Kay West

My friend Kay is very creative!  She has loads of talent and for many years she has inspired me to keep pushing my creative boundaries.  Thanks Kay!!!!  Kay takes incredible photography.  She snaps photos of what I call “moments in time.”  Her photos remind me that I need to take the time to really look at my world not just walk through it blindly.  Weeds next to a fence become art through her lens.  Tree bark becomes a study in texture and movement.  Lines on asphalt become contemporary art.  I love her sunsets!!!  She snaps pictures of things we would like to keep in a file in our mind forever if we could.  :o]  This year she has challenged herself to post a least one picture a day for EVERY day this year.  She calls it “Project 365.”  I look forward to seeing her daily photos.  I never know what she will see through her lens each day. You can see her Project 365 here: www.kweststudio8.blogspot.com   You can see other photos of Kay’s here:   www.kweststudio8.Etsy.com Kay is also a wonderful jewelry designer and a painter.  Her beautiful jewelry can be seen on Esty.  Check them out!  She is really talented.   www.Birchbaykay.Esty.com

 Marleen Engeler

 Have you ever met  someone who seems so much like you that you call them a “Spirit Twin?”  I met one years ago at an art show in New York City.  We accidentally met in a crowd around her artwork.  I thought it was interesting that her work looked a lot like mine!  When I showed her mine she agreed.  Like twins though we each had just a little difference … but over all our worked looked very similar.  Through the years we have learned to laugh at the similarities in our lives.  Marleen lives in The Netherlands and I live in California but we stay in very close contact.  Marleen is very talented; she sews; she sings in an opera group; she GARDENS; she is a wonderful grandmother; she sculpts; she teaches; she cares for others; she travels; she paints.

Recently, she has started painting again … just like me.  Her paintings are different from mine but we found it interesting once again that we started to doing the same thing without telling each other.  Twins again!!!

This is a painting she did recently.  Isn’t Jonah adorable?  Don’t you just want to play in the sand with him???  Marleen is so talented!!!!  I love her to pieces!!!!!

On top of all the things Marleen does she also collects rocks for me during her travels to interesting places.  Thank goodness she gets to travel a lot.  Now I have rocks from places I only dream about visiting someday.  What a good friend she is to send rocks from Europe so I can use them in my artwork.  Marleen I adore you!!!!  Holland is too far away!!!  Twins forever!

Recently I attended an art street show in San Clemente, CA.  One of the booths had ROCKS!  I spent some time digging through the different pans and boxes of stones.  I found some wonderful stones for future art canvases.  I met Gary and Sheila who own Designs By Nature; a mineral store in town.  It is always fun to talk with other people who love stones as much as I do. Usually I pick stones that are interesting and just feel right when I pick stones to add to canvas.  I found the pan that held fossils full of interesting artistic opportunities.  Fortunately for me Sheila and Gary knew the histories of the stones I liked.  I ended up buying a fossil I knew nothing about.  Sheila informed me that it was full of crinoid plants.  Crinoids are often called Sea Lilies.  They resembled flowers but they were not plants.  They had lots of feathery arms that form what looked like a flower.  The feathery arms opened and closed like a flower as it looked for food in the swaying ocean current.  The flower part was at the end of a long stem-looking part of the animal.  They are relatives of starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and brittle stars.  Crinoids are echinoderms, animals with rough, spiny surfaces.  They lived in the ocean roughly 490 million years ago.
After researching crinoids at home I decided to do a painting that was just the curled up feathery arms.  The painting above is the beginning of the feathery arms.  The fossil will be in the right lower corner of the painting eventually.  There will also be other stones in the painting to bring it all together.  The feathery arms will be done in yellow, black and white.  I love being inspired by fossils and gem stones.  They bring another depth to my use of stones on canvas.

 

I have started adding Copal to my paintings. I found it at the American Indian store that I like to haunt in town. I was drawn to the clarity of the light yellow stones. I found my research of Copal very interesting! No wonder I was drawn to them!

Copal

The term “copal” was derived from “copalli,” a Spanish word meaning incense, which is what copal is used for. Copal ranges in color from pale yellow, orange, red and white. This resin comes from a family of trees known as Bursera. These are small trees that are related to both frankincense and myrrh. Copal producing trees can be found growing in all of the Americas and is a few million years younger than true amber, but the untrained eye has a hard time telling the difference. Copal is a young amber & the vast majority is 50 years to 10,000 years old whereas, some amber is up to millions of years old. Columbian copal is usually about 250-10,000 yrs old. Some scientists claim the oldest copal is 33,000 years old from Misunani, Japan. Copal will eventually become Amber as it ages and has a very similar vibration.

It is considered sacred to many peoples of South and Central America, including the Mayans. Mass quantities of copal resin were burned atop the Aztec and Mayan pyramids. Copal resin incense is burned year round in the churches of Mexico and has been used as an offering to the gods in Central America. It is best known for its use in Mexico in the homes during Day of the Dead. The familiar scent of copal helps the souls find their way back during their annual visit home. Maize(corn) is the food of the people, so copal is the food of the gods, they went even so far as to shape the copal into ears of maize. Copal incense has a clean, light, woody scent similar to pine or turpentine, almost fruity or citrus at times. Some people say it is similar to a very light myrrh scent, or a combination of frankincense and lemon. It is great incense for clearing negative energies and making positive changes. An extremely positive and loving energy, copal can help one to feel more content and peaceful with life, but also can aid in making changes when life is not as wonderful as it could be. To use just sprinkle a few granules onto hot incense charcoal and add your intentions. Gum copal resin incense is excellent for smudging. If the space is full of negativity, stagnation, or a loved one has been ill, copal can cleanse the space quickly and raise the vibrations at the same time. If one has been feeling stuck in present circumstances, copal can be a true aid in helping to move forward in a positive direction. Copal unites the energizing force of the Sun with the grounding, transmutative properties of Earth. A powerful yet gentle healer and cleanser, copal draws out and transmutes negative energy of all kinds on all levels. Copal aids in physical self-healing, emotional healing of depression, and environmental clearing. One of its most unique characteristics is that copal never needs “clearing.” Copal opens and cleanses all of the chakras. Highly protective, copal also aids in the manifestation of ideas to reality. The life force trapped within copal promotes fertility, and its protective and environmental clearing properties make it a good stone to use to prepare a healing or birthing room. Use copal with the solar plexus chakra to increase confidence, mental clarity, and creative self expression. Copal also links to the crown chakra, allowing awareness in during deep meditations. Copal awakens psychic abilities and boosts the auric body. Copal can remove energy blocks and aligns the physical with the etheric bodies. It increases the awareness of each person’s individuality while maintaining a strong connection to humanity as a whole. Now you know why I am adding Copal stones to all my Touch Stone Artwork paintings! PS: I would love to give credit to the author who wrote this copal article but I don’t know who wrote it.