Over The Moon

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Maria Doglio

“Over the Moon”, acrylic on Canvas, Feb 2018 ~ Maria Doglio

Moon-day Morning, early dark slightly lifting. The first day of daylight saving time. I sleepily shuffle through the kitchen, coffee mug in hand and open the curtains of the south east window of my front room gallery. I look out to find a crescent moon flirting with a cloudy sky, casting just enough light against them to create a dramatic, changing scene of illumination within the surrounding blackness. I’m painting it in my mind.

My thoughts turn to the comfort of familiarity. The countless phases of the moon, the sun’s rise and setting, the consistency of their daily orbits, ties us together in a familiar human experience on this particular planet. We humans watch in tireless awe at the ever changing, creative patterns they paint in their travels, day and night.

No matter how much we insist on our separateness, our countries, customs, languages and borders, the moon rises and brings us all out to stare at the night sky, as it dances in an arc with the stars. The sun rises to chase the moon and darkness into another night far away until it sinks again to follow the moon’s trail. The familiar play needs no translation. It brings our human condition together in oneness.

One night, as a full moon appeared among an amazing array of popcorn like clouds, I snapped a photo as the moon drifted through them, the clouds misting and reforming into a shape I saw as a wolf leaping over it. The inspiration to paint that scene resulted in “Over the Moon”, #4 in my wolf series, completing it. Here is my wall of wolves, where I like to sit and watch the morning unfold.

The sky has lightened now into pale shades of blue and yellow with a hint of pink on the horizon, while a heavy bank of billowy dark clouds move in against it, promising rain. The crescent moon stands alone now, waiting for the sun to show it’s face before moving on. A new day dawns.

Let nature inspire your creativity with abandon – the patterns are endless.

BIRTHDAY REFLECTIONS

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Maria Doglio

TRANSITIONAL DECADE A Reflection on Turning 70

CHEERS

Letting go of the 60’s years and back beyond with it’s sometimes bumpy road, it’s highs, its lows, it’s sorrows, forgiveness’s and the stuckness of spinning wheels. Enough now, it’s all passed. No more resistance ~ more allowing, in harmony I will flow.

Turning, crossing the threshold, letting go the illusions of perceived common sense and reason, I will enter this next decade’s season following my heart, my passion, not so much my head; less confusion and more fusion, is the road to which I am led.

The beloved Crone, the Wise Women, I join you, embracing this transition, full on. I will start to unfold, dancing down that uncommon road, coming into myself, my worth, my eternal beingness, understanding, maybe, for the first time, (and it’s a long time coming), this jumping out of the “what’s expected of me” mold.

I shall spin my 70 year old heart with love, joy and connection of endless creativity that keeps me expanding, weaving life’s shining threads, that “turns to gold”, if I play the game right. Like buds ready to burst in spring, like a bird ready to take flight, I enter my personal new decade with levity, for truly, if we choose to see it, feel it, and create it, it is always A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

– Maria Catherine Doglio – September 6, 2014

Birthday Poem Inspired by the song

Turns to Gold, ~ Welcome Matt Music (click title to play song)

With love and appreciation to my fabulous children, their cherished husbands, wives , my amazing grandchildren and my two ex-husbands, who taught me how to come into my own strength, and never forgetting the courage, fortitude and richness of life that all my Italian ancestors showed me.

LATE SUNDAY MORNING MUSING

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Maria Doglio

Art and Expression In Life is All Around

I left the house askew, needing dusting, the floors unswept, sewing and art projects scattered in almost every room unfinished or poised with ideas waiting to blossom into form from my imagination.

The sky outside was threatening, but I wanted to walk. I took the umbrella, just in case, setting off for the local coffee shop, dropping letters into a mail box along the way. I headed past the now famous and controversial “Listener”, a giant naked green lady, her gaze serenely intent on the heavens. She is oblivious to her nakedness and all that find her “distasteful” – she is herself, a unique expression of life’s essence and the artist who created her.

I decide to sit at a table outside under a red umbrella. It occurs to me that the color red is showing up a lot in my life lately. The boldness of red. Courage. Fearlessly moving forward. All of these is the subtle message being given to me within the color red. Just what I need now on my journey to embody more fully, the integration of art in my life!

