Title: Artistic Mystic

Gender: Female

Age: 57

Sun Sign: Aries

Chinese Sign: Metal Rabbit

Location: Lone Tree, Colorado, USA

I'm a former accountant who has recently had the good fortune to retire and begin a new life as an artist…a newbie artist.  An “eclectic” artist who wants to learn as much about everything and anything as is possible in my short time here on earth.

So I'm learning digital photography (my first and greatest artistic love) and the artistic alterations I can make to the photos on my computer.  And then I'm putting them to paper or canvas and filling my photos with paint and paper and cloth and whatever else I can imagine.

I'm learning to make worry and prayer beads.  Not your “ordinary” rosaries but “bracelets” in all shapes and sizes and colors. I'm making art dolls.  Odd looking, freakish looking, strange creations which give me some sort of waking dream satisfaction.

When I was invited to join Zaadz as an Ambassador, I was asked to answer a questionaire which I'd like to share with you.  The answers and questions are “in part” but the important stuff is still here.

We're going to talk to and listen to the “other” with respect. We're going to forget about personal pride and self-doubt and talk about our ideas, no matter how ridiculous or outrageous, and share them with the world. Then, if those ideas have merit, we're going to let them take root.

That it's amorphous. It doesn't appear to have a rigid set of rules about how to go about changing this beautiful earth. It just lets seeds fall where they will and grow when they need to.

A “sowing” machine (pun intended) that would open the skies and allow the winds to carry seeds of change wherever they blew.

Sounds like the internet, doesn't it? Ideas drifting, floating, darting, jumping with joy from one keyboard to another.

Life is a constant permutation of endless and infinite art.

Art is the infinite variation of the changeless. 

A note:  I quote Hans Urs Von Balthasar when I think of my art beads and “rosaries”.  It also says much of my philosophy:

 “In creating man, the Creator seems to have intended to show how many variations can be invented from a single theme. It is also amazing how much music can be made with the few notes contained in five or six octaves, how many sentences and languages can be written with 24 letters. Always the same clear limitedness of the elements, together with the unforseeableness of their combinations”.
Hans Urs Von Balthasar

And so it is with my prayer and meditation beads; Four sets of seven beads followed by an invitatory or focusing bead. That is it, with few variations. The same pattern with different materials. The same underlying concept with endless variation. Infinite variety from a single theme.
Jonni L. Jones

Art and its relationship to peace is of overwhelming interest to me. Because creating art is a physical activity (putting words to paper or keyboard…paint brush to canvas…wet hands to clay…needle to cloth), art is a concrete creation which promotes a visceral reaction.

LInking this response toward peaceful purposes is a step in a direction I personally would like to take.

I spent the first half of my life stumbling blindly; oblivious to all but my own cares. I intend to spend the second half of my life in the conscious and clear-eyed occupation of paying attention to the cares of others.

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I have 2 websites which have photos of some of my prayer beads, photo art, and art dolls.  I also have a “poetry” blog.

If you like viewing photos online, I've found that hitting the F11 key will make the screen larger by hiding the menu bars.  Just push the F11 again to return to your normal screen.

They are:

My Web Site
Birch Bark Studios
Jon's Blog

I also have a Yahoo photo page:

Yahoo Photos

Again, I'm a “newbie” artist, a “wannabe”, a “pretender” who never drew a picture or painted a scene or molded clay before the age of 50.  So my new love is truly that.  New and scary and oh so joyful. 

“May the Peace of the Spirit be with you”.

Warmest Regards,  Jonni

Just for fun, check this out:

The Seti Project

Member Since: Tuesday, May 09 2006

Last Visit: 4 days ago.

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