Did you know black cats…

• Are adopted at slower rates than other color cats.
• Tend to be more abused than other color cats.
• Crossing your path are seen as good luck in Britain, Japan, and Ireland.

To help educate the public and eliminate negative attitudes towards black cats, National Black Cat Day was created.

Please join in and make some positive actions, such as...

• Posting pictures of black cats on social media and sharing what you adore about them.
• Helping animal shelters care for black cats and other creatures through your donations.
• Adopting a black cat and giving them a loving home.

It’s time to eliminate the stigma against black cats and celebrate them!

In participating in Joanna Hutchinson’s 100,000 folds community art project, I am excited to share that I have completed and mailed my 250 origami folds to her.  

Joanna conceived of this community art project to help people visualize the scale of the first 100,000 deaths by COVID-19 in the United States as well as a way to mourn these deaths that continue to grow.

She invites anyone who is interested to participate.

These folded origami paper shapes will be assembled into an art piece.

Find out more here.

This summer, Path with Art is inviting the general public to contribute poems to a collective art project inspired by the prompt, We Are All Here.

In addition, Path with Art is sponsoring:

• Public banner painting parties in downtown Seattle’s Occidental Square on July 15 and August 19 during the hours of 3—5PM.
• Free, drop in poetry and painting workshops at the same place on Fridays from July 22—August 12 during the hours of 3—5PM.

Twice this summer, a jury of local poets will select a handful of submissions to serve as inspiration for artistic banners.  These banners will be displayed in Occidental Square (2016) and the Seattle Symphony (2017).

Now, what about 2016?  

By thinking through your options, developing your goals, and writing down your dreams you are much more likely to move forward in the direction you desire.

And you’ve got help…

A team from Hungary has developed a wonderful booklet as well as an online version for you to use in looking back over the past year and focusing on what you want for 2016. 

It’s available in several languages.  It’s flexible too—go it alone or with a group. 

January is a perfect time to set your direction for the rest of the year. 

Click here to learn more.

One of the things I like about this process is coming up with a key word or phrase to act as my year's touchstone.  

I'm going with "la dolce vita."  For me, this means being aware, allowing, savoring, and actively acknowledging the sweetness of life in deeper and more expanded ways.

What's your key word or phrase for 2016?

To a fulfilling and joyful new year!

Elephants are highly intelligent and social animals that live in close-knit family groups, roam vast acres, and need to live in warm climates. 

Zoos, including the Woodland Park Zoo located in damp, rainy Seattle, cannot provide the environment for elephants to live healthy lives. And some zoos have taken this to heart, closed their elephant exhibits, and sent their elephants to live in sanctuaries.

As stated in a recent article in City Living Seattle by Christie Lagally, “a recent survey commissioned by the Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants shows that 62% of Seattle voters believe the elephants should be moved to a sanctuary immediately.”

To date, 27 zoos have closed or plan to close their elephant exhibits.  Click here to find out which ones.

There is enough suffering in the world.

You can make a difference to help end the suffering of these wonderful, intelligent animals.

Please add your voice to eliminate elephant breeding and housing at your local zoo.  If the zoo really wants to help elephants, it should follow the lead of the NYC Bronx Zoo and place money for helping preserve elephants in the wild in Asia and Africa.

More information can be found at:

• Community Coalition for Elephant Retirement
• Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants
• In Defense of Animals

Easy & Quick Steps You Can Take Now:

1) Write your local council members and local zoo letting them know you want to see their elephant exhibits closed, their breeding programs stopped, and their elephants sent to a sanctuary accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries as soon as possible.  

2) If you live in King County and/or Seattle, click here for a list of council members to contact.  You can email your support—even if it is just one sentence—“Please send Woodland Park Zoo’s elephants (Bamboo, Watoto, and Chai) to a sanctuary accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries as soon as possible.”  

3) “Like” the Facebook page for the Community Coalition for Elephant Retirement

4) “Like” the Facebook page for the Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants

5) Tell others about this issue and share this blog post to help spread the word in helping these magnificent animals!

