ROMANCING THE CANVAS: March 2013

WORK BY DAY (and FRIDAY FILL INS).....

PLAY BY NIGHT...

Happy Friday lovely friends!

It has been 3 weeks since I last blogged, however I have so enjoyed looking at "your" blogs. I've been lazy blogging, but busy "arting" and "cruising" the net looking at the most creative and wonderful art.

I almost have to make an appointment with myself to do this...to take the time to look and travel to all your sites, to just let my cursor take me where it wants, to sojourn with you, to click the clicks at the bottom of the art I land on and close my eyes, then open them and say to myself "surprise!"

It has felt like I am "Mr. Bean" sending myself mail! So today will be a busy art post, catching you up from the last time. Excuse me if I repeat some art ... I am not so sure where I left off.

Love to you all - I truly missed you.

LOVIES,

Samara

DISCLAIMER: I so wish blogger had a "turn left - turn right" on their adjustments of size etc. I apologize for a few that are amiss. They are right side up on my "pictures" file but go haywire often when I bring them over here. Grrrrr Blogger! Can we revolt? lol

Shhh. This is for my daughter's birthday... I created it to typify her life! lol (24 - it should be that way...right? right? lol)

I decided to try my hand at using a pic from a magazine that I liked and beads. The left page was an experiment also. I lit the paper (and my hand unfortunately) on fire. It was parchment. I didn't know the "blowtorch" would make it crazyfire! lol And yes, it was only a boil blister burn. (drama queen huh)

I was on a size-ism kick for a while and a white teeth kick and and and...and sick of our media and how it feeds us all this bulldog shiatzu stuff. So that is where this came from. Not pretty purposefully.

This came from the "Whatevers" challenge I was part of - given the picks and tell a story. It was so fun. Looking at these bored little kids. It reminded me of "kiss your aunt" (your smelly, old, yucky aunt who fed you the most grotesque cookies) - not like the other cool, funky aunt who gives you chocolate filled mints and says shhhhhh!!! haha)

I really loved doing this page. I experimented with a zipper in my page. I'd never done this before and really liked the look...

My children of course and some of Christie Tomlinson's Foil Sprayed Coffee Liner Flowers.

Some mail art to my Ph.D Administrator thanking her for everything. She loved my art (ahem - props for me anyway from her) so I decided to send her a piece and decorate her envi!)

envi again.

man oh man if you haven't taken this workshop, you really need to! it is from robenmarie.com an it is the cat's meow. this is a journal...a very complex journal that i loved making. she actually has 25 - yes count em - 25 videos for 45.00 i believe - dollars!!!! there are journal pages, pockets inside, affirmation cards, more pockets, backing, many different choices of paper to use for your journal and affirmation cards, and on and on and on. please give it a looksi!!! if you don't know it yet, roben-marie rocks the sox off the artist world as far as i am concerned. she's a big fav of mine - both in kindness, and artistic brilliance.

the affirmation cards (sorry for the tilt your neck like a flamingo look) from robenmarie.com workshop Construct, Collage, Affirm. Must, Must, Must. She doesn't miss a beat in her instructions. And she is a hoot to watch. She makes me laugh with her antics! In other words, it is like she is in the room with you because she is so REAL and NOT impressed with herself in the least!

tilt neck to right! lol this is the journal open (one time) not the many many more times it opens and on the left is one of the two pockets where the daily journal affirmation card can be stored, or cash or or or.

tilt neck right. sore yet? oy. these are the affirmations that robenmarie.com gives to us. she prints them out a bazillion ways so we have our choice of paper, print, style etc.

this is one of the ways roben-marie suggests to design our journal pages...but there are many ways she suggests. don't take it from here that you can construct the journal because it is so much more than i have shown here. this is JUST a tiny glimpse and there are many different types of paper and material papers and fibers that she uses/we use for the journal to be sturdy.

i decided to put one of robenmarie.com page in the very back. i am giving this journal to my son (who is on my subscriber's list and i have threatened with death lol to not read my post this week) for his birthday in my. he is a big mediator an health nut and journaller so i believe he will love roben-marie's invention and my work (oy, i hope so!) - that was referring to my work! haha

tada - i hope your neck is alright...imagine me giving you a massage as you look at this beautiful page! isn't it dreamy (especially on our phone book! hahahaha)

this picture is from Mindy's workshop in Tamara Laporte's LIFE BOOK 2013 Workshop. Oh gosh, I can't say enough about the love that Tamara bestows on us. She is such a love bug...she brings love into my house and yours every moment. she is one of the most authentic people i know. i love you Tam!

