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Michele-lee Phelan

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Mind Body Spirit Festival [Nov. 3rd, 2009|11:03 am]
I would like to invite you to join in a new and exciting adventure for me. This coming weekend, I will be working for the very first time with two amazing and magickal women - Lucy Cavendish and Serene Conneeley - at the Triple Goddess (B13) stand at Sydney's Mind, Body, Spirit Festival.

Lucy Cavendish, the respected author of White Magic and Lost Lands, creator of enchanted oracles, and workshop facilitator, and Serene Conneeley, the visionary author of Seven Sacred Sites and A Magickal Journey, will be working their magic with me so that we may share some of the beauty and wonder of our creations with you.

There will be a number of original artworks, limited and open edition archival prints, giftwares, as well as Lucy and Serene's books, and copies of Mythic Oracle, Oracle of the Dragonfae and Wild Wisdom of the Faery Oracle available for purchase.

We'd love to meet you, so come by and say hello. Come share in our adventure, while enjoying one of the most amazing festival events to be experienced.

Below is a little more about the festival, taken from the MBS website ...

"It’s a fantastic fun day out, filled with new experiences, entertainment, learning, and expert advice.

At the Mind Body Spirit Festival, you can learn to conquer stress in minutes, discover the latest herbal supplements, or realise your psychic powers. Perhaps you'd like to know how to find your soul mate, enjoy the mysteries of tantric relationships, find that highly prized work-life balance, or balance your chakra.

There is something for everyone searching for a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle. Your friends will love it!"

Thursday 5 November - Sunday 8 November 2009
Hall 1, Sydney Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour
10am - 7pm Daily

Prices:
Adults $16
Concession/Student $13
Children under 14 free

All Enquiries phone: 03 9276 5555

For those interested in attending, below is a half price ticket offer just for you. Print it out and present it at the ticket booth and get $8 off your adult ticket entry price.



link

Weekly Update No. 4&5 [Oct. 8th, 2009|10:31 am]
Oh, I missed a week. It would appear that I cannot squeeze more than one journal entry into a week, and last week I wrote ‘Live Your Dream’ instead of my regular update. Forgive me? *wry grin*

Art

It’s been a challenging fortnight on the art front. I am working on a large 20”x40” canvas and it’s only the third time in ten years that I have, one, worked on canvas, and two, worked on anything this big. I am painting the largest fairy I have ever painted, and while I am enjoying the process, it’s a lot more challenging and time consuming than I thought it would be. I’ve been working on her upwards of five hours every day and so far I’ve been working on her for almost two weeks. My muse loves what I am doing, but she’s starting to itch and chafe a little. She wants the painting done, because there’s another she would like me to begin and complete before the first weekend in November.

That’s on top of the artworks I am painting in the evening by lamplight. I continue to work on the card illustrations for Oracle of Little Wisdoms at night. In the last fortnight I have painted three more – Learning, Giving, and Cleansing. I’m feeling a little unsure about Learning, and therefore have decided not to post her yet, but I am very happy with both Cleansing and Giving. They are both exactly as I wanted them to be. If you’ve not seen them yet, please be sure to look below at the end of this journal entry.

Website

After experiencing a great decline in sales from America, and an increase in local Australian sales, I decided that it is time to switch back to selling in Australian currency. So the big chore this week has been to reset all of my prices. I hope to have the store and the gallery completed by the end of the month so I can go live with it just before the Mind Body Spirit Festival in November.

Projects

Oracle of Little Wisdoms – Work continues slowly but steadily. The last few artworks fit so well with the deck. I still have the following cards to complete – Calling, Dreaming, Growth, Abundance, Leadership, Union, Choice, Fear, Natural Law, and Battle. The line works for each have been completed. It’s now just a process of painting one after the other until all are finished.

I have also decided to replace the much-maligned Beauty artwork with a cropped version of the fae in Silver Moss – the canvas I am working on. She is more suited, and more in keeping with my idea of what Beauty should represent.

