This Is My Brain on Art is part of a small series called Not Fractal Art. Click on the painting to see it larger and clearer.
Faerie mysticism.
Check out Not Fractal Art #1 and Not Fractal Art #2 for more info about the series. Also check out subsequent blogs for info; I will post more of the series as I get the chance.
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Not Fractal Art #2
See Fractal Art #1 and subsequent blogs for more info about the series, which I am posting as I get the chance.
The piece above is part of a small series called Not Fractal Art. I was surprised bc, thru nothing I consciously did, it looks like a kachina.
In other words, I was trying to create a winged figure of myself I had seen in a trance, which did not look like a kachina. As i created this painting, I did one thing then another then another, on and on, and it still did not look like a kachina. Then I did one more thing and, blam, a kachina came to visit.
I do not know who this is, in terms of any lore I have read, but it is me, and it is also a kachina of pollen and greenery. Not a bee kachina, I think. Closer to a Green Man. I am so glad to meet it and this aspect of me. I want to dance with it soon.
If this spirit is speaking to you, please share what it is saying with me. I am not so presumptuous as to think I am in this Faerie journey alone, and we all need fellow travelers.
To the right is my drawing from which the series is being produced. In other word, each painting is mostly a composite of this drawing.
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The piece above is part of a small series called Not Fractal Art. Check out subsequent blogs for more.
I have felt like some of my artwork is unintentionally moving toward a look that one would expect to have been generated via fractal technology, but I am arriving at the look organically instead. For example, I love to draw spirals, and spirals upon the spirals, and leaves based in spirals upon spirals; and the more I do it, the more some of the leaves look like they are fractal art. It feels like a weird—but also wonderfully wyrd and based in my faerie sight—process to come at this independent of the technology. But I am just seeing nature’s patterns and painting what I see, and was thoroughly surprised one day when I saw some fractal art and realized how much its appearance has in common with what I create. But I paint what life looks like for me. It is a very happy way to see life. Science and magic really are not at odds.
And arriving at this place through meditation on Gaia has been done before. Just look at Celtic knotwork or Tibetan mandalas. This is such an interesting experience to be having.
This series represents a deeper portrayal of my meditative visions of nature, when they resemble vector art, while also consciously working with the concept of arriving someplace that looks somewhat like vector art but is instead reached organically.
I want to be clear that, though I say I am doing this independent of vector technology, it’s surely subconsciously influencing me. After all, I do not live in a void. But it is not either/or; I also want it clear that I am mostly coming from a place of personal internal vision, not external influences. So, though Celtic knotwork, Tibetan mandalas, and other influences are definitely there, they do not dominate the experience I am having in meditation and therefore do not dominate the paintings either. This might seem impossible and, thus, my saying all this might make me appear so oblivious of my internal process that I do not see its influences.
Quite the opposite is true, I have enormous self-awareness, which is allowing amazing visions, visions of such primary aspects of nature that they are affirmed by other mystical art traditions. My visions are a culmination of decades of my shamanic practices, and I feel so blessed to be having these experiences and to see them affirmed.
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An Upcycling Fabric-Painting Tutorial, with Shiva Paintstiks
Click on smaller photos to see em larger and clearer.
You know how rubbing a pencil over a tombstone makes a picture on paper? You can buy rubbing plates for fabric.
But, wanting my own designs, I made plates by painting old CDs and CD cases with Jones Tones metallic fabric paint. The paint’s thick 3-D lines are perfect, and also will not get dislodged when rubbed—it holds fast to CDs and CD cases.
There was lots of trial ‘n’ error: I made 40 plates, tossed ten, and salvaged many of the remaining ones by touching them up. (Yes, I got obsessed.)
But do not be discouraged from making plates. Most of my first ones made fun rubbings. Besides, I already made a lot of mistakes for you, you can skip em. 🙂 The suggestions below are learned from my errors and successes.
Don’t make a crazy number of plates right off the bat. Make a few, try em out, learn what you did wrong before making more.
Steal your children’s CDs. Just kidding.
Make thick, high lines. This might require going over them a few times. If a plate doesn’t work well, building a few lines higher can make the plate satisfactory.
Simpler is often better and can produce gorgeous rubbings—eg a heart, spiral, or daisy-like flower. Some of my detailed attempts produced a mess on fabric. However, I was able to repair some of those plates; this post has ideas on how to do that.
Don’t try for a detailed plate at first, but for an overall shape. But I got better at details after a while, and hope to get really good at it someday.
Paint the front of cd cases, bc the back’s edge has a lip that the Paintstiks can easily rub against accidentally, making an unwanted mark on the cloth.
Let paint dry a few days before using it for a rubbing, or it might smoosh.
Practice rubbings on rags or paper, so initial mistakes are on an inexpensive surface.
I needed a little practice to learn: how to make more than a few simple plates; how to actually do a rubbing; and how to use Shiva Paintstiks (which were totally new to me). But the process is fun, the results worth the efforts, and the learning curve fast.
The learning curve to improve further has been fast too. I think time and practice continues to make a diff, bit by bit.
While you’re waiting for your rubbing plates to dry, be sure to check out some Shiva Paintstiks basics from Shelly Stokes.
There are also good vids online about how to use a rubbing plate.
