Collage Art

Amy

2010-10-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

Annelise sends me this photo created by Amy her sister. It was done on the Ipad in a software called Zen Brush.

There is something truthful about this image, these masks we wear to fit in. This half exposed and half hidden part of the self.

Thanks for sharing this.

Sweetcake Enso - the timeless circle - art exhibit

2010-09-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

This beautiful Enso is by Meredith W. McPherson. To view more of her Zen Enso's please go to her site Zeninart.com

Well, I had the Sweetcake Enso all wrong. To learn more about the correct way of a Sweetcake Enso please read this the Sweetcake Enso Blogspot.

My little Stone Enso is not close to what an Enso or even a Sweetcake Enso should be.

swifter than hail

lighter than a feather

a vague sorrow

crossed my mind

Akiko

Dreams and the Language of Dreams

2010-09-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Dreams have been a part of my life and my work for the longest time. Dreams are the place from where stories come from, and art. Here is a wonderful dream teacher, who studied with Montague Ullman and is now teaching dreams in china. He is an old friend.

In Memory 911 - Time does not bring relief

2010-09-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

Time does not bring relief

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year's bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go - so with his memory they brim.
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, 'There is no memory of him here!'
And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

Edna St Vincent Millay (1892 -1950)

Sweetcake Enso - the timeless circle - art exhibit

2010-09-02T04:32:00.001-07:00

There it is. My Sweet Cake Enso. I decided to continue on the theme of stone. It was not easy. I wanted my enso to be an embossed enso, but the material would not allow the melting of the embossing material, so I had to go to the traditional acrylic ink and just make my circle. It was not easy. All of these thoughts came to mind, "what if I do it wrong?" and "what if I don't like it" and in the end it was what it was and I used the poem I had posted before. I also did another Enso on the other side as well with some stanzas from the poem, "If the Shoe Fits". I shall post it here too.

Expect the Unexpected

2010-08-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Summer Youth 2010 - a group of young students working during the summer at the Lehman College Counseling Center where I am the Director, helped me and the counselors create art for our Art Therapy program coming this fall. They created collages, and bookmarks, quotes and book art, all for our upcoming promotion, but as I leave on vacation this week, they created art for me. A series of collages they made into a circle book.

Loving circle books as I do, they were on target as to what brings me joy: art, collage, circle books, a series, and so I thank them from the bottom of my heart and wish them blessings and joy on the path of life, the journey they are all about to embark.

Hoping this time with us has been filled with new insights and a greater touch with their inner wisdom. To be themselves. To embrace themselves and to be ready to Expect the Unexpected.

When the Shoe Fits - Chuang Tzu

2010-06-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

Drew another Enso. Practicing for the Sweet Cake Enso Exhibit at the Zendo. I should take some advice from this poem written by –Chuang Tzu, translated by Thomas Merton

When the Shoe Fits

Chui the draftsman

Could draw more perfect circles freehand

Than with a compass.
His fingers brought forth

Spontaneous forms from nowhere. His mind

Was meanwhile free and without concern

With what he was doing.
No application was needed

His mind was perfectly simple

And knew no obstacle.
So, when the shoe fits

The foot is forgotten,

When the belt fitsThe belly is forgotten,

When the heart is right“For” and “against” are forgotten.
No drives, no compulsions,No needs, no attractions:

Then your affairs

Are under control.You are a free man.
Easy is right. Begin right

And you are easy.

Continue easy and you are right.
The right way to go easy

Is to forget the right way

And forget that the going is easy.

–Chuang Tzu, translated by Thomas Merton

Chuang Tzu - on Dreams

2010-06-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

From Chuang Tzu on dreams, his philosophy of life and death, mirrors my own. This is in tune with my discussion on a previous blog about death.

Dreams
Those who dream of a banquet may wake to lamentation and sorrow. Those who dream of lamentation and sorrow may wake to join a hunt. While they dream, they do not know that they dream. Some will even experience a dream within a dream; and only when they awake do they realize they dreamed of a dream.

By and by comes the great awakening, and then we may find out that this life is really an extended dream. Fools think they are awake now, and flatter themselves they know if they are really princes or peasants. Confucius and you are both dreams; and I who say you are dreams—I am but a dream myself. This is a paradox. To-morrow a wise man may come forward to explain it; but that tomorrow will not be until ten thousand generations have gone by.

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly I awaked, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a barrier.
Wishing you sweet awareness, and clear dreams.

