Another New Year....

"Red Enso" collage by Donna Watson

Announcement of 2 March workshops:

      March 5-6:  WABI SABI AND THE SPIRIT OF COLLAGE:  Portland OR at the

      Sheraton Airport Hotel.  For more information on workshop, location, supply list,

      cost, and registration go to www.artandsoulretreat.com  

      March 19-20:  ZEN MEMORY BOOK (will make a folded accordion book on any theme

       such as memories, family, garden, pets, travel etc).  Matzke Fine Art Gallery, Camano 

       Island, WA.  Cost will include lunch.  For more information on location, cost, workshop,

       and registration contact Karla Matzke, 360-387-2759, matzke@camano.net, website:

       www.matzkefineart.com 

Folded book on Zen Gardens by Donna Watson

A NEW YEAR... Time to take stock of the past year and move forward... begin a new chapter...

be open to new possibilities... start over... learn from the past year and move on...

self portrait, journal page, by Donna Watson

Every January, I write down my goals for the new year.  I look at my list from last year and see what goals I met, and what goals I need to extend or continue to work on.  I am always a little disappointed in myself when I see what I accomplished and what I did not finish... and the list of what I did not finish always seems to be the longer list.

photo image by Donna Watson

And every year I go through the same goal setting list... making a new list... often with the same goals written down that were on last year's list.  And every year I am disappointed in myself.  So, this year,

I decided NOT to write another list of goals.

hand made scrolls by Donna Watson

Instead, I decided to make a different sort of list.  Not of goals to be met... or not met.  But to go inside myself more... more introspective and not set myself up for another year of disappointment when I do not meet all my goals....

photo image by Donna Watson

So here is my first one:  TO BECOME MORE MINDFUL.   To appreciate the small things around me, and to be more aware of moments -- live in the present moments.

photo image by Donna Watson

Here is another one:  GRACE...  to respond with more grace when I am disappointed or when a situation or person confronts me with a challenge.

And to be more POSITIVE... I am often accused of seeing "the glass half empty".  

Want the change.  Be inspired by the flame

Where everything shines as it disappears.

The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much

as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed,

Is it safer to be gray and numb?

What turns hard becomes rigid

and it easily shattered.

Pour yourself like a fountain.

Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking

finishes often at the start, and with ending, begins.

..... Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII

photo image of rabbit temple in Kyoto Japan, by Donna Watson

A New Year and a Workshop

Collage by Donna Watson

UP COMING WORKSHOP:  Wabi Sabi and the Spirit of Collage

Location:  Matzke Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park, Camano Island WA

When:  February 7-8, 2015,  9-4pm

Cost:  $290 for the 2 days, includes lunch

Wabi Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic.  This Japanese aesthetic is a beauty of things imperfect, incomplete and impermanent... rustic, earthy, simple, textured, and organic.  We will use hand painted washi or Japanese papers to create wabi sabi collages.  On the first day I will demonstrate how to hand paint these papers and everyone will create their papers.  On the second day, artists will then learn simple compositions and design elements based on Zen tenets like balance and harmony.  Everyone will then use their own hand painted papers to create whatever type of collages they want.  Matzke Fine Art Gallery is a spacious open space surrounded by a beautiful sculpture park.  Camano Island has beautiful beaches to explore.

For more information on how to register, location, lodging, etc.  contact Karla Matzke:  at 360-387-2759 or email her at:  matzke@camano.net.  Also, check out her website:  www.matzkefineart.com 

"may my mind come alive today

to the invisible geography

that invites me to new frontiers, 

to break the dead shell of yesterdays,

to risk being disturbed and changed."

John O-Donohue, from 'a morning offering'

hand painted papers by Donna Watson

So a new year is here.  What is it about the concept of a "new year"?  Some of us set new goals, some of us set the same goals we had a year ago, some of us look back at the year that has passed and rejoice in the accomplishments, the new friends, the new learnings, the goals met.  Some of us look back and think "Where did the year go?"  How fast did it pass?  What did I really accomplish?  What will I do now?  What makes Dec. 31st different from Jan. 1st?

"Our purpose in life isn't to arrive at a destination where we find inspiration, just as the purpose of dancing isn't to end up at a particular spot on the floor.  The purpose of dancing -- and of life --

is to enjoy every moment and every step, regardless of where we are when the music ends."

-- Wayne Dyer

hand painted papers by Donna Watson

"Don't think about what can happen in a month.  Don't think about what can happen in a year.  Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be."

--- Eric Thomas

hand painted papers by Donna Watson

"It is in the thousands of days of trying, failing, sitting, thinking, resisting, dreaming, raveling, unraveling that we are at our most engaged, alert and alive."

-- Dani Shapiro

hand painted papers by Donna Watson

"The timelessness in you is aware of life's timelessness and knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream."

-- Kahlil Gibran

"When you put your hand in the flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

And here is my favorite Quote that I think I use every January of my new year:

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing your world.  You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself.  Make New Mistakes.  Make mistakes nobody's ever made before.  Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect,  whatever it is:  art, life, or love, or work or family life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, DO IT.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever."

--- Neil Gaimen