i just jointed stencilgirlproducts.com and get a monthly kit of stencils from them. can you believe it...yup...i'll say it again. a monthly kit of stencils. this is the web. mary beth shaw just released a book called "Flavor for Mixed Media" and it is selling hotcakes at Amazon. She is working on her second. Check out her blog for her packed schedule of teaching. You may be able to catch her. What an artist she is....just magnificent! Thanks Mary Beth and John. I love the Hebrew Alphabet, the Cowboy and this Web. You are stellar people!

this is a bit of a muddy piece, but nevertheless it is using mary beth's cowboy. it was unlike my art, so i like it... besides, who doesn't like a strappin' cowboy!

this piece was for another "whatever" story line. Fun and wild. I decided to integrate some of my past scrapbooking and card ephemera. i'm starting to like doing that again. do you do any of that? let me know what and how you use yours. i'd be really interested to know.

Out of all my artwork, i'd have to say, this is more of a self portrait than anything. i saw a picture similar to the wildness of the hair and tears on mine and went berserk! i loved it. i got out my basic grey paper lines and went to town. i decided i wanted to do it all in bling, in patterned paper and not on canvas. i wanted to take that challenge and see where i would go. i've changed the picture up quite a bit but kept the eye streaks, but used my trademark stars and added lots of dimension that was not in the picture i saw originally. when i look in this picture it speaks volumes of who i am. tell me if you can see it when you look at my profile pic and then this...i'd be interested if you see it - the eye color etc. there is something i can not pinpoint. maybe you can.

on one side of this flap (that you can't see) it says "doing it our own way" - JUDAISM - "we love it" then on the side you can see it says on the flap "love" mixed "family" medi-inski. "true" I decided to make a pun. In this, you may notice mary beth shaw's stencil at the top left corner. it is the Hebrew stencil, as we are Jewish (so I love it!) but we are crazy-jewish enough that i made a funny out of it. believe me - we are the weirdest Jews you've ever met. i'm a doctor (metaphysical) minister, counsellor, multi-faith reverend, there are Catholics buddist-ish jews in our family...we are the media-inski's to a T and we love it... any of you share some crazy stuff like this?

Well lovers of the arts, thank you for hanging in for my 3 weeks of work. I didn't bore you with 5 more pieces (that are not so - well let's say "meh.") you know what i mean. i am now (you can see i have a capital/non capital issue) going to pop over and see what you have rockin' this week. Loves ya! kisses. samara.

Shared With lovely and talented artists who courageously post -

http://artistsinblogland.blogspot.ca/

http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.ca/

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/

http://creativeeveryday.com

http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.ca

http://www.arttherapist.ca/

http://www.4craftychicks.blogspot.ca/

http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.ca/
http://cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.ca/

http://cceestampers.blogspot.ca/
http://chalknstock.blogspot.ca/
http://foryourinspirationchallenges.blogspot.ca/
http://meljensdesignsdt.blogspot.ca/
http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.ca/
http://poequoththeraven.blogspot.ca/
http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.ca/
http://casestudychallenge.blogspot.ca/
http://casestudychallenge.blogspot.ca/

http://casestudychallenge.blogspot.ca/
http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.ca/

and now for my friday fill ins

And...here we go!

1. The wind blew wildly and IT IS FINALLY GETTING RID OF THE SNOW

2. MY COMFORTER and BEING IN MY PJ.S CUDDLED UP WITH MY LADY BUG PILLOW BOUGHT IN AUSTRALIA AT JANE DAVENPORT'S STORE made me feel warm and happy all over.

3. The smell of ORANGES makes me think of THE BODY SHOP.

4. When I am feeling lazy I STILL SIT IN MY STUDIO AND CREATE!

5. Brilliant TEAL is my favorite color.

6. The door creaked and a KITTEN NAMED LEW LEW OR RIKI came in.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to COMMENTING ON BLOGS, tomorrow my plans include A HAIRCUT FOR MY 15 YEAR OLD, A "TALK" WITH MY 2 OLDERS and Sunday, I want to BEACH!

