~M = Marvelous
Week Fourteen
What ever you do, Be Marvelous!!
Life is what you celebrate, All of it. ~Joanne Harris
This week is the celebration of the letter M. oh the words and fun that came to me with this letter. I believe so far I live in the activities of M.
When I was an exhibiting artist I had a solo fine art exhibit at the
Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko, Nv
It's show title was "Kaleidoscope"
To see a small part of the exhibit at Highland Estates.
Click below
I had been painting mandala's ever since I read a biography of Carl Jung.
He said he did a small mandala everyday in his office before he started work each day.
I started with easy coloring books, and then later went on to make my own designs.
In world history all different cultures, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Celtic, and, Native American have been making mandalas for well over 5,000 years.
One of the ways to use a mandala is to ask a question while you are creating your mandala, by the time you are finished hopefully you will have an answer.
Mandalas are symbols of community, wholeness, and spiritual journeys.
I am not going to go into the whole philosophy of the mandala here. My suggestion is for you to go to the library or internet and check out a book that can explain it in far more detail then I can on my simple blog here.
Art Journal Assignment:
Drawing a mandala
|
Freedom, mandala by Jean Hart |
1. You can either buy a coloring book of mandalas and color in them, or you can make your own.
a. draw a circle, fold it in half, then half again.
b. Keep in mind that a mandala is a symmetric design and is repeated from one quarter to the other.
2. Drawing a mandalas is a time for you to be still, calm, and quite so you can focus on the big questions in your life. So, before you begin coloring, ask yourself a question, you might ask what you could do to change your life so you can enjoy it and have more fun with family and friends.
3. While the design is repeated from one quarter to the other quarter, meaning what is put on the right is also drawn on the left. YOU can color it anyway you wish.
4. When you finished, turn over your drawing and write the acronym B.L.E.S.S.M.E.
(body, lifestyle, emotions,social,spiritual,mind,environment.).
Now write 2 activities that came up that you could do. Do not worry if you didn't think of something for each category. I personally like to keep the B.L.E.S.S.M.E. acronym in my active thinking.
5. Have fun with this, be creative, and don't censor yourself.
keep this list handy and commit to making those changes within the month.
I like to put these suggestion on my daily calendar so I can make plans to do the activities.
Kitchen Assignment:
Let's Get Cooking
For me, since I'm spending more time at home and in the kitchen learning how to eat clean and healthy, I have been turning some of my favorite recipes into a healthier recipes.
Vegan Magic Cookie Bars
I love magic bars, so I went hunting for a healthy version.
My family loved this one. It's gooey on the inside, sticky all over and
Marvelously Magic!!
This is the recipe I used :
Field Trip:
If you can, if it's this time of year where you live.
Go to a Farmers Market.
There is nothing like fresh vegetables from the farmers.
I had such a wonderful day with my daughter Sarah. We went to all the booths, asked questions,*(because everything is handmade), and came home with very fresh and unusual vegetables.
|
Framers Market |
|
spinning wool |
|
fresh tomatoes |
|
I came home and made with all the fresh vegetables, vegetable dumplings, with fried shisuto peppers. |
There's lots of more activities for the letter M, and I will most likely continue posting later.
As always have fun with this, share, like and follow so you don't miss a single post.
I would love to see your mandalas.
Because this is an ongoing project for me, and I continually change things for each letter. I would love it if you left me a little comment on how you are enjoying the assignments.
Be Inspired,
~jean