Halloween Art Matchbox

Image prior to completion (I don't want to spoil all the surprise).

Warlocks, Witches, Bats and Goblins... muuuurrrggaghahhhha.  A whisper of a cold draft on your skin, a dark shadow crossing your path, and you'll be wondering, is it All Hallows Eve yet? 

It's been a fun swap at Milliande this month.  Halloween is the theme and this creepy little box has now been sent off to the USA.  The spider is a little beaded treat that I made and it lurks inside.

So many stories abound about Halloween and how it came into being. 

Trick or Treat

I've read that trick or treating came from and old English tradition of beggars knocking at the door and asking for a 'soul cake'.  They promised to pray for the dead of the house in return for the cake.  Here's an excerpt from one article you might find interesting...

Soul cakes, a form of shortbread — and sometimes quite fancy, with currants for eyes — became more important for the beggars than prayers for the dead, it is said. Florence Berger tells in her Cooking for Christ a legend of a zealous cook who vowed she would invent soul cakes to remind them of eternity at every bite. So she cut a hole in the middle and dropped it in hot fat, and lo — a doughnut. Circle that it is, it suggests the never-ending of eternity. Truth or legend, it serves a good purpose at Halloween.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0070.html


A Halloween Art Therapy Activity - Art Therapy Blog has a great art therapy for Halloween article if you'd like to read it... here's an excerpt

Halloween 

The most consistent origin, and probably the most well-known, refers to Halloween as a way to honor the dead. It also signifies the end of summer and the end of the Celtic year…and the beginnings of a new one.

People were very superstitious back in the day and thus arose the idea that souls of the dead frolicked the streets at night. To keep the bad spirits at bay, treats were left outside to pacify the evil spirits. This led to how it works now, otherwise known as trick or treating.

To participate in the art therapy exercise go to:

http://www.arttherapyblog.com/art-therapy-activities/halloween-activity/#ixzz1c1Gl2ZIN

Jason deCaires Taylor Underwater Sculpture - real people can't live underwater

I love being a member at Milliande community... today I was visiting a member's blog at http://monkeybuttonslobsterslippers.blogspot.com/
where I found a link to Jason deCaires Taylor's underwater sculptures...

View more of the amazing underwater sculptures at:
http://www.underwatersculpture.com/index.asp

You tube links:
Real people can't live underwater...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfunaMnkb1Q&NR=1

Blog hopping... Obvious to you, amazing to others

I came across Kristin Dudish's wonderful blog http://kristindudish.blogspot.com/ when her little heart painting attracted my attention on Rita's also wonderful blog http://alatvianrita.blogspot.com/ after seeing a painting of Rita's that had attracted my attention on Milliande's wonderful community http://milliande.ning.com/ 

Anway... where was I... back at Kristin's blog... when I came across this gorgeous video that Kristin had... and I wanted to share it too, but for some reason my blogger doesn't want me to post it...

Now this may be obvious to you and if it is please let me know what I'm doing wrong so I can share it here.. but if you click on the link below you can watch it anyway... I loved this video by Derek Sivers - Obvious to you, amazing to others.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/25494440" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/25494440%22%3EObvious to you. Amazing to others.</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/sivers%22%3EDerek Sivers</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com%22%3evimeo%3c/a%3E.%3C/p>

Benefits of Art Therapy

At sometime or another we all can experience feelings of anxiety or depression.  As Dr James says 'we all need to manage it and get on with our lives'.  If you enjoy reading about how art can help... you may like the following interview with psychotherapist Dr Chris James at http://www.arttherapyblog.com/

Art therapy is a very simple process of separating the thinking mind from the observing mind. When we think thoughts, they’re usually fleeting thoughts and we don’t give them a great deal of consideration. Very often we act on those inappropriately.

When we think about our thoughts, then we paint a picture in our mind. Now most people don’t use the observing mind…they don’t need to on a daily basis. But artists do because if artists didn’t use the observing mind, they wouldn’t be able to paint a picture.

So, it makes a very good form of therapy for people who are experiencing mental health problems.

Read more: http://www.arttherapyblog.com/mental-health/australian-psychotherapist-discusses-benefits-of-art-therapy-for-people-with-mental-illness/#ixzz1aPdVwr67

Say things with colour and shapes

I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say            any other way - things I had no words for.  Georgia O'Keeffe

Mama and Baby Koala in our backyard today...

Too cute - look what we saw in our backyard today - a tiny, tiny baby and not so big mama koala. 

Bit hard to tell how little they both were in this.

The Arts Centre Gold Coast

Outside the Arts Centre on The Gold Coast - how gorgeous is this mosaic by  ____? OK help me out here - I've forgotten, please email me if you know!

Anyone who says you can't see a thought simply doesn't know art.  

- Wynetka Ann Reynolds

The veranda at Lennox by Kareen