Mind Body Spirit Festival – November, 2009 - There’s no backing out now. I have now paid for my share in the stall costs and so I am committed. *laughs nervously* I am delighted to be sharing space with the goddesses, Serene and Lucy. We’re going to have such an amazing stand, with art, oracle decks, books and meditation cds available for purchase.

And the next few weeks will see my brain flirt with the idea of exploding as I start the crazy process of making print and card stock. Thankfully, I already have a good half of the prints I am taking stashed under my bed, but I have a just as many still to print. I’ve ordered a fresh supply of clear bags, and this week I will stock up on ink and paper. Next week, I begin printing. Any suggestions as to what artworks I should make available?

Self

I’m feeling good. I had a scary bad reaction after the severe dust storms we experienced here recently – within 24 hours of the storm, my sinuses flared. Lymph nodes in front and behind my ears swelled up, as did my face. It’s taken a few weeks for the toxins to work their way back out of my body after a great deal of flushing with lots of water and antioxidants. It scared me for a while as I had to deal with random dizzy spells, unsettling sharp stabbing pains, popping in my ears, headaches and swelling, but thankfully it has now all subsided and, as mentioned before, I’m now feeling rather good, both physically … and emotionally.

My depression could be in remission again. I’ve been consistently happy now for a couple of weeks. I’m not wanting to jinx myself, but yes, things are looking brighter, and I have many wonderful friends to thank for the love and support they have given me over the last few months.

Future

As mentioned in my last update … I am not thinking of the distant future at the moment. I’m focused on three things – the website, the oracle and the Mind Body Spirit Festival. I have four weeks to have all three completed and prepared for. Nothing else matters right now.

xxx




Title: Cleansing
Size: 5.5"x8.5"
Medium: Acrylics


Title: Cleansing
Size: 5.5"x8.5"
Medium: Acrylics

link

Weekly Update No. 3 [Sep. 24th, 2009|09:11 am]
Art

It has been both a frustrating and exciting week on the art front. I found myself taking five days to paint a 5.5”x 8.5” artwork because the colour scheme required for the piece was not one I was comfortable with using. I found myself feeling as if I was painting under wet cement. My muse was uninspired, and therefore so was I.

It was an exercise in colour reactions. It became very clear to me that individual people can and will respond to an artwork on a purely ‘colour’ level.

I love silvery greens, blues, golds and purples, and over the years I have come to love red hues even though I can sometimes struggle when I work with them. But when it comes to pink … in particular, that soft ‘Barbie’ shade of pink … I find myself loathing it. There is something about that colour that my mind rejects out of hand and as I look around my house, I note that there is not a single item or object here, except for three pieces of Rose Quartz crystal, that comes close to that shade of colour.

It gives me insight as to how dominant my masculine side is. Thoughts of ‘pink’ make my lip curl a little in contempt and the words ‘You girly-girl’ whisper through my mind. I think there might be something to work on there. Mayhap I my feminine side needs to assert herself a little more. But then, should I? If I am happy as I am?

On the ‘exciting’ side, I am about to begin work on what is my largest painting to date, and it’s on real canvas. *laughs* I feel both terrified and excited by the prospect. The fairy is human-sized and stares back at me with a mischievous look on her face from the 20”x40” canvas. The size is a little daunting, but I also wonder if I may be able to paint her faster than I would a smaller work because I don't have to fiddle with the details as much.

Regardless, I am going to lose myself in a world of my favourite colours over the next few days and see what this fairy has to teach me.

I will work on her during daylight hours, and at night I will continue to paint my wee Wisdoms for the oracle. I’ve just taped up the Wisdom of Cleansing – watery greens and blues … lilypads, lotuses, frogs, and water. She is my idea of heaven, and just what I need after the last painting.

Website

I’m still working on the website, but I have to be honest and say that progress has slowed to a crawl due to my needing to focus on painting and creating.

Projects

Oracle of Little Wisdoms – It’s rather interesting how last week I was delighting in the opportunity to paint ‘Beauty’, but now I cannot even look at her.

Moving on ...

