My special online friend Marguerite Bryant has always been so thoughtful and caring whenever upsetting events are occurring in my family that I thought I would celebrate her friendship by creating a zine about her. It was a fun way to keep my mind busy so I would stop worrying about what is going to happen with my mother who has stopped eating. I "shared" it in Google Docs for anyone to look at if you would like to. This is the first time I've tried sharing anything through Google Docs, so hopefully it works. Just click on the link below.
(The link does work. However, the pictures are a little fuzzy using the Google viewer. It looks perfectly fine viewing it in Acrobat Reader. If Google will allow you to download it, it's better to do that and then open it with Acrobat Reader.)
In order to quiet your inner critic, you have to recognize it first.
Elements from Mr. Whiskers' kits "Masks" and "Steampunk" at deviantscrap.com.
My mother has been very ill. She is 82. We've been busy taking care of her and my father, and I haven't been able to visit blogs lately. My brain is shot. I'm trying to still create my digital collages to keep from freaking out, though. I don't know. After looking at this one, maybe I already did.
I really wanted to buy a digital kit that came out at Deviant Scrap
today, but since we're broke, I made myself use elements I already have.
Which is probably more information than you need to know! :o) The
elements are from Mister Whiskers' kit "Sea", Gypsy's "Mercurial
Trench," and Crystal Rain's "Life's a Beach."
Tonight is the third and last live event celebrating the release of Marney's new book Creating Time. I hope you will order it. It truly is fascinating. If you click on the Amazon icon in the right column, it will take you right there where you may order it. Amazon is saying they are already out of the book, but the publisher says the next shipment is going right out!
In honor of this past 3 weeks of celebrating time, I created another digital collage with the theme about time.
Elements are from Clementine's new kit "Are We There Yet?"
In keeping with the celebration of the release of Marney's new book Creating Time, I've written another time haiku. This time, though, I illustrated it using a beautiful photo by Eric Tenin. Eric writes the blog "Paris Daily Photo." He posts a wonderful photo each day that he has taken in Paris. How I wish I could visit Paris! I asked if I could use the photo he posted today, and he said yes. Thank you, Eric! His original photo is below:
Here is the photo after I altered it and added the haiku about time:
Today is the official release of Marney's book Creating Time. If you would like to read more about it, please see my post below. Also, if you would like to see Eric's wonderful photos of Paris, please visit his blog at: http://www.parisdailyphoto.com/ I receive each of his new posts through email, because I love seeing Paris through his eyes.
It's official. Today is the release of Marney K. Makridakis new book Creating Time - Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life.If you've ever said "I don't have enough time," this book is for you. If you've ever thought "I wish I had more time for my art," this book is for you.
Listen to Marney describe it in her own words:
I knew this book would be fascinating to read, because I took the Artella class "From Here to ARTernity." It was the first time I heard the idea that there are two ways of viewing time - linear verses non-linear, kronos verses kairos. As artists, we enter into kairos without even realizing it. What am I talking about? Well, I don't want to spoil your appetite. The answer is in Marney's book Creating Time. The answer is thought-provoking indeed!
During the past couple of weeks, you may have seen an illustrated haiku or two (hey, that rhymes!) on my blog about the subject of time. I love haiku! Creating Timeinspired me to write "time" haiku by including a poetic pause at the beginning of each chapter. The poetic pauses are haiku written in the five, seven, five syllable format. Their purpose is to encourage you to pause and think about time and what it means to you. Probably no big surprise, but I've written one that I saved to include in this post today.
In case you haven't guessed, I'm especially excited about this book, because Marney chose to include two of my digital collages in her book. (Did you notice my header up above?) Wow! I would like to include them here, but that would spoil the excitement of you seeing them in the book.
Just in case you absolutely want to see a preview of the book, though, Marney has given me permission to post a couple of pages. (Thanks, Marney!)
Time Sighs When You’re Having Fun
An Excerpt from Creating Time by Marney
Makridakis
The perception of time is the quintessential human paradox.