Sweetcake Enso - the timeless circle - art exhibit

2010-06-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

RETURNING - ICHING
ANNECY BAEZ

Call for submissions: Sweetcake Enso art exhibits
Deadline for submissions: September 1st, 2010

When I first received this query from the Zendo, I didn't know exactly what to do with it.

Sweet cake and Enso.

I found a great explanation here :

"In American culture Zen is often represented by the Enso...... However, the Enso is truly known for the singularity of each mark as the expression of presentness. And as a symbol of emptiness the Enso is where the relative meets the absolute. Also true is that as an abstract circle the Enso is frequently given names, one of which is the Sweetcake Enso. According to one definition, found here, "Zen circles are profound but they are not abstract, and when enlightenment and the acts of daily life - "sipping tea and eating rice cakes" - are one, there is true Buddhism.""

To learn more about Sweetcake Enso read this: http://sweetcakeenso.blogspot.com/

This site with lots of Ensos and you can send an e-card to anyone.

I love this Dogen Quote:

To penetrate one thing does not take away its inherent characteristics. Just as penetration does not limit one thing, it does not make one thing unlimited. To try to make it unlimited is a hindrance. - Dogen, “Gabyo”, or “The Painted Rice Cake,” 1242

Sometimes, I sit here and write an entry for this blog, save it on draft and then forget to post it. Busy as I am lately, from one hospital to the next, I don't have time to sit and make art or write stories.

However, the artist within me cannot stop herself. Lately, I've been painting in the backyard, stones my husband found while digging to create a wall for his garden. He found them in the deepest part of our grounds. I was upset when he was creating the wall.

I wanted him to survive it.

Yet, he completed it and saved some large stones in the backyard and one day I just drew in them. I had a large Pilot super color marker, and I drew a Mongliani. Other images surfaced, things I've seen, but can't remember where.

I tried to do the Sweet Cake Enso on one of the large stones, but the Enso needs to be exhibited at the Zendo and so I will not be able to carry it if I draw it on a stone. I can still draw it and leave it back there, and do another for the exhibit.

See below for Patio Stone art I posted as drafts, but never published. If I do a Sweetcake Enso in the backyard, I'll share it.

Wishing you all art, and creative blessings.

One Eye Seeing

2010-05-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

A la Modigliani - Patio Stone - May 2010

Found another stone that I liked very much, and it inspired me to draw somewhat of a Modigliani. My husband loves her, and placed her in a place he can see her when he walks in the house. There are french doors to the patio, when the patio doors are open you see straight to her. He likes her one eye. The one that is closed, as well as the one that is opened. You tend to see more mindfully when you see with only one eye.

The other day he asked me over lunch at the Greek restaurant in Tarrytown:

"I wondered what happens when we die?"

I believe there is no death.

My dreams tell me that life is a dream, and we dream it again and again. We die and we just wake up to that very best time of our lives, or the time in which we had to work on something very important, and we live it again.

I often see my deceased father in my dreams, and he's in 1975.

I tell this to my husband, and he says, "well if I die and I have to wake up again, I hope you are by my side."

That's just how he is.

So, he took my Modigliani and he placed her in a spot where we can all see her with both our eyes.

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian artist who lived mainly in France. He was a figurative artist and his best known works are often seen in mask-like faces and elongated forms . He died poor and overworked, and suffered from addictions to drugs and alcohol. There is a movie about him. See the trailer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani

The Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation

2010-05-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Patio Art - Stone found in garden. "Seeing" May 2010

I can say that there is no time to write or paint or draw, or I can take time to see what is before me and paint it, or draw it. Other times, I just see what is before me and do nothing with it, but keep in mind for a future time. I carry a little black notebook where I write ideas and notes about what I want to write or draw and yet, sometimes I am so busy I don't have the time to do it.

Busy.

The truth is that it just takes a desire to be with life, take it in and draw.

I have a Dell Tablet PC, always wanted one, so that I can carry it and not only write, but also draw. I have numerous tablet PC art software installed in it. The Dell Tablet PC is the slowest to boot laptop I have ever had. You turn it on and it can take fifteen minutes to boot.

Even my mini turns on and boots pretty quickly, but the Tablet PC is a booting burden, yet, I can carry it with me and draw, that is, if I am not in one of my hibernating states, the Hermit state, where I need no stimulation other than the one provided at my job.

In the Hermit state, I am in such a silence I cannot speak to even myself.

I am shhh.....quiet.

Sometimes, during these states, something happens, a creative flow surges through me and there is no stopping me. I can do anything on a napkin, or a cardboard box, I can redesign a lamp.... a guide to keep me posted.

