Mosaic

I had some left over clay, pieces of glass, and beads so I made a mosaic. I didn't have any specific idea of what I was going to make. I started out with shaping the clay into a heart for no particular reason. As I started laying in the pieces of glass, a song lyric from Vienna Teng's "Enough" popped into my heart and kept repeating.  She sings...

 "I'll carry the weight of you....carry the weight of me in your heart."

As the lyrics circled and danced around inside of me, it made me think of the children I got to spend time with in India and Nepal. I will not forget how many of them came up to me and said, "Please don't forget me!" Hearing them say it with such concern and yearning made me resolve that I would do what I could to  love them by remembering them and praying for them even if we are halfway across the world from each other.

I will carry them in my heart. Their presence is ever so real and tangible that my heart can feel their weight. I will carry the weight of them in my heart and this mosaic was a way for me to materialize and express my desire.

I feel like I have left a part of my heart with those children...and I feel like I carry them around in my heart here with me.

4.5" x 5.5" Clay, glass, beads, glue. The hearts on the two maps mark the estimated location of the orphanages we visited.

A Wish Come True

Today was an exciting day! I went to visit my dandelion at the Brea Art Gallery!

 It was accepted into their juried show of artwork by California residents. I was out of town for the opening night so I went today to see it in the gallery. I feel like a parent who's sent off their child to their first day of school. I am so thrilled to have my dandelion out in the public for others to enjoy rather than collect dust in my house! When it had been accepted into the student show a couple years ago, I got to see other students having so much fun taking pictures with my dandelion, pretending to blow on it and being so excited to see a life-size dandelion.  That was when I realized artwork is meant to be shared. I wish I had gotten to be at the opening night for this show to see others enjoy it but maybe there will be another opportunity for that.

Standing with my dandelion :)

There it is! Among other works of art! I feel like my dandelion has friends :)

A wish come true!

I had to submit a short excerpt about the piece

If  you live in Socal and you're interested in seeing it in person, I'd highly recommend checking out the gallery. I really enjoyed walking around and seeing the other works of art. They have some really interesting and lovely pieces in this one!

Thanks for reading!
-M

Nails- Abstract Lines, Hearts, and Gradation

I've been really into doing nails recently. There's something about the temporary nature of it that makes it fun. After one or two weeks and it's time to take them off and start afresh. I also enjoy the small scale of it. I find it challenging to work on such a small canvas space and also forces me to be ambidextrous. I like the challenge! The first two are done by me and the third one I can't take credit for. My toes were done at a nail salon. ;)

Thanks for reading! :) Happy Sunday! -M

Nails- Feathers, Jeweled Mint, Expanding Circles

 Here are some nail art I've done recently.

Feathers
The feather design was taken from Pinterest. I added the jewel to add some sparkle. I didn't want to do the design on all my fingers so I chose two fingers and added glitter to a couple of the others. The biggest challenge was actually painting the feathers. I've never done such detailed work on my finger nails before so it was exciting to face the challenge! The other challenge was painting with my left hand. My nails on my right hand didn't turn out as great but it wasn't too bad considering I can barely write with my left :P Here's a picture of the more successful hand :)

Jeweled Mint
 I love the delicate and elegant design of many Japanese nail designs so I decided to try it out for myself. 

Expanding Circles
Not sure what they are exactly...flowers? Fireworks? Dandelions?

Thanks for reading!
-M

Mixed Media Collaging

This weekend I went to a workshop where we learned to make stencils and use a stamping technique to get silhouette shapes. After choosing an image, we ripped, cut, mixed, matched, painted, and glued to make a collage. It was a bit scary yet exhilarating because you don't really know how it's going to end up. It's a very spontaneous, go-with-the flow, organic process. I really enjoy that kind of process although it's a struggle for me and by the time I made the second piece, I was able to loosen up a little more and just take risks and have fun with it. Here are the two pieces that I made. The first one took about 2 hours and the second one was made really quickly in about 30 or so minutes.

I love words and I really enjoyed incorporating pages of a book and sheet music into these collages.  It was exciting tearing up the pages. ;) When you visit museums, you find that there's so much about artwork that a photograph can't capture. Standing in front of the actual piece, you see texture, the layering of paint, more vibrant colors, and details you wouldn't have noticed. I took some close ups of parts of the first piece so that you can experience the piece a little more.

This is the cut-out from a magazine that I used to make the silhouette. There is a beautiful quality about silhouettes-the lack of detail allows our eyes to focus simply on the shape which can trigger emotions, memories, or thoughts that otherwise may not have come up if there had been lots of details included. I personally enjoy the certain romantic, mysterious, and intriguing quality of them. :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing these collages and hopefully it inspires you to dabble in some art making as well. :)

Thanks for reading! -M

Woody and Christmas Tree

In continuation with growing as an expressive artist, I painted some simple paintings of moments that stood out to me recently. These are 30min-1hr paintings so nothing visually impressive but more an exercise of expression :)

I watched Toy Story 3 again and there is a scene at the end where  Andy is getting ready to leave for college and is donating his toys to a little girl. He explains thoughtfully to her to take good care of him and says "The best thing about Woody is that he never gives up on you." The trust and faith that Woody had in Andy was something I really liked in the movie so I decided to paint that scene where Andy looks down at Woody thoughtfully before handing Woody over to the little girl. :)

I have a client (I work with children with autism) who doesn't like Christmas. Things that come to life, Santa Clause, Christmas tree, nutcrackers...anything that has to do with Christmas triggers a fear reaction in him. When Christmas season rolls around, his stress level goes up and his fears affect his everyday life. Shopping in stores become difficult. He doesn't want to walk through the front door because there's a tree in the living room. In order to help him keep Christmas from affecting his everyday activities and also in hopes that one day he might actually find enjoyment during the holiday season, we have been working over the last several years for him to learn to tolerate Christmas related things. In one session, we played games where we took turns putting ornaments on a tree. It was hard for him but he did it! I painted this after going to that session. Each of the colors in the background represent someone who was helping with the process- the mom, dad, and behavioral interventionist. He has made lots of progress over the years and it is a commemoration of his successes, growth, perseverance and love from his family and staff as well as a reminder of the struggles in their everyday lives.

Art Expression

I went to an art therapy workshop to learn more about it and also grow as an expressive artist. These are two paintings I did in the 3 hours workshop. Each painting was done in about 15-20 minutes.


This small 4"x6" one is called "My Soul." The titles were given to us by the instructor. It is a piece that explores an expression of my soul and my identity.

This one is called "The Container." It is a piece exploring who I am as a container for something/someone greater.

We did a total of 4 pieces. We used make up sponges and q-tips to paint which turned out to be a lot of fun. It was a fun exercise of color and shapes. I love textures in paintings so you might not be able to tell from the photos but I put tons of paint on and really enjoyed it!

Other than the actual painting, I enjoyed doing it as a group and seeing how other people painted very different pictures from me even though we had the same prompts. There were about 12 of us. After painting, all our paintings were put up on the wall and we went around sharing what we enjoyed about each one. It was a great way to experience community and the common bond as expressive human beings. I will be going to another one this weekend! :) This time it will be mixed media.

Thanks for reading! :) -M