We often want to escape ourselves and lose track of time, and yet when we
become fully aware of the gift of time, we are more present and in touch. As
mentioned in chapter 1, I see a solution in becoming less aware of time but more aware of the
present moment. This leads us to a certain state of bliss that
often is described as “losing track of time” or “timelessness.”
We all have had moments when we lost track of time or became
unaware of the time passing. There are several ways to describe such
experiences. In 1964,
Abraham Maslow coined the term peak experiences to explain those moments when we are
fully engaged with something outside ourselves. In his book Finding Flow: The Psychology of
Engagement with Everyday Life, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
popularized the concept of flow,
a mental state in which we are fully immersed in what we are doing through
energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.
During peak experiences or flow activities, it’s not so much
that time goes faster, but that time seems to dissolve altogether. We’ve all
heard that time flies when we are having fun, but when I’ve been in the flow
state, I have felt that time neither flies nor stalls...instead, time sighs. When we have those experiences of time sighing,
everything feels different. The example that sticks out for me occurred several
years ago, when we had just moved to Hawaii and my husband had returned to the
mainland to finish packing up our home there. I spent two months in a new home,
on an island where I didn’t know anyone. It was a unique opportunity for inward
exploration and reflection, and it triggered the most prolific period of
creativity I’d ever experienced. With few responsibilities or obligations, and
with no sense of linear time, I did little else but paint wildly colorful
canvases around the clock.
I can remember a sensation of blurriness in the air as I was
painting, as if the edges of my experience were fusing into something else,
perhaps the very borders of time fading away. Though I’ve never felt it again
to quite that extent, I still recognize this gossamer-silk sensation during
times when I am in a creative flow; I’ve even experienced it a few times as
I’ve been writing this book. I don’t know what it means, and I can scarcely
even describe it; I just know that everything takes on a different quality when
we are in the flow, when time is sighing. When I asked students to describe
their experience during the flow state, they shared some of the following
impressions:
• “Colors become
brighter.”
• “I feel a buzzing
sensation inside.”
• “I feel really, really
awake.”
• “There’s a bit of
sparkle in the air.”
As a child, I remember, I fantasized about what it would be
like to live inside of a snow globe. I think this fantasy was rooted in growing
up in Texas and longing for snow. And yet, even then, perhaps part of me longed
for the still perfection of a glitter-filled utopia and the metaphor for
timelessness that it provides. In those sparkly little dome-shaped wonderlands,
there is only the present, only the now, only that world. Nothing else matters —
appointments, responsibilities, negotiations. Everything is flowing,
shimmeringly encapsulated in the moment, encased in a flow globe.
In real life, we can call it flow, peak experience, or losing track of time —
different labels to describe the same type of experience, an experience that we
all seem to crave. These timeless moments align us with the truisms of who we
are. They unify us with the world on which we spin. And they provide our souls
with deep evidence that outside of the obvious mortal limitations we have on
this planet, the perception of time is completely subjective, and just as it
was when we were children, time is therefore always under our control instead of the other way
around.
Marney K. Makridakis is
the author of Creating Time. She
founded the Artella online community for creators of all kinds and the print
magazine Artella. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she created the
ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through art. She lives in Dallas, Texas.
Visit her online at http://www.artellaland.com.
Now comes the really exciting part! You'll want to order the book today. Why? This innovative book turns the concept of time management upside-down and creatively shows you that you do have all the time you need and can create a rich new experience with
time that consistently supports you. You can order from any online
bookseller any time this week and get an awe-inspiring bundle of
time-expanding bonuses, and if you order Today, April 17 only, you’ll also get over $125 worth of Artella merchandise. Isn’t it time for a new kind of time? Click on the Amazon icon below to order your copy.
