My Blue Room

Well, after a time, my “Renewal” mandala design served its purpose at Janet London’s Hummingbird Arts Mandala Store as a free download, and we took it down to make room for another lovely design by one of Janet’s students. Recently, Janet called me to say that people had contacted her asking for a more complex design to color and asked if I’d mind adding “Renewal” back to her Mandala Store! Of course I was thrilled to hear this, so it’s back, and available for free download so you can have fun coloring it yourself. That’s not all. Janet has finished three new pressed flower pieces for an art event in the Rogue Valley, Oregon area called “Dark Night of the Soul,” produced by Betsy Lewis of Art Event Productions. She’s added them to her Print Gallery in hopes that people will be interested in prints of the work, which is dramatic, lovely, and an advancement of her style.Technorati Tags: linkedin, website design

I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to Mae Wygant, of Jacksonville, Oregon, on the launch of her new website, maewygant.com, after a summer of intense work punctuated by a busy travel schedule. We’ve spent many hours photographing and color-correcting images of her work, and it’s finally complete. Please visit to celebrate her new online presence and feast your eyes on 40 incredible paintings in a variety of genres. Her abstracts are like nothing you’ve ever seen – the movement and color makes them the best I’ve seen! And her work is available for purchase on the site, from reasonably priced fine art prints to investment quality originals. We will continue to work on her site to add over 20 more paintings, so don’t forget to check in from time to time.

Today Janet London added another fine art print to her Print Gallery at Hummingbird Arts. “Ego Disintegration,” the second of three paintings in her “Dark Night of the Soul” series, is an intense, colorful and beautiful new piece – a must-see!

9/5/09: Today marks the launch of Butterfly Jewelry & Treasures new Online Jewelry Boutique! We wish owner Heloise Gerteiny the best of success in this new venture and hope you’ll check it out when considering a gift for someone special.

Other recent updates include the announcement of a new Fall schedule of mandala classes by Janet London of Hummingbird Arts, and updated gallery and exhibition schedules for Jannie Ledard, stained glass artist, and Duane Sample, mosaic artist.

I have a number of projects beginning soon, so stay in touch for more, and if you’re thinking of a website of your own, please contact me before my fall/winter schedule gets too full! For those in the Medford-Jacksonville area, you may not know that I also offer computer skills tutoring for those who need a hand getting started with the basic operation of their computers or with specific programs such as Adobe Photoshop. PC or Mac – don’t get frustrated before contacting me – I can help!Technorati Tags: website design, linkedin

So, after finishing the design in black & white, I couldn’t help myself – I wanted to color it right away! Work was all caught up, so I chained myself to my computer for a few more days and created this full color version of the Renewal mandala in Photoshop.

I showed it to another dear friend of mine soon after it was completed, and she emailed me this sweet note:

“Thank you so so much for the respite in the middle of a busy day with your beautiful art work. It really grabbed me and took hold giving me instant peace and a feeling of inner calm   LOVE THAT!  Now I have it and can go to it when I start to ramp up…Thank You for your never ending encouragement and lifting up, it is huge.”

Well, with a theme like renewal, I created it in the hope that those who enjoyed coloring it would be encouraged and lifted up… *renewed* …so I was deeply moved to hear this. I thought of you all as I worked on it, and I was spoken to about many things during this process, but I’ll keep those things to myself for now, because I would like hear what you think first.

So, I uploaded it to CafePress and assigned the design to a bunch of products so  I could share it in a way that would incorporate the design into things that could become part of the setting of day-to-day life, from coffee mugs to t-shirts. You can find the Renewal CafePress Store HERE

Janet has asked me to embark on a project that will be a bit lengthy, so I’d like your opion: Should I take the time to do a packet of 12 or so mandalas with the theme of the Four Seasons? When completed, this packet of mandala designs would be available for purchase at Janet’s website, http://www.tamlondonhummingbirdarts.comTechnorati Tags: Mandala, art, design, coloring, renewal, Spring

Last month my client (and dear friend) Janet London asked me to design a mandala to replace one of the free download mandalas that has been up at her site for a while. She likes to keep things fresh on her site, and it’s working for her, because she’s gotten so busy with the classes and workshops she teaches in the year since she first launched her website( Feb ’08) that she’s challenged for time to do her own art, much less things like this. Nevertheless it’s very important to her, so I was honored to accept the challenge. We decided on a particular theme for Spring and I chained myself to my computer for a couple of days of mandala meditation and creation…

The result is the “Renewal” mandala design. We posted it at Janet’s website, Mandala Store, where you will find the free downloads at the bottom of the page. Clicking the download image(s) will give you the option to save or print the .pdf file containing the mandala design. It prints on a regular 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, and the design is about 8″ across. So break out your favorite art supplies and have fun coloring! Then tell me all about it…and if you like the way yours comes out, why not scan it and email it to me, we’d love to see what you’ve done, and maybe Janet would put in on her site.
And thank you, Janet, for presenting me with the opportunity to create this design! It was a revelation…
Technorati Tags: Mandala, art, design, coloring, renewal, Spring

