Mixed Media .. 25jan2012

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

30"x30" mixed media on canvas board. Discovering and playing with ways to create mixed media art with more of the things I love. Acrylics, abstract, freeform crochet. It's my first attempt. This year my one word is "PLAY". Experiment, try, fail, don't throw anything out, try again and experiment again, go big and go bigger!

w@!l 4

w@!l 4 - my artwork 2012

“It took 50 years to grow our olive trees and in three minutes everything was gone .”
A Palestinian farmer after Israeli bulldozers uprooted his olive trees to make way for the Separation Wall, quoted in “Voices from Occupied Palestine”.

w@!l 2

w@!l 2

2012 .. and we still have walls separating people! Good/Bad, Defender of Your Rights/ Terrorist, Right/Wrong, Whose side is God on?!? 

In its advisory opinion on 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice stated that Israel is in breach of international law as the “construction of the wall and its associated regime cre-ate a “fait accompli” on the ground that could well become permanent” that there is a “risk of situation tantamount to de facto annexation”. Furthermore, “the construction of the wall severely impedes the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination and is therefore a breach of Israel’s obligation to respect that right.” The Court also ruled that “the infringements resulting from that route (of the wall) cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of security or public order".

Israel was further obliged “to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall, to dismantle it” and to “make reparation for the damage caused” to all those affected by the construction of the Wall, and “to return the land, orchards, olive groves and other immovable property seized”.

w@!l 2012

In November 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Barak (Labour Party) approved the first project to build a “barrier”. Construction of the wall, including land confiscation and the uprooting of trees, began in June 2002. 

How far we have come from the 1960s .. when everything was hopes, dreams, enthusiasm, aspirations of unity, freedom, love for all ..decades later we have facebook and satellite TV but we still have occupiers building apartheid walls on stolen land. I don't get it! Technology has advanced but, we, as humanity, have not. 

Sometimes she, 

the little child inside, 

finds her way out, 

through misty breaths I take

on very cold nights

Fadwa

Change

“The only thing I fear more than change is no change. 

The business of being static makes me nuts.” 

Twyla Tharp

Change. I fear it. I crave it. There is no balance between the two. One foot on 'no-change', the other on 'change'. It's a sensuous salsa.. quick, quick, slow, quick. Swing your hips. Feel the music. You have no choice. Change is coming. Change is the only constant.

Art Journaling Course - Starting again in Jan

Everyone who has joined this course has enjoyed it. They have surprised themselves, and although I always say "You are creative and I can prove it", I am still in awe at the creativity hidden in people just under their skin and waiting to be released. If you live in Dubai - or the UAE, come and join us at WAFI where I give my art journaling courses. 

All you need to bring is your open mind and your notebook - guys are welcome, too. 

New Art Journaling Courses starting last week of Jan 2012, sponsored by Craft Land (www.mycraftland.com) - who have delicious yarns, fabrics and other yummy creative stuff. They are located in Town Center, Jumerah, and by TABEER: Supporting Creativity (www.tabeer.net) - bilingual content developers and translators.

 
I will post the schedule soon.

Harder or Easier

Today, I have a question: do you think it is harder or easier to hold on to your optimism as you get older?

Walls

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

I have so many plans for this year. Using one of Barbara Sher's ideas, I am writing them down on postcards and keeping them in a separate pile, because I've been jotting them down in my journals and then having a hard time finding them again :-). One of the projects I want to work on this year is a series of my impressions of ravished walls. Ruins, bullet-ridden, abandoned walls .. on 30x30inch canvases. I will be testing some ideas in my journal. I'm searching for photos for inspiration, if you find any and would like to share them with me, I would be grateful. I have created a pin board for this purpose on Pinterest.com. 

Trust

“Creativity comes from trust. 

Trust your instincts. 

And never hope more than you work.” 

Rita Mae Brown

Trust is what my art journal is about. This fat, chunky, square journal that I have contains fewer words that it does these art pieces which are experiments, playing, trying, quick works usually done at cafes - pieces created on pure trust that my instincts will guide my fingers, and in this journal at least, the outcome is only a building block for yet another story.