Your actions do make a difference!  Thank you for taking part to help end suffering in this world!

NOTE: On 4/25/2014, Alyne Fortgang of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (FWPZE) told me that FWPZE is beginning a round of meetings in the next two weeks  with Seattle council members starting with Jean Godden.  Thus, this is a pivotal time for you to contact King County and City of Seattle council members to add your voice in helping to end the suffering of the WPZ elephants!

Are you bored with the same old doodles you draw on napkins, notepads, and meeting agendas?

Do you feel anxious or stressed and need a cheap, easy outlet to release these emotions?

Do you want to do something creative and satisfying?

Try Zen doodling!

You just need paper, pencil, and a pen or marker.  The paper can be cheap or more durable and expensive like watercolor or drawing paper.  You can use a regular ball point pen, but Sharpie markers in fine and ultra fine sizes or the waterproof archival Sakura Pigma Micron pens tend to create more durable and pleasing lines.

At the top of this blog is a photograph of two Zen doodles I recently completed.  The steps:

1) With a pencil, I placed a dot on each corner of my journal page. I did the same with the paper tile.  

2) I connected the dots to form a rectangle or a square (though you can do this zen doodling in any shape such as hearts, circles, and squiggles).  

3) I then started playing with a variety of shapes and lines to create  sections as well as micro designs within sections of my rectangle and square. 

4) Sometimes I used pencil to create the designs and then went over them with the Sharpie marker.  Sometimes I just used the Sharpie marker directly.

As you doodle, you become focused and relaxed.  It's like the wonderful “flow” state that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Need some doodle design ideas to help with your creations?

Check out these books. (Affiliate Links)

Mail Art-- it's everywhere! 

Haven't seen any besides what I've posted in terms of creating your own from scratch or emailing a cool e-card with museum art?

Want to receive or give a gift of creativity?


Kat Eye Studio hosts post card swaps--visit her site and join the "Liberate Your Art Post Card Swap."  According to Kat, this swap "encourages you to create, share, and liberate your art out into the world, where it can do its greatest good."  You'll need to sign up soon to be part of the fun!

Also, check out postcrossings and The Post Card Press for more ideas.

The bottom line--bring delight to the mailboxes of the world and YOU!

Caitlin Boyle is on a mission—to shift us away from negative
“self-talk” and become more accepting of our bodies just the way they are. 

To further this mission, she started Operation Beautiful to share positive messages anonymously through post-it notes.  
 
I joined the positive message post-it note “club” and had fun
leaving positive messages on corkboards, bathroom mirrors, and even on the back of a bike.  

So why not join in and be a part of turning the tide?  

It’s easy, cheap, fast, and fun!  

Just keep some post-it notes and a pen with you and post a positive message when you feel moved to.  

You never know the smile you’ll bring to someone’s face or the
lift to someone’s heart.  Haven’t we all had challenging days where a few kind words could make all the difference in the world?!

Get going and share the love!  An added bonus, you’ll feel good
too!

Check out her books as well.  (Affiliate links)

The National Organization for Women (NOW) sponsors the “Love Your Body” campaign as a way to help women and girls move past impossible beauty standards perpetuated by the media to a place of self-celebration and self-acceptance.

This year “Love Your Body" day is October 16, 2013. 
  
To celebrate, give yourself a HUG!

NOW also hosts an annual poster contest to celebrate the “Love Your Body” campaign. The winning posters are featured on the NOW website and used to promote “Love Your Body” events. 

Poster submissions are due in December 2013. Click here to find out more.

To learn more about NOW’s “Love Your Body” campaign and obtain educational materials, visit the “Love Your Body” website.

November 12-18, 2013 is National Short Story Week, well, in the United Kingdom. 

Yet, there's no reason why this event can’t spread wider afield, say in the USA, a former colony of the British Empire!

Visit their website and alert your librarians, teachers, and local media.  Post on social media sites, tweet, blog and do your part to spread the word.  

