Love & Glitter

Effort As Offering

One of the spiritual concepts that brought me into the mixed media and journal art fold was the idea that everything we do with *intent* is an energetic offering to the divine as we understand it. I began to explore this idea back in late 2009 as I was finishing up my Bardic Grade. The purpose of the Bardic Grade is to allow the seeker to foster "Awen" (Welsh, translated loosely as 'the holy sledgehammer of inspiration') and boy, howdy. Did it ever.

In the early days of my artistic ventures, I made sure to take a deep breath before I began to create to set an intention. Sometimes the intention was very personal healing ~ "I intend to explore my relationship to my body", or "I intend to give myself a message I'm really needing to hear right now." Sometimes, I set intentions that were a little less 'heavy', but not less important ~ "I intend to play with shading." or "I intend to be brave with layering.". Other times, the most fruitful times, were those times when I set an intention to honour the divine. This is where spirituality and art really intersect for me. I don't see the difference between an elaborately planned and executed ritual and a few hours spent honouring the divine through journal art. They both have the same sort of feel for me. Both induce trance. Both raise energy. Both result in a greater sense of connection. Both are absolutely magical. We have something at Wild Precious called "Church of Art". It's a cheeky name, since I'm as pagan as all get out, but after the tenth joke about our Sunday livestream being better than church, we decided to call it 'Church'. The name has stuck, and as cheeky as it might be, it does remind us as we art together that this kind of communing is sacred. We come together as a community. We share our thoughts and feelings. We art. This past Sunday was all about honouring our ancestry. I did a mixed media canvas (canvas! Me!) in autumnal colours and every step of the way, I was thinking about my lineage ~ both the blood kind and the spiritual kind. Though it appears to the casual viewer that I was just hanging out with my peeps, making pretty things, every layer, every spot of paint, every moment was full of reverence for those who've come before me. The finished piece will rest above my Samhain altar to show my gratitude for the shoulders I stand upon. My familial line, and that Hidden Company of spiritual forebears I keep always have a place in my home and my life, but sometimes a little effort goes a long way to expressing that.

Here's a video of the process:

Here's a detailed glimpse of the finished piece:

 Thanks for looking. xo Effy P.S. P.S. Want to learn how to do this kind of stuff? Check out Mixed Media and Journal Art Boot Camp! Limited time offer: Register for Life Book through this link, email me to let me know, and get a free spot in Elements: Self-Guided!

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Fall

(x-posted to Wild Precious Life in The Studio)

I found the video below in my queue of videos waiting to be processed and decided to get it out of the 'waiting bin' and out into the world. This style is a real departure for me. I wasn't consciously aware of this while I was making it, but this is what it looks like when I stretch and move in an unknown direction. Since making it, I have found myself using this exact process: background colour, papers, shabbify, focal point, text.

I love this process sooooo much, and though the 'text' bit is missing in this painting (I seriously can't find it anywhere in my house, or I'd take photographs of it) this was the moment my style coalesced. This was the moment I went 'ahhhhhhhhhh.....this!'. Though I'm sure my style will further evolve, I like having this record of my progress. In Other News  I rendered the video from Sunday's Livestream and created a happy timelapse video. There is a group at WPS that houses these time lapse versions of our livestreams, and this time only, I'm going to cross post it here to give you a taste of what it's like. The group will often include giveaways, as does this one. Want to win the painting I made in this video? Proceed to Wild Precious Studio, sign up, join the Church of Art group (yes, it's a tongue in cheeky name) and find out how.  

Meanwhile, here's a preview of the kind of goodness we feature in CoA every week.

 Click here to access our channel, bookmark it, and join us every Sunday from 1 p.m. EST till whenever I'm finished.

In Other Other News

Look for another giveaway on September 25th, 2011. It has to do with this gorgeeeeeosity:

Click here for details!

Changes to Church of Art

Many of you know that The Studio has a weekly Livestream on Sundays at 2 p.m. EST. The time is changing to 1 p.m. to accommodate us as we share, talk, art, laugh, and go on and on for hours on end. This change will mean that I am off the computer by 4:30 p.m. at the latest. Otherwise, my family starves, and a grumpy family makes me grumpy. *laughs* Another change will be that these will no longer be recorded and saved as is. We talk about some pretty sensitive stuff during Church and we'd rather not have that stuff out there for all the world to see/hear into perpetuity. Instead, I will record with two cameras ~ one for the livestream and one for the edited version, which will be timelapsed and focus on the art done during the stream. Once a month there will a video slideshow of the art y'all did during the stream, too. I hope these changes serve us all well as a community! *** Despite the hurricane, we will have CoA tomorrow at 1 p.m. EST. for all who can attend. You can find CoA here: http://livestream.com/wildprecious Those who wish to can send images of the art they did during the stream to effyswild@gmail.com. Please include the MONTH and CoA in your subject line so I can maintain some modicum of organization in my inbox. Love ya! Effy