Fall Fearless & Fly Challenge 6 and Giveaway!

Welcome to Challenge #6, with an amazing contribution by guest artist Dina Wakley at Artists in Blogland.  Here are the prompts:

Headline Prompt:  Divided by God:  What does "God" mean to you?  How do you access"God" or the divine or the sacred in your life?
Color Prompt: Metallics - gold, silver, copper, bronze, or all of them!
Quote Prompt: "This is my simple religion.  There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.  Our own brain, our own heart, is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."  The Dalai Lama 

I used all three of the prompts and worked on a canvas I had started in Flora Bowley's Bloom True class.  Here's what it looked like as of Friday morning!

 

Here's what it became, after many more layers!

I access the divine through my meditation practice. 

The lotus is a metaphor for the internal journey we take in meditation.  I painted three of them, to honor the three major world religions, and added gold accents throughout the canvas.

I used the Hebrew Calligraphy stencil to stencil the word "Shalom" in the dove (a symbol of peace) and above one of the lotus flowers (the last 4 characters from the bottom left of the stencil form the word "Shalom").  Shalom means complete peace: a feeling of contentment, completeness, wholeness, well being and harmony.  It is said to be another name for God.  Its true translation is comparable to the concepts of Nirvana and Shunyata or emptiness in Tibetan Buddhisim, Salaam in Islam, Namaste in Sanskrit, and the Holy Spirit in Christianity (I’m leaving you with a gift — peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid (John 14:27)).

The way you get there, no matter what religious path you follow, is through kindness, compassion, and taking care of others.

In various places on the canvas, I hand lettered portions of the Dalai Lama's beautiful quote, which I try to live up to every day.

Check out what Carolyn Dube, my co-host, did with this challenge!  It's awesome!

Linking also to Mandarin Orange Monday, Inspiration Avenue (Peace), and Creative Everyday. 

Giveaway!  Comment below by Wednesday, December 12 for a chance to win  my apples & pomegranate stencil! 
 
Thank you for visiting! I read and treasure every comment and will answer any questions as quickly as I can.

Some Updates

I decided to join in to the calendar project at The Kathryn Wheel.  In my art journal, I made a calendar for October, using some of The Crafters' Workshop stencils.  It is so fun to have a place for little bits and pieces of my old watercolors!  If you go to Kathryn's link, you can see all of the amazing calendars that others have made.  I look forward to memorializing a little of what I do each day here. 

Yesterday, in addition Artists in Blogland launching Fall Fearless and Fly, Scrapping the Music posted a new challenge for October.  It's around an amazing song by Crystal Bowersox.  It's so catchy, and the lyrics are so great. 

I had fun creating my design for the challenge.  It's about my daughter Samy, who sings all the time!  I can't resist sharing a clip of her singing in a talent show from our town.

I hope you'll go over to Scrapping the Music and check out the great designs from the rest of the design team, and maybe create one yourself!

A little update on Bloom True, the ecourse I'm taking with Flora Bowley.  This week's theme is "being brave."  Here is how one of my paintings has transformed...

and another:

This process is so fascinating -- layering and layering, letting the painting evolve in an organic way.  It's scary - but I'm loving it.  

What's scaring you these days?  What are you being brave about?

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.