Beginning again...Courageously

It's been over 3 years since I've added anything to this site, but I feel like I'm ready to start sharing again. Since February of 2017, I've closed Eyes Open Now but in future posts I will share many of the things I created during that time. I definitely learned a lot from that business and may have kept it going if it didn't meet in my home. As it is, I've appreciated being able to do art just to do art and not as part of a business. I will be continuing to offer classes periodically through the Bozeman Dharma Center's Mindful Creativity Group once that becomes an option again in a COVID-19 world.

Right now I'm enjoying Courageous Creativity offered by Amanda Mauck. Each day we receive an interview with Amanda and another artist with a creative exercise to work through. Each artist is also doing a freebie, but I haven't had a chance to check those out yet.  Amanda suggested making a Smash Book which I had a great time doing using one of my son's old Composition Notebooks from grade school (because I don't throw anything out).

The intention for this book is Mapping the Journey to My Heart. It's what I'm working on personally and so I know it will come out in anything I create.

The first exercise was with Tracy Verdugo who is just incredible. It entailed ripping magazines/book pages randomly into hand-sized pieces and then looking through the pieces for what captures your eye and writing down a line about it. At the end you have a poem. So cool how it works out. I pasted my pieces into my smash book, but Tracy keeps them tied in a bundle and can reuse them in different configurations.

The poem reads:

Because I was a girl

Fear was a weapon

Holding me down

When I get out

Lines will converge

Manufacturing Renaissance

A new way forward

I will hold the little girl of my heart