There’s always something, isn’t there? It’s almost a week since my birthday and other, perhaps more interesting, things that have happened before and since are loading up behind it…

When we first arrived in Australia, our friends Dave and Annie were so excited that after six years, finally “the Americans are coming!,” that they decided to give us a welcome party. Thanks to them we met people who have become new friends that night, and Annie and I learned that our birthdays are only one day apart in the same year. She immediately made plans for a mutual birthday party the night of October 11. An added pleasure was another to share our birthday, a “truckie” named Jeff, whose birthday is the 12th. We had a nice time, mostly sitting by the bonfire Dave made, eating a little barbie (q) and having fun with a triple – cutting of the cake they made with all three of our names on it. I was so happy our new friends Jan and Roger, who moved to the area about 11 years ago, were there, and they surprised me with a little ceramic bowl handmade by Jan. She’s been doing pottery professionally for a long time – her work is so beautiful, I really wish she had a website I could link to so you could see. I was so touched by their thoughtfulness, and Jan and I had a lovely conversation by the fire.

The next day was mostly quiet. I caught up on some much-needed rest – a gift in itself – and counted the minutes until the gift I had been anticipating since we arrived: the first episode of “First Australians”, a documentary about the history of Australia and the impact of its colonization on Australia’s native inhabitants. Those who know me also know how much I care about all indigenous people and their struggles, and how I love ethnic cultures, so you’ll understand why 5 months of waiting for this had me in such a state of suspense. SBS did it again. While this isn’t really the place to try to recount it all, their website is featuring playbacks of the episodes that have already aired, and I highly recommend that if you share my interest in Aborigine history and culture you check it out here: http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/ They are showing two new episodes each week, and there are now two you can watch, with a new one coming up Sunday night.

Following were highlights of the the 14th annual Deadly Awards, recognizing excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, sport, entertainment, the arts and community achievement. – held at the sydney Opera House, this is the first time it’s been broadcast on tv. I was so impressed by the expression of these culturally rich people. Whether in traditional forms or contemporary ones, they all had wonderfully individual styles. When they introduced the nominees for band of the year, I decided that I wanted a cd from each of them! From elegant country music icon Jimmy Little, hailed by his colleagues as “the gentleman of the Australian music industry”(who presented the Lifetime Achievement Award and sang a beautiful song about talking to Jesus) to beautiful/cute and very talented pop-hiphop artist Jessica Mauboy, from aborigine rap Black Arm Band to the sweet, angelic voice and left-handed guitar of blind Gurrumul Yunupingu, accompanied by strings, I fell in love with them all!  Gurrumul opened the show with his performance and took home three awards: Single of the year, Album of the year and Artist of the year  – check out his MySpace page here:http://www.myspace.com/gurrumul. He’s also been nominated for 4 Aria awards, where he will also perform this Sunday evening 10/19. See more at http://www.deadlys.vibe.com.au/

Then came the 13th. Another quiet day, and I turned my thoughts toward the future. As I stood at the door to the back yard looking at the trippy orchids growing in the tree just outside, along came a King parrot, which we have only seen once before here. He landing in the tree and began to sing to me, looking right at me, then flew down to the laundry line and tight-rope-walked all the way to the end, about two feet from me, singing all the way! After checking me out closely he flew across the yard, then back again to the tree, still singing. A sweet voice, not like you’d expect from a parrot. A rare and precious gift. Funny that the day and the hour matched exactly that of my birth in the States. Somehow I felt as if our friend Chala had stopped by to sing his happy birthday song to me.

A few days have gone by since, and yesterday Chala’s nephew Bawala (Sonny) rang to share his new poem with us. He is undergoing a transformation in the wake of the passing of his beloved Chala, and the connection he made with my husband and son seems to be intertwined with this, so he’s in touch nearly every day. He told Joel he felt that something else was trying to come forth from within him…what was it? Another poem? What? They hung up without an answer, the day went on a bit, and the guys left to run an errand. While they were away he rang again, asking what kind of day it was here. I told him it was clouds and sun, and a moment ago there was a little shower that came and went. He said, Those showers are a blessing, they rain on you softly, then go away. Then he told me he had figured out the strange feeling – today was Chala’s birthday! So profound that they had buried him on Sonny’s birthday, September 27th, and here we are, only 20 days later remembering his birthday (10/17/1917 – they think…no birth certificate and family members say he was probably over 100 actually).  I told him about the parrot and how strongly I had thought of Chala when he was singing to me. He said, yep, it was probably was him, visiting me so I wouldn’t feel left out by not being able to come to his funeral and meet his people. He was like that. Later in the evening I made crepes and lit a candle, and we thanked him for including us in his last ceremony and making us part of his family, and for all the beautiful experiences we have had as a result.

Now I have turned 45.

Technorati Tags: Australia, aborigines, Chala, king parrot, art, music, culture, birthday, friends, Deadly, Deadly Awards, Gurrupul Yurupingu, Jessica Mauboy, Jimmy LIttle