Gifts of the Sea Meets Designs in Nature!

This is the fifth of my six postings on our InnerWorks altered book pages. Today, I am paired up with Rita Vindedzis, an extraordinary  and versatile artist in Canada - talented in so many areas of the art world.  Rita's pages in my Designs in Nature book below are stunning- and are actually representative of some of her own paintings outside of our Innerworks Collaboration which you can see  here.

 Rita also included a gift of this beautiful bookmark 

seen below.

     Thank you Rita for these gorgeous pages

 filled with such a touching  journey through nature at its most beautiful! 

                                                                  
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Below are my pages in Rita's book Gifts of the Sea. These pages were  my "first  ever" pages created in an altered book collaboration.  I was so excited and yet so uncertain about how to work in Rita's book "correctly",  not to get paint on any of her own beautiful pages, and had to figure out what and how I was going to do this-prevously painting only on canvas. I had such an exciting time connecting with all my senses to" the sea" while having an amazing learning experience and new challenge to embark on!  I've added netting, real beach sand and shells for texture and some authenticity,  pearls and created paper mache fish with words on them to capture some of the highlights of what the sea's gifts are to me.

The sea triggers all of my senses in a way few other surroundings do. I hear the waves flowing in and out with the tides, the sea gulls noisily chirping with their wide strong wings fluttering away, and the air gracing my face against my skin. The salty sea air is so strong I can almost sense the taste of it- while feeling the sun's rays beating down  - feeling its heat making that special "contact moment" when you sense that it’s on you. And with my eyes- it's always a feast to look at the sky with its pattern of clouds,  different textures and   shades of  sand, the moving water sectioned in all different colors of blues and greens shimmering and glittering, the white and beige frothy foam and all of the shells and sea life left along the water's edge.

Looking out at the sea- where the sky's horizon meets the water- sometimes with the very tiny mark of a ship in front, it just makes me think of all the things I want to create- what I dream of and am inspired to think about. It’s a humbling experience to think of  the speck that you are within the planet- but what an immense impact you can have on the lives of people around you.

Remember to let those you love

 know how you feel about them.

It will bring that magical flicker to their eyes.