Painting with a Purpose: Final Giveaway Painting (and some inspiration)

Where did the month go? It has been a blur except we have 5 paintings that verify we were here and we did paint ... a lot this month! And we will be painting more because the process of collaborating with Cowgirl has been so rich and inspiring as an artist and as a mother. I am beginning to process my thoughts around the experience and what it has taught me, hopefully for publication in another venue.

Here is our fifth and final piece for Half the Sky Foundation's Art in our HeARTs Art a-thon to raise money for programs benefiting children in China's welfare centers and orphanages. It seems appropriate that our final painting carries the instruction to be Inspired.






Not only has art inspired a deeper relationship between my daughter and myself, but it has inspired me to dream bigger. I am actively considering ways my passions of art and photography can be put to use to benefit others, igniting their dreams and confidence. I have witnessed in my life and in my child's life the power of art making to validate and celebrate our individual gifts and talents. I believe the five paintings we have created reflect our journey to embrace ourselves as artists with a mission to shine light upon the joy and wonder of this world. And thanks to everyone who has so generously supported our campaign with a donation, that joy will be part of a child's life as so much of what Half the Sky does is to nurture and witness the gifts of children who have no other family but the one within an institution's walls.

If you haven't been here all month, here's the drill: we will be giving away our friendly Inspired Tiger to one lucky winner. To enter the drawing, make a donation to our pledge page (see the cute little badge - Donate Now - on the right hand side bar? Click it to take you to our page) and either sign the honor roll there or come back here and leave me a comment. (More information about our project Painting with a Purpose can be found here.) You can also email me if you are shy: Lishofmann(at)novia)dot)net. Cowgirl will pick a name out of her hat on Monday and I will announce the winner on Wednesday so be sure I know how to contact you.

In the spirit of my last post, I am setting the intention to Do Less and Be More in the coming month. I will be participating in August Break with a daily photo Monday through Fridays and my Weekly Reflection post but I'm not sure what else. So much is going on within, I feel a need to nurture that and be quiet, be still and just do my practice which is simply to show up every day for my life awake, present, open and trusting.

what i saw this morning; a reminder i need to gain perspective and pay attention to inklings, intuition and deeper guidance

Of course, if you know anything about me you will know I have a hard time keeping quiet! I would like to believe August will be my silent art retreat but who knows? So if I am quiet, please do know I will still be here, bowing in gratitude to every one of you as each comment is like drops of dew on a summer lawn: refreshingly welcome and needed!

So how are you inspired today? And how does it manifest in your life?

Here is what is exciting me ... contour drawings! Courtesy of another wonderful week in BIG:

these are done without looking at the paper while drawing the figure and are on large poster board paper (except for the one of Moose which is in my journal)