ABC Wednesday - Round 24 begins!

We are now starting Round 24!  A new year and a new round.

This round I plan to focus on actions that can be taken to make this the best year ever, and will use a journal to create a page of quotes.

A is for A new year. 2019 has the potential to be a turbulent year, carrying on from the upheaval and discord that has spread like a cancer around the world;

-where a U.S. president is under intense FBI scrutiny and lies repeatedly

-where populism and white supremacy is exploding, world-wide

-where racism has reared its ugly head

-where even schools and churches are no longer safe from gun violence.

But we do not have to succumb or surrender to the hate and negativity of last year.

We need to act.

We need positive, assertive actions and attitudes to push back that negativity.

Yes. It is A NEW YEAR. A year

- to take action

-to adjust attitudes

-to assert positive affirmations.

Make 2019 your best year yet.

Be sure to check here to wee what others around the world did for A.

ABC Wednesday - M is for Mask

This week at ABC Wednesday, M is our focus.

M is for Mask -which has several meanings. With Hallowe'en soon here, masks will be in abundance, from simple ones to cover the eyes, or ones to hide a face

To mask  means to conceal or disguise.

In art, a mask is used as a screen.

For health reasons, we wear a mask to protect and for sleep, we use a C-PAP to help keep our airways open.

I could not choose just one quote - so I created 4. art tags with my mask carved stamp:

Be sure to check here to see what others around the world did for M.

ABC Wednesday - D (and A,B, C) with WOYWW

Round 19 of ABC Wednesday has already begun - this week lettter D is our focus.
I took a few weeks off - for a holiday in Georgia and North Carolina. But I'm back, to take part in old and new challenges.

This round I will be working on more tags - this time with a used stamp and quote from famous and not so famous people.

D is for Isadora Duncan -an American dancer, born in 18877 and died in 1927 in France, at age 50.
(Check here for more info)

Here are the 3 other tags I missed:

A is for Mathilde F. Anneke

B is for Ethel Barrymore

C is for Jacqueline Cochran

Be sure to check here to see what others around the world did for D.



WOYWW

I've missed a few weeks but am back to creating.
We are encouraged each week to share what our workspaces look like and what we are creating at "Stamping Ground", the home of WOYWW - the fun weekly meme hosted by Julia Dunnit.

Here's my dining room table, just before I created my ABC tags.
Note the backgrounds to the left, which I had created a while ago.

And then the completed cards (with a wee bit of mess).

A to Z April Challenge - C

Today is  C - at the A to Z April Challenge.
 Still time to join in the fun!

C is for create

(in the background are zens - another fun challenge)

For me, art has become a necessary way for me to express my creativity. Using challenges of many kinds I have worked on tags, ATCs, in journals with painting, gelli printing, watercolkour , to name just a few of the mediums I have tried and enjoy.

Picasso is one of my favourite artists and his idea of art (and of course, his art) was extraordinary. One of my favourite quotes of his is:

Every child is an artist. 
The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.


*Each of is creative - we just have to find the medium, technique, outlet to express that creativity.


Here are a few links to garner more information on creativity:


TED Talks about creativity


37 Books every Creative person needs to read

40 Books to unlock your creativity



Two tags I made for C (create):

But there are so many quotes that I had to share a few more:

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.

 — Mary Lou Cook

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.
― Mother Teresa

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

– Leo Burnett

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.

 – Steve Jobs

Creativity is a drug I cannot live without – Cecil B. DeMille

Creativity is contagious, pass it on – Albert Einstein

Art on Friday

It is almost impossible to make sense of the massacre of 9 people  - in a church, no less.
Evil seems to be seeping into every part of our world. Charleston, S.C. is one of the most heinous.

I turned to words to help me - words by Martin Luther King Jr. and others - to help see that love, acceptance, respect, dignity must prevail.

My two journal spreads reflect these words.

LOVE MUST TRIUMPH!

Linking with:

Paint Party Friday

Show Your Face

Art Journal Every Day

Be true to Yourself - SOL

As I read the new quote for  "Artists in Blogland",

it struck me that being true to yourself begins with your younger self. The dreams we have in childhood often get lost as we grow, mature and are impacted by the world around us.

My dream to be a teacher began in Grade 3 as an 8 year old. I lined up my stuffies and taught them their letters. later I sat my younger sister and brothers and tried to teach them. (Didn't work as well as the stuffies!)
I became a teacher in 1977, taught in the NWT for 3 years, in Alberta for 2 years and in Ontario for the past 25 years.
I love teaching and describe myself first as a teacher.
Even if I retire this year (as I hope to do), I I will still teach, hopefully art to children.

Art and writing are my new dreams - we are never to old to dream. But I must be true to myself and develop my own style and skills.

There are so many quotes that really reflect the need to "be true to yourself",

from Shakespeare
"To thine own self be true."
to
Steve Jobs:
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life". ~Steve Jobs

Here are a few more:

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."  ~Dr. Seuss

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."  ~e.e. cummings

"There is just one life for each of us: our own". ~Euripides

"Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are". ~Julius Charles Hare

"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are."  ~Jim Morrison

"You were born an original. Don't die a copy". ~John Mason