Mini Art and Droplet Poems

Call it a sign. Call it serendipity. Call it an opportunity.
Like many opportunities I almost passed it by. But then I chose not to. This is what a beautiful life is all about: grasping opportunities, embracing what they bring.

Last night I stumbled across Art Every Day Month due to begin today, 1st November. It being the eve of the month it was a perfect time to sign up, so why did I hesitate?
Because it seems like a big ask - Art Every Day - even for a month. And I am still doing Art, Heart and Healing. And I am so new at this - a baby artist, not a month old.
So I hesitated. Then I took the bull by the horns and added my name, commiting myself to the opportunity.
Being still a babe in arms, the steps I take over this next month will be baby ones. But that's ok. Making something manageable, makes it possible. So with perhaps one or two exceptions, I intend to embrace baby art.


Yesterday my eldest daughter and I let ourselves loose at an art store, beginning our stamp collection and stocking up on a few other goodies besides, some water soluable wax pastels, some shiny bronze mosaic tiles.
So I will practise using our hoard on pieces of mini-art, small experiments. Here is today's offering:

The original is only an inch across - I've just added colour to a stamp. I know now I won't manage to do the art and post every day, but I hope to offer you a fair selection with some frequency.


Of course my first artistic love is poetry and that comes in mini versions too, so I would like to try my hand at that as part of my art month, interspersing the art of words and pictures as the month progresses.
Back in the summer (remember the summer, now the nights are closing in early?) during my holiday in Normandy, France, I picked up a wonderful book at a vide grenier (that's an empty attic sale, garage or car boot depending on your origins). It is called "Il pleut des poemes" and it is an anthology of mini verse, collected together by Jean-Marie Henry and illustrated by Zau. Each poem is a snippet - two lines long, six at the very most. A brief picture in words. Here is the introductory poem by Jean-Pierre Simeon:

Le poeme est une goutte d'eau,
il donne au desert l'idee de la fleur.


A poem is a water droplet,
it gives the desert the thought of a flower.

(my translation)

So here's to mini-art and droplet poems! (Glasses clink, can't you hear them?)