be kind

i've been thinking about kindness lately... thinking about how we can bring others down, and how we let others bring us down... i cut the word 'sensitive' from my father's high school shorthand book. that's shorthand for sensitive on the right...


kindness was (and is) feeling like flowers to me. i was seeing myself surrounded by flowers and my words nurturing flowers...


i've been contemplating. i feel just like this guy... thank god for that power antenna on his back! the eye was on a page in the 'rough muslin' book (last week's post). i ripped those pages up and put them to new uses.


i'm still using oil pastels a lot. i really like my new cray-pas set. did you know that they're the original oil pastels?


and still coloring in shapes that are already there on the page.


because i do my best contemplating when i'm walking, i've been out walking a lot. i just love these aspen trees. we don't have many here, only a few scattered stands.


one of last weeks journal pages 'repurposed' as a tree flag. i've been making flags like this lately - i attach three pieces of muslin with a 3/16" eyelet, and then it's ready to hang with a piece of heavy string.


usually i stamp something on scraps and then put them together...


one day i walked out on this log to sit and look at the creek, and i saw a face on the log. wow, i thought, i could color that in with colored pencils!


so i did...


and i just kept doing it!




this heart by mother nature was about 10' from the peace sign above.


they took the guerilla knit-up off of here! heh, i think it needs some new art...






what would you do if you found a smooth white surface in the woods to draw on? uh huh, smile!

this week's words are from an interview with the oiseaux sisters, carolyn rose fellman and susan andrews, in the spring 2005 issue of 'cloth paper scissors'. oh! i love their art! i love that they use so much recycled stuff in their art!

Carolyn and Susan say most of the techniques they use are a variation on the ones we all learned in elementary school: papier mache, crayon resist, painting, and gluing. "We take those early learning materials and mix them up. Take them farther. That's when it's art -- when we use it differently."

While the women would welcome the larger following and greater income that a higher profile might bring, their main goals are to live responsibly in the world, share their knowledge, and do their work. "The most creative thing we do is live on our income," says Susan. "We live in the cracks of the sidewalks. There are great cracks out there."

. . .

one more thing... bobbi studstill (aka cobaltika) is having a grand opening sale in her new etsy shop -- all photographic prints are $10, and her photography is fantastic! in her other etsy shop she's got new artwork and blank altered books. i have two of her books and they're *nice*. i swear i could collect them just to look at... i'm a big fan of everything she does -- one glance at my art room walls will tell you that...

XO