JoDee Luna's Blog, page 19

Does Painting Cause Wordlessness?

“The Pretender” My latest acrylic painting in process

I’ve noticed an interesting change in my creative composition. The more I become enamored with acrylic painting, and want to paint, the less words I have to write.

It’s the oddest thing because I’ve never been at a loss for words or lacked something to write about. In fact, I’ve processed my thoughts, feelings, and experiences with a pen since I was twenty-years-old—thirty-four years and counting.

So when this fixation with painting really took hold in me over the past few months, I noticed a lot of befuddling, wordless mornings. So while the words flow this morning, I’m jotting down some observations about painting that might be part of the puzzle:

Painting relaxes: My daughter, Elya, has always told me how painting relaxes her. Now I understand what she has described to me. Painting does relax me. I play music on Pandora and go into “The Painter’s Zone.” Hours later I emerge with taunt neck muscles soothed and a soul full of contentment.
Painting fuels the imagination: As I paint, I see the face on the canvas rise up from the white and become someone. I envisioned this fictitious character as a youth on a quest in an enchanted forest, and then Elya made a suggestion that got me thinking: “Mom, your paintings would make great covers for youth books.”
Painting helps develop focus: When I paint, my brain shuts off the mental chatter. I examine photographs to see how the light dances across the face. I try to focus on shapes, colors, shades, hues, tones, and tints instead of a nose or eyes. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain describes how to use this technique.
Painting teaches patience: It takes a while to finish a painting, which runs counter to my impatient personality. I like completion but painting teaches me that some of the best things in life are worth working towards and waiting for.
Painting produces a sense of satisfaction: Sure, words relieve the tortured soul but painting feels like sitting in a room with someone who knows you so well that words would only invade the peacefulness.

Yes, painting has upset my writing routines. I’ve broken the unsullied, eight-year habit of writing several pages every morning. Yet I’ve discovered that this isn’t a bad thing. When befuddling wordlessness occurs, I know that painting has something wonderful in store for me.

So, creative eclectic readers, if painting or another art form is calling you to set down your journal and venture into your art room, go with it. I’d love to read your comments about those times when befuddling wordlessness happens.

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The Fallow Ground of Creativity

Have you ever noticed that dry times tend to follow a creative project?

I know I have. I can be on such an artistic roll painting or writing or songwriting, and then I finish the piece and my creativity comes to a screeching halt.

I often experience these odd, unproductive times after a flood of productivity. It’s as if my muse melts into the hot asphalt of my mind, and then evaporates into mid-air. During the last dry time, I hung up my art work so I would remember what it felt like to create.

I do believe there are seasons when the artistic soul needs to rest. These are times when the imagination runs dry and pages remain blank. You look around your art room to see empty canvases and musical instruments in coffin-like cases.  The ground of your creativity lays fallow—uncultivated, empty, and lifeless.

One never knows when or why the ideas suddenly stop and motivation seeps through the floorboards of your art studio. No amount of rustling up resolve can hurry this time of fallow ground. Just like in nature, future productivity depends upon your depleted field resting.

I used to fight this annoying lack of motivation, as if I could do anything to fill myself back up before I rested. When I tried to rush back into the flow, angst and frustration resulted. So, now I’m learning to go with it and rest until the next flood of inspiration happens. I let the ground of my artistry lay fallow, like depleted soil in a once productive field.

I water my emptiness with sun-kissed walks and garden weeding. I spend an inordinate amount of time on Pinterest, looking at what inspires others. I spend more time with family, read another book, or relax with a movie.

Here’s a few more suggestions of things you can do when you’re in that fallow ground time:

Take that weekend excursion you’ve been longing to do
Visit an art museum
Buy a Somerset Magazine in an area of interest
Escape into one of your favorite creative spaces, put your feet up, close your eyes, and listen to music on Pandora (online website for music)
Clean out that closet you’ve been avoiding
Work in your garden
Enjoy an old classics movie night
Call a friend or family member
Visit an outdoor market
Sip wine and eat crackers and cheese at a local wine bar
Edit a manuscript you’ve been procrastinating about finishing
Hang up your past paintings and enjoy your progress

Whatever you do, don’t fight this season of unproductive artistry because doing so will only prolong the blahs. Just be…be yourself, be you apart from creativity…be a source of encouragement to others. In time, a wave of imagination will water your fallow ground and your muse will return.

Select the image link below for more inspiration:

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A Wedding Blast

The vintage photo booth was definitely a highlight at a recent family wedding, second only to the stunning bride and handsome groom.

