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Saturday 8 December 2012

PPF and FFF - Calm in the Storm

The challenge 5 for Fall, Fearless and Fly. The prompts were:
Headline Prompt:  Lifelong Fan:  What or who have you consistently valued or looked up to in your life?  What lessons have you learned from people you admire?
Color Prompt:  Your favorite color now or from childhood or both!
Quote Prompt: "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator; but among those whom I love, I can:  all of them make me laugh."  W.H.Auden
Today, I am using the first two prompts. The colours in this piece are purple, a colour I have like all my life and red which is a new found favourite (since the second prompt when we were asked to use a colour we least liked)
 I struggled with this as I do not have a person that I have admired throughout my life, I have admired people for periods of time and something then comes up to show me, they are a mess just like me. I don't stop liking them, but, they are no longer on that pedestal that I had placed them. So it shows something about me, rather than them. I am now very careful not to do that anymore! So I started thinking about qualities of the people I admire, Humour was high up there. But humour can sometimes be very cruel.

Time was ticking by and I had almost decided not to do this prompt, when a very busy and chaotic few days, made me recall, a particular friend I had at Polytechnic. She was always calm even in the midst of crazy student life. Pamela was from Taiwan and her English was not 100 per cent and people put her quietness down to that. I was not so sure, so I asked her one day, “How come she was so relaxed and calm amongst us lot?” He reply was the quote by Buddha in the picture above. She said she was Buddhist and mediation helped to center her. Yes, I have always admired people who keep their cool in a crisis. It is something I aspire to. I can appear to calm on the surface, but there is a nasty storm inside! So I want to learn to be like the quote below, calm inside when there is a storm on the outside. (Blues and turquoise are close seconds in the favourite colours list.)
This week has been stormy for me, I would like to think that I kept my calm throughout. So thanks Pamela, even though we have different faiths, both will help us cope with the slings and arrows of life.

The first piece is acyclic (text added in Photoshop) and the second is an oil painting done earlier in the year with text and embellishments added in Photoshop.

Have a happy PPF day everyone.

Linking to

16 comments:

  1. Both enchanting paintings and thank you for the good read. Happy PPF, Annette x

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  2. lovely inspired pieces Sharon.

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  3. Beautiful paintings, Sharon. The quote is a good one. I think we can learn from many different kinds of people.

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  4. Oh wow wow wow, I adore these. Happy PPF to you friend.

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  5. We have teacher throughout our lives. Some stay for a little bit some are life long. :) Love your journal page!

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  6. Oh, I love your two paintings and how wonderful words also, yes - we should learn to be calm when all are rushing around us, it would be very nice, and peace would come to our world, I think. :)

    I'm so sorry that I lost your comment on my blog, I would be very happy if you leave a comment again :) thanks in advance :)

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  7. So inspiring, Sharon!
    Hope you have a calmer week next week. :)
    ♥♥♥
    Happy PPF!!
    Mary
    Mixed-Media Map Art

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  8. Love both of these pieces. Going to that still place on the ocean floor is always a great metaphor for me. How lucky you were to meet Pamela and get that wisdom from her. Thanks for joining Fall Fearless & Fly!

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  9. I hope the weather is clearer this week for you and the storm passes quickly! I had the habit of pedestalizing people and it often led to less than ideal results. I how you've used the layers around your faces- they have such thoughtful eyes! So glad you shared this with Fall Fearless and Fly!

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  10. I love both pieces and your choice of colours. meditation is a great way to stay calm and reach below the stormy waves :)

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  11. Lovely post! And there's that beautiful beautiful background again! I love the backgrounds you make, with the thin small lines on there. Wonderful work and sentiments.

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  12. Lovely words to live by...beautiful art!

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  13. I love the quotes, they are lovely. Your pieces are so beautiful. I especially love the first one. The colors and the feeling have such a serene quality.

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  14. How right you are! Peace and joy too come from within. Love the purple one because I love purple too!

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