she remembers the sunsets8"x10" Acrylic on Paper
Hello from a new land.
I seem to be going someplace, and the map is not clear. I know this painting was inspired by the colors turquoise and red. And the ideas of beach and portrait.
My Flying Girls have been continuing their journey for most of six months. Maybe longer. The format has allowed me to explore many things, both in meaning and in technique.
But other things seem to want to get out right now.
What a mystery.
Where do they come from? What makes them come when they do?
Sometimes I am amazed that something that did not exist yesterday is now a fully formed... something.
Is life like that too? Do things work under the surface unseen by us, only to pop up when they are ready and become real living (or seemingly living) things?
Let me tell you another thing that is new:
This is my 500th post! All those words! All those days! All those journeys! I just kept going step by step and then here I am, 500 posts later and I am in a totally different place than I was when I first started. Physically, mentally, creatively.
It kind of snuck up on me. I knew it was coming but it snuck up on me all the same.
Now here I am, and I am not quite sure where I am. Well. I'm RIGHT HERE, but what I mean is, I'm not quite sure what comes next.
So in honor of my befuddlement, I am offering a giveaway!
Of what?
I don't know!
That's where you come in.
The Superfantabulous Inspire Me Winning Prompt Giveaway!
To enter the giveaway, leave a comment here on this post, and in your comment, leave a prompt for me to use to create a new painting. You can make it a quote or a word or phrase, another image, a challenge, a technique, a social issue or whatever you think might get those juices flowing. Use your creativity to stoke my creativity. Haha. This is a ridiculous giveaway, but it's mine and I choose to be ridiculous.
I will paint a picture from the winning prompt and you will receive a limited edition print of that painting.
Bonus points if your prompt helps me find the next direction for my work. (A surprise secret additional gift. [No I have no idea what that would be, either.])
Also leave your name and a way to get in contact with you, because otherwise, how do I get it to you?
I will keep this giveaway open until Midnight, New York time, Sunday, May 3.
Let the inspiration races begin!
she remembers the sunsets is for sale as a print here
Congratulations on your 500th post! You are such a wonderful creative voice and talent out here in bloggerland! I love visiting you here:)
ReplyDeleteHere is my inspiration idea. Recently, I wrote a poem on my blog about my stages of life. I wonder if a painting could be created showing the transitioning from stage to stage. Girl to Young Student to Career/Wife to Mother. I don't know if there is something here or not. I just would love to see how you would interpret this idea in paint!
500 blogs is a great goal to reach. Congratulations! Writing every day makes you better at writing every day.
ReplyDeletePrompt: You are in a room with a table. You recognize the table. On the table is a carved wood box. What's in the box? What is the history of the table?
(Contact information is on my blogsite and website)
Thanks for all that you share here... your words and images have been an encouragement and an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteMy thought/prompt is---what does it look like, to say "goodbye" to one life and "hello" to another? There's never a clear break... we always carry parts of every place, every person with us, even as we join new communities, view new vistas. (Can you tell I am getting ready to make a geographical move--one that is going to be very difficult? I'm thinking a lot about how the losses we face at "goodbyes" are also an expression of the great gifts we've received!)
here's what comes to me now:
ReplyDelete"enter the realm"
"facing disappointment"
"ignoring fate"
"rasberry buttertarts"
can't even imagine something related to 500... but so glad you've put your voice and color and soul out there. you continue to inspire me...
(look here: http://www.feastforthesenses.blogspot.com/ if you want to see the invitation to my exhibition this coming weekend.)
take care
okay, this just came to me. it's a few ideas all whooshed together.
ReplyDelete1) i want to super size you. this new painting has to be at least 20x24.
2) i loved the way you used the collaged text elements for "FG & the soul moving or HSITMR". this new painting must include collaged text elements.
3) i love when your texture show, like in this self-portrait. this new painting must include texture.
4) i was gonna say that the new painting's title would be, "i know a secret," but i'll give this information instead: i once heard that great performers take the stage like they know something the audience doesn't. i say that i take the stage like i know something the audience knows, they just don't know they know it.
and thank you for continuing to inspire me.
Possible titles for your next creation:
ReplyDelete"The Scent of Bewilderment"
"Where Warriors Grow"
"Raw Delight"
"500 Dreams from Home"
"Sweetness in Stillness"
May you be inspired and infused with delicious images,
Danette
Congrats and bravo! Your passionate, vibrant soul touches my heart with your every post. I am grateful to know you. Can't wait to read the next 500!