I have finalised the card design, the font for the card keyword, and the book layout. I’m not going to be finished by the end of the first week of October though. I had hoped to be able to complete one painting every two days, but Beauty took me almost five days. I may be able to make up that time, but I’m not going to force myself to work harder when I already work hard enough. The Oracle will be finished when it is time. I love this deck so very much, so I am choosing to be patient with myself and will work with my usual dedication and passion to create something that is pure and bright; not something marred by flaws because I chose to rush in order to meet a self-imposed deadline.

I have a folder that is dedicated to the artwork for the deck, and I cannot help but feel a flutter of real excitement every time I look at the thumbnails for the ever growing number of completed cards. It is going to be a beautiful oracle.

Mind Body Spirit Festival – November, 2009 - My mind is full of preparations for MBS. This will be my first public appearance in over four years, and I am so very excited … and nervous. I’m trying not to over-think the ‘public’ side of it though as there is so very much to do and I cannot let my nerves distract me. I’ve decided that I will paint several canvases which I will offer for sale there. The artworks will serve no other commercial purpose. I have decided that I will not make prints of them and will only have digital record of them for portfolio purposes. They will be both unique and exclusive, and that is something I hope will make them even more desirable.

In some ways, I feel this experience will take my creativity and career to a new level. I am focused on success.

I’ve also found some reasonably priced frames that will suit a couple of my 11”x14” artworks. I’m going to hold off buying them though until after I have had the opportunity to visit a local framer and see if I can find better there or have custom frames created for a similar or lesser price. I hope to have at least two large framed artworks, three unframed canvases, and at least ten framed small originals, and a selection of matted and unmatted originals on hand. I have a lovely folder in which to display them, so I will most likely have a good number of my current originals with me, along with a vast array of prints.

I have lots of older print and card stock that I am going to be offering at sale prices too.

Self

I’ve had a good week, albeit creatively pendulous one. I’ve found myself moving more this week, and that always means that my mind is healthier. If all goes well with the larger artworks, then moving could actually become a habit. The larger works will get me out of my armchair and up on my feet.

Emotionally, I’m in a good place, but the truth is that I could be in a good place because I am busy. Being busy and active means I think less. I live in the moment, instead of pondering the future, and living in the moment both constructively and creatively means the future is usually brighter and more rewarding.

Future

There’s not much happening on the ‘Future’ front that I’ve not already mentioned. I’m so focused on completing my ‘to do list’ in the here and now that thoughts of the future have drifted into the shadows for now.

In many ways, this is good and necessary. It is as it should be. I have goals I wish to fulfil, but now it is time for me to act, not plan and analyse.

New Art



Title: Beauty
Size: 5.5"x8.5"
Medium: Acrylics
link

Weekly Update No. 2 [Sep. 18th, 2009|08:45 am]
Art

Much of the week has been spent painting and drawing. I have finished all of the line works for the Little Oracle of Wisdoms, and I have also painted two of the more emotionally challenging pieces ‘Loss’ and ‘Lack’ (pictured below). I’m thinking that I will paint something light-hearted and bright next, for even though I have enjoyed painting ‘Loss’ and ‘Lack’ it is time to embrace a more joyous energy.




Title: Loss



Title: Lack


It was also a nice surprise to discover that ‘The Sage’ and my poem ‘The Storyteller’ were published as the centrefold in the latest edition of Spellcraft magazine. I had hoped that the Sage would be used, but with the nature of the magazine, I doubted that the poem would be used. But it was, and I am chuffed.

Website

Still working away at the website. Some days I feel like I am armed with a blunt chisel which I am using on a piece of obsidian, but progress is being made.

Projects

Dreams of Magic - Okay, it’s now official. Dreams of Magic will not be released prior to Christmas. It will be released some time in the first quarter of the New Year.

Oracle of Little Wisdoms – How many ways can I say how much I love working on this deck? I have a pile of little paintings that need to be worked on over the coming weeks now that all of the remaining line works have been completed. There are particular cards – Dreaming, Cleansing, and Beauty – that literally sing to me, and I cannot wait to paint them.

