Friday, December 31, 2010

New Year's Eve

Not sure where the past month has gone, I've been neglecting the blog.
I think what happened was I'm still healing after the knee replacement.
Just getting through the work day was a challenge
day by day my knee is gaining strength 
and stamina is returning.
~~~~~
The ornaments above are what I gave to all my co-workers.
I used 300 lb watercolor paper 
drew the zentangles with a pigma micron pen
shaded with graphite
and the most fun part was
encasing them in encaustic medium.
Too fun!
Then I fashioned a wire hanger
and added a red bead....they needed a little color.
I'm always a little hesitant to give art as gifts.
Everyone liked them--that made me happy.
This is the finished journal page.  
 I continued the checkerboard across the page,
and tried my make my self portrait appear
as if it's emerging from the checkerboard.
Everyday was one step,
my mantra was "just do the next thing".
Everything took so much longer than I was used to.
Showers, getting dressing, going up and down stairs.
S l o w  m o t i o n
But everyday brought more strength
little by little, increment by increment.
That's a great metaphor for life isn't it?
I'm not sure about you,
but I like to look back at the year that's past.
There's a lot of life in those days-weeks-months.
Bittersweet. Joy. Pain. Happy. Grief.
Now we look onto a clean slate,
a brand new year stretched out before us.
I don't want to make any more failed resolutions.
I want to go into this next year
f e a r l e s s.
That calls for a new mantra
What if?
What next?
What happens if?
YES.
We tend to look at things/circumstances/art projects,
afraid to take that next step,
the one that could very well make all the difference.
I'm tired of waiting for something to happen.
I want to take risks and make them happen.

Thanks for visiting!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

1 comment:

jgr said...

Hi Chris, I'm so glad your knee is coming along! You have a great positive attitude and that is really inspiring, I also love your FEARLESS approach - once again we are on the same page with that-I've been working on my Dream Board for 2011 and FEARLESS is the theme!! Happy New Year my friend-I wish you all the best in 2011.