What a fantastic way to enjoy each other’s company. My cousin, Mary Katherine (mother of the groom and the woman wearing the fur hat in the second photo from the right) and her husband, Reed, provided this creative way to celebrate.

Photo booths are fun ways to meet new people. I met many of these people for the first time, while we were in the photo booth.

During my photo booth experience, I learned what it means to have your perfect picture “photo bombed,” when someone invades your photo (Note man in the top right corner of both pictures).

The photo booth mixes generations; even my father and mother got into the act. Dad’s got a ball cap and white tie on, and Mom is wearing the masquerade mask.

My sister and I returned to those high school days when we used to poise in photo booths.

 

Everyone who used the photo booth didn’t want to leave the photo booth. This got me thinking: What a fun activity for any family gathering or party with friends. 

Here’s the website link to the company that provided the vintage photo both https://www.facebook.com/VintageVault.

 

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Promises and The Way Finder

Have you ever waited a very long time for a promise to be fulfilled or been sorely disappointed when it didn’t happen like you’d hoped it would?I sure have. In fact, recently, I realized that two promises (I only saw snippets of in dreams) took 9 and 12 years to materialize. The first had to do with the spread of literacy resources for children and youth and the second promise had to do with the arts becoming more accessible for children and youth.  I wrote “snippets” because I’ve come to realize that I only got a sliver of understanding.

During those long years of waiting, I tried to make the promises come true in different ways, and did experience some results. But now that the promises are in full swing, I’m in awe over how the fulfillment came in such unexpected ways.

The longer I believe, the surer I am that my insight is limited at best. In fact, I’m far more hesitant to claim that I’ve heard anything from God. And if I see a part of the puzzle, I’ve learned to concede to the Creator’s wisdom and way.

I’ve also come to realize that every unanswered prayer was/is either a wait or a no. In either case, wisdom beseeches surrender to a God who sees the entire picture and who can make whatever is on His heart come to pass according to His timeline.

In 2 Peter 3:9, we read that “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

Although this scripture has to do with salvation, this sure does apply to waiting for the Way Finder to fulfill His promises to us.

One of my favorite verses continually reminds me to surrender to The Way Finder:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

 

What does surrender look like?

Disappointment: Something you wanted doesn’t happen the way you thought it should.

Enlightenment: You realize that it wasn’t the best thing for you or your timing was off.

Apathy: You loose all motivation to pursue what you thought you wanted.

Redirection: The Lord opens up another path or encourages you to wait for the promise.

Here’s another tidbit of advice: Keep a dream journal with a Table of Contents. Number the pages and label the outside of the journal for the years included within.

This will help you to keep track of your promises. I was able to re-read the promises I mentioned above because I wrote them down in a journal all of those years ago.

I hope my experience encourages you during those dark times when hoped for promises don’t come to pass or seem slow in coming.

For more inspiration, select the link below:

 

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Forest Adventure of Youth with Mask

Here’s the finished acrylic portrait I’ve been working on for the past two weeks I’ve titled, Forest Adventures.

This project has conjured up some interesting ideas. My daughter, Elya, suggested, “Mom, this painting could be an illustration for a story.”

Her suggestion brought to mind a YA (Youth Adult) novel I’d started several years ago about a youth with a vivid imagination. In the series, the character exits real life to go on adventures in her imagination that become reality.

So now Elya’s ideas have spurred me to continue working on my fantasy series. Fiction writing is not my forte so this will definitely be an adventure for me, both in painting and in writing.

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Pinterest Verification

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Forest Adventure: Mask Portrait in Process

Forest Adventure is my recent portrait painting in process.

Lately, I’ve been on a roll with portrait painting, so I decided to use one of my photographs as the inspiration for this new painting. My daughter, Elya, painted this mask and is the model in the photo.

One of the many reasons I love this photo so much is that Elya’s life is an adventure.

Elya and Chad where Avatar was filmed, the karst limestone formations in China.

She has traveled and worked in places like China, Spain, Cambodia, Korea, and currently, in Thailand.

Her adventurous spirit surely inspired the mask, Forest Adventure.

Elya and her boyfriend, Chad, in Thailand.

I began the painting with a background of teal green and yellow ochre. I used a brayer to create the molted effect. I usually use a brayer after forming the background of a mixed media with paper, like Elya used in this photo. However, you can also use a brayer to create a background.

Next, I traced the outlines of the photo onto the canvas by placing carbon paper between the canvas and the photo. I then traced the photo with a sharp pencil. This is an easy way to get the general sketch you desire onto the canvas.

