…and I feel it all around. Anyone remember that song?  

Lately I feel open in an I’m-not-really-sure-what’s-on-its-way-to-me-next-but-it-feels-like-a-good-thing kind of way. Love in all forms has been on my mind. Maybe it’s simply the springtime vibe. Whatever this feeling is, It doesn’t matter - I am content to be in this space.   

I meditate every morning to set the tone of my day and to allow whatever is percolating to surface if it wants to. Here’s a recent meditation conversation: Idea: “Paint love letters”. Me: “What does that mean? Idea: “More precisely, co-create love letters.” Me: “???”  

“Here’s my letter to Mom with it’s first color wash. Spirals are a favorite of mine so that’s how I wrote my letter to her. Also included is a butterfly design and hand-painted paper I’ll use for a stencil to collage over the words.”

I simply waited until it began to take form and I’ll flesh out the idea with you as we continue.

 Here’s an example: You write a love letter to whomever or whatever you wish, (yourself, someone you love, even your dreams and desires) with options wide-open, and we talk until we find the first step. Our co-creation continues until we’re both happy. That part just lights me up. 

“I thought that symbols in addition to words would supply more personal punch. Stencils layered over the love letter was an easy next step. This design was created with Mom in mind; I knew my first letter would be to her. The colors shown remind me of her. Mom was incredibly loving and supportive, and we were best friends. I still miss her and I wanted to thank her again, to add another layer of gratitude for all she still means to me, as well as producing a painting to visually remind me of all the wonderful moments we shared.”

Continuing with the stencil theme found me wondering how to translate personal symbols into form. Remember the bounces I mentioned in our last conversation? Expanding on the stencils is another one of those. Fun leads to fun leads to fun.

“Here’s my second stencil design, this time thinking of myself. I’ve fancied dragonflies since very young - they’re magical creatures to me, able to change direction in a nano-second with stamina to boot (qualities I admire for sure).”

Here’s our check-list so far: Fun collaboration, a heartfelt letter, color theme, and a personal symbol. That leaves size. Right now, I’m thinking a 12” square. But I don’t really care. It’s the co-creating part that calls.  

“Now the stencil has been applied over the love letter and a second, darker wash has been added around the design. While I like this effect, I’m considering adding an even darker wash around the borders. This is a game I play with myself as I’m pretty sure I’ll do it while pretending I can leave a painting left alone.”

As to letter format, you could use crayons, or cut-out magazine letters and words, or write your letter backwards or, or, or… Additional personal elements could include collaging mementos like a piece of clothing, a lock of hair, or photos onto your letter. Nothing is off limits. You tell me what is important to you and I do my best to deliver.

“Personally, I wanted a more dynamic dragonfly design. Here it is in progress: I’m playing with wing placements and the veins within the wings. I’ll show you the finished design in the next letter.”

As to personal symbols, I’ve a few already designed and will create any design that calls to you. Jean chose a lion as a symbol for strength and courage. You’ll get to see more stencils, including Jean’s, next time.

“And this is the final result. Yep, couldn’t help myself; I did add an indigo wash to the outer edges. I will mount this on a 12” x 12” canvas, no frame. I may hang it on a wall or place it in one of those wooden plate-holder stands, most importantly somewhere where I will see it often.”

Afterword: Jean has this great idea about having your future self write the love letter - another bounce to my creative journey. I’m really having fun with this so…

…stay tuned!

Judy

“The basis of your life is absolute freedom, the goal is joy, and the result of that perfect combination is motion forward, or growth. Your goal is to find objects of attention that let your cork raise.” Esther Hicks

Esther paints this picture: You are a cork happily bobbing on the water’s surface. Any negative thought or habit you hold on to pulls you under. Relief is simply doing your best to reach for a better-feeling thought (even anger). When you do, you immediately pop back up to the surface. Yeah, there’s a learning curve (and one that I’ve had to repeat countless times in a single minute). The results are so worth any effort.

This is the original Om design that inspired me to create my own.

Choosing “Wonder” as my word of the year has led to some really fun ideas and many satisfying moments. (If you missed where this all started, you can go to my website judyaveiro.com and scroll back to the January newsletter.) To that end, here are some of those ideas:

My take on the thousand-petaled lotus blossom. Bounce #1.