The writing also progresses well.

Self

This week has been a week of highs and lows, with a lot of plotting and planning along the way. My depression, being the cyclic creature that it is, seems to release me from it’s grip for several weeks, only to catch me back up and give me a shake just as I am beginning to feel confident and happy again, but I am starting to suspect that my lack of sound, uninterrupted sleep has played a starring role too.

I have always preferred to paint at night, and so over the last twelve months I have found myself working longer and later. I used to stop work at eleven and make sure I was asleep by midnight. Now, I find myself working until two or three in the morning, being woken again when my partner leaves, falling asleep again, and then being woken again when my children leave. I would then get another few hours of light sleep and then get up.

A couple of days ago, I found myself sitting here at my desk feeling so tired I could hardly function. I could not read the words on the screen. “Blah, blah, blah, blah!” was all that computed. I was not just tired, I was exhausted, and I realised that things had to change or I was going to do myself real, and mayhap permanent, harm. So, I’ve been making a real effort to be in bed before midnight over this last week, and I cannot even begin to describe how much better I am feeling. I’m still a little weary as my body has become so used to waking during the night that I am tossing and turning a wee bit, but the extra, deeper sleep is really helping, and I suspect that once I’ve had a few weeks of sleeping this way I will begin to feel normal again.

It is obvious to me now that the days are long gone when I could burn the candle at both ends for an extended period. So now that Summer approaches, I will make sure that I am in bed at a respectable hour and awake as the sun rises so I can work during the coolest part of the day.

Future

I am happy to announce that I will be making a personal appearance at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival in Sydney in November. I will be sharing the ‘Triple Goddesses’ stand with my beautiful and magickal friend, Lucy Cavendish, and someone I am coming to think of as an angel who walks among us, Serene Conneeley. I admit that the idea of spending four days out amongst the public is somewhat daunting, but I am truly looking forward to attending and sharing space with these two wonderful souls, and talking to those who comes by to say hello. And while the book won’t be available, I will have an array of framed and unframed originals, prints, collectable cards, and oracle decks on hand for purchase. I can guarantee that your breath will catch in your throat when you see the originals in person.

If all goes well in Sydney, then I will be looking at doing both Sydney and Melbourne in May to celebrate the release of Dreams of Magic.
link

Weekly Update No. 1 [Sep. 13th, 2009|11:10 am]
Art

I have been working on a series of series of small 5.5"x8.5" and 4"x6" OSWOA artworks for resale on my new website and the Oracle of Little Wisdoms (more details below) -- I really have enjoyed this last few weeks as they have left me feeling creatively recharged. I had forgotten how much I love painting these little treasures. My muse stays with me for the duration of the creative process instead of wandering off to find other pretties to capture her attention and distract me with. Her involvement from beginning to end means that I finish each painting on a high, instead of feeling worn and tired.

I've decided that I will be painting many of the minor arcana cards for the tarot at this size too.

I have a number of oracle card paintings to complete over the next four weeks - they will be Innocence, Dependence, Battle, Manifestation, Cleansing, Leadership, Giving, Calling, Union, Dreaming, Choice, Abundance, Growth, Learning, Truth, Loss, Justice, Doubt, Harmony, and Fulfilment. I have given myself twenty-eight days in which to paint them. It will be a challenge, but one I am looking forward to.

Website

The Dreams of Gaia website is currently undergoing a major overhaul behind the scenes. I am reworking the code in order to separate art and store. Instead of buy now buttons being on every single artwork in my gallery, there will be a separate store. I'm also adding a photography gallery and a library which will contain a selection of my short stories and longer works. It's going to be a rather big website when it's finished, but all of the work will be worth it over the long-term and should mean that I don't have to do it all again for another couple of years. I hope to have the new website ready for opening in the first half of October.

Projects

Dreams of Magic - My book is currently with the publishers. Unfortunately, several delays have resulted in an unavoidable delay in the book being available for purchase. Unless a small miracle occurs - and I am still praying for one - it looks like Dreams of Magic won't be hitting the stands until the very early New Year. I will however, be taking pre-orders in the last few months leading up to its release.

