Illustration Friday on Monday Afternoon

© 2011 Juliette Nelson

It has been aaages since I've contributed to IF. This week's theme is "layer".
A good handful of my paintings are layer or stack-like, aren't they.

© 2011 Juliette Nelson

This time I thought I'd share a couple of sketches from a page in my sketch book, where (yes, my sketch book is a place) I sit for hours and hours engrossed in creating and following invisible lines, colors and rhythms, rendering them visible. When I sketch, if I'm not out in the world, I like to sit at my drafting table, or on a couch, surrounded by pens, watercolors and colored pencils of all varieties. I love having them all at my finger tips, that way I can scan the array of colors and textures available and pick up the one that matches the moment :)

Make sure to check out all the amazing work on Illustration Friday!

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Clutters of Petals

IF's theme of the week is 'clutter'. I guess these petals aren't really clutter. Clutter has a somewhat negative connotation, conjuring up images of disorder and confusion, the objects demoted to junk. These petals are not quite that, but I really want to contribute to IF, so we'll say clutters of petals are like clusters of petals!

A day in the Garden

I have a huge collection of drawings and illustrations I painted while I lived in a 'cave' at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado. I still live in Colorado, and in Boulder, but now in a mint green hut. At the time though, I lived in the basement of a very old house, near the top of a hill, where rent was cheap, I had lots of space, my own entrance and no heat. The front door opened right into my studio where evening after evening, for months, I painted one painting after another. I filled numerous tiny notebooks during that time and reproduced a lot of them as notecards, postcards and prints. You can see 12 of the 112 designs, printed as notecards, in my shop right now. Hope you enjoy!

Trick or Treat

It's Halloweenish. The moon is just past full, glowing low and yellow through a spooky haze. It's cold. I'm wearing 3 sweaters. Yeah, I have central heating in my hut, but you know, once THAT goes on, that's it till April! Ah, April, can't wait.

I've got the Rockies game on. They're playing the 3rd game of the World Series. I know what this means now. A couple of weeks ago I didn't even know what a league was. Now I know. There are two. That lesson came later though, after a kind fellow explained the basics to me, that the Baseball Season goes through September and if a team is really good, they get to play through October. It was all becoming clearer to me. So the Colorado Rockies won most of the games in their league and the Boston Red Sox won most of the games in their league, now they're playing a series of games, The World Series, you see. I guess by 'World', they mean America. They sure do spit a lot and do all sorts of twitching while they're standing around. And what's with the hankie twirling? Go Rockies!

Here's my little 'trick or treat' contribution for IF this week. Lots o' candy!

The Sunrise Ruby

Rumi, On Being a Lover (by Coleman Barks)
Being a lover is close to being a worker. When the ruby becomes the sunrise, its transparency changes to a daily discipline. There's a story about a sufi who rips his robe and gives it the name faraji, which means "ripped open" or "happiness" or "one who brings the joy of being opened." Peace and compassion come as coverings are thrown open and the streaming beauty of emotion flows through the lover-worker.

THE SUNRISE RUBY by Rumi (translation by Coleman Barks)
In the early morning hour,
just before dawn, lover and beloved wake
and take a drink of water.

She asks, "Do you love me or yourself more?
Really, tell me the absolute truth."

He says, "There's nothing left of me.
I'm like a ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a stone, or a world
made of redness? It has no resistance
to sunlight."

This is how Hallaj said, I am God,
and told the truth!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.
Be courageous and discipline yourself.

Completely become hearing and ear,
and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.

Work. Keep digging your well.
Don't think about getting off from work.
Water is there somewhere.

Submit to a daily practice.
Your loyalty to that
is a ring on the door.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside
will eventually open a window
and look out to see who's there.

(OPEN for IF this week)

The Blues, on Vacation!

The Blues, Visit The Beach
The Blues, Visit an Aquarium
The Blues, Visit Some Yaks
The Blues, Visit Magic Kingdom
Here's my version of 'The Blues' for IF's theme o' the week. I had a good time with these two! Looks like Visiting Magic Kingdom was their favorite. Can you see just how HAPPY they are?!

El Fascinante

In the last couple of weeks, I met 3 people whose 2nd name is JOY. I've also been messin' about with some paintings, painting out negative shapes to create tree-like forms. This particular painting of a tree looked strange perhaps, but a tree to me none-the-less ... until a couple of days later when I happened to catch a glimpse of it and noticed it was a man with a pointy nose wearing a hat and a long robe like dress with a band around his waist! And he was doing some sort of magical entertaining! I was astounded. I couldn't have created him if I'd tried! Within a short time of that painting I found out that an acquaintance friend of mine is also a 'Fire Dancer'. Then, I happened upon a new friend whose band is named 'Juggler' and on his site he has lots of fabulous clown and circus themed art. Then I was invited by another friend to join her for dinner at her house. As it turns out, she's a professional clown, jester and magician! Elf too, I think. Yes, I was wondering what it all meant! In any case, Friday morning came along and I was excited to find out what IF's new theme was for the week. Wouldn't you know it was ... JUGGLER. I just had to smile and laugh. So here's my juggler-themed-contribution.PS. Even my tea bag this morning had something to say!

The Weddin' Tree

Serving myself chocolate for breakfast, letting lady bugs land on me while lying in an embroidered hammock strung between cottonwood trees, noticing rainbows and going on bike rides … is that all you think I’ve been up to since OrganicPinkLady.com still isn’t functional, a full month after my self imposed deadline?! Nooo … not all! To work is a beautiful thing, to art-work that is, and nothing tops making art for wonderful people who have special projects in mind. The photo above is of one of my latest such projects. It is, as of today, on its way to Ireland, a wedding gift for nephew #1 of 40, of an Irishman named Jim. Can you make out any of the words within the tree? The poem surrounding the Weddin’ (that’s the Irish way of saying wedding) Tree is by Jim himself. He asked me to design something celebratory while still serious, as it is a wedding wish after all, from Uncle #6 of 9, no less!