Rainbow Dreams and Art Blog

Lisa with Sunflower Mask

I just returned from a magical week of Storytime/Mythic Yoga training with Sydney Solis, in Boulder, CO. It was much more than training, it was a beautiful life experience.

Each day was filled with the most delightful people, stories, yoga, nature, and experiences that I could ever imagined possible. I also came face-to-face with some personal challenges, working through a complex story, experiencing the ups and downs of a challenging mask-making project, and dealing with altitude sickness! Sydney is an amazing and inspiring woman and teacher, a gifted story-teller, yoga teacher, and artist, as well as a wonderful mom and friend. To have an opportunity like this was something I will always cherish. The other women who studied with me were beautiful, brave and amazing women who are now my friends.

I created a mask that at first did not seem like the thing I wanted to create. I battled with the image, wanting instead to do a cute animal or bird, and finally I surrendered to the Sun idea, which turned into a Sun that was also a Sunflower. At one point in the process I felt like giving up or even throwing it away, but with Wendy Rochman’s guidance and encouragement, I stuck it out and finished my art. Later on, I was happy with it, even though it didn’t match up with what I’d thought it would be. In some ways, it was even better than my idea because it was more of an expression of what I was experiencing in my life and my practice.

When I returned home from Colorado yesterday, the first thing I saw was a long-awaited package of Ukrainian books sitting on my bed. I had ordered them a month ago, and now here they were, sitting on my bed. As I opened the package and took out the first book, I fell in love with its beautiful purple cover. I opened the book and on the very FIRST page was the Ukrainian legend, “The Sunflower.” I could hardly believe my eyes. And the story seemed to be the very same thing that happened to me, with my life, my art, the mask…the sunflower was the son of the Sun, it came from the Sun.

Here is the story of The Sunflower:

The Sunflower (from A Garland of Legends and Folk Tales from Ukraine – adapted and retold in English by Oleksandra Stratiy)

In the beginning, none of the plants on the Earth had flowers. Can you imagine? All the plants were just green. One day, the plants decided to make a request to the Sun, their god, and to ask him for flowers of different colors. But the Sun, high in the sky, replied, “I take good care of you, I think. I give you light. I give you warmth. You can live without flowers. Anyway, I am too busy. I have the entire solar system to worry about.”

Their conversation was overheard by the Sun’s son, a golden-haired Prince. He was eager to be of help. “May I go, Father, and do this job? I would be glad to travel to Earth and assist the plants,” said he.

“No, it’s a very long way from the sky to the Earth, and it is dangerous. You may never come back home,” was his father’s answer. Some days passed. The Prince came back to his Father with the same request. This time, the Sun sighed and shook his head sadly, but he agreed to let his son go.

To the Earth flew the son of the Sun. He roamed around the world. Nature trembled in anticipation of the most beautiful miracle. Wherever the Prince went, the Earth bloomed. Beautiful flowers appeared in the jungles and in the deserts, in the forests and in the meadows, in the mountains and on the waters.

Soon, beautiful, colorful flowers of every size and shape covered the planet. On seeing the results of his work, the Prince beamed with satisfaction. He was so proud of himself, so excited to share his happiness with his Father! He was ready to go home.

The Prince rotated his great wings and struggled to rise from the Earth to the sky. But he could not! He had given his power and energy to the Earth. He could no longer fly. He could not return to his Father, the Sun. The weak Prince fell on the ground, weeping bitter tears. His Father cried in the sky.

At dawn, the Prince managed only to raise his head to look at the Sun. He became the Sunflower. Ever since that time, a golden-headed flower raises his head to gaze at the Sun. His Father promised him homecoming in the next life.

My Sunflower Mask:

The Sunflower

Tags: Art, Personal Storytelling, Storytelling, Yoga by Lisa
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It’s a warm, breezy, summer evening, the kind of evening that feels like it will go on forever. As I reflect upon the week just past, I am grateful for the many opportunities that I had to connect with others…my students of all ages, my friends, and my family. It was truly a week of ups and downs, of losses and of gains, of reminiscing, and of learning and looking forward to new discoveries.

This week, while the losses got me down, I rejoiced in the new connections. While I grieved for my cousin who died this week, and for her family who will miss her, I found hope and joy in being reunited with relatives separated by time and distance. While I felt the loss of a favorite supervisor leaving, I was met with the promise of bright, new opportunities ahead of me. It is all life; of beginnings and endings and in betweens.

