Affirmation..........................

af·fir·ma·tion /ˌæfərˈmeɪʃən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[af-er-mey-shuhn] –noun




1.the act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed.

2.the assertion that something exists or is true.

3.something that is affirmed; a statement or proposition that is declared to be true.

4.confirmation or ratification of the truth or validity of a prior judgment, decision, etc. 5.Law. a solemn declaration accepted instead of a statement under oath.

I recently received my current issue (March/April) of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. In it I came across an article written by artist Kelly Rae Roberts (http://www.kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/) whose artwork I've long admired; love her hand-painted characters! This article really caught my eye because it is called "Collage Affirmations". I knew instantly I had to read on.

After soaking up the article and her technique, I decided to try my hand at my own version. I have to express, here, that this was one of the most therapeutic art projects I've ever done . I want to do 1,000 more!

This is a picture of my affirmation collage. It is an 8x10 canvas. I hand-painted the birds and tree with the help of tracing stencils. My free-hand drawing skills are a little weak :) I had fun using bubble wrap and other texture tools for the background using some of my favorite colored fluid acrylics.

Once I got my background where I wanted it, I knew it was time to think about my affirmations and I decided that I wanted them to be positive ones. I had to take some time to think about a place where I used to be and where I am now in my life. I'm not certain you'll be able to read them so these are what I came up with:

I move beyond old limitations and allow myself to express freely and creatively.

Life is about change.

I freely love and enjoy life, allowing it to flow through me, rejoicing in my self-expression.

I can love and approve of myself, am at peace with my own feelings and stand tall and free.

I can choose to allow all my experiences to be joyous and loving.

This was HUGE! I just felt so good after completing this collage and actually including my affirmations AND not feeling any hesitation about sharing them so others can see! I definitely plan on doing more of these; it's almost like an art journal entry on canvas!!!

This also led me to thinking.............................how about an art exchange with this in mind? Yes.................Positive Affirmations as the theme! How fun would this be? Anyone game?

Please email me at Artbeliever@gmail.com no later than Friday, March 7th if you are interested.

I thought we could do a 5 x7 size on matboard to save on mailing costs. We would each do one affirmation collage that would include two positive affirmations. Return postage would be requested and I would offer a gift to anyone who would like to participate.

More details can follow but first I would like to know who and how many are interested in playing. :)

I will leave this post up, on top, until March 7th, so I won't be posting anything else. I want to give it time so everyone can have a chance to read this and hopefully play. I'm very excited about this and I feel is a very rewarding and freeing art project.

I hope to hear from you! Love to all - Marilyn

"Storm at Sea"........

Well; this is it! I finished my painting (see previous post). I found myself obsessing over the sky and it wasn't until this morning that I took another look at it and decided I wanted the feel of the sea's reaction to an oncoming storm. The sky is hard to paint; there is usually so much going on on any given day or evening :) So; I added in some darker tones and some brush marks and then the little voice in my head was telling me to stop. It's so hard to stop when I'm doing something I really enjoy working on. I'm sure you get those feelings, too. :)

I still have to cut around the frame where the cheesecloth and tissue paper have overlapped and then I'll paint around the frame to finish it off. By the way, I changed the name of this from Sea Dreams to Storm at Sea; felt it was more appropriate.

Now.............on to my next project :)

I'm wishing you all a great day and upcoming week. Love, Marilyn

Stages..........................

I thought it would be fun to share what I'm currently working on and present it in stages.

I'm working on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas. I began by sandwiching cheesecloth between white Gesso layers then adding some crumpled up tissue paper. (the first picture)

At this point, I wasn't sure where I was going with this painting, but before I knew it, I could see a seascape forming! The second picture is the beginning of my painting. I'm using fluid acrylics, oil paint sticks, and some Japanese Washi paper. I think I'm going to title this: "Sea Dreams".

The painting is now in the drying stage before I can add more to it but I just felt it would be fun to share the progress of this painting with you.

I will post my next stage in a couple of days :)

Thanks, again, for visiting and, as always, your wonderfully supportive comments. Hope you're all having a good weekend.................Love, Marilyn

Something to "crow" about..........:)

I am beginning to think, that in my previous life, I must have been a bird; particularly a crow. I love crows! There's something artistic about the "blackness" of them; nature's silhouettes! We sure have plenty of them around where I live, anyway, and while some people find them annoying, I love to watch them and know that they are around.

I recently discovered that a friend of mine and I have this thing for crows in common so we decided to engage in a one-on-one ATC exchange with our theme.

This is a picture of my creations and I used Stampboard for the substrate; very nice surface to work on I might add. I decided to add a thin layer of beeswax over the collages.

In each piece I decided to use two crows as I just found out, recently, from a friend of mine that crows mate for life! I did not know this and I feel this makes them even more special! :)

Thanks for visiting and also your lovely and supportive comments you leave here. I always appreciate you taking the time to stop in for a visit.

I wish you all a good day and the upcoming week. Love, Marilyn

Friendship....................

I felt like relaxing with my laptop, this afternoon, and play around with Photoshop. I love this image of these sweet little girls and the smile on their faces just warms my heart.

A very dear friend of mine took a terrible fall a couple of days ago and she is in the hospital. I went to see her, today, and she's okay but will have some recovery time ahead of her.

I dedicate this piece to my friend, Elaine, in hopes that when she gets home and gets back on her computer, she will see this piece on my Blog and it will make her smile.

This one's for you Elaine!!!! Love you - Marilyn

"Look Within"

Acrylic/Mixed Media

8" x 10"

This is a picture of my most recent acrylic/mixed media painting. The picture isn't the clearest; there's a lot going on with the painting, lots of texture with molding paste (photo embedded)and foils so I was getting a lot of reflection.

Have a great day everyone! Love, Marilyn

Honoring a friend.................

Recently, a friend of mine sent me a black and white photo of her cat, Sparkle, and asked me to do something fun using Photoshop with the picture. My friend wanted it to look a little like a painting so she could frame it.

Sadly, Sparkle passed on a week ago.

So; this is in honor of Sparkle, a trusted friend, who made a lot of people very happy. He will be missed.