I sit sipping latte from a yellow cup and saucer, observing colors all around me.

Latte Sunday, at Plank, Cloverdale, CA

The gray tones of early morning are now gone. The artfulness of this little bit of town is now set against a sky that has gone fluffy with giant clouds, with patches of brilliant blue sky emerging from behind them.

We take our inspiration for art from life all around us. The outward vision fuels the inner vision and from there springs our interpretation of the worlds that we find. Colors in nature play in our vision to spill upon the canvas. Like the “Listener” who asks us to stop and really hear beyond ourselves, colors present themselves, both subtle and bold, so that we may see and feel more clearly the riches around us.

Whatever art form I am drawn to, whatever colors are calling me, the feeling of the colors in the portrayal is just as important as the image itself. On the walk home, I found beauty of colors in a tangle of weeds and at an old gate to an abandoned house. After I paint them onto canvases waiting in the wings, these images will continue to tell their story, long after the blossoms have faded.

Take your inner artist for a walk, keeping an open mind for the unexpected beauty and simplicity in the vignette’s of nature. See what colors you come home with to inspire you.

SPRING INTO DIY – Creating the Creative Home

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Maria Doglio

HOME

ENTER MY WORLD

COME ON IN!

I love entrances to homes. I’ve always wanted mine to be inviting in such a way that it makes the visitor want to continue on through the rooms, find a comfortable seat and stay a while. I like that when you enter my home, you can see straight through to the bamboo trees in the back yard. It pulls you forward. Everywhere are reflections of my arts and crafts nature, a gallery of creativity, enticing visitors to explore.

Lately, I’ve been in an artistic lull, allowing myself much needed rest. My art studio has been a quiet jumble, projects and paintings waiting for the muse to awaken from her nap. Sometime during this lull, spring arrived, turning my thoughts to gardens, flowers, vegetables, weed whacking and digging up the front lawn to accommodate the California drought. Visions of new house colors and DIY projects began to dance in my head. DIY spring fever hit hard. Now I wanted to take my artist beat outside.

A little Paint, Ingenuity and Some Old Stuff ∼ I love utilizing what I have, transforming it to a new use or new beauty. With two broken garden chairs, and some weather beaten side tables, I began a creative and colorful transformation for the front deck.

Broken Lawn Chair

Weather Beaten Side Tables

Taking a cue from the red geranium, I decided on a color scheme that would give me a pop of color for the front deck. The old webbing was cut off the lawn chairs, except for on the chair arms. The black frame was in good shape and now ready to be transformed into a comfy, stringy outdoor seating with attitude! I bought red 1/4″ poly rope and began wrapping. It was worth the effort. Next I found my bucket of red and painted the remaining webbing on the arms; then on to the tables.

TA-DA!!

Rescued Metal Lawn Chair (Amazingly comfortable)

Finished project (almost) below with the little red Geranium that inspired me. (The second table is in process of being transformed)

Pop of Color Seating Area

The Stringy Outdoor Seating idea came from Fresh Home Magazine, Summer 2011 – sometimes it pays to keep those old magazines!

This led me to sprucing up a porch corner next to my red pop seating area. Under a painting on wood of a parrot by my Uncle Bruno, circa 1950’s, I arranged little potted plants on an antique plant stand, which also nicely hides a pipe. The parrot painting compliments my pop of color scheme.

Corner Plant Stand

Parrot – oil on wood, Bruno Giunchi, circa 1950’s

More:

Drought can inspire you to be practical and responsible to the condition of California today, Why not inspire creativity at the same time? My thoughts turned to how I could creatively become lawn free. Of course I wanted to do something artsy! I made it up as I went to see how it would flow. Like all my artistic approaches, I worked intuitively. With flow in mind, I combined plants and ground cover to some existing plantings in a pleasing to the eye way. image (7) Redwood bark is used as ground cover with an uneven fringe of pea and lava gravel to resemble sea foam retreating from the sand at the beach. This little side lawn was my practice “canvas” – now on to the bigger main lawn in front of the deck!

Whatever you do, let your home reflect who you are. Our homes are an extension of the personalities that occupy it. I love the DIY craze that has blossomed everywhere–reuse, rethink, re-purpose – there is so much amazing creativity springing from the imaginations of people around us. Look around your house and instead of throwing out what you think is junk, be inspired!