The Dog Days of summer continue, even as I know they are coming near to an end. Each week, I enjoy my kids in the YMCA Day Camp, and I get to know them better, to watch them grow as they create amazing things. Often there are new faces, or the reluctant kids join in when they see the fun we are having. This week’s them was Jungle Safari, and on a whim I decided to try our hand at the same Animal Finger Puppet project I did with my teens in our home school group. It was a great success, as the kids came up with the most creative ways to express themselves with clay and the many goodies I brought with me. It was interesting to watch how they learned from each other and began adding accessories to their animal puppets, such as hair, capes, hats, guitars, bows, and cups. Very cool!

Here are some images of our art. Click on thumbnail images once or even twice to enlarge!

On Thursday afternoon, we did a fun yoga session where we began with a Seashore Warm-up, and ended up crashing our boats on a Jungle coast. We each had a favorite jungle animal and we made up our own tale using those animals, and inventing poses for our animals. Of course we included some old favorites too, such as cobra pose, lion’s pose and crocodile pose. We had a great time - the kids have such great imaginations! We ended with an activity for meditation that the kids really enjoyed. I brought in fabric, and we created Yoga Animal Flags. It was a lot of fun to come up with symbols for our flags, and show the animal friends we wanted to represent on our flags. We simply used permanent markers on fabric, and the results were very nice. This was a project that seemed to appeal to all ages and to boys as well as to girls. As always, the time seemed to go by way too fast.

Finally, as the week came to a close, I truly enjoyed my adult classes on Thursday. We have so much fun in our Thursday evening class at the YMCA, and it feels so sincere and heartfelt that we not only learn and grow together, but we share so much of ourselves in the process. It is the most joyful yoga class I have ever taught. I leave there feeling so uplifted that it stays with me, and I think again and again how lucky I am to be there. We have a recent Gulf War veteran in our midst, and it brings to my heart how much this person was willing to give for us all, and how he now needs to be cared for and to feel safe and that he can at least relax. When you see first-hand what war does to our bodies and minds, it makes you realize how precious is PEACE. In my heart I dedicate my classes and my teachings to this man, to my cousin Audrey who died a week ago, and to us all, that we can at last know peace.

May we all know peace,

Lisa

Tags: Art, Art activities, Personal Storytelling, Storytelling, Yoga by Lisa
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It’s been hot outside this past week here in Michigan! I’ve enjoyed my afternoons at the YMCA where this past week we had a nice “cooling” theme…”10,000 Leagues Under the Sea”…

Although we were not exactly 10,000 leagues under the sea, the thought of the sea, the cool ocean water and the creatures who live there was a refreshing thought for a hot July afternoon! On Wednesday afternoon it was Art Day. I really love how the kids who are there each week look forward to my arrival. And there are always a few new kids who join in for the fun. We began with sheets of black construction paper, and “drew” our undersea designs with glitter glue, and then once the glue was dry we colored in with oil pastels. It was a really cool affect that we achieved - almost like a stained glass window. Many of us created fish, sea turtles, dolphins and other sea creatures. I thought the finished art was outstanding, as it truly expressed a love for nature. I enjoyed how many children overcame their self doubts about their own drawing abilities, as when you try to draw with glue, you have a chance to try something new and unfamiliar. You stop judging as much and become less concerned with erasing lines. It frees you up to become more expressive and honest with your art, and it is more about creating and less about “trying to be something”. Some children tried to say they “messed up” again and wanted new paper. Of course I gave them more paper, but I took some of the pieces that would have been discarded and said, “there are no mistakes in art!” I created pieces out of what would have been thrown away, and showed them how some of my best work comes from a line or a mark that I at first thought was a mistake. The kids were amazed at how that was true. I am hoping they learn not to throw away their art, but that they see mistakes as opportunities to create something even better.

On Thursday, we had yoga class and we began with our sea theme, doing the Seashore Warmup that Sydney Solis has in her book, “Storytime Yoga - Teaching Yoga to Children” and it was the best Seashore Warmup ever! The kids came up with some awesome, creative poses for all the sea creatures we could think of. We did move on to Sun Salutations, and it was a hot day, even at the YMCA, so we cooled off with a longer story. The kids were ready for a rest! I told the Ukrainian tale of “Honesty and Dishonesty.” I was impressed with the way the kids attended, even amidst the chaotic nature of Aftercare, with kids coming and going all the while. Again, the few remaining children came up with some great pose ideas for some of the characters. It is so difficult to take resting pose of any kind in the chaotic room, so lately I have been ending with a centering mandala art activity instead. It is very calming and meditative and the kids love it. On Thursday, it was Rainbow Handprint Mandalas. I have some nice photos of a few of the works they created. Most of the kids again chose oil pastels on black art paper. Very nice, bright rainbow colors were achieved. One girl who had come to class for the first time, told me she was going to ask her mom if she could come to the YMCA EVERY Thursday! I am SO grateful for being able to connect with children in such a positive way, I feel so lucky and blessed by these children. Some of the kids who joined us for art this week were teens, and so I enjoyed the wide range of age and how the art was a universal connection - great for any age!

