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Shrines...

a creative prompt & coaching tool
from Kara L.C. Jones

Making shrines can be a very healing ritual. You might make them to honor a special moment in your life. Or shrines can be made a devotionals, reminders of what is sacred to us. Other times a shrine might be made to remember, honor, grieve.

This week, I'm going to encourage you to think about all the different possible ways to make a shrine, too. The three I'm sharing this issue are all digital collage. Some elements are from physical art I made, scanned into the computer, and then altered. Other elements are from photographs I've taken. And still other elements are from the styles, shapes in Photoshop Elements. It can be very meaningful to mix and match images, play with different themes, and the best part is that I can do it anywhere on my laptop.

Alternatives for shine making abound though! You can draw the shape of a shrine box and then fill it with words. Poetry shrines. You can recycle shoeboxes, deco them, collage with found elements. You can do the same with altoid tins or matchboxes to make tiny altered shrines. Or even take driftwood from the beach, dry it, use as base for shrine.

You'll find ideas and history of shrine making in books like Grief Unseen by Laura Seftel and Art Therapy Sourcebook by Cathy Malchiodi. On our little island, there is a fabulous shrine artist, Ginny Ciszek, who shares many of her pieces in our studio tours and when she teaches art classes here. Do a Google search for the string "mixed media shrine" and you'll be stunned by the sheer number of heARTful photos you discover!

So now you try it. Pick a theme. For instance the top shrine I shared here was in honor and devotion to Jizo. The second shrine above was in memory of my son Kota, featuring his faded photo and digital scan of his footprints moving across the beam of the fence. And then this last one below was on the theme of grief and transformation.

After you've picked a theme, consider your options for the creation of the shrine. Do you want to do a digital piece? Paint one? Collage from magazine images? 3D, mixed-media made from recycled or found elements? Do you want to write poetry shrines?

Feel free to experiment this coming week and then come share the process and results over on MotherHenna.blogspot.com or Kotapress.blogspot.com or over at the MISS Creation Station forum!

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Blessing to Each of You!

Reiki to you:
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN

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Register for a Home Workshop this week, get an hour of creative coaching free!

This week only: register for one of our home workshops (click here) between March 22 and March 26, and you'll get all workshop materials PLUS one hour of free creative coaching time via Skype or tele-session (a value of $150). We've heard from artists, bereaved families, pastors, grief support volunteers, creative therapists who have all found great benefit, both personally and professionally, from the materials and experience of our home workshops. Register for your workshop today by clicking here....

Creative Self-Care

Only offered through our Mother Henna Etsy shop! Madame Zelda does card readings using the 1,000 Faces of Mother Henna deck of cards created by heARTist Kara LC Jones. Madame, through Kara's Reiki Master practice, does a Distance Reiki meditation for you as she considers your questions or issues. Then she picks cards from the deck and reads them. Readings include creative prompt ideas for you to begin exploring the meaning of the cards for yourself. You get a PDF file with scanned images of your cards plus the write up of Madame's reading.

To schedule your reading today, click here...

still life 365:
a call for art

Angie hosts an amazing, safe and sacred space over at still life 365. She's currently calling for more artwork created by bereaved families for exhibit at still life 365.

Click here to read more about how to submit work to still life 365...

Woodmont Ave

If you happen to be near The Mills mall in Pittsburgh area on April 17th, from 3 to 5pm, we'll be there doing reading & signing for this book!

A new poetry collection from Kara L.C. Jones is now available via Lulu. The Woodmont Ave book is a collection of short, visually oriented poetry, musing on life at Woodmont Ave in the 1920s, 1940s, and 1980s. Click here for full information...

1,000 Permissions Granted

So excited to let you know that our latest title, 1,000 Permissions Granted, is now available at our Lulu shop! This 300+ page print book is features a collection of 1,000 creative permission slips just for you. This is the latest publication from the 1,000 Faces of Mother Henna project, founded by heARTist and Creativity Coach Kara L.C. Jones. This book is a companion to our home workshop "You Have Permission" which will open for registration again in April 2010.

PLUS get 10% off your purchase of any books purchased at our bookshop!

Thru March 31st, Lulu is offering our readers 10% off your purchase of any of the titles in our bookshop at Lulu! Use the code IDES when you check out, and you'll get 10% off your purchase. Click here to see our full shop...