Life Book 2015 – Week 34

This week we continue with the Healing & the Feminine Archetype theme.  This lesson was taught by  

Alena Hennessy who showed us how to paint a muse!

Alena talked about the different goddesses and what they represent.

I chose again to go back to my roots and explore the Aztec goddesses.

I chose the goddess Chicomecoatl. (chico meh, co atl)

Her themes are fire, providence, energy, community, abundance, fertility and strength.

Her symbols are hot spices (especially chili peppers), corn and fire.  In Mexico the goddess presides over maize and all matters of plenty during the time of harvest.  She is also the earth goddess and provides warmth, energy and fertility to those in need.

I chose her because she represents abundance and strength and because I love corn tortillas and chili peppers.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art : “the headdress is known as amacalli(“paper house”); it is the most typical attribute of the corn goddess.”

One aspect of the Aztec gods and goddesses were their insatiable thirst for blood.  I will spare you the details of how she was commemorated every September.

She comes in various appearances: a girl with water flowers.  She is regarded as the female counterpart of the maize god Cinteotl, their symbol being an ear of corn.

I really enjoyed drawing and painting this girl. I used watercolor paper, Pitt markers, india ink, and acrylic paints, and color sprays.  I might have taken too long and not be too intuitive, but I wanted to include all the symbols she represents.

The title – Chicomecoatl goddess of Maize and Strength

Corn,

Chilies,

Strength and Abundance

Her sweet face 🙂

That is it for now, friends, posting this goddess made me hungry for tacos!  LOL

Keep having fun and thanks for coming to visit!

Carmen

It has come to my attention that the image I used to create “Chicomecoatl goddess of Maize,”  was actually posted on a blog  without the original artist’s permission.  I publicly apologize for this omission, but just as I explained to the artist, Oesparza12, (sorry, she didn’t leave her full name on her comment on this post) I used Google’s search engine and it took me to the blog where this art was posted.

Several Cards I Have Created in The Last Few Weeks

Here are some cards and other mixed media projects I’ve created, but haven’t posted.

My grandson Sage stayed with us for a few days this summer and wanted to surprise his girl friend.  He said he wanted a folder to tell her how much he loved her.  “Grandma, can you make something for Emma?”  What do you want me to make?  “Oh, just take a folder and do your stuff on it!”  He loved it!  You should have seen the look in his eyes when I gave it to him.

Emma’s Folder

I used stencils, spray paint, acrylics and a black marker

 

The back of the folder with a silhouette of a person dancing.

Close up of the stencil I used and the word Celebrate!

This is a mixed media canvas for a dear friend of the family who just found out she has Ewing’s Cancer, a rare form of bone Cancer.  She is so sweet and only 14 years old.

A closeup of the quote:

It didn’t take long for her to start loosing her hair, so I sent her a card to cheer her up!

I used a couple of Unity stamps for this one.

One of my cousins asked me to make a Sympathy card for a coach who just died, so I dusted off my Cricut and cut out a few images from the Basketball cartridge.

I also used my single stamps and stamped the inside.

Finally, I’ve been taking some Craftsy card classes and these are a few of the cards I’ve created.

The lessons were given by Catherine Pooler – so much fun!

Life Book 2015 Week 20 with Jenny Doh

This week’s lesson was by Jenny Doh is – Unraveling Through Mark Making.

First of all, this lesson was way beyond my comfort zone.  Some people are able to make awesome intuitive creations, but I had a hard time with this.

I created two today because the first one was done totally without thinking, spent too much time on it, and I feel it was a total mess.  I used fluid acrylics, high flow acrylics, fine line applicator, Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils, and palette knives.

I started out by dropping two colors of ink and using my spatula to make marks on the paper, then I switched to the fine line applicator and some black India ink.  I didn’t like what was going on so I started on the left side of the paper just using the red and violet.  I could see what looked like a red hat, so I went with it; then added the face.  I call her The Red Hat Lady.  She’s looking pretty sad because she just saw what was behind the curtain on the right side.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!  LOL

This is a closeup (she’s so sad!)

I also dripped some of the paint and added red lines – doesn’t it look like a shower curtain?  LOL

The next piece is my sort of non intuitive painting – I didn’t know what I was going to make, but after laying the paint and making some circles, I decided very soon into the process that I was going to make a face – yeah the face of punk girl!

The word for this one is Just Be – whatever you want to be – Just Be!

Close up of the face (purple mole, or is it just a stain?)

I used a pink neon high flow acrylic paint for the title and made other marks with the violet, red, and black inks.

Well, I’m just glad I did it and got it over with.  Maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for doing this type of art, but I gave it a try and hopefully next time I will like it a bit more!

Thanks for stopping by and…

Keep on crafting!

Carmen