A Little Art, A Lot of Play

Hello, dear friends! There was art last week, but there was even more play.  This winter has  been particularly rough as the past few winters have been on the mild side.  The weather finally broke and we were treated to 3 consecutive days of 50 degree plus days and sunshine.  You know I had to make my pilgrimage to the beach!

It felt so good to be out of the house and walking the beach in sand instead of snow.  I even found a few pieces of beach glass!  It was still chilly, but there were no winds and the warmth of the sun was enough to keep me from getting cold.

I mostly worked in my journal at night, and since the lighting in my house is pretty low and I had new pens to play with, I decided to work on a zendoodle hand mandala.  It took me a couple nights to complete.

I didn't make it to the beach on Thursday, but my son and I went on Friday afternoon.  The road I live on runs along the river, and we had quite the surprise on our return trip home.  It got warm enough for the ice to start melting and break apart and begin floating.  It jammed right down the road from where I live so I parked and Mike got some great pics of the jam and resulting flooding.

Photo by Mike Thompson

Photo by Mike Thompson

It was pretty amazing to see so much ice jammed  on the Grand River.  I haven't been back to take a look, but they were supposed to bring one of the ice cutters to the area on Saturday.  It turned bitter cold again yesterday, and we've got a fresh coast of 4 or 5 inches of snow again.  I knew we'd get more, I just wasn't expecting it so soon.

I did find some time to play in my journal on Friday morning before we went to the beach.  I played with acrylic glazes, collage and oil pastels.  It was extremely windy on Friday and our beloved terracotta thermometer was blown off the house and shattered into bits.  Being the type to make lemonade out of lemons, I brought the pieces in and immediately did rubbings of the numbers and floral design.  The numbers you see on the right side are those rubbings.  I've written "We are at the mercy of nature. We are at the mercy of time."

Yesterday, I was in a quiet, reflective mood watching the movie "Dragonfly" with Kevin Costner.  I wrote down all the things I was thinking about and covered the writing with acrylic glazes.  I painted in the flowers and Queen Anne's Lace with artist acrylic.  I drew the dragonflies from magazine print and glued them to the page with a glue stick. 

It's cold and snowy again, but I saw my iris beginning to peek through the ground last week.  I saw glimpses of water on Lake Erie, and I heard the birds singing as they prepare their nests for spring.  I know that soon the snow will be gone for good, but while I wait, I'll remember to "Celebrate, LOVE and Create!"