Jewellspiration at Camp Yofi

Last week at a family summer camp for Jewish autism families, I had a wonderful opportunity to get a little creative.  It was on an evening of some respite time for myself, along with some of the other autism moms.  It is absolutely one of the best perks of Camp Yofi at Ramah Darom in Clayton GA.  This precious time to connect with others, relax and recharge; it's nothing short of golden.

In the first photo bellow: I made a set of necklace and earrings with the hamsa symbol of the hand.  The hamsas are in a copper tone (it's hard to see in the photo).  

Here's a little overview about the hamsa symbol from Wikipedia:

"The hamsa (Arabic: خمسة‎ khamsah, also romanized khamsa, meaning lit. "five") is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and commonly used in jewelry and wall hangings.^[1][2] Depicting the open right hand, an image recognized and used as a sign of protection in many societies throughout history, the hamsa is believed to provide defense against the evil eye. The symbol predates Judaism, Christianity and Islam.^{[citation needed]} In Islam, it is also known as the hand of Fatima, so named to commemorate Muhammad's daughter Fatima Zahra (c. 605 or 615^[3] – 633). Levantine Christians call it the hand of Mary, for the Virgin Mary. Jews refer to it as the hand of Miriam in remembrance of the biblical Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron".

In this second photo: I made a set of necklace and a bracelet.  The pendant of the necklace has a silver hamsa with an attachment of a star of David.  I also made an interchangeable pendant (on the bottom of the photo) of a vintage key and lock, a gift for my daughter.  I made her another interchangeable pendant that isn't captured in this photo, of a heart and star of David.  She wore it today for the first time, as her first choice.  It was very sweet!

I realized while making the jewellery, just how much I was enjoying myself.  It felt like a very similar rush that I experience from drawing or playing the piano.  Therefore, I plan on making many more pieces, as a way of unwinding and finding additional outlets for creative energy.  I can't wait to go get some tools and beads for the new pieces.  Thank you Camp Yofi, for putting a sparkle in my week!

The Kingfisher Bird

I saw a photo of this beautiful Rufous-Backed Kingfisher bird sitting on a branch and had to draw it this week.  This drawing was done in colored pencils.  I added a colorful shadow to its silhouette to add more depth and three diagonal sun rays to build in dimension.  After Tuneful Nectar, my colored pencil drawing of a Humming Bird, I thought of doing another bird drawing as a companion.  I hung up the first one in my daughter's room.  I asked her if she would like to have another picture of a bird and she was excited about the idea, so the Kingfisher will accompany the Humming Bird on the same wall.

Here are a couple of earlier sketches followed by the completed drawing again.

The completed drawing:

Departures

I created this drawing in graphite pencils.  The emotions in this drawing are a reflection of feelings that families face during a time of deployment.  Five years ago, our family faced such a deployment.  Jake was almost two years old, Alex was a Captain in the Air Force and it was only our second year living a military lifestyle.  During that half a year, as our friends and family know, I was pregnant with our twins while starting to notice signs in Jake, of what we later learned, was autism.  I title this drawing Departures (and not Deployment), because this one big event of the deployment was not only a physical departure (for Alex), but also simultaneous departures, or beginnings, in our lives.  These beginnings took us in different directions, that ultimately condensed into a single focus of family and togetherness.

Here is the progression of the stages of Departures:

The completed drawing:

My Seattle Skyline

Last week, a group of friends and I went out to a painting class, where we were all taught how to paint the same painting, the Montgomery skyline.  A couple of the ladies were from San Antonio, so they painted that skyline, and I painted the Seattle skyline.  Since I have many fond memories of my time there, it only seemed natural for me to do so; but it was a last minute call.  I'm so glad that I went for it.  I share with you here, the three main stages of the evolution of the painting.  The painting style is in the flare of Van Gough's Starry Night.

Stage 1.  I created the sky with long sideways brush strokes in shades of blue.

Stage 2.  I painted the black skyline and afterwards filled in the buildings in black.  I then used white for highlighting the edges of the buildings.  I blended it in with the black paint, followed by dry brush strokes at the end to create a shimmering effect, as well as to add texture.  From the bottom of the buildings on downwards, I painted the rest of the canvas black.  Over it, in different shades of blue, I created the water with fast random sideways brush strokes of differing lengths.

3. Completing the painting: 

Next was the sky.  I made the moon, a large yellow circle, and other smaller yellow and white circles (stars).  I worked with shades of yellow with yellow and white paint.  Then, in small thin brush strokes, wavelike motions, and a small round brush, I created the shimmering starry night effect.  The little dashed wavelike lines are in yellow, white and shades of blue, blending in with the night sky.  Lastly, I created the shimmering lights reflecting over the water.  I painted small dots, thick at the base and thinning out towards the tops, like a bunch of grapes, and then, in the opposite direction, towards the bottom of the canvas.  At the base of the buildings line, in shades of blue, I used long grass like shaped strokes to create the reflection of the water onto the buildings.  After I took my painting home, I hung it over a large corner photo stand.  We have a water theme I think, starting in the living room.  I hope to continue growing this theme with other paintings.

