Eyes of Another, Finished

This finished piece has been ready to post for a good couple weeks...i've just been lazy! 

I decided to title the piece "Interbeing"...a word that Thich Nhat Hanh uses to describe the inter-connectedness between all beings.  I love his quote...

"I See You In Me, And Me In You"

Interesting....i just googled Thich's name to make sure i had spelled it correctly and found a site of his quotes.  Thought i'd add it here...everything he says is wonderful. :)  He's a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, living in France,  for those who aren't familiar with him.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/9074.Thich_Nhat_Hanh 

Displaying this piece...

The 2 white, illustration board pieces were mounted to the orange paper, as you see it.  Then that was mounted onto a 10" x 10" mirror...framed, under glass.

The eyes are my son's, when he was 5. :)

After the Rain

We have a very large deck off the back/side of our house.  After a recent rainstorm, and clearing skies, i was captivated by the reflection in the pooling water on the deck...and decided that i had to see how it would translate into an artpiece.

The entire piece was stippled onto matte mylar, and colored pencil was added afterwards to differentiate, even further, the areas of pooling water from the drier areas.
Dimensions... 4" x 5.5"

Sitting here at the computer, i can turn my head and look out at the deck.  Today - being a sunny day - i see the same trees as fuzzy shadows on the planks.  Nature is constantly communicating with us...

Eyes of Another #1

This is the other piece i'm working on for that Compassion Presentation, in a couple weeks.  The first piece i did for this presentation is "God, in all Things"...seen here:
 http://slow-by-choice.blogspot.com/search/label/God%20in%20all%20things...

This new piece, Eyes of Another (altho' i may change the title), is an entirely stippled piece, approx. 3" x 5", on illustration board. It will be mounted onto a framed mirror. It's actually only 1/2 the finished piece.  Next i will be working on another similarly sized panel that will be mounted above the eyes panel.  I'm still considering how i will do this, but i will be stippling words, that i wrote, onto this 2nd panel, to read...

When we look deeply           OR...        When we look deeply
into the eyes of another                           into the eyes of Another
we can not help                                      we are given the gift
but see ourselves                                    of seeing Ourselves
and the divine.                                        and the Divine.

I may put the words onto 5 prayer flags...or maybe just have the words by themselves...not sure.

The reason for using a mirror is so that the viewer can gaze from the stippled eyes to their own.

The inspiration for this piece, by the way, came from my participation in the Awakening the Dreamer symposium during the winter. (http://slow-by-choice.blogspot.com/search/label/Blue%20Glass%20Bottle and scroll down to post at bottom of page).  One of the exercises was to pair up with someone and look into each other's eyes for a good few minutes.  The effect was profound and caused me to realize the truth of the above words.

Blue Glass Bottle...Finished

I finally decided to use a real watercolor wash for the bottle.  I had been thinking of using the pigmented inks that i have (Daler Rowney FW acrylic artists ink) but i found them to be less brilliant than watercolor.
            
I like that the background (looking out the window) is black and white as it reminds me of the fact that there was snow on the ground when i started it. :)

God, in all things...Finished

Ok...here's the finished piece...i'm really pleased with it. :)

I did put a wash on the snail, and it's subtle, but looks really good with the rest being black and white. 

I also tried scanning the piece for this post, rather than taking a photo like i usually do.  I really like that the whites are whiter.

Blue Glass Bottle #3

I had to spend some time unclogging my Koh-i-noor .13mm Rapidograph pen today. :(  I thought i had run out of ink, but that wasn't the case...i think maybe it was a fiber from the paper that caused the problem.  Anyway...i was able to put the finishing touches on, and now i just have to add color to make it a 'blue glass' bottle.  I've been experimenting with different inks and pigment inks...

Hopefully i will have it done tomorrow.

Details...
About 4.5" square
Stippling done with a Kohinoor .13mm and .18mm pen
Surface is fairly smooth watercolor paper

God, in all things #3

This is finished, except for a color 'wash' on the snail...which i'm still not 100% sure that i want to do. I'll decide shortly.

Details...
5" x 5"
stippling created with a .13mm Rapidograph
surface is illustration board