Dreams of Gaia Tarot - I am taking several weeks off from working on the tarot in order to focus on getting my website overhauled and restocked with smaller originals and drawings. Work on the deck is now at a point where I felt confident to step away for a moment to focus on other things that I have neglected over the last year.

Oracle of Little Wisdoms - What started out as a plan to paint a selection of smaller artworks for my website and the collectable art cards I will be offering, turned into something exciting. While I was designing the art cards, I realised that I had two thirds of what could potentially be a very beautiful and intuitive oracle deck, and so I decided to build upon what I had and turn it into something more -- The Oracle of Little Wisdoms. My hope is to have the entire deck and accompanying book completed within the next month and present it to my publisher. If they love it, it will be published after the book is released. If they decide not to go with it, then I will self-publish. I have this very firm belief that the Oracle of Little Wisdoms is one of those 'meant to be' projects that will play an important role in my future, which is why I am heeding my inner voice and working like a fiend to create this beautiful oracle.

As already mentioned, it will be a very intuitive deck. I have done my best to pair a meaning to each of the pre-existing artworks, and now I work toward creating the remaining cards for the deck. The book itself will be approximately 80 pages and will offer a card meaning and several questions that one should ask of self when each fae 'wisdom' appears. It will be a elegantly simple and beautiful oracle that I feel will be a wonderful transitional publication leading into the tarot.

Self

On a personal level, life is up and down for me at the moment. It's been a hard year financially. Like many of the beautiful and creative souls around me, life has been made harder by the economic downturn. The sad and simple truth is that when times are tough, people don't buy art. The stress of having to not only earn from my art, but also make up for the loss of income due to my partner's overtime being cut has been wearing to say the least. We're getting by thanks to the generosity, love and support of several passionate art-loving souls, but I will be one of the first to admit that I really want this global recession to be over already so I can get back to creating without having to stress about turning each and every one my creative endeavours into something that -must- earn money too.

My depression has also returned after almost seven years of my being in 'remission'. I don't believe that Depression is something that can truly ever be cured. Like other illnesses it comes and goes.

I started to notice changes in my emotional wellbeing after Easter. There would be days when I simply could not smile, and periods when I just wanted to isolate myself and cry. At first, those periods would last for a couple of weeks before easing, but over the months I soon discovered a pattern. My low moods were cyclic and being influenced by the same demon who caused me so much grief during my last battle -- hormones. Sadly, there is little I can do but endure.

I feel really good most days, but for several days of every month, I feel so very blue and alone. I -am- doing okay though. I'm being open about the bad days instead of bottling everything up and pretending that life is always perfect and beautiful. I'm letting myself cry and I am being kind to myself when I need to be. This is not something I could do last time. I kept everything inside, suffered in silence, and hated myself for being 'weak' for a very long time. Now, in some ways, I see the sad days as something that makes me grateful and appreciative of the good days and more aware of the support and love I have around me. It has also softened me in many ways too. After I overcame my last bout with depression, I came out of it a little hard and unyielding; with that arrogant belief that if I could overcome then anyone could ... and should. *laughs* Only now that I am dealing with the grey days again do I remember just how hard it is to fight and win. The weird part is, that I have this feeling that I am not meant to overcome it this time, but instead embrace it and learn from it. There is an almost exquisitely painful beauty in the sadness that gives me greater understanding and clarity. It makes me more insightful, and in many ways has strengthened my intuitive abilities.

I am still feeling very creative and inspired. In fact, probably even more inspired than before. The fact that I can still paint and write has proven to be a great source of release and help in making those dark days of every month something I can endure.

Future

There a few exciting happenings coming in the future, from licensing deals to (hopefully) some future public appearances. I've been talking to one company about licensing my work for resins, and I now have several cross-stitch patterns available through Heaven and Earth Designs. I'll tell you all more when I know more *smiles*.
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