The website has a nice poster that can be used to advertise short story events as part of the 2013 National Short Story Week. I've included its image as part of this post. 

I'm sharing this information now so you have some time to move on it!

What are you waiting for?

Want to be an abstract expressionist but don't know where to start?  

Try out the You Made That interactive tool to create and share your artwork.

Just a note--I had to use Google Chrome rather than Internet Explorer to get the tool to work for both creating the art as well as being able to view what I created from the http address generated to share and view the art.

Want to see my creation?  Go to: http://nyti.ms/13C8xgp (give it a few seconds to upload)

Have fun!

Love animals?  Help animals!  And the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF) makes it easy.  They publish the Humane Activist five times a year.  It only costs $10.00/year to subscribe.  Each short newsletter includes updates on legislation that supports or hurts our animal buddies.  

A great feature is their section on HSLF-supported animal protection bills before the U.S. Congress.  You then just email or call your senators’ or representatives’ offices and let them know you'd like them to support the specific bills listed.  It's easy--just give them the bill number listed in the newsletter.

Once you find out the contact information for your senators and representatives, post that phone number someplace for easy access—like your refrigerator.  And/or add their email addresses to your email accounts.   

How to find your senators and representatives?  Go to www.hslf.org/leglookup or http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml. 

Take action NOW!  And boost your good karma today! 

I had so much fun with my Mail Art assignment that I did as part of my online art class that I hope to inspire you!

Make your own envelope or buy one.  If you make one, it allows for more creative possibilities. 

To create an envelope, you can find envelope templates on the web, unfold and copy an unused envelope you have, or just fold and glue or tape paper in such a way that you could actually send something in it.

Collage cut out images from magazines, use rubber stamps and stencils, draw, paint, do whatever you like to do.  Embellish with glitter or confetti.  Create an insert in the form of a letter, post card, or some other novelty you come up with.

Just have fun!

To start you thinking, I've included photos of what I did for my art assignment.

And here is my artist's statement for this particular piece of art so you can see my thinking behind it and the materials I used.

“Walking with Finney” ©Kathryn V. White

For this Mail Art, I used two color prints of my digital photographs—one of a tree truck graced with a wooden heart
and one of my dog sitting on a park bench.  I used these prints to create the envelope.  The tree print is the outside of the envelope and the picture of my dog, who is my heart pal, is the
inner illustration of the envelope.  His darling, happy, little face is the focal point upon opening the envelope.  
 
I also utilized decorative handmade paper, red construction paper, rubber cement, scissors, a glue stick, tape, two bird stencils, and a paper punch that cuts paper into the shape of a small bird.  
 
For the insert, I used leaves I picked up from my walks with my dog.  I painted the leaves with acrylic gel medium so that they would be flexible and not tear into pieces over time.  I also included little red bird “confetti” for the insert.  
 
The assortment of birds I’ve cut out and collaged and used as “confetti” represent the birds that I see and hear on these walks.  The leaves are gifts of nature that I find beautiful and enjoy collecting each year.  The leaves and little birds that I did not glue onto my envelope can be given as gifts by the receiver and so the circle of gifts—from nature, to me, to the recipient, and on to others reflects the circle of giving and receiving
which is a wonderful and nurturing part of the circle of life. 
The confetti birds also represent to me the fun of life.

My Mail Art honors my memories of my walks with my dog, my love of my dog, and my enjoyment of the beauty of nature.  I like the layering in this piece—not only that the piece includes collage, but the papers I used ultimately come from trees.  I also
include a picture of a tree as well as leaves that are real leaves that I have picked up on my walks.  
 
The tree has a wooden heart that was made by hand and added to the tree. As far as I know, this is the only tree in the park that has a handcrafted heart kindly attached to it (the heart hangs on a wire that is attached to a branch, it is not nailed to the tree). 
My mail art is also one of a kind and handcrafted with love.

As people view my artwork, I want them to think about what delights them about nature, who they enjoy spending time with, how good it feels to be sharing a beautiful day, what they have given in love, and what they have received that has deepened their happiness.