Time and Time Again

playing in the class...bottom right is made with cling wrap.
The bottom two are on ceramic tile and the top two on Yupo Paper.  

alcohol inks...blown flower on yupo paper

Time, and time again…

When friend Autumn recently commented on how I must have 30 hours in my days rather than the 24 she seems to have been allotted, it made me smile and give that some thought.  

I swear that synchronicity is at play in my life all the time now.  Things people say and do and read just seem to be in some sort of connection through a parallel universe.  I have spent the better part of the the summer in a kind of revelation of time and it’s relationship to me.  

It may have a lot to do with my approaching 80th birthday because I know that everything is tied to everything else in my world and what seemed endless time is certainly now finite time.  Which it is for all of us, it’s just that older people get it.    

  

I began wondering if my fascination with Steam Punk is also part of the whole picture.  Steam Punk revolves around a fascination with a fantasy world set in another time period and often features clocks. And for me…all summer long, one thing seems to lead to another. And they all seem interrelated around the theme of the management of “time”.  

I started out by reading a book recommended by my daughter Julie…Sidewalk Oracles: Playing with Signs, Symbols and Synchronicity in Everyday Life by Robert Moss.  An innocent foray into the idea that everything that happens to you is worth noting and chance encounters and everyday decisions can and do change your life.  And if you are “fine tuned” you can really interpret some of the symbolic things that you come across in the commonest of events.  You can, if you practice, catch messages and receive gifts that seem almost enchanted.  It’s a lovely example of living beyond the ordinary.  So I began to sort of “tune up” to notice things a bit more.  

So then that led to another book that came my daughters’ way and it seemed to fit into my life in another magical way: Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life by Marney Makridakis. (It’s been around for 7 years so you can find used copies inexpensively.). Marney’s advice for slowing down time:

1. Create “focused” time.  Focus on one thing.  Sounds just like me teaching Zentangle®, doesn’t it?
2. Focus on Segments rather than wholeness.  As my friend Cynthia said during her husbands stressful summer…”one step at time got me through”.  
3. Create time wraps.  Visualize yourself “wrapping” up a bundle of time to do the things that you need and want.  Hold that sacred. 
4. Slow down.  Hurrying is an inclination for folks who don’t have time.  Or think they don’t.  Move intentionally and act deliberately. I don’t know how it works but it does.
5. Give yourself “circular time”.  Not linear time.
6. Use all your senses more deeply.
7. Notice EVERYTHING happening.  Seen in small segments you get more aligned with life that way.
8. Mental Snapshots…Slow down your mind’s camera.
9. Have high awareness time―I laugh..in this point the author says “spend time with babies and the elderly” this will sharpen your sense of the life-cycle.  SO true.
10. View your time as a “resource” and allocate a piece of it to things you need and want to do. Like tithing.  

Tie this together my love of poet Mary Oliver whose main gift to the world was an assessment of how to live your life so your soul can live in the moment.  And I find things just dropping into my world about the way to make time be more than time.  

So that’s how to get 30 hours out of 24. 

Ginny

Ps, Oh and in honor of serendipity again…I am reading a book by Alan Alda now called Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself.  I quote: 

“I think we don’t realize how important time is. When we couldn’t communicate at the speed of light, we probably didn’t think about it much.  But things do take time. Chemical reactions take time.  Mourning a loss takes time. In fact, all transitions in our lives take time.  Getting in shape, physically or mentally takes more than a weekend, no matter what they tell you in the brochure.”

You see what I mean…it’s all connected.  

Inktober Begins

Printemps, TunnelVizion, Toodles

Each September, the Inktober gang publishes an official "list" of words that people sketch or draw from in the annual challenge.  I know you can probably go back a few years in my archives to see the one I did where I actually sketched!  

It was fun and can be very interesting and useful.  But last year it became apparent that it would be almost impossible to do while traveling from Wisconsin to Florida.  So I switched to the Zentangle community's official tangle list and tangled my way through the month.  That worked.  The tangles took less time and were more portable.

This year I plan a folding accordion book hand made book with pages about 5 x 5".  I am tangling 3 tangles per page so am just posting every third day through the month.  Today is the first post for day 3.  Everyone doing the Zentangle challenge posts the same tangles done in a million different ways.  

On another note...I attended a delightful workshop on how to do alcohol inks led by Lisa Krueger. Very fun.  The workshop was held at the Manitowish Waters Community Center and sponsored by the Manito Art League.  I am wearing the pink sweater.   

Alcohol Ink Play

This is alcohol inks (just playing in the studio) and getting ready for the workshop that will be on Wednesday. I haven't touched them for quite awhile.  

Some artists (on youtube) use canned air to help move the ink around.  Some blow with a straw.  I find that I get kind of dizzy if I blow a lot on the straw (others complain about this too) so I think I'm going to invest in canned air somewhere down the line.  

You get really interesting effect with moving the ink on glossy or non porous surfaces.  The ink doesn't work on paper.

You can use it on Yupo (plastic paper) or porcelain tiles or glass or plexiglass.   

So then I took this piece and enhanced it below:

There is something about the abstract quality of alcohol in that draws me toward putting Zentangle® on it.  These are Sakura MicroPerm archival ink pens.  I may put on more but decided to stop and look at it awhile.  I mean you can just go on forever and that might not be the best strategy.  The piece is on regular Yupo and is about 10 x 10".  It's very colorful and playful.  

For these little pice about 5 x 5, I used "translucent" Yupo Paper.

Kind of different effect.  I cut out a heart stencil out of Contact paper and adhered it to the Yupo paper to hold the ink in the shape.  (It still leaked a little under the edges.  You really have to press it down hard.)

It will make a pretty Valentine.  Also it can be hung on a window like stained glass.  You can also cut apart these abstract designs and make interesting collage pieces out of them!  

The paint is not stable so you have to seal it with a clear acrylic spray.  

Summer Fun

My "littles" are progressing along this week...A cup of cocoa indicates we had a frost warning.  So I painted one of my favorite cups full. BRRRR.  But now this week we are in the 80s.  (It is so confusing up here.)

Two books included...one on art and one is the book PBS is using for it's monthly read along...a science fiction book called The Fifth Season.  It's fascinating but dark. 

Then Greg got hit in the head while working in the annex!  OH boy. Luckily not too serious.  
There is a bottle of my new alcohol inks.  And I planted my geraniums yesterday.  

My first alcohol ink fun splatter painting.  First off I don't have some of the "suggested" supplies which include 90+% alcohol.  Mine is only 70% so when I get that corrected it will help.  Also many of the videos include the solution that helps to move the ink around a little better.  I probably should get some of that too.  I only had 3 colors to start but have now received 3 more colors I ordered so that should involve more experimenting ahead! 

I played around adding some ink embellishments after it was dry.  

They make interesting and colorful greeting cards.  I did spray a clear coat over them before making the cards.