Toodles My Lovli Artiste

Have the most wonderful and creatively loving week

SAMARA

FRIDAY FILL-INS...

THOUGH IT IS TECHNICALLY 12:43 EST! OOPSI.

HERE ARE OUR INSTRUCTIONS:

"I'm doing lyrics this week...but feel free to fill in WHATEVER you'd like. That's the way I roll. And...here we go!"

1. Bert Kaempfert's LOOKS LIKE SOME GLAMOROUS FACE CREAM KIT, BUT I SEE AN 8 ON IT SO I THINK OF BERT BACHERACH SO IT MUST BE AN OLD BACK IN THE DAY 8 TRACK. GOSH...MY KIDS WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS...I AM OLD!

2. It is 1:00 a.m. so I have been at my studio desk working all day and evening naturally.

3. So I'm packing my bags for The Brave Girls Camp and pretending I'm going! I'm hoping packing my bags will actually lift me off my feet, pay for a ticket, and he workshop and get there. But I fear I have just had fun packing my bags and visualizing the most wonderful trip. Hey, that is good enough for me. Kind of like looking in a flower shop, like I used to do with a lover, and say - Pretend I bought you these - and we'd just stare and stare at them and believe me - it was exactly the same as if we had!!!! Crazy huh! I'm hoping the bags thing will work the same way. Haha! Crazy chick I am.

4. I am so sick of winter. Testimony: getting my car stuck first on my lawn then in my forest and it taking an hour by a really nice man to get it out. I have the blah february blues.

5. Put the damn dishes into the dishwasher (I am dying to say that, though I never would!!! cuz I'm a good mommy! lol

6. My daughter Ayla and I are so close and she likes taking food off other people's plates so I know if she wanted to, she would not hesitate to take a good time while she dips her donut in my tea. Gosh, I love her Chutzpah!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed any second. Tomorrow my plans include going to Michael's for their sale and buying supplies for my bestie teacher Roben-Marie Smith's Class and Sunday, I want to start Roben-Marie's Collage, Affirmation, Construct Workshop! (LINK - JUST SCROLL OVER ROBEN-MARIE'S NAME.

p.s. In case you aren't familiar with this, everything in bold is what FRIDAY FILL IN'S (SCROLL OVER NAME FOR ADDRESS) gives us to work with. JOIN IN. IT'S A BLAST!!!!!

Have a good weekend loverlies! cuddles, samara

HOW TO RELIEVE ANXIETY...

GET TOTALLY DEPRESSED!

This had to be the funniest but most profound piece of advice and observation I have ever had from one of my children. I thought it was absolutely brilliant! Along with the numerous workshops I am taking right now (Mixed Media on-line) that are encouraging the embracing of ALL emotions, I have been doing some inner work to embrace all emotions - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Here is what I came up with.

1) I thought Jordan's words about the UPside of having chronic depression were brilliant, last week, when I was coming out of a 3 1/2 week bout of horrific depression - the longest in 8 years - (to truly see the benefit - that I would feel no anxiety whatsoever because I could feel "nothing"... as people with depression will know. I was absolutely "miffed" how profound this statement was. A few years back when I told him "I just don't care about anything and I hate that." He said to me: "Then just don't care about being depressed too." Again - brilliant! Gosh...

2) That I have come to realize that Depression is a truly wonderful gift in my life and healing tool kit. One would not tend to see it that way! Depression is an inner and outer instructor I have ignored and loathed for a very long time.

But when else am I going to sleep all day, stay in my PJ's, eat very little but drink lots of liquids (a good flush and fast), let myself get really messy? It just isn't my style. I am SO fastidious about how I look etc. that I would never "take time off" my life like my Depression makes me do. So I realized that my Depression is in fact, a wonderfully authentic friend - nothing to fear anymore and nothing to lament. Something to celebrate.

Tuck under the covers, get a tray beside me, load it up with food but perhaps put a tooth brush there too!

In light of all this...here is the art I came up with during this time. I think those who also have a lifetime of Chronic Mental Illness will relate. We are strong, we are brave and we are LOVED! and incredibly LOVING! Let us never underestimate that...we have a gift, if we choose to see and embrace it.

Peace and Lovies!