This is a very apropos word for this week. Tuesday I will have a special post about Marney Makridakis new book Creating Time. It's the official release date, and Marney, founder of Artella, is offering all kinds of free goodies for people who order the book on that day. The details will be in my blog post. I hope you'll visit my blog on Tuesday! In case you can't tell, I'm really excited about the book. Two of my digital collages are included in it. Yay!
Moving right along, here is my collage and haiku for this challenge:
I created this to attempt to follow the tutorial suggested by Tom at Digital Whisper. Unfortunately, my brain couldn't handle the tutorial. Egads! I must be getting old. Anyway, the roses and border are from Hollie's kit "Rose Is A Rose." The quotes are from Tangie Baxter's kit "Tangibles 005." The background is made of many layers combined by me.
Julie Ann Shahin who contributes weekly to Tangie Baxter's blog has been giving prompts in addition to those from The Art Journal Caravan. The one for this week was: Create an art journal page based on the quote, "Live the life you've imagined." This is one I created:
Elements from Tangie Baxter's "Parcel #15" and "Steampunk Je t'adore." Other elements from Tumble Fish Studio's "Male Persuasion."
Since I love creating digital art, I opened up Photoshop while listening to Marney's live Time Event Two and took notes that way. It was a fascinating event!
Created for The Whisper group challenge at Digital Whispers using a line from the poem "Awaken to Beauty" by John O'Donohue. Elements from Holliewood's digital kit "Stark." Man by Albu Mihai at Deviant Art.
Would you like a chance to win Seth Apter's new book? There are 3 quotes from me in the book, but I didn't have a digital collage published in this one. :((At least I have two in Marney's book. Woops. You're probably tired of hearing me say that. Having 3 quotes in Seth's book is certainly nice, though!) Everyone is giving Seth's book rave reviews!
To try to win a copy of Seth's book, all you need to do is visit: http://twodressesstudio.blogspot.ca/2012/04/could-you-please-help-me-vote-for-your.html Trudi is offering several ways to get more than one chance to win. Check out her contest below. You may click on the link above or click on the picture below. I hope you win! (Not really. I want to win.)
"When does time sigh for you? Think
of a recent time when you were so engaged in the present moment that
you lost track of your sense of linear time. Where were you? What were
you doing? Who were you with? What did it feel like?"
Some elements from Finecrafted Design's digital kit "Paris Art Studio." Overlay by Shadowhouse Creations. Brushes from Artella's March Studio Kit "About Time."
I started reading "Creating Time." I was able to get an early release copy, because I was a contributor. (Yay!) I also will be having a special post here on my blog on April 17, the official release day. One of the things I immediately saw and love is that each chapter has a "Poetic Pause." The Poetic Pauses are a haiku with time as the subject. I love haiku! I immediately had to write a couple. One I'm saving for April 17, but here is a different one:
The reference to parallel worlds will make more sense if you read Marney's book. :O)
ARTsignment: Create a piece of art using any media or art supplies to illustrate one of your "time-traveling messages".
If you would like to join in the free Creating Time three week special events, just click on the Creating Time icon in the right column. If you would like to order the book, the official release date is April 17 th. There will be some special gifts for ordering the book from my blog on April 17 th. It is so exciting, because two of my digital collages are included in the book.
Some digital elements are from ViVa's "Otaku" kit, Tangie Baxter's
"Cartography Set's 19 and 20" and Photoshop brushes from Artella's March
Studio kit "About Time."
Well, it finally arrived. I opened the mailbox to find my copy of Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life. It is so exciting to see work of people I know only through the Internet included in the pages of the book. It's even more exciting to find out that two of my digital collages were included. I thought only one was going to be published. Wow! I can't wait to read this wonderful book. The doors of time are thrown wide open!
If you want to get a copy for yourself, I put an Amazon icon you can click on in the right column. You will definitely want to see this!
The big, free event starts today! If you would like to join in on the fun, just click on the banner above. I created a digital collage in answer to one of the journaling prompts for today: 2. What is your deepest wish, regarding time?
(Elements from digital kits by Tangie Baxter and Eena's Creations.)
