The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. ~John Vance Cheney
I am grateful everyday that I can feel the pull and want of creativity. I crave creating now that the daily habit has become just part of who I am and what I do. I have had so many years dealing with the emotions that come with loss that I couldn’t see or feel the rainbow.
Your soul craves what the light creates through the tears; look for the colors – search high and low for them because the tears will eventually pass and when they do – a rainbow will be waiting.
Today was a great day for Ankylosing Spondylitis Awareness. Our project Hope & Apples is being featured in a collaboration with the Australian Physiotherapy Association seminar and webinar happening world wide on World AS Day May 7th!
Big, bold, and wonderful thoughts of all things apples are creating the best sleep I’ve had in years!
Chronic illness tends to lead to unrestful and unfulfilling sleep. I think I went years where I never woke feeling rested and I still have bouts and stretches where I unfortunately rely on my Ambien instead of my Valerian Root but I love what I’m doing to the bottom of my soul and my brain is paying back the favor with deep and refreshing sleep filled with amazing and colorful dreams! So – I am going to bed tonight – happily exhausted!
I’ve been thinking of creating an apple image in indigo ink.
The problem has been that I didn’t have any indigo ink so I’ve pushed the idea aside. But tonight I felt the idea pull me so I made a deep rich watercolor using both Payne’s Gray and well.. indigo (now you are laughing) yes, yes… I have a watercolor called indigo but it wasn’t quite right to me. It needed to be a bit deeper and watercolor isn’t ink which would have been my preference.
I wanted to dip a quill in a well and draw with it so I figured if I could just use enough pigment added to a well of water then I might get what I needed. And – I did!!!
The color of indigo has some meaning behind it apparently. It relates to self responsibility, that is to say, being responsible for one’s own life; responsibility to oneself to follow the soul’s path and needs and trusting one’s own intuition.
Perhaps, I was pulled to use indigo tonight because I needed a bit of a reminder to keep on my soul’s true path and to never stop listening to my intuition – because if I hadn’t tonight – I wouldn’t have had this amazing reminder or apple.
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 209 was created with a quill using a B-5 nib and a deep indigo watercolor.
One story and one apple at a time we will raise awareness of spondylitis. I wonder where the journey will take us – I’m just so thrilled that so many people are joining me and speaking up.
Funny things happen when you talk about what you are passionate about. I went looking for a web development company in Parker today. I was driving around and I couldn’t find it so I stopped in at a design company and asked them if they knew the people I was looking for. Although they did not we started talking and I told them about my apple a day AS awareness campaign and Hope & Apples and the gentleman I was speaking with started asking me questions about AS. Turns out he has dealt with severe back pain for over 10 years and was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia but had never heard of AS or seen a Rheumatologist. Then he told me about a great web guy he and the local NBC news affiliate use and I mentioned the Arthritis Walk on May 15th and he said this web guy was very involved with it because of his wife.
WHAT?
Let’s speak up – we can find people to help if we just start speaking up – one story and one apple at a time …
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 207 was created in watercolor. Doug says this sweet little image is not my best work – thank goodness for someone so close to me to keep my feet on the ground and push me for better tomorrow, but… I kinda like it 🙂 and doesn’t infusion day allow me to slack a little tiny bit?
“On soft Spring nights I’ll stand in the yard under the stars – Something good will come out of all things yet – And it will be golden and eternal just like that – There’s no need to say another word.”- Jack Kerouac
I’m ready for some soft spring days and nights. It was cold and dreary and grey here in Colorado today. I love when the new life of Spring appears but we usually tend to get a good taste of it weeks before the last frost around Mother’s Day. This year it hasn’t been cold, it hasn’t been warm, and it hasn’t been nice. I know that our short spring will lead to a hot dry summer but I usually have a period of adjustment and some days that I can be outside getting the gardens ready for the sweet buds.
Perhaps my strong need to be outside with my grasses, flowers, and veggies had a hold of me tonight – I have no idea where this image came from but I got the most amazing amount of pleasure from creating it – and I felt golden and eternal in the process.
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 206 was created with watercolor and metallic acrylic inks.
Loved this idea that Kelly Johnston had for me today.
I was thinking about creating an apple that just looked like a colored egg – simple and easy – lol. But I was on the phone with Kelly and she said, “Oh, make the basket the apple shape!” and that was enough inspiration to set me to work.
I haven’t done one of my super detailed illustrations in quite awhile so this idea was the perfect outlet! Hope you love it as much as I do!
We have a very popular and somewhat famous sunrise service here in Colorado that is held at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Some day Doug and I will wake up at 4:00am to drive the hour plus to get there before the sun cracks over the eastern plain. The last few years have been cold, dreary, and cloudy and it’s not looking good for tomorrow so maybe next year.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to design a few holiday apples.
When I started Art Apple A Day it was October so I did about a week of Halloween apples; a haunted house with an apple trick or treater, a candy corn, a skeleton with the apple core as the center, and “‘one bat apple spoils the bunch” was my favorite!
Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly followed which were almost as much fun but then the holidays become further apart and St. Patrick’s Day and Valentines Day didn’t really seem to allow for more than one apple for recognition on that day.
I’ve been thinking for days about easter bunnies and easter eggs and peeps and baskets of goodies. I haven’t decided on what I’ll create for tomorrow but I love Mr. Easter Bunny Apple! Whenever I create something my peanut gallery (that would be Doug) usually has some commentary and it is often related to how people will know my latest creation is an apple if it isn’t green or red or shaped perfectly. These conversations usually end in me doing what I want and Doug wondering how an apple can possibly be a white Easter Bunny. We laugh together now because the conversation and debate always end with me saying well – I see the apple and I’m the artist so…
How did an artsy free spirit end up with an analytical logical numbers guy? Good thing I think he’s cute 🙂
The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. ~John Vance Cheney
