Seeking

I suddenly saw that all the time it was not I who had been seeking God,

but God who had been seeking me.

I had made myself the center of my own existence

and had my back turned to God.

~Bede Griffiths

The two little birds in this piece are symbolic of how we find the answers to which we are seeking.  At times we must look down, underneath rubble, get in uncomfortable positions in order to find that which we could not see before.  At other times, we only need to sit still and let the truth come to us.

This 36" x 24" original acrylic painting on gallery wrapped canvas is currently on display that the Gallery at Midtown in Dallas, TX.  It is available for purchase for $575.

Know Thy Wings

Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, 

feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.

~ Victor Hugo

This original 24" x 36" acrylic painting on gallery canvas is available for $400 plus shipping.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for purchase interest.  Mention that you are a blog reader for 20% off the purchase price.

Pride

The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.

~ William Blake

This 24" x 36" original acrylic painting has sold.  Commissions are available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for commission interest.

Faith at Dawn

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Terrible devastation in the Dallas area where I live today.  A day of  numerous tornadoes yesterday has ruined many, many homes. We are blessed that people worked together, followed advisories, and only a dozen people in the whole metroplex were hurt, with no one dying.  I spent a few hours shut in my apartment bathroom with my dear old cat and am thankful for online friends who kept me company through some scary moments!  And, of course, it's always nice to know you're loved.

This 16" x 20" original acrylic on canvas has sold.  Commissions available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for commission interest.

Mercy

Hate shuts her soul when dove-eyed mercy pleads.

 ~ Charles Sprague

This piece is one in a series where I explored deconstructing identifiable attributes of particular birds and merging them together on a canvas, collage style, through paint.  I was excited to be invited to be a part of the first art exhibit at the American Airlines Center  here in Dallas through CityArtCal.  This piece is 24" x 24" acrylic on 1.5" gallery wrapped canvas and sells for $300 plus shipping.  Mention that you are a blog reader and I'll give you 20% off purchase price.   Email purchase interest to cori-lynn @msn.com.

This piece is my entry in the Take a Word: Eggs Challenge.

The Future Holds You Dear

He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds. Even the elder-tree bent down its bows into the water before him, and the sun shone warm and bright. Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, “I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.”

~ Hans Christian Anderson, The Ugly Duckling

This piece was created for the "It's All Just a Story" exhibit of art works based on children's stories that will travel through the Dallas public library system throughout the year.  This piece has SOLD.  Commissions available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for commission interest.

Always Watching

Don't worry that children never listen to you;

worry that they are always watching you.

 ~Robert Fulghum

This item has SOLD.  Commissions available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for commission interest.

Finding Calm

Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.

 ~ The yoga sutras of Patanjali

This publicity piece was created last fall for Yoga D.A.Y., a periodic event bringing together Dallas area artists and yogis to raise awareness and funds for charity.

Commissions are available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for commission interest.

Grass

Every blade of grass has an angel bending over it

whispering, "Grow, grow."

~ The Talmud

This item sold as part of the Alley's House Incrementum Art Fundraiser at Rising Gallery in Dallas last February.  This annual event benefits programming at Alley's House to encourage, educate, and mentor teenage mothers.

Commissions available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for commission interest.

Cast Your Hook

Chance is always powerful.

 Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it.

There will be fish.

~Ovid

This painting has SOLD.  Commissions are available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn for commission interest.

The Joys

There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

This painting has sold.  Commissions available.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for purchase interest.

The Temple

The groves were God's first temples.

~William Cullen Bryant, "A Forest Hymn"

This 8 x 10" original acrylic painting on wrapped canvas is available for $50 plus shippiing through paypal or personal check.  Please email cori-lynn@msn.com for purchase interest.

The Web

The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself

like a spider in all directions

 an adhesive web of love,

and to catch in it all that comes.

~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

This 16' x 20" original acrylic on wrapped canvas is available for $75 plus shipping through check or paypal.  Email cori-lynn@msn.com for purchase interest.. 

More to it than Dreaming

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.

~Anais Nin

We learn early to be dreamers.  From the time we are first asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" we are learn to get out the giant sketchpad in our hearts and brainstorm.  What if?   It's playful, fun, imaginative.  It's creative, thinking of something different than what currently is.  It's a necessary step in the growth process.  But there's more to it than dreaming.

From dreaming, we must believe.  Not necessarily believe that our dream will come true.  Although we are told to do this all the time.  Unfortunately, life events happen.  Not all dreams do come to actualization.  Believing a dream will come true and then it not happening can set a person up for giving up on dreaming entirely.  No, the belief I'm talking about here is belief in the possibility.  For if a dream is possible (not plausible, mind you)... if a dream is possible then it is worth undertaking.

And from belief, we must focus.  Put all that imagination into action.  Begin taking steps.  Big steps or small steps.. any step is better than no step at all.  Focus and begin to create a path for yourself.  It's no surprise that words action and actuality are so similar.  Go do it! 

Set of 3 Mixed Media Inspirational Word Magnets

$15, $3 shipping

2" x 2.5"

Wooden hearts painted and adorned with thread, letter cutouts and beads.

Message me at cori-lynn@msn.com for purchase interest.

♥



A Little Mingling...

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.

