relief:

www.hopeforhaitinow.com
1-877-99-HAITI

Just do it...you know you want to.

Note to Self:

Do not paint with white gesso while wearing favorite black sweater...

Need a creative lift? Go on a road trip to Edison!

All photos COPYRIGHT Jonesmoore 2010

My W.B. (wonderful boyfriend) forced me out of the house last Saturday to take a much needed road trip up to one of my absolute FAVE places in the state of Washington: the tiny town of Edison. If there were a contest for tiny, unique and funky towns, Edison would certainly win first place year after year, in my book. It's located just north of the Skagit Valley, nestled between potato farms, the Puget Sound and Highway 20. It's a jewel, and contains (amazingly) the following in its handful of streets: bakeries, galleries, biker bars, local "watering holes", a cheese shop and MUCH more! Be sure to visit the gallery called "Curator", you will NOT be disappointed. On our way out of Edison, we were treated to some amazing landscapes and wildlife, including a bald eagle and some very large long-necked birds, perhaps wild geese or swans, and hundreds of white snow geese in the fields.

(PSST! My favorite junk store–yes, the kind you can hardly find any more–is just outside of town on Hwy. 11). More photos on my Flickr site! If you don't live in Washington, there is probably an "undiscovered jewel" of a town in your area...explore!

O.K...rockin' and rollin' now (I think).

I dragged myself 'kicking and screaming' to the studio to work on something, ANYTHING!! I started catching up on journaling assignments from LK Ludwig's "Point and Shoot Journaling 2", an online journaling class which started last November. This particular assignment was about identifying and mining our own personal symbology, based on the umpteen thousands of photos we have in our own archives. Some of mine are:

trees/branches, rocks/rock formations, Madonna/Virgin Mary, sunsets, hands at work, rotting fruit/flowers, rust, aged surfaces, crosses, saints, shrines, windows/doors, female fertility figures, cherished old photos of my mother and father...

Then, we are to write what these symbols mean to us personally. Then, on to doing some art journal pages with handwriting and photos and dry media... I also chose the very excellent CD "Masters of Chant" by those wonderful Gregorian monks. I think my MUSE peeked out around the corner today (I saw her out of the corner of my eye)! 

What do YOU do to find/coax your MUSE out of the shadows?

Come out, come out, wherever you are (where the HECK is my Muse)?!

O.K., the Holidays have been over for more than a week now, I've done all the promotion for my workshops I need to do, I have some relatively 'free' time. New ideas race through my head...only to be gobbled up by "LIFE"... Today, I accomplished the following: spilled a whole jar of BLACK gesso all over myself, the work table and the floor. Used what was all over my hands to paint some journal page backgrounds. Exhausted from clean-up and trauma. Took nap...ahhhh.

Can anyone tell me where my MUSE might be? If you see her, please let me know, and tell her to call me to let me know she's alright. Honestly.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi (to my blog, that is)!

"Kisses to me", Copyright 2008 JonesMoore

Yes, this is it! The One Year Birthday of my blog, "La Vida Artistica=The Artistic Life". I can hardly believe it. It has been a most amazing year, both in the blogosphere and in real life.

I am also coming up on my one year anniversary of teaching mixed media classes in the Seattle area, after taking a break from teaching for a few years. I have met the most fabulous people and students through my art workshops, and look forward to many more new 'connections'. I have met some very talented creative types through blogging, and I'm so excited to expand those connections and friendships, as well.

Perhaps you might take a few minutes to read my very best blog posts from 2009:
Point and shoot Journaling with LK Ludwig
Some glorious beeswax collage work...
Happy Halloween...
Poppy Play
Artwork featured in Cloth*Paper*Scissors
Thoughts on my daughter...
Autumn Diptych...
My dad...Memorial Day Thoughts
Sofia Reyes
Rumi and art from the vaults...
The birth of a shrine...
Back from ArtFest 2009
In loving memory: Max...
TED talk on creativity...
The creative process...
1000 Journals DVD
Marilyn, 1955
Past job descriptions...

A HUGE thank you from me to you: to everyone who has taken the time over this past year to make a connection with me, share bits of yourself and your creative process and create meaningful dialogue!!

The earrings I am wearing today have this inscription: "Do what you love." and "Love what you do." I hope you all will continue to work towards those ends, for it is a lifelong process!

Wax poetic in my "Beeswax Valentines" workshop!

"Ahhh" collage, copyright 2004 JonesMoore

Spend the afternoon of February 6 literally “waxing poetic”! In this class, we will be making beautiful handmade valentines out of collage materials and melted beeswax. I will show you the  basics of collage, and how to use beeswax with various items such as lace, rice paper, oil pastels, found text  and small objects. Your friends and family will truly appreciate your small works of art for Valentine’s Day! No experience necessary, all levels of art experience welcome. 

To register for this fabulous class, please call the Arts Council at 425-257-8380. For in-depth information just email me at :  jomoma58@yahoo.com

The wonder of small things...and large!

My Christmas gift (from my wonderful S. O.) arrived yesterday, in a very small package. We have been waiting for this little wonder since ordering it just before Christmas. No, it's not a baby or puppy or kitten...it's an "Eee" (mini-laptop)!!

Ok, I have been a dedicated MAC person since the first one arrived (1988) in the design office I was working for at the time. It had a huge black and white screen, and had been modified to do vast amounts of graphic design work. I felt as though the 'black monolith' from Space Odyssey 2001 had arrived. We were all in awe of such a machine... Now, my household has 3 generations of iMacs, 4 generations of iPods and this new little mini PC.

So, my new "Eee" runs Windows 7, and I'm having to re-learn how to do simple tasks. It is a lovely little white laptop that, when closed, resembles a very large make-up case! Presently, it seems that the best things seem to be coming in smaller and smaller packages. But it's very interesting that the new Apple iMac screens seem to be growing larger exponentially! I suppose sometime in the near future, I'll be streaming (and watching) all my favorite TV shows and movies on one of those new gigantic iMac screens, via the web. My daughter's new iMac screen already dwarfs my screen that seemed huge just 5 years ago!

Times do change, yet somehow stay the same in many ways...wish me luck with navigating Windows 7!

Some wonderous words for the "Monday After"...

Visit Rebecca's blog, Requerda Mi Corazon, to read some really moving words about the Holidays. I think they will help to make this "Monday After" hangover go a bit more smoothly...

Also, I wanted to share my resolutions for 2010:

• Go back to Mexico

• Learn more Spanish

• Do more hiking

• find my creative "true north"

• help others find their creative "true north"

Poetry to ring in the New Year...

Lunar eclipse, Copyright JonesMoore 2008

This is one of my favorites. I could read this over and over again. It was written by Sara Teasdale, in 1915.

Peace flows into me
As the tide to the pool by the shore;
It is mine forevermore,
It ebbs not back like the sea.

I am the pool of blue
That worships the vivid sky;
My hopes were heaven-high,
They are all fulfilled in you.

I am the pool of gold
When sunset burns and dies, --
You are my deepening skies,
Give me your stars to hold.

I wish you all a beautiful, loving and joyful year. Namaste.

The gorgeous photo was taken by my son, then 11 years old...