Poetry Thursday - The Body Knows

The Body Knows

The body knows when it is time to be born,
when to catch that first breath in the soft light of dawn.

The body knows when to crawl, when to walk, when to talk, when to run in the playground, draw hopscotch in chalk.

The body knows just when to desire a first kiss,
When to yearn for a closeness, the promise of bliss.

The body knows when it's time to create a child,
provide it with warmth, a mothers’ scent, a mothers’ smile.

The body knows when it has reached half-way
When joints calcify and hair turns to grey

The body knows when it is weary and wrinkled and lined,
Time to sit in a rocker in the sweet sunshine.

The body knows when the horizon is beginning to fade,
when it can hold on no longer, when a breath can’t be made.

The body knows when to let go the soul to the sky, when to send it up higher, when to say its goodbye.

Inspiration and Prosperity Magic

It's amazing how the Law of Attraction works - "You attract whatever you give your attention and energy to, whether wanted or unwanted"

Once I began looking for artistic inspiration, suddenly it was all around me - in magazines, blogs and on the radio. Clearly I am not alone in needing inspiration from time to time. So I am planning some "artist dates" so I can do what Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way) calls "filling the well". As my sister suggested, I am making a journal which I have called "Positively Inspiring" where I can jot down any ideas, make sketches and drawings etc in a completely spontaneous way, perhaps with a theme.

I have also been making another journal called "Dreams Unlimited" which is concerned with "Prosperity Consciousness". I'm a great believer in positive affirmations, and Yoga and meditation help so much with those, but even so, I sometimes slip back into negativity. This journal I add to every day, sometimes pasting pictures, making drawings and lists of things I want manifested in my life, material and non-material. So my new mantra, which I found in a Yoga Journal newsletter, is "I love what comes, I love what goes" which is the idea that when things/people go out of your life a vacuum is created and the Universe will be more than happy to fill it with new things/people. Magic.

The drawing above based on dried Australian Native plants (leuchodendron, gum nuts and gum leaves) was created using my favorite mediums, ink pen and water colour, the sepia tones evoking the dryness of the Australian bush.

Neuroscience and Psychology

Mind Hacks is the blog of authors Tom Stafford and Matt Webb who have written a book by the same name. It is a fascinating look at "neuroscience and psychology tricks to find out what is going on inside your brain, with a view to understanding ourselves a little better and learning a little more, in a very real sense, about what makes us tick".

I really enjoyed this site as it had lots of interesting links to really get your brain working. Some examples of the topics covered are; the power of praise, memory, eliminative materialism (!) and folk psychology, treatment for a new mental illness and all about "extra senses".

Poetry Thursday - Prose

Memories

Memories, creaking floorboards in my mind, surprise me. A montage of yesterday. Potent emotions swirl in response. Whisked away on colorful tangents. Left stranded in places to which I had thought never to return. How did I get here?

Found Art#2

Here are some more Found Art bookmarks. They are made using pen, ink and water colour pencils (I didn't want to use a medium that would rub off on the books) They are a lot of fun to make.

In my previous post on guerilla art I mentioned that the artwork could take the form of a wall mural or pavement drawing. But I need to say that I do not condone Graffiti. Permission should be sought for any artwork to be done on public or personal property. I felt my conscience prickle when I watched a news story about a gang of graffiti artists here in Sydney, who were caught by police for defacing trains, after they bragged on their website about their activities.

We have an outdoor basketball court in a park in our neighbourhood that has a big cement wall, presumably for bouncing balls against. Some time ago an artist was commissioned by the council to paint a mural with a sporting theme on it. It looked great and was so colourful. Then the graffiti artists came along and destroyed it. I remember feeling so angry and frustrated. Because how can you stop it?

Found Art, on the other hand, is a positive thing and creates good karma.

Found Art#1

Here is my first attempt at creating Found Art. I decided to make bookmarks because they can be left anywhere you find a book and they are more likely to be kept by the finder, because they are useful as well as being a small piece of art. Most of the designs are made with ink pen and water colour pencil and some with gel pens. They only take about 15 to 20 mins to complete, so I don't get too attached to them.

Now all I need to do is locate them in a book somewhere to be found, and wait and see whether I hear back from the finder.

I have been enjoying reading some very "arty" blogs, which I have added to my list if you are interested. They are very inspiring and I love seeing what other people are doing and hearing about their creative processes. Oh, and I found a great blog for booklovers a work in progress