All this DIY creativity, has lead me to creative writing as well. Now, I feel the stirrings of the muse coming out of her slumber! Time to open the curtains of the art studio and let the light in!

“The Artists Pray to Their Gods, While Opening and Preparing Their Canvases”

(Line from a poem “One with Sweetness” by Amy Trussell from her book The Painted Tongue Flowers)

Streams of Thought

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Maria Doglio

Emitting Streams of Thought – (while sitting in nature on a spring day, contemplating life.) pen and ink sketch

Experience – Everyone is having an experience. Everyone is having an experience unique to their own inner world view. All experiences are legitimate. All experiences are our lessons. All experiences move us up or move us down the ladder of ascension to the light. Moving toward the light is essential for ultimate experience, not only for ourselves, but for the evolution of humanity. All of our experiences weave together in oneness as collective consciousness. In this way, we influence how the world moves. The sheer energy of our experience, our streams of thought, push how the world moves. Each one of us affects the whole.

Qui-Gon Jin (The Phantom Menace), reminds us of our need for mindfulness in life: “Always remember…your focus determines your reality.”

My focus these days, as I move forward into a new phase of my life as artist and sage woman, is to do so with mindful creation in all areas of my life. From our creative mind and through the many forms of ART, we are able to express our deepest experiences to the world. Through ART we tell our stories. Embrace your creative experience.

Spring’s Arrival – Cloverdale, CA

May the Fire of Renewal in Spring’s Arrival Light the Fire of your Creative Mind!

I am grateful for the beauty of nature that surrounds me in these hills and valleys.

A TOUCH OF WHIMSY

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Maria Doglio

Playing with Bits and Pieces

It started with a Whole Foods Market 10 x 12 wooden box used for a catering delivery. It hung around my studio for a year. I always had it in mind to make a little decorative stenciled tray out of it, but never followed through, so it sat gathering dust on a shelf.

How one thing leads to another always fascinates me when you stay open to imagination and play around with creative possibilities. I had a box, I had a small painting and many bits and pieces of gathered items that had collage possibilities. I had sat around in my studio with pieces before me on a table, a bit stuck on how to present ideas for some of my mixed media art creations – nothing was coming together in a way that I liked. I grabbed the box and rather mindlessly began to “doodle” with the bits and pieces. The small painting of a beach didn’t fit in the frame for which I had intended, so it made it’s way into the center of the box. Broken ceramic doll pieces lay about. One had inadvertently lodged itself into a moon shell. Hmmmm, that’s interesting. I had a broken clay shard that I didn’t want to throw away – how could I use that?

The whimsy factor began to take hold! I dug further into my collection of shells and findings and kept on playing with the piece. I didn’t know where it would take me, I just let it evolve. I was having so much fun, it was hard to say “stop”, it’s completed. The final whimsical touch was a little rabbit, right out of Alice in Wonderland, popping out of its barnicale hole.

Sea Urchins was the final result. (see below). The process of creative doodling, keeping a whimsical frame of mind that is open to what shows up, set me on a roll of other pieces of mixed media and textile art (check out my felt flags under Textile Art) The process is liberating, because anything goes.

Sea Urchins

Often, “mistakes” can turn into creative opportunity that pushes you to go a step beyond original intentions. Next time you are stuck or not feeling the ideas are flowing in the way you want, gather all your “stuff”, sit down and just play. It might amaze you what turns up!

Detail views of Sea Urchins:

Little doll piece that got “stuck” in a moon shell – which ultimately “unstuck” my imagination for this piece.

Rabbit, popping out of barnacle to play with urchins

Urchin Playmate peeking out behind shell.

Sea Scape – Mixed Media Collage Detail

Small sea scape painting that was the initial inspiration for the collage.

Wind In Her Hair Studio

FINE ART – DESIGN – MIXED MEDIA

Category Archives: Musings

Over The Moon

BIRTHDAY REFLECTIONS

LATE SUNDAY MORNING MUSING

SPRING INTO DIY – Creating the Creative Home

Streams of Thought

A TOUCH OF WHIMSY

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