The holiday busyness has taken its toll on my blog and my creative time. Today I made some time to get in my studio which felt great. But I thought I would take it one step further and post a picture of my last barn board piece. Today I got all three of them varnished and I hope to actually put them up for sale on Etsy.com (something I’ve always talked about doing but I’ve just never taken that step).

Last Sunday, a local artist group that I meet with had an open studio with a teacher from the Shambhala Center.  We had an introduction to meditation including practice, an introduction to the art of Miksang (contemplative photography), and we met with some Miksang students who shared their work with us. As soon as I saw some of the photos that were taken, I realized that I have taken this approach to photography. I just never knew it had a name.  The Shambhala Center in Madison doesn’t offer their class on Miksang during the winter because of the unpredictablity and coldness of the weather. Since the class goes out and does a lot of photography in nature, it is understandable that most people don’t want to take the chance of sub-zero wind chills during the weekend long class. Hopefully, we will have a short winter (or at least one with less than 100+ inches of snow like last year). I am planning to take advantage of the nice day that is predicted for tomorrow and taking some photos. We’ll see how I do in capturing the spirit of Miksang.  For now I will leave you with my second collage piece in my series created on vintage barn boards.

I admit I wimped out on actually going to Camp Randall to watch the football game. It was just too bloody cold to sit in the stands when I could watch the game on our big screen TV in the cozy comfort of my house. It was an amazing game to watch. A huge defensive battle. The Tigers ended up winning the game when they intercepted a pass in the Wildcats end zone with less than a minute left in the game. The final score was Stratford – 7, Edgar – 3. Edgar may have won the conference title but Stratford has now won SIX Division 6 State Titles. WooHoo!!!!

And now for a little art talk… I mentioned that I was working on a series of pieces using some wood pieces that my friend, Deb gave me. The first one is shown at the left. It combines a painted background and foreground elements and multiple image transfers, including the music which is the title for the piece. Stay tuned for additional pieces from the series.