The Ringgo Bird

Someone had asked me this week to create a drawing for him that is inspired by a graphic of a little bird that had music notation coming out of its wings.  I share here with you the stages of evolution of my drawing.  I titled the drawing after the name of the person who requested this drawing, perhaps coming up with my own genre of a musical inspired species of birds.  I had a blast making it!

Stage 1.  

I started by drawing a diagonal treble clef as the bird's body and later came back to it and added the piano keys.  The graphic's bird had the beak small and closed, so I did the opposite, I wanted it to be more aggressive and animated.  I later added flames and fumes projecting out of the Ringgo's beak.  I wanted both head and feet to have some sort of music notation, so the feet turned into music notes bracketed by a duple sign.  On the Ringgo's head I drew a crest made up of a crown-like bracketed quintuplet fixture, as well as tremolo dashes on each of the notes' stems.  

Stage 2. 

I made the eye diamond shaped and angular.  I always like juxtapositions of opposites: in this case, it's the angular eye and beak in contrast to soft long flowy feathers and the rounded treble clef.  Next, I drew the peacock-like tail feather, which inspired me to continue the light and dark striped texture of the rest of the bird's feathers.  I used a cotton ball to do my shading and an eraser for my highlighting.  I then go over the lighted feathers with the darkened cotton ball lightly, in order to blend in the shades some more.

Stage 3: Competed drawing

I use the darkened cotton ball to shade around the edges of the paper.  I wrote the title of the piece over the flames coming out of the bird's mouth, as if the text is a part of that texture.  I chose only a few elements to be in the darkest charcoal shade: the note heads on the crown, the beak, the eye and long eyelash-like wave, and the outline on the left part of the treble clef.  Having only a few elements of the drawing in the darkest shade, gives the observer's eye a focus.

I hope that you've enjoyed my post.  

Stop back at Creationlily from time to time 

to see some of my new creations.

Seaweed

My acrylic paintings are some of my earlier works from around the year 2000.  Seaweed was my first painting done with acrylics.  I started painting it during the time that I was absorbed in my doctoral comprehensive exams, back in 2002, in Music Composition and Theory.   I needed to have a creative outlet that was not the same as the one I was dealing with all day long.  The painting emotes the state of mind that I was in.  The interlocking weeds capture all of the details that I was memorizing and all of the information that was being compressed into my then very busy head.  From the beginning, I naturally liked the idea of a still image with an illusion of being in motion.

Seaweed ~ acrylics

The seaweed interlaces to form a multidimensional denseness.  Silver and copper metallics give a pop of highlight to the more muted tones of beige and lighter purples.  Dark purple gives a contrasting effect by providing a focus to the eye.  The dark purple seaweed intertwines upwards, resembling hands and fingers trying to break out of the interlocking density, unraveling from it and pulling themselves upwards and out into the light.

Waiting

In Waiting, I fuse the element of the still image character, with the moving smoke, that spirals upwards and fills the room with the character's anticipation.  I enjoy creating this type of contrast - the still image, versus an element of motion.  I also like to play with coupling motifs: the condensation on the window, partnered with the character's anticipation, and the smoke that seeps through the cracks in the wall, to find the character's beloved.  Similarly, I play with aspects of shading that enable me to have a softer smudged look, in contrast to a pointed and more focused line: the highlighted smoke, versus the harder edged umbrella.  I weave a personal motif  from our family life with autism into this piece (our six year old son lives with autism): the element of not being able to look directly at someones face, and the sensory processing difficulty, which the character experiences with the jumble of music, voices, and smoke.  Ever since I had originally created this drawing, I've had elements of a story cycling through my head.  This week, I put it down "on paper;" giving closure to this round of creation.  I wait no more!  The character is left suspended there, indefinitely waiting.  His experience of waiting, is tied into and reflected by the readers, who are being left with a question mark, thus also experiencing their own waiting. 

Waiting

Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, perched high up on a cliff, lays an old rustic pub.   Inside, I position myself on an uneven wooden stool, leisurely nursing a spirit from the bar.  The balancing midpoint of the rocking of my seat, hooks me into the swaying motion of the sea water, way down bellow the cliff.  I can barely tell whether I'm on dry land, or out at sea.  Being far up above sea level provides me with some clarity of just how far I have traveled.

With my raincoat still on, I am only slightly warmer from the dampness of the rain and the draft from which I just came.  My umbrella, amongst other dark ones in the corner, drapes over a slanted coat rack.  The uneven texture of the rust colored brick wall, juxtaposes a backdrop to little consecutive drops of remaining rain water.  They descend from the umbrella trunk onto the floor, smoothly sliding down at their convenience.  The drops crackle down in a repetitive fashion onto the increasingly glistening wet surface.  With each downwards glissando, my pulse rises.  It loops in rhythmic thumps, just like the rain drops, almost audibly.

