Leanne Shawler, Artist

One of the great things about Liz Lamoreaux's "inner excavation" book was her use of the camera to get different perspectives of things. I never thought of taking pictures of myself jumping, or my feet or putting my camera onto the ground to get that perspective. While I was at Mt. Calvary at the end of July, I took some of these photos as I was still in the inner excavate-along (the read along on Liz's blog) but as I was also on a bird spotting kick thanks to woodpeckers nesting in view of the rear patio, I started looking up. And saw this was another perspective worth taking photos of. So here are my "up" photos from that trip. heart shape hidden in tree bird nest (left of V) red house finch nest in Poor Clare chapel roof sequoia I plan to revisit Liz's prompts every now and then on this blog. Maybe it will inspire you to look at the world a little differently too?

I spent some time while on retreat looking at the "i open my heart" prompt from the "inner excavation" read-along (which has officially finished, but you can start it any time). It's a collaboration, but I'm sharing my side of it only because I haven't asked my friend if it's okay to share hers. After taking a lot of pictures... .... here is what came to me: be. as simple as that. be myself. be real. be vulnerable/open. be brave. be love. be. this image and the one below were taken in the Poor Clares chapel (and yes, I feel weird taking pictures in a sacred space)

The multi-media painting has hit a wee bit of a dead-end, but hopefully will become clear when I add the photos. Meantime, here are some more self-portraits that I took (and liked). Two are more week 4-ish, and the two mirror reflections are from week 5. Don't you just love how blue the sky was that day? This is where I go after a session with my spiritual director. I usually see pelicans but not on that day. prayer nervous and excited about what lies ahead... This week is week 6 and my friend Helena has graciously agreed to tackle two prompts with me.

So here it is, week 4 and I thought I would share the photos I've taken as part of the photography prompts as well as part of a journal spread that I'm doing. I wanted to put feet into the image below, but couldn't swing the iPhone camera (I didn't have a camera with me), not to mention that I didn't want to get run over.... So there are two images. I actually got to know my camera a little better. I found out how to set the timer and take five continuous frames. I also did a lot of jumping to get just one hovering shot. I think last week and this week's photography prompts will be ongoing. (Hmm, if I take my camera to O.B. and jump around on the cliffs, would the neighbors think I'm being weird, or will they not even notice? Maybe one of the gardeners will come and take my temperature.) Mainly because the photography prompts are a ton of fun. Chapter 5 and Self-Portraits At the time of writing (Sunday) I just finished reading Cha...

If you are here for the Where Bloggers Create party , it's the next post down .  If you want to see what caught my eye this year (and in past years), I have a Pinterest board dedicated to such.  I seem to really like repurposed things. 585. yellow blossom rainfall 586. writing a difficult post with as much grace as I could muster 587. overhead fans 588. (mostly) following schedule 589. squawking of mockingbird 590. spilling white vinegar and detergent solution on kitchen counter 591. spilled hot French onion soup all over my hand - flung bowl and broke it 592. first tomato of summer 593. floppy dog ears 594. mushroom sauce pasta (I love pasta but don't like mushrooms, he loves mushrooms but doesn't like pasta) 595. learning how to use the self timer on the camera 596. catching dog licking grease off my  breakfast plate 597. cloudy day 598. orangutang swinging from a sling he'd made 599. 19-14 day old flamingo 600. sleeping in 601. meeting a se...

I am now two weeks behind the rest of the class, and working on week 3 may end up taking me a little bit longer as I haven't started the mixed media piece yet, but that's okay. I thought I would share some photos from the ground (one of the exercises) and the poem notes that I wrote (another of the exercises). You can follow along at your own pace, for free, at Lisa Lamoreux's blog. It's been a long while since I've written poetry, so it's been fun doing this read-along and getting back to it. I hope to do more. "4th July" scorched blue sky seared skin solo anthem in silence bbq corn baby blue band all-american "in this moment" menacing music soap dramatic warm sofa scent of dog medicine and pee rested, retired lazy scribbling "color of morning" caramel and spices orange syrup dripping glow of tiny screen "nourishes" earl grey tea reading anything sweeps o...

That's my latest challenge now that I'm leaving my job  (and yesterday's post, below). I have an endless summer of Sabbath to discern what God has planned for me in this next chapter of my life. I was afraid that, left to my own devices, I would fritter away my days surfing the net, watching tv, or playing Civilization IV. So I made a schedule. A schedule, as soon as I finished reading it, I saw was unkeepable. I mean look at it... It has footnotes and everything! Those footnotes are lists of different ways of being attentive to God, things that I would do if I were away on retreat. (Incidentally if you can read the fine print at the bottom, "coursework" refers to the Inner Excavate-along that I talked about here , followed by Christine ValtersPaintner's "The Artist's Rule of Life" .) OK, I told myself, this is just a guideline, that when I'm aimlessly wandering the house, or flicking through channels, this is where I will come...

I am running about a week behind the Inner Excavatealong , but I thought I would share one art journal spread that I've done (in my Full Tilt Boogie journa l). I'm at the beginning of a new chapter in my life, or will be as soon as work finishes up by the end of this month, so the read along was almost perfect timing. So glad I can go at my own pace. You can see the photo exercise for week 1 peeking out behind the short page on the right. I've been documenting my last couple of weeks at work. It feels a little more scrap-booky than art-journaly right now, using foam stamps I haven't used in an age, and using photos instead of painting and drawing (and having way too much fun with washi tape), but as I go on (especially as I get more time), I'm hoping the pages will be a little more developed... In case you can't read the two poems, here they are: I am an adventurer who likes to play it safe a soul bestowed green and gold all shades of purple quiet ...

This is my first Full Tilt Boogie journal, a class I'm taking from Mary Ann Moss. Being not quite ready to cut apart a vintage photo album, I cut apart a book Mum had passed along from a friend. "Great Thoughts from Master Minds". I thought this was a perfect title for my journal. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite get the binding to not cover "Great" so it's "At Thoughts..." The "tapes" are velvet brown corduroy with green velvet on top. The center ribbon is some moss greenish grosgrain (I think it is called). The binding wasn't as tight as I hoped and I found one was really really loose, so I made this dangle and twisted the cord around it until it was tight... The saint's medal is of St. Philomena (who is supposed to be an early martyr but this has apparently been debunked) Some pages inside.... possibly my favorite signature... I am in my last signature of the art journal I learned out to ...