BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED

You do not have time to be jealous if you are blooming where you are planted.

 I like the idea of being planted by the moon sign Taurus.

His primary goal is to producing and getting things done.

Materialize.

The spiral in the center of the flower is where the seeds are made.  

It reminds me to transform and to renew.

THE DOOR OF MYSTERY

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

Rabindranath Tagore

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/door_2.html#ixzz1jvnRf4tl

I love doors.  They represent opportunities and mystery.  Many times I go window shopping, but to really engage I have to go in.  So it  is with personal growth.  The flower which represents "Bloom Where You are Planted" or "Growth".  (I thought of putting words on the shrine, but then it limits what it might say if I hadn't 'scripted' it to begin with).  Growth for me isn't linear, it is sometimes switching back and forth and sometimes it is like climbing a ladder, one step at a time. These ideas are conveyed on the stem.  

There are two tea cups and it would be nice to have tea with each one of you, but often it is just my own company that I get to enjoy.   I have learned that it is good company because I invest in myself
.

We all need to invest in our minds and habits so that they truly reflect what we most desire to manifest in our life.  We do this by what we put in our soil (or soul).  What ideas are we watering our mind with?  What kind of nourishment are we giving ourselves?  How are we taking care of our self spiritually?  How are we staying grounded?


As above so below.


What is being developed underneath the ground will be manifest outwardly.  


As a man thinketh so is he.
Or 
Out of the heart the mouth speaketh.


How do we keep our own cup full?  Do we look for quick fixes or do we have a plan?  It is better to keep it simple.  


"I feel loved, and give love, when I  smile."


How do you fill your cup in the simplest way?

So these are the doors to my shrine, what should be manifest within?  Hope, Love, Excitement, Expectation, Joy, Beauty, Truth.  I want to celebrate all those things in my life every day in the year 2012.

Oh The Places You'll Go

I loved this and wanted to share it.
So many creative and peaceful people in the world.

Truth, Visions, and Karma Change

 I have been working on outlining the fabric pieces with a straight stitch.

My daughter said she really liked the "zombie" hand. Hmmm...wasn't really sure that was what I was thinking of when I put that in there.  At first I resisted this and it kind started festering.  But I looked at Alice and reminded myself that Alice means truth in Greek.  I remember talking to someone about truth and that the reason we couldn't really know truth was our five senses prevented us from getting that close, and if we did we would pull away ...so although we need our five senses we are also hampered by them.  

Truth might be cold and maybe it is Love and not truth that we should desire to know? 

 Henri Rousseau kinda created his own truth and then it materialized.  

He had had no formal training in art, instead he copied paintings at the Louvre,

he studied nature at the botanical gardens in Paris and he observed other artist. 

He was a naive artist.  He had two wives and eight out of nine children die, and yet

 he was a complete romantic, a dreamer of simple tastes and magnificent visions.

This is a collage I  did yesterday called "The Miseries of War".  

The top picture is about the ego and how enlarged it gets in a war.

I was reading about the chessboard and how a "holy war" is fought on the chess board.

That whether you are black or white you fight a holy war against your opponent.

We all have holy wars everyday, when we get our ego enlarged and we are driven by fear.

If you blow this picture up you will see that there are people hanging in the tree ...the victims of war.

Sometimes we set ourself up to be a victim...a martyr...and she is displayed in front of the ones hanging.

To the side is a woman alone in a peaceful garden...it is beautiful but it is also lonely.

Wars alienate us.  We do not seek peace but our will.

No matter how justified I might be in wanting to win, it is not worth going to war, but rather seeking a higher path...the path of understanding and patience and karma change...that is really what sparked this 

collage in the first place.

You can read about this here at Druids in Training.

MORE VAGABONDING AND EMBELISHMENT ON MY SHRINE

 I have started to add some embroidery outline stitches around the mouth and sun.

Working on this is a reminder that I am creating a life of beauty, curiosity, and ritual.

Here is a view of all the pieces that I have made so far.

I plan to embellish with embroidery and beading.

I also plan to do the inside of the doors.  

The doors here are the outside view.

Woman With Wings did a post on Moon Art, to celebrate the Moon.

I know in Japan they had roof that were especially designed to observe the moon and they wrote and read moon poetry.  A beautiful ritual and practice.  Since the moon is full every month or really 13 times a year, I thought that I should definitely participate in the Celebration.  

I do have the Flower on the front of the door planted in a fabric that has a moon motif with the signs of the planet around it, in Celebrating  the time honored tradition of planting by the moon.

Maybe there are many things that need to be planted in my heart and life.

Moon art is a wonderful way to remind me of these cycles.

  I am continuing to do my Vagabonding (art study).

Today's entry is about  how art is not about copying nature.

Art actually challenges nature because it is not made of the same  elements.

Here is my drawing  of  the Symbol of St. Mark, from The Echiermach Gospels. 

INSIDE SHRINE FINISHED

This is not what I had in mind when I first envisioned this piece.  

I wasn't going to include Alice in my shrine, but yesterday I started reading it and realized how much her story has to do with the story of 2012.  

The tree is a hand it is a reminder that in order to stay grounded I need to use all five of my senses.

Also that creativity is in the doing not just thinking about it.

Also controlling what goes in the eye gate is important.

I would like to mention one of my favorite quilt artist, Kathy Nida.
She inspired me in my quest to make this Celebration Shrine.

CELEBRATION SHRINE

 I have been working on my Celebration Shrine.
 I have selected the fabrics and ironed the Wonder Pellon to the back.
  The eyebrows are made of a snake skin looking printed fabric.
 That is to represent the idea of shedding old beliefs for new ways of thinking.
The desire to see more clearly (the crystal blue eyes) the Truth or Reality.

 I love this fabric that a friend gave me.  We both love Alice In Wonderland.

  I think it is because life and relationships have often been a mystery.  

Since "mystery" is my word for 2012 I thought I should add a little.

  I didn't really want to use this print in my shrine

because it didn't go with the symbols that I had  already picked. 

But I wanted to use the symbolism, even if it was only something 

that I would know about.  After all the shrine is for me.   

So I cut the pupil of the eye out of the black section of the fabric,

to remind me that sometime life can be a Rabbit Hole and 

beware of tunnel vision.

I am really enjoying Vagabonding

.  Here is what I drew today.  It is a Picasso.

  I could have colored it, but the pen and ink give it kind of a different character.

  I really like the eyes.  Here is a link to the original  painting.