I took a workshop once with Fredrick Franck, this was a long time ago. It was on Zen and Seeing and drawing. I was excited. I loved his book on The Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation. You can get it on Amazon.com. He says:

"Let your eyes fall on whatever happens to be in front of you. It may be a plant or bush or a tree, or perhaps it is just some grass. Close your eyes for the next five minutes ...
Now open your eyes and focus on whatever you observed before - that plant or leaf or dandelion. Look it in the eye, until you feel it looking back at you. Feel that you are alone with it on Earth! That it is the most important thing in the universe, that it contains all the riddles of life and death. It does! You are no longer looking, you are seeing."

So, take the time to see the world around you, let your eyes listen in the silence. Wishing you time from your busy schedule to create art.

Book Art

2010-05-09T04:33:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with work, lately, and no time to create. I leave early and come to late, and the remaining time I am tending to loved one's and caring for an old wound from a great fall in the winter snow.

Time.

I should make a list of ways to create when you have no time.

I usually carry a little notebook that holds all of my thoughts, wishes, dreams, ideas, visions and found objects to use for a poem, a story, a collage, or a book.

I found this wonderful photo of my books, it was taken by a student at Lehman College who wrote about my visual journaling workshop as part of a series I call "Art4Wellness" at Lehman College. She wrote about this in the student newspaper, The Meridian.

Last fall, I had done a workshop on the visual journal, I wanted students interested in creativity to learn about journaling and particularly the visual journal, I brought in the results of many of my musings, books art.

Circle books.....
A Book in a Frame.....
Books made of cereal boxes and recycled paper....

there is no end to creating.

So today, looking for a photo I found this, and I thought I'd share it.

College of Old Westbury/SUNY

2010-04-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of the students who participated in the reading/panel discussion on Latino literature. I gave you my moo card for my collage work, and I hope you were able to find your way here.

Thanks for the support.

My best wishes to all, keep on writing and doing what you do best to achieve your dreams.

Stay in touch in poetry and stories. Big hugs for the smart little boy name Christian.
Click the book to purchase.

Easter in New York City

2010-04-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Excited at the joy of spring. It was a crazy winter, and now the air is clean and fresh and the blooms are here in NY. After the inspiring lecture at Unity church went to Sloan Kettering to celebrate Easter with my niece, the room was decorated with eggs, and Easter Bunny stuff animals that talked if you pressed a foot or a hand. We enjoyed ourselves laughing at YouTube videos that were really funny.....and life continued and we loved and laughed despite our anticipatory grief. Life is so fleeting .....impermanence so real to me everyday.

Youthful Sun

2010-03-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Finally, the sun is here and I am feeling good. After a crazy snow storm, and mini New York hurricane that killed several people, left 50,000 without light and water, and killed soooo many trees, it is finally spring in New York. A welcome respite. It will be a high of 75 degrees, lets see if it happens but already it is warm. I am taking a needed rest, a mental health break, an artist date with myself.

Photography - The Zen of Snow

2010-02-26T10:51:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit: Annecy Baez

All last night and this morning still,
Snow falling in the deepest mountains;
Ah, to see the Autumn leaves
Scattering in my home.

Dogen (1200-1253)

Hidden Causes

2010-02-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

Today, I showed some of my collages to some friends. I never do that, but lately I've been getting more assertive about sharing my art work. I don't exhibit or sell, I just create. I made mini cards in moo.com, they came out very beautiful. I wanted to share my art work with others in these mini cards, and I did.

Someone in the group wanted to know what was the point. What is the point of creating art? What is the point of Collage? It became very intense. He wanted to know what it meant, and wanted me to explain it. I didn't. I didn't explain or apologize. He felt that art for art sake excluded a large chunk of society. It had no purpose.

He wanted art to be clear, to be understood and to be appreciated by everyone, but art to me is about so many things, the meditative process of creating, the connection with something other than me, the healing in that presence, the multiple levels of reality, the creating itself, and then the process of sharing, the courage it takes to share, and the joy I get when others create their own stories or their own collages, based on the story I created through my own art work.

Art gives me strength, it gives me courage, it is a form of mediation, my healer, my silent friend. It is a canvas in which I can share my sorrow, my losses, my joy, and my presence.

I like to see art and to be moved by it in both positive and negative ways. I like to be the one who looks at the art and observes and wonders what does this mean for me? How do I feel when looking at this? What does the title mean to me? What did it mean to the artist?

There is a larger story in every art work we do, but also the one who observes can create his or her own story and that's the beauty of art, at least for me.

Happy Valentine's Day

Path of Wisdom

2010-02-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

This is a Digital Story created at the Center for Digital Story. A Digital Story combines, photos, music and narrative to create a story told in five minutes or less. This story tells of my collage path, how I got here. It tells too of where I am going.