A dull ache continues to fill my chest with anxiety.  I attempt to focus on my breathing, just to slow down, to moderate some sense of composure.  Sweat beads form on my brow and smudge the glass of my lenses, leaving me all the more mindful of my own thoughts.  I remain adrift, much like the boat which I had just departed, far from coming into a satisfying focus.  Still, I sit there, waiting in the dampness of this room.

Condensation forms on the inside of an arched triangular window that overlooks the ocean bellow.  It layers onto the cold glass, as if consumed in its own anticipation.  It partners with that of my very own.  I wonder how long it would take for it to completely evaporate; perhaps as long as my own anticipation were to finally dissipate.

Still, I wait.

Settled in for a prime view, my gaze hypnotically locks onto the entryway.  I gradually forget about my little ails, as the effect of my drink now blurs them into a milder haze.  I am transfixed.  A dim light from a ceiling lantern hanging over the doorway, forms a cozy rendezvous for petite night bugs' delight.  Voices jumble in polyphony coincide with background music.  Phasing in and out, they become increasingly distant in their fading counterpoint.  Here and there, I am sobered into reality by someones staccato laugh.  Voices interlace with music, and music interweaves with voices, in a swirl which leaves me questioning if my senses are acutely heightened, versus further intoxication.  An overlay of smoke and the faint sent of alcohol in the air, ties this all into one confusing concoction.  I attempt to refocus on my breathing, to regain some sense of clarity.

Shadowed images pass by in my periphery, as if coasting beside me in slow motion.  I do not turn my gaze away to look at their faces, nonetheless.  I am not one who's comfortable with direct gazes, as I've been told that "the eyes are the windows to someones soul."   Growing up, I took that meaning too literally.  Until this day, it frightens me.  Only one face will capture my eye.  I will know it when it is time; I will recognize this particular silhouette.

Time seems to have suspended indefinitely.  It is in no hurry to appease my unswerving intent.  My eyes fixate on the antique metal keyhole on the arched wooden door.  If only the stroke of a single key turn were to conjure up the one I await.  Several times, I think that I see the door nob turning, but then, no one enters; my mind plays tricks at my own expense.

Still, I want.  Still, I hope.

Puff, inhale slowly, then exhale, and another breath, and another puff.  I sit there alone, in the scattered crowd, waiting.  Waiting is the only real thing over which I posses any sort of control.  Single strands of smoke from my cigarette float upwards and onwards, interlocking in their graceful assent, getting drawn to some mysterious sway.  They accept the lantern's subliminal invitation, becoming encapsulated by its magnetic glow.   Smoke elevates and thickens, smoldering with each of my passing breaths.  With each slow exhale, it spirals up, voluminously filling out the space of the increasingly clouded tavern.

With each exhale, the room expands with my anticipation.  Smoke escapes out through the cracks and into the cold air, to find the one that I await.  I am becoming part of the fixtures of this room; it knows of my desire.  The cracks on the walls mirror my journey.  Much like the sturdiness of the brick which they affect, nonetheless, they do not affect my resolve.  My spirit remains uncrackable.

I will not move from this one spot, as I had promised.  I will not betray.  Paralyzed by my own impassioned state; I do not dare part from this uneven stool.  I have waited already this long.  Maybe she is held up just a bit longer?  I am tormented by my trepidation, by my longing for her.  I want, but I do not know for certain what is yet to follow.  I remain suspended there, on a cliff, waiting.

Still, I love.  Still, I wait.

Clefony

Music - inspired art

Clefony ~ charcoal pencils

  My drawings in charcoal pencils are my latest Creations.

  
 The two additional smaller drawings of Clefony, 
are a couple of the earlier stages of this piece.

 

Completed drawing

CLEFONY

The term Clefony is my made up word for a symphony of clefs.  It is an artistic-inspired word since bass and treble clefs intertwine in this abstract creation.  It is a word-play on the coupling of clef with symphony.  In Clefony, I fuse together non moving images such as the musical clefs, in contrast to moving elements, such as the small music notation.  The treble clef endings resemble bows of the string family, adding a more angular contrast to the roundness of the clefs, as if playing them like they were instruments.  The angled treble clef closest to the top spirals downward, glistening in imitation to the brass wiring of a french horn.  The hook of the top bass clef rounds-off into a pear's seed, hinting at the notion that music and art appeal to many of our senses, causing us to feel more alive.

The Rose

In The Rose, leaves blowing in the wind from diagonal directions intersect and merge to form the image of a rose, which is suspended at an angle.  The Rose is a fusion of the soft smudged leaves on the interior of the flower, which interlace with the more ornate sharper edged intersecting leaves.  It is a play on the two textures.  The flower head itself acts as a magnetic force that pulls the sharper edged ornate leaves into it's center, causing the panoramic view to seem multidimensional.  In this piece, I play with the idea of the still life image of the flower being juxtaposed with the crossing of the leaves and the illusion of motion contrasting it's windless leafy bulb.

The Rose ~ charcoal pencils

Evolution of The Rose:
 

The Rose ~ stage 1

The Rose ~ stage 2

The Rose ~ stage 3

The Rose ~ stage 4