ReplyDeleteAs for the prompt:
"a light at the end of the shadows"
...first fragment to enter my mind...
my contact info is: saramoriarty@gmail.com
and btw~ i think this is a splendid giveaway idea.
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great achievement.
I think you need to show some way you have grown and as well, a new technique you have shown on your journey. Maybe tie it into Collage Diva's Map contest!
All the best on the next 500!
It has been awhile since I have visited -- looks like I picked a good day ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion: I see you are a warrior girl; perhaps a creation of a deck of atc warrior cards - like wars you have won... or wars to fight. or tarot warrior cards if you are in to those... or warrior quotes... warrior songs. You are free to use this idea even if you don't chose me ;-) however that is a wonderful painting and there is a lucky person who will have possession of it soon.
Happy 500th post! Here are some ideas which came to me right now.
ReplyDeleteWords to inspire for your painting:
Cerulean (a favorite word of mine)
Gossamer
Moonshine
Theme to paint:
One of your favorite Childhood moments.
I don't know if I can come up with a prompt to rival the great suggestions already here... But I did want to say congratulations on your 500th post! I enjoy following your journey and love your inspirational and dream-like art.
ReplyDeleteThis is the best I can do for a prompt: Life is good. It is good to be alive, here and now, whatever the future may bring.
Happy 500th!
ReplyDeleteA birthday celebration
of your life
including
earliest childhood memories
taking you to your present stage
in life including all your artistic
transistions
allowing the next one
to emerge from your unconcious
spontaniously
without effort
give birth to it
what ever that will be
is yet to be determined
as your conscious mind cannot know
what your unconcious has to bring
forth...
just let it happen!
lynn at http://lynn-nonameblog.blogspot.com
Rowena--I visit your site nearly every day, usually just before bed. I rarely leave a response and I apologize for that, because your paintings move me. Even more, I am very often captivated by your words--such a lack of pretension, such simple honesty.
ReplyDeleteHere are a couple challenges: paint what you see when you close your eyes. And someone else urged you to paint bigger, at least 20x24. Well, MY challenge is: paint something BIGGER than you are.
But whatever you paint, PLEASE keep writing . . . you have more strength there than you realize, I think.
Rowena,
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary! 500! that's amazing:)
2 girls/women
representing the light and dark
for it resides in us all
back to back or attached in some way-maybe hugging the moon.
(Can't help it-for I am a Mermaid Moon Goddess-searching for her lost soul twin)
http://www.lissalightnup.blogspot.com/
I really like what you have to say about your process--because I think it IS like that. You are learning and growing and processing, and then things happen, seemingly out of nowhere, but really out of the rich compost of your life.
ReplyDeleteI really like this new painting a lot.
Prompts: Paint your dreams. Paint the opposite of your dreams. Paint the underside. The inside-out out.
This is totally gorgeous, Rowena. Love, love, love it!
ReplyDeleteHere's my prompt, based on my last blog post: A dialogue with your inner critic through art.
And to think YB was just nasty trolls and TMI. you helped me with some tips on my new blog, saturday night. your work is wonderful. love eat. (grapefruit is the preferred craving this pregnancy) a smile in every segment, not to mention my keyboard is covered in weeks of grapefruit squirts.
ReplyDeletemuse "who are you and where am i"
I have one last idea. The female form in dance is so beautiful. Possibly a painting celebrating various dance movements surrounded by dynamic, swirling color...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteThis painting is fantastic - it simultaneously reminds me of California and of places I've dreamed of but never been.
I thought I had no ideas for prompts, although I guess that could be a prompt - places you dream of but have never been - but then I had more ideas, because I have been thinking about flavor a lot lately, especially unexpected flavors.
So that is my prompt: unexpected flavors (including, perhaps, mole sauce, cinnamon, orange, vanilla, because all of these can be used in such diagonal ways).
Thank you all for your wonderful prompts.
ReplyDeleteSomething is a brewing in the creative juices, but I don't want to give it away. The winner will be announced soon.
There may be some irregularities with the winner or perhaps winners. But hey, it's an irregular contest.
Stay tuned!
Aw! I just missed out on this. In high school, my best friend and I shared notebooks and gave each other prompts for writing little stories or short poems. I loved coming up with really vague and melodramatic prompts for her! :)
ReplyDelete