It’s a win/win!

 

The other day, I had a contest on my Facebook art page. I had my followers look for the original piece of artwork I created my latest, this fish from. I had a winner in the first hour. A few hours later, I came back, and I had my other winner.

Creating art is a win/win. I process my thoughts or just meditate while I’m creating. As a bonus, I have artwork to sell, give away, or just to enjoy for myself. Here’s the original artwork I created this fish from. Look carefully, and you’ll find the fish. I knew I had to create a fish when I spotted it in there!

Look carefully, and you’ll see a woman’s face. This just proves that there’s always more than just you see when dealing with things and people. There. I created, I shared it, I gained some insights from this. It’s a win/win/win. 

What do you create?

 

Undo, redo, rinse, repeat…

This week I’ve been creating new pieces of artwork from old ones, using my computer and paint software. With most things and many people, you don’t get a do over. That’s why I like digital artwork. Gotta love that undo button!

I did a good piece with one of the first images I ever posted on this blog.

‘Spelunking’

I took that and changed up the color, then cut out the shape  of a couple of elephants, added some plants and a tree.

Here’s what I finally ended up with:

Thanks again for visiting. If you like what you see here, maybe you’ll like what’s on my facebook art page. Here’s the link to that:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MElzzartt/242247195801998?ref=hl

Sweet words

In this post, I’ll get a little personal. This week, I’ve been working on some artsy words with some sweet titles. The words were Live, Love, and Laugh. I gave them titles that sounded like sweet treats. Live was done in ‘Orange and Raspberry sherbet dreams’. Nice name, huh? How about ‘Love in raspberry and chocolate’? Today, I finished up with ‘Good and Plenty of laughs’. Good-n-Plenty was one of my favorite candies when I was a girl.

Now the personal part: I’m passionate about helping people to reclaim their lives from depression. No, I’m not a therapist. I’m a wife, mom, sister daughter, friend, neighbor, and artist who once suffered with the seemingly hopeless condition. I’ve reclaimed my thought life and completely recovered from clinical depression. Not that I don’t battle low moods once in a while. I’ve learned how to turn those moods around before they completely take over my life. I’ve learned to recognize the negative or irrational thought, refuse to think them, and replace them with positive and truthful thoughts.

I’ve been through a lot and it’s affected me deeply. For twenty years, I was paralyzed by depression. That was half my age when I was forty, all of my adult life up to that point. . Though I didn’t ask for the things that happened to me, I decided to do what I could to make my life better, despite it all. I learned to use positive affirmations to heal my mind. I said positive things to myself, about myself. I did good things for myself and others, I got away from things that were weighing me down; I chose to live.

I continue to do these things. I’m ridding my life of the things that aren’t in my best interest,  distancing myself from negative and hateful people. I’m learning to love myself and others, and I choose to laugh every day. I look at the funny side of things and try to make other people laugh, too.

Becoming a new person hasn’t been easy. I know I’ve got a long way to go. It would take a few books to explain all that to you. I just might write those. Healing is a process. The process, itself, is perfect. Knowing that frees me up so I don’t feel pressured to be perfect. For now, I’ve focused most of my creativity in the direction of my artwork.

I’m still trying to make some sales doing matted words with my doodles in them. Here’s the link to the blog post about that: http://melzzartt.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/whats-in-a-name/

You can find more of my work on my Facebook art page. Thanks for visiting!

 

 

Why I doodle what I doodle

Do you really want to know? Maybe I should have started this post with a disclaimer. Once, a fan described me as ‘the most random person’. My mind can go from thoughts about making forest leaf caramel to seriously analytical thoughts about Sylvia Plath’s poetry in three minutes. Then, it will switch to all the things I would accomplish if…(fill in the blank.) From there, I most likely go in the direction of thoughts of friends and family, to curiosity about my dog and her dreaming.

I try to stay in the moment, focusing on what I’m doing, where I’m at and who I’m with, whenever I’m not doodling. That keeps me from dwelling on the past and worrying about the future. Sometimes I doodle in a meditative state. My endless inner chatter stops and I’m totally focused on where my pens are going. Those are some of the best times with pen in hand. Other times, the inner chatter wins over and all those random things get mixed into my doodling. I’ve learned to catch myself and switch gears towards more positive things when my mind wants to ramble. Though, I still haven’t mastered catching myself early in the game. Still, I’m getting better at it.

It seems the media is geared towards keeping our thoughts fearful. Advertising capitalizes on those fears by convincing us we cannot live or simply aren’t good enough without their products. I suppose I could write a lot about that topic. I try not to buy into any of it.

Art gives the artist a chance to escape. It gives the consumer a chance to do the same. Have you ever really looked at a doodle? A zentangle? Where does your mind go when you do that? I’m going to try something new this week. I’ll try to stay focused on a single subject while doodling. I’ll let my Facebook fans know what I was thinking about when I doodled each picture. It will be interesting to see where my mind takes my pen.

First, a little digital work, then a doodle: