Flying Colors

IF • Twirl

Whip up the waves
of non-being
and wash me away!

How long will I walk
up and down
the shore in fear?
Rumi • Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi

original painting - artist collection - Nashville, TN - USA - "Gaea's Corsage"
watercolor, wax, ricepaper, glazed • 24"H x 24"W • © Lisa Rivas

How brave a ladybug must be! Each drop of rain is big as she. Can you imagine what you'd do, If raindrops fell as big as you?
~Aileen Fisher

The seeds that twirl down from maple trees every spring can fly as far as a mile,
with each wing-shaped seed spinning like a whirligig on the air. greenwavelength

IF • Grounded

The view of one simple thin stem,
with a solid base rooted deep-down in the soil,
is of one strong and up-right foundation
suitable for more growth.

It will branch out and reach with slender arms,
to offer young, tender sprouts to the sky.

These also will develop to become stronger and
then transform into shelters and homes
to many of the small creatures of our world.
Lisa Rivas

"Grounded"
• watercolor, digital, printed on ricepaper and mounted on canvas
• 10" x 10" • Lisa Rivas © 2007
• To purchase click here

For all true love is grounded on esteem. George Villiers

“Don't whiz on the electric fence” ~ American Proverb

Bliss & Blessings for 2012...

Those tender words we said to one another
Are stored in the secret heart of heaven.
One day, like the rain, they will fall and spread
And their mystery will grow green over the world.
-Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
Persian Poet / Mystic, 1207-1273

Highlights • digital • Lisa Rivas © 2012

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls."
~Joseph Campbell

 

IF • Journey

“It is good to have an end to journey toward;
but it is the journey that matters, in the end”
~Ursula K. LeGuin

original painting - private collection - Caracas, Venezuela - "Excursión"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 36"H x 72"W • © Lisa Rivas

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“Success is not a place at which one arrives but rather the spirit with
which one undertakes and continues the journey.” ~Alex Noble

IF • Bottled

A couple of the new designs I did for Liberty BottleWorks
where I was invited to create some "Bottle Art"... a sneak peek of 2 / 6 designs!

They will be available later this year...
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The ONLY "American Made" metal water-bottle in the marketplace!
100% Recycled Aluminum • BPA Free Materials   — That is Cool...

IF • Swarm

In talking about flocks of bird and schools of fish… The swarm ...moments when creatures lock themselves into a group "soul" letting go of their particular desires and needs as individual creatures and becoming one body with a transcendent intelligence directing them, creating patterns of motion so complex that they seem to have been choreographed from above.
~ (p. 90) The Creative Life, by Eric Butterworth

"SWARM"  e-Stamp
• fused glass - illustration printed as an archival pigment print, 100% rag paper

Infinite Mind —everywhere present–is the highest frequency of energy, in which all things exist as complete. When you see the creative process clearly, your ideas will get synchronized with energy of the same frequency, multiplying in like kind. This is the swarming process. (pp. 88-89) The Creative Life, by Eric Butterworth

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In life, the issue is not control, but dynamic connectedness. ~Erich Jantsche

IF • Equipment

“A bar of iron continually ground becomes a needle” ~ Chinese proverb

 

watercolor, wax, rice paper • 36"H x 60"W • © Lisa Rivas - "Sewing Machine"

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We sleep, but the loom of life never stops,
and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down,
is weaving when it comes up in the morning.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

IF • Fearless

The songs come from a vulnerable place,
but expressing that part of yourself can also make you feel fearless. ~Deana Carter

"Heart & Soul" • archival pigmented print on canvas • 24" x 24" Lisa Rivas ©

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Overnight success is a myth. Behind every success is a lot of tears, fears and doubts. ~Unknown

IF • Linked

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  ~proverb

 

original painting - private collection - Memphis, TN  - USA - "Birds of Paradise"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 38"H x 36"W • © Lisa Rivas
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One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.
~Leo Tolstoy

IF • Dip

"For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world,
and all the wonder that would be." ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

original painting - private collection - Portsmouth, NH  - USA - "Blooming Innocence"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 38"H x 36"W • © Lisa Rivas
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Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
~Henry Ward Beecher

IF • Subterranean

Where there is much light, the shadow is deep. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

original painting - private collection - Caracas, Venezuela • "Cadenza" 
• oil on canvas, 36" x 24" • © Lisa Rivas

You can't tell how deep a puddle is until you step into it...

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A thousand miles starts from beneath one's feet. ~Lao Tzu

IF • Brave

An old rat is a brave rat. ~ french proverb

• watercolor, wax, ricepaper and sewn! • Detail • © Lisa Rivas • "Out of the Blue"
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He who is brave is free. ~ Seneca

IF • Perspective

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may,
- light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful. ~John Constable

original painting - corporate collection - Memphis, TN - USA - "Crossroads"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 38"H x 66"W • © Lisa Rivas

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Laughter can bring a new perspective. ~Christopher Durang

IF • Propagate

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation,
nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. ~ Mohandas Gandhi

• watercolor, wax, handmade paper and sewn! • 18"H x 13"W • © Lisa Rivas • "Sweet Flowers"
SPRINGTIME
Oh, spring came to my garden
And caught it unaware
Wearing just a few old leaves
And a dejected air.

But when spring left my garden,
Its work so deftly done,
Many, many Daffodils
Were dancing in the sun.
~ Velma D. Bates

IF • Adrift

Clouds come drifting into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky. ~Rabindranath Tagore

• 36" x 108" (triptych) • Lisa Rivas • "Windswept"
• digital and mixed media on ricepaper and mounted on canvas

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Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility. Effective leaders are able to ~Rosabeth Moss Kanter