 ~William Shakespeare

Earlier this week I went to visit a friend, a knitter, who has a debilitating disease making it difficult to continue her handiwork.  She was kind enough to donate all of the yarns she is no longer able to use to my artistic efforts -- bags and bags of precious yarn.  For her, the experience was a relief and a release... more space in her home and the feeling she was donating to an artist friend who can really use it.  For me... very mixed feelings --  a bit of guilt taking such a wonderful material without giving something immediately in return and a sense of creative curiosity with these new yarns I've never used before.  And of course, just a bit of sadness being reminded that one day I, too, will have a body that begins to fail me.  I, too, will have to exhange some creative expressions for others.

This is the first piece I made from the yarns I was given, so it is extra special.  It was a new experience for me to use so many different kinds of yarn in one piece.  It felt like I was painting with yarn.  Wool, acrylic, and soft nylon ribbon - a blend of her special pieces with some I had.  Spinning the thread of ambiguous feelings into colorful brightness...

 

Large Mixed Yarn Ruffle Crochet Cowl

8" wide with an additional 3" ruffle

45" circumference around the neck

$35, $5 shipping

This cowl can be worn several different ways. Hanging low down the front, it goes just below the breast line. Or wear it high, with ruffley goodness around your neck. Big enough to wear over a coat, or nice over a turtleneck!  Email cori-lynn@msn.com for purchase interest.

♥

Spread Some Heart!

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

~Mother Teresa

I like to infuse accessories with meaning and tiny reminders.  This one has hearts encircling the wrist - some pointed inward, others pointed outward.  It's a reminder, when worn on your dominant hand, that as you work throughout your day, to make your work be an offering of love and care  ... whether it is office filing, giving someone a plate of food, or putting your hand on someone's back.  Likewise,  the hearts that point towards the self are also a reminder to also take care of yourself.  Seek relationships that nourish your soul and refill your spirit when it is deplete.  For this in turn, allows you to give back to others.

handpainted wooden bangle size M

$20 plus $5 shipping

A total of 8 hearts encircle the bangle in colors of fire and deep violet. A nice chunky bangle with an inner diameter of 8 1/4 ", outer diameter of 10" at it's widest and height of 1 3/4".  These photos were taken prior to adding the satiny protectove coat to prevent glare.   Send me an email at cori-lynn@mns.com for purchase interest.

A Colorful Kind of Hug

Everybody needs a hug. It changes your metabolism.

 ~Leo Buscaglia

A scarf to me, is like carrying a hug around your neck.  Especially when it has been given to you as a gift!.  Maybe it's the two ends that mimic arms, or the way it covers your heart and is close to your head... but I just love their comfort.  I like giving them to people going through a rough time in life... a physical presence of how I care for them and am thinking of them when I can't be with them in person.    If I only had time to make a scarf for each person who needs one!

♥

Crochet Red Ruffle Scarf

5.5" x 68"

100% acrylic yarn -- super soft

$40, $5 shipping

This is such a cute scarf! Layers of ruffles wind their way around making this one extra cozy, yet not bulky because the ruffles are on one side only. This red is a true warm red, not a cherry red, or a tomato red.  Email cori-lynn@msn.com for purchase interest. Commissions also taken.

Be Patient

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.

 ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

♥

This 8" x 10" acrylic painting is available for purchase for $40 plus $6 shipping and handling.  Please email purchase interest to cori-lynn@msn.com

A Little Yarn Haiku

Fingers weave story

Crocheting cozy phrases

Yarn meditation

I'm no poet but I tried my hand at it this morning.  I was looking for words to describe how holy (not just holey)  I find yarn work.   It calms my spirit.  The repetition of stitch is a contrasting experience to my other creative work where every brushstroke involves intense thought and decisionmaking.  As I crochet, I think of the person to whom my work will go, weaving in hope that it wrap them in comfort and a sense of safety from the elements, both literal and figurative. 



I posted this piece on Facebook early this morning and it was snatched up by a friend of mine within the hour.  That's a validating way to start the week!  If you are interested in commissioning a piece like this, feel free to message me at cori-lynn@msn.com  The price is $30 plus and additional $5 shipping in the US.  This one was made using a 100% soft acrylic textured yarn  and measures 5" x 70".  It's a  very cozy scarf - perfect for a cold day!

Heart Light

Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.

~ Henry David Thoreau

No better way to know thyself, good and bad, than to relate deeply to another human being!  Don't you agree?  Reminds me of that song from the 80s with the refrain "turn on your heart light."  Brings to the surface that which is hidden, finds what has been lost... that is LOVE.

This  2" x 2" original mini graffiti heart paint is available for purchase for $15 plus $3 shipping.  Miniature easel is included. Message me at cori-lynn@msn.com  for purchase interest.

♥

Espresso Yourself!

Be a coffee-drinking individual - espresso yourself!

~Author Unknown

Well, it's been awhile!  Many thanks to the kind comments from people while a took a hiatus from blogging.  Hope to get back in the swing!  This month I'm creating lots of little mini pieces to sell as Valentine's goodies while I work towards several art events I am participating in during the coming months.

These little crochet cozies fit over any standard coffee shop cup and make such a cute gift for teachers and friends this upcoming heart day!  Add it with a gift card or put it around a cup filled with homemade cocoa mix for extra sweetness.   

Custom Order, your choice of colors (pretty much any colors available)

1 for $10, 3 for $25

$3 shipping in the US

payable through Paypal or personal check

Just drop me a line at cori-lynn@msn.com if you're interested!  Please put "Coffee Cup Cozy" in your message title.

Now my turn to go drink some java!

♥

The pattern for these hearts was designed by PlanetJune, one of my favorite yarngirls!