See Art Projects Page - Rainbow Healing Handprint Mandalas

Love to all,
Lisa

Click on images below to see a larger view!

Tags: Art, Art activities, Storytelling, Yoga by Lisa
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Last Thursday at the YMCA, the day I teach yoga in the Day Camp After Care Program…we had so few kids that it was difficult to teach a class, as the numbers continued to dwindle as parents arrived to pick them up. Usually I am competing with a movie, so I checked in the next room where the movie was showing and it was only counselors and two or three kids watching! Well, after all it was July 3rd, so presumably many people were out of town. At first I was disappointed not to teach the yoga class I had planned, but, the afternoon turned out to be special in unexpected ways. The kids who were there asked if they could play with my puppets and tell some of their own stories, so they did. It was fun but that is when I also learned I need to set time limits as one girl had so many stories to tell that she would go on as long as she could hold an audience! We also looked at my book of American stories, and found the words to some patriotic American songs. One girl asked if we could sing the Star Spangled Banner! So we sang it together. It was so cute and a special moment I will never forget.

Then, I ended my time with them by doing some more body painting as I had done the day before. On Wednesday we had made Fireworks paintings in our art class, followed by me creating original Fourth of July tattoos on their hands or arms. Some of the kids wanted the same tattoo again. It was red, white and blue stripes with a white star, kind of like a shooting star! Some kids wanted their ankles painted and most of them wanted their faces painted. I painted a red, white and blue butterfly on one girl’s face. All were red, white and blue, and they went home looking really awesome. What was SO cute was hearing them all talk about how they were NEVER going to wash these off, and how they hoped their moms would not make them take a bath that night or they would have to take it with a bag on their arm or hand. So very sweet. A couple of the little girls came up to me and hugged me and snuggled against me, thanking me for what I had done. It was a joy and a pleasure to spend time with them, and to see them so happy.

This week at the Y, the theme is King Tut’s Exploration. Yesterday, Wednesday, I brought a painting project for us to do for Art Day. We painted a King Tut’s death mask, but we could do it like a self-portrait if we wanted to. We left borders around the edges of the page to write our names and other messages in hieroglyphics. Our paint was gold, blue and red metallic paint. I loved the look of the metallic paint! Some of the kids even used silver. These turned out WAY better than I could have expected and the kids were all so absorbed in their work that when their parents came to pick them up, they wanted to stay and finish their paintings. One girl wrote, “I love Lisa” in hieroglyphics on her painting. When she told me this, I felt happy and grateful to share this love and positive experience with her. I can’t really describe that moment in words, of feeling that connection, that appreciation of one human being for another, except that it was mutual. It felt as though we had known each other all our lives. She is a sweet and appreciative child, as are nearly all of the kids that come to this program each week. I adore them! So many kids thanked me for coming to spend time with them each week that my heart felt very full. They are so special to me and I appreciate THEIR time. Their love makes me want to do many special things for them, to try even harder to tell wonderful stories and come up with amazing art projects.

All of this abundance that I’m feeling, is so striking in contrast to what I feel about the job situation and how the economy is heading here in Michigan. Many companies attempt to cut costs by cutting pay and benefits and then we all suffer. So many of my friends and families have been getting laid off or losing benefits. The stinginess flows all the way down to the kids, who feel it too. I try not to let financial pressures affect the way I approach my life with my own three children, or with my children at the YMCA. If we skimp on kids, they feel it and how can we expect their hearts to be in it? My prayer is that somehow I can support myself and find income from other areas in my life, in order to keep doing the work I love to do with these kids. I am breathing right now, praying and calming my mind and my heart so I can continue to create abundance in the life of my own children, and those whom I spend time with each week at the YMCA.

With love and gratitude to ALL my kids!

Lisa

Tags: Art, Art activities, Personal Storytelling, Storytelling by Lisa
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