Fibrearts Journal

You may know that Craft Land (Town Center Plaza, Jumerah, Dubai), is sponsoring my Art Journaling Courses. I 've made a very short list of select shops I would love to have as sponsors because of the wonderful people and products they offer. Craft Land have the best and most creative yarns here in Dubai. This place is just great eye candy: the colours of the yarns, threads and buttons, they have ribbons, kits, tools, and they offer courses, too. One of the wonderful ideas they have, is the sewing clinic! Which is where I went this morning and the wonderful Christie helped me use the very advanced sewing machine - these things are like you Mac computers. Amazing!
I've been collecting bits and pieces of fabrics, ribbons, threads, beads, you name it. Christie brought along her own stash of similar bits and pieces. I cut and doodled with fabrics, pinned them down, and then started to sew with metallic thread. We have a few issues because of the many layers I used, but I got so much help and support form very patient Christie!
My plan is to create a complete journal, with loads of pages, as many as possible made of fibrearts including crochet, knitting, embroidery, mixed media fibrearts .. and then to join them together as a journal. 
This was my first page! 
What do you think?
I'm hoping to work on this regularly (if you'll bear with me as a skip over to other projects in between - I can't seem to break that habit!).

Clever Dance

I found this dance amazing, inspirational, the choreography, the strength, the dancing (Valerie - I thought of you especially - I hope you like it).  


click here to watch and tell me what you think.

leaving our mark

Does it matter that we leave our mark in this life? Is it vain to think that we should leave a mark? Vain or narcissistic? Should this be a goal? What do you think?

Hate / love relationship

Sometimes I love facebook, sometimes I hate it. 


But I've met some wonderful people, whom I would not have met otherwise, on facebook. As I have done through this blog (and I still welcome art-exchange offers), I invited art and creativity exchanges. It's always amazing to see other people's work, their perspective. New, surprising, interesting, different, inspiring. So this friend and I each bought a journal and doodled in it for a while before each of us posted it to the other. This is one of the spreads I drew for in my friend's journal. It was sure a thrill to receive his drawings in the elegant black journal he chose for me. 


So when I have these moments of facebook hate, I remind myself that it's not facebook, it's the people - people are people in whatever "medium". Some you like, some you don't, and some don't like you. And some who become friends for life, real friends. It's life. 

untitled 4 - Nov 2011

My passion sways and is so fickle - I admit. One day I feel like doing illustrations, another it's abstract and then it's art journaling .. then I feel like writing my short stories. Sometimes that feels good, sometimes I feel lost and unfocused.

Untitled 3 - 28 Nov 2011

Art Journaling Course - Brenda's work

Brenda's artwork - pages and pages of artwork. I can't believe how much work we've done this session, and still the ladies complained that there was not enough time!

Thanks Brenda for coming and for your lovely artwork.

Art Journaling Course - Zeina's work

This time, my 'students' created many more pages of artwork than any of my previous sessions. We went on a creative binge! It was great. The only thing was that one of my students cold not come on the last day due to high blood pressure .. Amal, we missed you.

All these pieces are Zeina's work. 

Untitled 2 - 28 Nov 2011

Restless .. always .. sometimes it's a happy restless .. sometimes its a listless restless .. but it always means things are moving, renewing, energizing. 

Untitled 1 - 28 Nov 2011

Untitled - 28 Nov 2011
You know, I don't always have something to say when I post some of my work. I made this morning, at a coffee shop. It seems like I can work more away from home .. no TV, no distractions .. I also noticed that I have a very eclectic tastes and interests and style of painting. Anyone else feel this way? Are we supposed to have one distinctive style?

Perception

Is perception everything? 

Fleetingly and transiently

Life dancing fleetingly and transiently on my bookcase (through my lens Nov2011)

Could it think, the heart would stop beating.
Fernando Pessoa

Loneliness or Solitude?