Photo: Edwin Mijnsbergen (and edited by me)

Je t’embrasse

Photo: @LenaSchreijenberg
I submit this haiku to Haiku my Heart

Je t’embrasse

It started with Tammy, who asked me to contribute and write
a prompt for her daily prompts series on Daisy Yellow.
You can find my guest-post-prompt HERE

As an extra to my contribution on Daisy Yellow, I stretched
my ‘theme’ and today on my blog all is related to the page
I created, which has everything to do with rain…

… while the sun is shining today! YAY

So, for a haiku in style I searched the Internet and came across a nice photo,
the scene coming from the film ‘Summer rain’ (El camino de los Ingleses) –
directed by Antonio Banderas. I haven’t seen this movie, in fact I had not
even heard of it, but I love this image and the feel it evokes!

‘Haiku my Heart Friday’ is hosted by the wonderful Rebecca.
Visit her blog to find a list of the other participants: Recuerda Mi Corazon

If you visited Daisy Yellow to see my guest post, you have read about the
inspiration for my art journal page. And maybe, just maybe you got all curious
to hear the song I talk about. Ha, I will serve you promptly!

Here”s the song that got me jump up and hit the dance floor back in the days!
(It still does, but the dancing takes place in the living room now.
I haven’t seen the inside of a discotheque in ages… do they still have those
mirror balls hanging on the ceiling and milk-glass dancefloor with flickering
colored lights?)

The title “It’s Raining Men” to me always urges this piece
by the surrealist artist René Magritte

And here is the page I made inspired by the song.

Size: 29,7 x 21 cm – 16.9 x 8.3 inch
Materials: photo from thunderstorm/monsoon season, dictionary paper,
gesso, hand cut silhouette, spray ink, water drops, sharpies

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Go outside and greet the sun.
Wave to the wind.
Dance in the rain.
sing ‘hallelujah!’
Bless life!

It rained again this morning but my mood brightened when the mail
arrived! The latest post of my Quirky Dutch Summer event handled
‘mail art, and some participants asked me for my address so they could
send their art to me. How fun it was to see these bright envelopes come in!

(click on the images to enlarge)

Mail art from Coby

Mail art from Willy

and, to top it off, I also received a sweet card with an embellishment
from my mom. (It may well be that you see that golden charm come
back on an art journal page one of these days!)

The weather inspired me to write a haiku and I searched the Internet
to find a matching photo. I found this one on a free stock photo website
and it shows exactly how the sky looked here yesterday evening.

For you who read both haiku/languages – yes, I replaced the English ‘rain’
for ‘wind’ in the Dutch version. I like rain better, but in Dutch it is ‘regen’ –
that’s two syllables instead of one. It’s quite a puzzle every Friday to write
haiku in two languages saying more or less the same in each. Sometimes I
like the Dutch version better, and sometimes – like now, for instance – the
English one is the best.

I do like this ‘play with words’ every Friday though – and I’m always happy
to publish it for ‘Haiku my Heart Friday’. Haiku my Heart is hosted by the
wonderful Rebecca who gathers haiku lovers around her every Friday.
You can find the list with all participants here on Recuarda Mi Corazon.

Today is extra special because Haiku my Heart celebrates its second birthday!
Thank you Rebecca, for starting and hosting this Friday event that brings
together so many haiku lovers. I’m grateful to be part of this wonderful circle.

Hooray for haiku
We cheer for Rebecca and
our circle of love

There’s two more photos I want to show you.
Since I publish ‘Quirky’ posts on Tuesdays – which is the day that I was used
to post my ‘Chronicles’ art journal pages – I will show you my weekly pages on
Fridays for as long as the Quirky posts run. I’m a bit behind in showing them
so here’s the last two weeks.

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 23

(Size: 24,5 x 49 cm – 9.65 x 14.86 inch)

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 24

(Size: 24,5 x 49 cm – 9.65 x 14.86 inch)

Dutch people will recognize the man from the drawing, it’s Johan Derksen –
the publisher of a soccer magazine and one of the regular guests in a daily
talk show about soccer. (We watch this television programme almost every
day.) I didn’t draw the portrait myself, it is a caricature that was published
in a newspaper. I glued it on the background – along with other newspaper
articles about soccer – and put gesso on top. I used black markers to get his
features back on the page.

(Oh, and for you foreigners who don’t follow the European Champi0nship
soccer – Holland was kicked out after the first round. The Dutch team lost.
THREE TIMES! They played bad. In fact, I’ve never seen them play thát bad.
They deserved to get out. Bye bye ‘Orange fever’. Ha!)

Have a great weekend dear ones.

Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head
with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
~ Langston Hughes ~

and this…

..

… to find its apotheosis in this…

It might not be that visible, but our cellar was flooded.
We scooped out at least 7 big buckets of water.
Thank goodness we were prepared, and got out all the stuff
before the heavy rain and thunderstorms started.

The photo was taken about an hour ago…
right now, the sun shines brightly.
Aaargghhh… Summer in Holland!

Last week was much more pleasant.
As you could see in my former post, I went to Zeeland.
My art journal page for last week shows the happiness
and brightness of those days.

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – Week 33

(30 x 21 cm - 11.8 x 8.3 inch)

The photo is from a postcard I bought at an art exhibition. It’s an aquarelle
made by Maurits Schoenmaker. I lived nearby the church he painted when I
was 19 and I saw this – almost exact same – silhouette from my balcony daily.
Aahh.. sweet memories and a lovely painting!

I leave you with some inspiring links to wonderful artists/blogs/work
I discovered over the last months. I haven’t linked you up to other artists
in a long time, so here’s some new faces/work for you to explore!

One Artist Journal (Orly Avineri) – an exeptional art journaler and
a woman I would like to meet one day!

Natalie Stopka – her handmade books take my breath away! I got
definitely inspired to make a book with embroidery on the cover myself!

Sandee’s Sanity – Sandee is a sweet lady with humour and colourful
art journal pages!

Cerulean (Eric) – I found this Dutch artist through Seth.
He makes beautiful work and has a most inspiring blog!

Dye~ing to be yours (Deb Christensen) – Deb is such an inspiring woman!
She stays on Kodiak Island (Alaska) in the  ‘Alpenview wilderness lodge’
from August ’til October to cook for the fishermen. Isn’t that neat?!
She takes the most wonderful photo’s… check out her former posts!
I can’t wait until she’s back!

The public gallery on my website – I uploaded work from participants
that they made with prompts in the Creative Summer Camp…
A lot of versatile and inspiring art pieces!
There are also galleries that show the work of the students who were
in the former online workshops ‘ Let it Loose’ and ‘A Creative Art Journey’.
Those two workshops will start again in September. For more info
and registration, go to the shop.

I can see the sun still shining through my window.
I might take advantage of the light to get creative at the dining table.
Hope you lovelies have a nice week.
Keep it dry!