Vision

2010-02-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

Japanese saying

Preparing at work for a presentation on life vision and planning, and I have been thinking about how much I love to create art, and how little bit of time I have to do these things I love: art, poetry, fiction.

As I teach others to do, I have to also focus on action in my own artistic life. Spring is here, the semester almost over, time to create.

Forever and Ever

2010-02-03T04:52:00.000-08:00

"I have done my best", that is about all the philosophy of living that one needs....Lin-yutang.

Falling Apart - from Discoveries of Loss

2010-01-31T05:06:00.000-08:00

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.

Youth

2010-01-29T20:50:00.000-08:00

After I finished the series, I threw gold tiny pebbles on it, even now I like to touch the surface. Thee sun coming forth to remind me that pain passes, and all is left is wisdom. If I am able to accept the gifts given. Every day a new day.

Touche - from Discovering Loss Series

2010-01-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

When I started the "Discovering Loss Series", it was as if I was discovering collage. I would start with a torn piece here and there, and add acrylic gel, gloss, thin rice paper and then in the morning I would see things I didn't see before. The series was a continuation of the Freedom Series, but it related to the conversations I had as a therapist with the many people I met who had lost someone during 9/11 and then during the fall of Flight 587 on 11/11, and as I heard their stories of loss I discovered my own.

Dream of Angel

2010-01-23T19:13:00.000-08:00

Dream I went to light a candle with a match and a beautiful angel appeared. Found a match and an angel and created this collage to honor the dream. They say that dreams of angels are really good, they represent guidance, "everything will be ok", and light.

Anna Lust

2009-12-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

I liked this piece, the color, the texture, the letters, everything seems to fit. I had a lot of wonderful Japanse rice paper, and when you glue it to the collage it becomes a film. I liked throwing strands of gold Christmas tree string I had reserved somewhere. It is amazing what we save when we collect to create collage. Well, enough for tonight, as I need to get to work tomorrow morning.

Dream... create... in silence.

The Boat

2009-12-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

On The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

Dogen

Midnight, No waves,
no wind, the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.

Minority Report

2009-11-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

The Hidden Nine

2009-10-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Special Girls

2009-09-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

The Umbrella

2009-09-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

The freedom series came to me during 911, and the umbrella came in a dream. The next day, as my collage developed, a little umbrella appeared in some of the paper I was using. In the dream, there are airports, but no planes. You just pick up your umbrealla and fly off to where ever you need to go. That simple.

Port of Freed

2009-08-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

Opening Doors- Discoveries of Loss Series

2009-08-04T05:04:00.000-07:00

In 2006, when I didn't have time to collage because I was putting together my collection of short stories and working full time, I decided to create a digital collage a day, the collage you see in the banner comes from that experiment.

This year, I decided to share my work with other collage artist, this inspiration came from the so many wonderful artist I have silently met through the Collage Museum listserve. I love Cecil Touchon's work, and I thank all of the artist for serving as inspiration.

I am Remembering

2009-07-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

So, I created collages of multiple pieces, and later on I moved to create acrylic mixed media collages a series about my father which I didn't continue, for in 2005, my father passed away. I just couldn't find the heart to finish it. I often wondered what would have been of that series, what needed to be said. The series was called My Father's Face, and I shall post here some day.

Little Pieces

2009-07-04T05:02:00.000-07:00

When I showed Jonathan Talbot some of my little pieces with multiple layers, he had no problem with the many little pieces. He showed me other artists who created collages of multiple pieces. In the end, this is who I was, at that moment in time. I soon learned that depending on what is happening in our lives, who we are becoming, our art goes through changes too. I wondered, why I needed reassurance, why I needed someone else to say it was ok to create the way I create. I guess we all need this at some time, but now I know to just let things be as they are, to allow them to unfold as they unfold. What I have learned is that we become more of who we are as we allow it, and this "who we are" is forever changing. Art transforming us, and we transforming art.

Sailing

2009-06-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

I studied artists who had devised techniques of simplicity: a circle, a square and triangle, a line here and there. A self-taught artist, I decided to take a collage art workshop with Jonathan Talbot, in 2002. It was my first collage class ever. I wanted to see if I could design little simple collages, and I did in his workshop. Jonathan Talbot created little Patrin. A Patrin, a marker used by wanders to tell of direction. The art of others can be seen as a marker, a sign, a guide to direct you to your own work. Jonathan showed us examples. His own work could be seen as a call for adventure.