I’m working on seeing the photo in hues (another name for color), tints (color plus white), shades (color plus black), intensity (brightness or dullness), and value (lightness or darkness of a color). Creating this on a canvas is quite challenging but rewarding. How the painting will evolve is an adventure. The portrait is far from complete, but I’m excited about its progress so I thought I’d share what I have so far.  I’ll post the finished product when I’m done.

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Chosen

I created this mixed media to visualize what it means to be Chosen. 

In My Father’s Vineyard by Wayne Jacobsen inspired Chosen. I’m reading this wonderful book and savoring every word, like a glass of fine wine.

Having grown up on a vineyard, Jacobsen’s knowledge about vineyard husbandry brings scriptures to life. Jacobsen explains how God has grafted us into the true vine, and then parallels our faith with the seasonal and long-term life cycles of a vineyard.

In the mixed media, God’s strong yet gentle hands are part of the vine that cradles the youth’s face. I wanted to express that when we rest in His love and abide in Him, we are cared for and fruitful.

In My Father’s Vineyard elicits a sigh deep in my soul. The author’s explanations and examples of how God works over the course of our lifetime help me to trust in the processes of faith.

In My Father’s Vineyard is helping me to release my compulsion to figure it all out. In fact, while reading, I’ve reflected upon promises in my life that are only now coming true after nine years of waiting and cultivating.

Thanks, Mom, for giving me this amazing book, and for showing me what it means to rest in knowing you are Chosen.

Jacobsen highlights John 15: 1-5:

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word, which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

*Scrapbook paper:

“The Timeless Type Stack” by DCWV, Brenda Walton’s Designer Paper, K&Company

For more inspiration select the image link below:

 

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live towards the light

live towards the light is a mixed media piece that addresses the artistic soul’s dark side. Those times when cloaks of confusion, anxiety, and despair fall over your heart, mind, and soul.

Depression runs in my artistic family, and I know we’re not alone. Over the years, I’ve talked to countless other creative people who struggle with similar feelings. The names and faces may change, but the bouts of depression sound quite similar.

They go from glorious times when creativity rides on the winds of inspiration to episodes of negative emotions that overcome them. They tell me how they struggle to find their way out of the malaise. I empathize with these amazingly talented yet tormented people because I also wrestle with my own demons.

live towards the light reminds me to turn away from my dark side and look towards the light. I created the artwork as an invitation to live for divine insight and heavenly peace.

Although our natural tendencies may urge us to indulge in negativity, we can choose to remember that God has shed His light into the darkest places upon this earth. We can follow His Spirit that is full of light.

How do you deal with your dark side?

 

Isaiah 9:2

For more inspiration, select the photo link below:

 

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Moon Dancing

We creative sorts are destined to be moon dancers, people who envision the impossible and dance upon the unreachable, dreams as distant as the moon.

Dedicated to my daughter, Andy Luna, one of the most remarkable moon dancers I know!

We spent an inordinate amount of time fantasizing about what could happen in our artistic lives:

Perhaps I’ll become a famous novelist.
Maybe my art will be recognized on Etsy and Somerset Magazine will approach me about a feature article.
A franchise company could discover me online and offer me a contract.
A music producer looking for new talent on YouTube will hear my song and offer me a record deal.

Or maybe your moon dancing isn’t as outlandish. Perhaps you just fanaticize about retiring early and supplementing your income with some extra art sales. Or maybe you long to visit beach communities, like my sister and I dream about, and sell your arts and crafts at street fairs.

Many of us have indulged in some kind of moon dancing fantasy and yet had to work day jobs to pay the bills. We may even love our jobs; but eventually, we grow restless. Our feet start to tap the floor and our arms reach for the moon. We find ourselves longing for the impossible dream.

We see other moon dancers in our imaginations. We study their moonlit madness, their ribbons of possibility streaming across tangerine skies. Moon dancers that move to a music not of this world, and we understand because the same beat thunders in our souls, eggs us on, seduces us to join living life on tippy toes, with heels rarely touching the ground.

We give in and let the moon dancer in us emerge, even though we may never achieve fame as defined by other earthlings. We connect with our Creator, a magnificent God who provides the dance for those who believe in the impossible. We swirl with the Spirit who empowers all things sent from God.

As we join in the moon dance, we wonder whether this is the dance of communion between artist and Creator. We let the dance realign our priorities. We dare to wonder: Maybe speaking to masses about my book pales in comparison to dancing with my Creator. Maybe it’s all about the moon dance.

And when the moon dance overtakes our souls, something magical happens. Success no longer matters nearly as much. Being known as an artist fades into the background as we dare to dance with other creatives in moonlit skies. We release our obsessions with making money and hunger for more of the dance. We create to please God and to share our artistry with other moon dancers. And the world below our feet becomes a place full of possibilities.

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