Bounce #2 was interpreting my Om design to reflect my perceptions of my sister and brother. My artist friend Patrice wanted to see Jean’s on a larger scale so I decided to place it close to Max’s so you can see how different the results using the same design. (In art as in life, intention is everything.)  

Jean’s Om and Max’s Om

The Om idea led to re-visiting stencil cut-outs employing my own designs, hand-painted papers and a mat knife. This next series shows how I played with all of that.

Bounce #3: Here you see my hand-painted paper, the Om design, and the already-painted watercolor paper behind them. (Originally, the hand-painted paper was a way for me to use leftover paint and to play with my stencils with no other thought in mind.)

The Om is partially cut out. You see the mat knife I’m using. And I’ve begun to place the cut-outs on the painted paper.

I started playing with the cut-outs and… yikes! Now I have a rabbit-eared Amish quilt so…

…back to the original design. I skewed the thousand-petaled lotus blossom tips so they don’t quite point North-South. It’s a small detail that can be easily overlooked but (to me) adds visual interest. A gust of wind blew all my pieces off the table inspiring me to reset them not in their original placement (again, subtly adding visual interest). Here you see the start of my background wash. I wanted this to be soft-edged, kinda mystical, as if the Om’s promise was emerging for the viewer.

The end result and I loved, loved, loved creating this painting. The contrasting colors, the fade to dark background - so much pleases me about this piece.

Bounce #4 was inspired by the leftovers - another Om using the same stencil cut-outs. So far, the background papers have been painted and the design has been cut out. Next I will play with layout options.

Here are just two of the many layout placements I played with. Yeah, I could use a computer app to do this but I enjoy hands-on manipulation - it makes me happy and I don’t mind the time it takes at all.

A simple definition of the Sanskrit word Om is “everyone and everything” which became the title of this painting.  Here’s the end design. I really enjoyed the whole process.  Exploration, expansion, such satisfying ways to spend ones time.

Ideas become springboards and if I don’t fret too much about where I think I should be headed, I find some very, very, very satisfying moments along the way.

Stay tuned, gang, I have so much more to share…

Sending you joy (and freedom and growth, off course),

Judy

There are blessed times when inspiration and creative follow-through run seamlessly in the studio, times when I am almost startled to suddenly realize, “Woah, I’m done.” I am grateful for these moments because (like life) studio time mostly involves starts and stops, making choices, making more choices, and dealing with quite a few do-overs. 

These paintings, however, were a fast-placed blast, conceived quite by accident and without my notice, thousands of miles away from my studio. The story: While in a gift shop with my sister, Jean mentioned she’d been looking for a singing bowl. We found some, stacked in a multi-colored pyramid of hand-made boxes. We spent a very fun afternoon opening all the boxes and dinging all the bowls to find the tones we wanted for ourselves.

Here’s my first attempt from start to finish where I discover that ironing off the wax lifts off iridescent paint as well. On all of these paintings, I had to go back in and repaint areas (which was ok and now I know).

But this story is not about the bowl. I mention the bowl, and the miles away from the studio, and the not thinking about making art, to demonstrate how an innocuous moment can lead to a fun idea and all the good-feeling energy that follows - if you run with it.   

My point? Ideas and inspiration are everywhere-all-the-time-available if we are open to them. And I don’t mean inspiration just for the studio; it works the same in the larger frame of life. 

This is my second attempt with Jean in mind. The backgrounds look bluish because I photo’d them in early evening time.

But, back to my story, which technically is not about the bowl or the box, but the design on the box: A thousand-petaled lotus blossom to be exact. And that’s what got me going.

I wondered, “What would my thousand-petaled lotus blossom look like?” A few fun-filled hours later, I had it. What I appreciate is that this stayed fun. I wasn’t trying for anything. Like a kid, I just wanted to do it because it captured my interest. (Of course, so did using a ridiculously long screw I found in one of Dad’s garage boxes to draw a very large “L” for Logan on his newly refurbished garage door but that’s totally another story…)

By this third attempt, which I created for my brother Max, I was so excited and into the process that I forgot to photograph the stages! Interesting note: How I perceive Jean and Max shows up clearly in the paintings. 

As you know, my word of the year is “wonder” and that kid-like theme led me to incorporating iridescent watercolors into my batik method. Those paints are a part of this story, too. One idea becomes the springboard for others - the great fun game of life.

Along the way, I was sidetracked by other springboard ideas and I’ll be showing you those next so stay tuned, friends!

With love and love, 

Judy