My Truth

2009-06-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

The Freedom Series - 2001

2009-06-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

There was a time, back then, when all I did was collage. I would go downstairs to my art space, and create. At first, I was upset that I created these complicated collages with one hundred little pieces, never knowing what would become of them, but later I began to accept that this is who I was as a collage artist. At times, I wish I could create one piece of two or three pieces, very simple and Zen like, one stroke, empty space, profound, but that's not who I was in the collage, I was multifaceted, complicated, diverse, and I could not be anything other than who I was.

Daily Practice

2009-05-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

Daily Practice is important to create any art: painting, drawing, writing, dancing. We all know that this is why they call it practice. The web is filled with wonderful ideas as to how to practice your art, whatever that may be, on a daily basis.

1. Some people set a time to create art. They wake up and they sit, or they have a 7:00 pm time to create art and everyone knows that at that specified time, they will be with their art. Do you have a time? Are you spontaneous or structured?

2. Some people have rituals. They pray, meditate or do yoga, but they do something right before they start. Do you have rituals? Do you have things you do that help you create?

3. Some people need their art tools near by. Some have a little bag with everything in it, thus no need to roam around finding things. Others are more spontaneous they go to their art space and create. What are your tools? Where are these tools?

4. Talking about space. Some people have a special space, others live in extremely expensive, tiny New York City apartments and they have a space in the corner that is their sacred space to create.

5. Yes. I find art healing, connecting me with something other than myself, something wise and knowledgeable. What is art for you?

More on daily practice. Send me some of your thoughts.

There are a variety of books available to start the process of art making. To view some check these visual journal books at amazon.com

What is a visual verbal journal?

2009-04-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

What is a visual verbal journal?

View more presentations from Riverwood HS.

Tanya Torres

2009-03-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

ART 4 WELLNESS
@ The Counseling Center
____________________________________

Art 4 Wellness is continuing at the Counseling Center
this Wednesday, April 1st from 3:30-5pm

It is OK if you have not been to sessions before...
This week, we will be focusing on:
Exploring Yourself Through Art & Journaling

Come learn how to put visual journals to use! Once again, being an artist is not a requirement...
We will be doing visual journaling exercises that incorporate drawing, painting, collaging with the written word...and your own personal creative flair.

If you did create a journal with artist Tanya Torres, please bring it. If not, please bring your own, or we also have paper here and you can still participate in the exercises. Art supplies will be provided, but please feel free to bring your own as well!

Sign up by emailing Heather Coleman, heather.coleman1@lehman.cuny.edu
or please call 718-960-8761.
Please sign up in advance! Only 10 slots available! Open to Lehman College students only...

Workshop located at:
The Counseling Center
Old Gym Building, Room 114

Creating a Visual Verbal Journal!

2009-02-02T05:49:00.000-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Creating a Visual Verbal Journal!

View more presentations from Riverwood HS.

The Beginning

2009-01-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

I started a blog for my Art 4 Wellness workshop series at Lehman College. At the time I thought it was just created for the students who participate in our series which included a visual journal workshop, but then I realized it is for anyone who passes through this visual virtual world.

If you are here right now reading these words, it is because destiny found you and brought you here. For some reason, you and I and these words, and this page were meant to meet. Maybe I am a reminder of your need for a creative adventure, and these words a call to do the things you want to do because they bring you joy and peace.

You don’t have to draw to create art, and you don’t have to be an artist to create art. Art is living and being, art is healing and life. If you draw bring that, if you like to find images in magazines, bring that too, if you like to doodle, that’s fine as well, the point is to create what surfaces from a place that is old and wise within you.

The visual journal is both a journey to the self and a way to be mindful of life's precious moments. Art opens our eyes to new possibilities. We do not have to be artist to love art. I believe we are all artist in our own way, creating life with every breath we take, but often we do not see it. We are too focused on the past and the future, to sit and allow ourselves to be.

The image you see on the image headboard is a collage I created from a poem I wrote. The poem is there in the background. I created this collage using favorite art work and then manipulated the images in Adobe Photoshop. I than transferred it to water color paper. It always reminds me why I love art, and creativity.

It reminds me that to create is to be free. So, be free. Breathe. Create. Play - Take time right now and relax. Sit quietly and allow whatever images surface to surface. You can cut out images from magazines, words too. Collect items that represent your day. Place them in the journal. You can add other found objects on your journal pages too.

This is time well spent journeying deep within you to your heart. Your body is the vehicle to take you to places you have not allowed yourself to explore. Do this every day, even if it is for five minutes. Then see a theme develop, as it tells you a story like a dream.