fat tuesday...mardi gras...

what is Fat Tuesday?

Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras, the festival New Orleans, Louisiana, is famous for. "Gras" is French for fat and "Mardi" is French for Tuesday.

When: Today...February 16, 2010; March 8, 2011

It is the time to party hardy, and...eat. Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. It is also known as Mardi Gras Day or Shrove Day. It is a day when people eat all they want of everything and anything they want as the following day is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of a long fasting period for Christians. In addition to fasting, Christians also give up something special that they enjoy. So, Fat Tuesday is a celebration and the opportunity to enjoy that favorite food or snack that you give up for the long lenten season.

Fat Tuesday is celebrated to the fullest on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The day is celebrated with festivities and parades and of course much food and drink. While in New Orleans, a big tradition is in wearing Mardi Gras beads and giving them to others. And tradition requires that if a guy gives a girl some beads, she has to do something for him.....this can be loads of fun.........

The annual festivities start on January 6, the Twelfth Night Feast of the Epiphany, when the three kings are supposed to have visited the Christ Child, and build to a climax on Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, which always occurs on the day before Ash Wednesday. The parties and parades will continue until Lent begins at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday.

Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in New Orleans. It is scheduled to occur 46 days before Easter. Since the actual date Easter occurs on changes yearly, Mardi Gras can happen on any Tuesday between February 3 and March 9.

info, text and images courtesy of:

blog.silive.com
holidayinsights.com
mardigras.com
coolquiz.com

energy of incomplete work...

i invite you to follow this blog...just click at top right...

here are some paintings that are incomplete..or so i thought when i started this post...but the more i look at this top image the more sure that i am it is finished...so it is...

'a single tear' - 2009 acrylic, plaster on canvas

back to the topic...do you know the energy of incomplete work...

how many incomplete, half finished, or unstarted works are stealing your energy?

everything has energy...and things undone are thieves of creativity...they steal little bits of your energy by remaining in a state of limbo..subtly leaking energy...and the more little bits of energy that are being taken from you, the less creative energy you have to devote to the present works begging to be born...

i took a walk around my studio yesterday...i noticed several pieces that i have begun, with great intentions, yet abandoned somewhere along the way...they call to me every time i enter the space..."remember me?"..."help me" ..."finish me"...

if you have left some things unfinished in your life or your studio, perhaps they are using energy that could be better used in your present...for the present IS your life...

how to spot your energy stealers...attune your senses, mentally take orientations, be alert to negativity and energy stealers in your personal space...

then neutralize them by taking an action toward finalizing them or repurposing them or omitting them..undertake a mental and physical spring energy cleaning...

sometimes i even pick these unfinished works up and remember the moment that image came to me...the need to create it...other times i actually take it to my table and work at it...then put it away again...

i have come to understand that, if i did not stick with it until it was finished, perhaps it should be abandoned entirely...repurposed, reconditioned, reinvented...the materials used in another way...and when i do this i often find a remarkable work that developed out of fragments of other work from other times in my life...

so i am starting a series called 'fragments' that will use these old, unfinished works...in a different way, a new way...with new energy...i am also clearing away, simplifying my life...starting tomorrow i will begin selling my collection of art making supplies...please bookmark the blog or favorite it so you can see when new thing are added...it could be just what you need to finish a work...

Today's Intention...uncover the unfinished work in my life that is leaking energy...and finish or repurpose it...

make clay plaster and lime paint...

i love to make my own plaster and paint...have been doing this for many years... learned from my two decorative painting mentors in lyons, france...

i will be teaching this class at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina:

Adventures in Painting with Dirt

Nature Studies, Painting

July 12-18, 2009

Instructor: Rebecca Parsons

Tuition: $512.00

Come play in the North Carolina clay as we explore the lost art of paint making. We’ll dig the dirt around campus, grind and mull it to create our own earth pigments, and use it (and other natural things) to make paint. Then enjoy the rewards of using these “green” paints to create earthen masterpieces. Leave with the knowledge and skills to create paint in a variety of media: oil, watercolor, tempera, and more. Some experience is needed in any paint media—mainly, the know-how to load brushes.

standing in my own way...

"standing in my own way" - 2009 acrylic and plaster on canvas

this painting just happened as so many of mine do...most of you know by now that art is prayer for me and i believe The Artist is a Spiritual Explorer...so i will share my creative process and let you peek into the experience of this painting...

when i create i set an intention asking the universe (God for me) to let flow through me what i need to know...this opens me to any possibility and clears they way for happenstance and synchronicity to emerge...

i sit with the canvas and my palette...when i feel pulled toward a color i dip my brush and off we go...i am usually going to paint a background for future work when something appears that takes me in a surprising and new direction...this is what happened during this painting session...

i have been troubled lately by thoughts that i am off my life's path...a feeling of wandering helplessly without any destination...like i am moving under water, v e r y   s l o w l y....

so this painting started with a thin coat of venetian plaster (so it will have a fresco look and feel)...then it went to aqua, very wet with lots of movement...then yellow as the sun shining through the water...the figure began to emerge and became more distinct, too distinct i thought...so i scraped it back a little with the edge of a spatula (the tool used to apply the plaster)...as i scraped the second figure appeared very close in front of the first figure...with bright light bursting forth...

at this moment i understood the message...i am standing in my own way...for a variety of reasons that i do not need to share here...yet the message came through loud and clear to me...

when i finish painting i usually sit with the painting and let it speak to me...i usually journal during this process...this painting had much to say to me...if you look closely to the left of the standing figures you can see another figure seated in a chair...with head slightly bowed...it is my spirit waiting patiently for me to get past this obstacle and get back on my life's path......

