Seeing the familiar in new ways

"Most of us lead far more meaningful lives than we know. Often finding meaning is not about doing things differently; it is about seeing familiar things in new ways." Rachel Naomi Remen

click to enlarge a quite morning at the beach

Love that idea of looking at things with new eyes.  Happy Sky Watch Friday my friends, click the link to see what bloggers from all over have found in their sky to share this week. 

Whatevers is a new challenge site hosted by 3 creative friends Cat Scanlon, Vicki Chrisman, Nat Kalbach, to celebrate found photos and the stories that could be told.

Found photos are often for sale at jumble stalls and antique centres. Sadly their story is lost but the images are rich with details of fashion or landscapes that have changed and vintage automobiles. Do you ever wonder, who are these people and what is their story?

The Whatever theme reminded me of Nick Bantock’s mail art books where the characters wrote to each other in decorated correspondence and inspired me to create a journal for Charles and Chelsea. With their families moving away the two young friends are documenting adventures in their journals and letters to each other......

Konnichiwa from Japan!

Did you recognise me in the pretty kimono?  We have been in Japan for a few weeks now, mother and father are fascinated with the culture and enrolled me in a local school to learn some of the fine arts. Their calligraphy is just as beautiful as their water colour paintings and I practice every day in my sketch journal. You know me and my love of the great outdoors, learning about the industrious silk worms that produce the fibres for the pretty kimonos are fascinating. Sadly it seems our modern world might kill them off with the invention of pesticides which have lots of great properties but some have negative effects on the environment. At school we are working on a petition to the powers that be to do something before it is too late. Oopps there goes another butterfly I want to try and capture the vibrant colours!

 

On the My Creative Classroom web site I teach a workshop on the theme of mail art, how to incoporate letters and postage stamps into decorated envelopes.