Happy Easter. . . . He has risen.

"Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness."
-- Floyd W. Tomkins

This is a painting I did originally for a children's book I am doing with a friend. It is to be an ABC book on the birth of Christ. I thought this one fit well as an Easter picture as well.
Happy Easter to all who celebrate.

Faucets and Rocks . . . . . . .

A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I love taking pictures out in this beautiful world of ours. On my retreat last summer in the Cascade Mts. of Washington St. I got some really fun pictures of lots of different things. One very interesting thing was the difference configurations of rocks. Paths and piles of rocks. Rocks just strewn everywhere. It was such a wonderful thing to see.

My other find was coming upon some faucets, right out in the middle of nowhere. I am not sure if these faucets still even did anything, but I loved the shapes, symmetry, and composition of the way they looked.

All of us have our own conception of what is art, and for me you can find no prettier picture than what we can find in nature.

Spring a true work of art. . . . . .

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
Michelangelo

Below are some works of God's art. Spring is finally arriving, and the flowers are beginning to peek out. I took my camera out and began collecting a few pictures, and also put in a few I had taken in the past.

The two most beautiful things in my life I have created are my two sons Scott and Andrew. They are 29 and 24 respectfully. They have turned out to be wonderful young men with their own special talents and traits.

Andrew the artist is creative, philosophical ( The the degree in Philosophy for Loyola of Chicago being true) and somewhat of a doer of a little bit of everything.
Scott the oldest is the most caring soul I believe I have ever known. He is sweet, kind, and would be devastated is he ever hurt anyone. I am so glad he has found someone to love and spend the rest of his life with. Congratulation Scott and Erika.

Now, back to spring. I think spring brings out art in all of us. Spring makes us see the true works of divine art. That is the art that is created by God. Perfect in every way. The signs of this are every spring when those blooms begin to peek their heads up out of the ground, after surviving the bleakness of winter and being covered in snow for such a long time.

No wonder Spring is considered a resurrection of sorts. Like Christ's being raised from the dead, out of the dead cold winter comes all the bountiful beauty of spring. Spring in all of its wonderful colors, shapes, smells and beauty. Maybe this new beginning after a long cold spell is what activates again our creative juices once more. . Inspires us to get out and capture it on paper.

The first picture above is of another of two of God's perfect creations. My precious great niece and nephew McKenna 1 and Troy 3. They have blessed the lives of everyone in our family, and I am sure will continue to do so always.

I hope spring is becoming a time of new awakening for you, your art, and those you love and care for.

Enjoy the day, smell the flowers, care for those you love. Life is so very short. We often
forget that.

A Mandala Monday

And a Happy Monday to all. Finally the sun is shining here in Missouri, and we are suppose to be in the 70's by the end of the week.

One of my many favorite things to do are Mandala like artwork. Along with that I also love to do anything with paper, Kirigami, Origami, Folded paper, Cut Paper, whatever.

The first picture below is a piece I did by folding paper. It looks somewhat like a quilt pattern, but, also with the symmetry could be a mandala of sorts.

The two designs below are just some simple mandala type pieces I did. I didn't realize until I was done that in the one at the bottom, it has part that looks like tennis racquats. I used to play tennis 4 and 5 times a week, but then I tore up my knee and plus my aging body stopped me from doing that any longer. I do miss it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. Here is a little quote to start your week off.

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." - Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)

Thank YOU Tyanne.......

Thank You Tyanne.
you saved my life with your tip about software for
recovering lost files from digital camera memory cards!!
It Worked and I got them back.
I never dreamed anything like this existed.
You are a sweetheart.
Thank goodness for Google.!!
Oh Happy Days I am back in business so to speak.

Oh boy did I MESS up this time.

I cannot believe it, but, I think I have somehow inadvertently deleted all the pictures on my digital camera !!!! That means all the ones from my week in Washington state at the art and spirituality retreat, my nephews wedding, and various other things. Thank goodness I had put at least most of the good ones from my trip on the Artsonia ( a web site for student art that I used to put my students art on) so they at least were saved. I also made actual prints of all of them.

I still don't know how I did it, except I was messing with my camera trying to change some settings, and I guess I must have accidently erased them. I am sorry because there were some really good ones of family from the wedding.

Oh well, I guess I will learn to back my memory card up and make a CD every so often so this won't happen again. The only things on it now are the pictures I last posted of the Zentangles. I was messing with my camera, because I didn't think my pictures were coming out very clear. Well I really did a number on the old camera now. I don't have a scanner, so this is the way I put pictures up.

I don't know much if anything about scanners. Is that a good or better thing to have when putting up pictures on posts or other places?? I would love to have some feedback from you
more experienced bloggers out there.

Well, I have had to work so much this week, that I have had little time again for more than just a few small Zentangles. These three I did with the cards from the Zentangle kit I ordered from Rick and Maria at Zentagle.com. It is kind of fun to do it in this small space. Good for the
learning curve anyway.

My son is going to try and figure out if what I did with my pictures is my camera or my computer, but, I don't hold out much hope of being able to recover anything. Well live and learn right.

Hope all have a good weekend and next week.

Here are three square Zentangles I guess you could call it a "Trio of Tangles". Sorry for the bad joke.

It was a Zen weekend. . . .

For some reason, this past weekend I could not stop doing Zentangles. I hope you all know that Zentangle has its own blog now www.zentangle.blogspot.com. I just love doing these. I think the second one kind of looks like a rhinocerous. Whatever. Thanks to so many new friends from "blogdom" who have come to visit my blog. I really appreciate it and love looking at everyone else's.


Again special thank you to Laure for giving me my first Blog award. You are the best.

Enjoy the lines and curves !!!