WOW! POWERFUL STUFF...

i am sending your here to read a powerful post...it is exactly where i am today....that crossroads is here...choices i so do not want to make or hoped i never would have to make are upon me...and i must step out blindly on this path of mine, not knowing what lies ahead or even if there is an ahead...but i must move on anyway...my heart beating and i wonder why...

Today's Intention...to get out of my own way and resume my life's journey...

don't wait for perfect...

'home work' - 2009  natural objects, beads, string, found objects, and acrylics on paper

this is a piece i dreamed up years ago (2001 to be exact) but never brought it to completion until i joined facebook, found an old friend who makes similar pieces, and sells them...DUH!!!

for those among us trying to figure out what we should be doing at this point in our lives...i offer this:

"If you're waiting to have a good idea before you have any ideas, you won't have many ideas." - David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.


my school teachers were right...i do have an over active imagination...i have thousands of ideas...i am a great brain stormer, problem solver, idea woman...


i am a master of idea generation...but i suck at implementation...


i dug out my old journal/sketchbooks last week and began flipping through the pages...there, among the decades of sketches and musings was the idea for this piece...




i even wrote "i can't wait to create one of my own."


but wait i did...almost 8 years...as with this piece...

i find it is not so much procrastination and laziness (although those can be mitigating factors in my nonperformance)...it seems to be that little voice in my head that says:


do you have self-sabotaging voices? do you let ideas flounder in procrastination? are you doing what you were born to do?

if NO is the answer to any of these...i will share a secret that has made me a success in my business life...

DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT

and

MARKETING TRUMPS MASTERY

don't wait for it to be a perfect idea before you implement...don't wait for the perfect beginning before you start...don't wait to draw the perfect sketch before you paint..

DON'T WAIT FOR PERFECT

perfection is an illusion...conditions are rarely aligned perfectly...you may never have ALL the money, ALL the time, or ALL the knowledge you desire to begin...the naysayers and critics will always be around...become a recovering perfectionist...

JUST START SOMEWHERE AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW

BIG NEWS COMING SOON...

i will begin selling a lifetime of art supplies for mixed media in the next few days...i am simplifying my life...please check back for more details...

God's Heart in My Hands...

i had a very spiritual experience on the beach last year...it took me a while to be able to share it with anyone because it was such a personal experience...but now i am ready to share...

i was praying and God told me that i held His heart in my hands each time i prayed...i looked down and my hands were forming a heart...a winged heart...He told me that it faced away from me because i need to share it with the world and that is why the reflection has wings...i had someone take a photo of the heart in my hands refection on the sand...it is the screen saver on my cell phone...i have a mission to share His heart with the world...

below are a few of the paintings that came out of this experience...let me know what you think...click the image to see more detail...

so many of you have dropped links back to my blog and it makes me very sad...last year was such a difficult time for me to even breathe...i neglected so many of you and i am sorry...i am posting agin at least 2 times a week now...when i get settled in california i will post more...so please come back often and link again to me if you find it in your heart...

please continue reading below for the dawning of the age of aquarius...it is worth it...

the dawning of the age of aquarius...

today, february 14, 2009 at 7:25 am est, the moon will be in the 7th house. and jupiter aligns with mars...hopefully peace will guide the planet and love will steer the stars...okay i am dating myself, but it is finally here as promised in The 5th Dimension song...The Age of Aquarius....

Age Of Aquarius
The 5th Dimension

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
The Age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
The Age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in

The sun shine in

i heart you...

to all readers who keep coming back to see what i am up to...i heart you on this valentine's day...I offer a piece of my heart to you...for you have stamped a piece of your heart into mine...

sweet tweet...

"create authentic vision" - 2009, 7' X 5.5' acrylic, paper, banana leaves, on watercolor paper

Random Arts in Saluda, NC is sponsoring a Collaborative Journal called "Sweet Tweets." This is my contribution...

the back

close-up of face

close-up of wing

close-up of tail feathers

close-up of depth os folded/twisted paper

gratitude and simplicity...

God has provided time and again... 

My worries rarely ever become what they promise...

my latest and favorite painting - "sunday angel"

Gratitude and simplicity can be excellent mental health decisions...
below are some of my photographs offered as a quiet prayer this sunday morning...enjoy
north carolina in january

I am continually reminded to value all life...

a great blue heron

golden sea oats

ocean splash

Each moment we live is the gift to us...

wings

the marsh

a lily pond

Today's Intention...to be grateful for all that I have...i am blessed beyond measure...

these move my heart...