I made decent plates before I realized the following, so make something pretty for yourself with your intial plates, before applying my more complex instructions below. That will motivate you to pursue this further. Trying too much too soon can result in total discouragement. But if you end up obsessed with improving your plates (moi?), check this out:
* Since simple works well, I made some plates that combine simple shapes. Like a cluster of hearts. Or a vine of leaves.
* Doubling a line is good, e.g., two concentric outlines of a leaf very close to each other. If the Paintstiks doesn’t hit one line when you’re rubbing, the other line might get hit, giving the overall impression of the leaf.
* Also try double lines widely separated—they are pretty. E.g., concentric hearts.
* It doesn’t matter how nice the plate looks, what matters is the impression it gives when rubbed. That’s self-evident but its practical applications took me a while to figure out, though I’m a quick learner. So this might shorten your learning curve:
*Look carefully at each line, three dimensionally. For example, I often discovered big bumps at a line’s end, which would take the paint when a Paintstiks hit them but also block the Paintstiks from hitting the rest of the line.
* In that vein, the main lines of a figure can get obscured. When I added secondary lines, they’d often be more raised at the end that touches a main line, and thus block main lines from getting hit well by the Shiva Paintstiks. After you paint the whole figure, examine main lines and perhaps build them higher. It is fine if secondary lines get somewhat obscured as long as main lines are clearer.
My blog on experimenting with oils shares more of my experience making plates.
Thank you for reading about my attempts at making rubbing plates. Do post your experiences, I would love that so much. We can learn from each other.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Dear site visitor,
Imagine how Faeries adorn themselves and their tree houses.
I make only a little Fey-touched wearable art and decor for sale. My newsletter subscribers usually have first dibs on this wearable talismanic art and Elvin décor for your enchanted cottage, secret retreat, and fantasies.
Indie Culture!
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This post was Updated 2025.
This series of paintings and the poem after it are not interchangeable.
I went through a personal experience, some of which I could express best by painting, and other parts I could express only through lyric.
(And most parts I feel I did not convey at all, though I suspect it is all implied … so I guess I did convey it …No, wait, there is still way more, but this is just one blog post, so I will leave it at that.)
The visuals and poem go together, to create a larger whole. I may not be finished with the paintings yet. Sometimes I work on a painting again years later.
Click a graphic to see it more clearly.
I Own My Throne
Francesca De Grandis, 2013
Place yourself upon a throne.
Bow down to yourself, the Queen.
Next, place a part of yourself that you have rejected onto the throne.
Whether it is the child, goddess, fat girl, loser,
quitter, matriarch, whiner, singer, scaredy-cat, bitch,
dancer, lover, artist, mother, merchant, choose just one, for now.
And put her on the throne.
Bow down before her, the Queen.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Dear site visitor,
Click the banner below to subscribe to my newsletter. Indie Culture!
Kathleen, here’s the scarf, for your yay or nay. Click on pics to see em bigger and clearer.
I want you to have something you adore and that fits in with your wardrobe, so that you can wear it bunches.
So if you don’t love it, I’ll make you another.
100% silk, crepe de chine, 12 mm, 53″ x 10.” Washable one-of-a-kind art.
For this painting’s “canvas,” I dyed white silk a mottled olive green. The mottling provides textured background for hand painting. I’m having a hard time getting good photos—there are few overcast days lately. So am shooting in the shade, ugh. Which means the photos may not show how rich the green is. I mixed it myself and, although, it’s olive and very dark, it’s gorgeously rich, especially on the crepe de chine.
After dyeing, I hand painted freehand.
It came out unexpectedly folky and, between my pallet and the rest of my style, in an unusual and modern way. I did not expect it to be Faerie tale-like, but I should’ve, since it is by a fantasy artist for a fantasy artist, and I intentionally chose a palette that I think of as “a faerie tale palette.” Duh!
This photo is very dark but shows the painting well.
As soon as you decide, I will pack up your little box of fashion accessories, you stylish Faerie. I am always excited when you want me to design items to make for you, since you make me so many cool gifts.
I love all this sunshine this year, but it is so bad for photos!!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Dear site visitor,
Imagine how Faeries adorn themselves and their tree houses.
I make only a little Fey-touched wearable art and decor for sale. My newsletter subscribers usually have first dibs on this wearable talismanic art and Elvin décor for your enchanted cottage, secret retreat, and fantasies.
Indie Culture!
Click the banner below to subscribe to my newsletter.
This post was Updated in 2025.
Click on the graphic to see it and its text larger and clearer.
Ride Eagle
Without realizing it, I’m always bobbing and weaving, in case someone throws a blow. This exhausts me; I’d be less capable of defense if attacked.
I discover a phantom self who wants to remain indomitably hidden. I welcome her into the circle. She realizes she is queen, terrified, and alpha. She sees her good traits and bad. She insists on staying hidden for now.
Self-care—yummy meals, naps (under a blue sky!), early bedtime, pink lipstick—is profound healing. But she won’t allow it enough, she might be seen. I will not rush her.
Is it her who makes me forget other parts of this story? Are they crucial, showing core aspects of this problem and its solution?
Eagle invites her companionship. They are both shocked when she leaps on Eagle’s back and rides ecstatic.
Eagle carries me, safely, always. I need not bob and weave.
Hiya, I just sent the following letter to Etsy support but wld luv feedback about it from my awesome community, thank you!! (My letter refers to treasury lists. If you do not know what they are, here is a recent one I made: https://www.etsy.com/treasury/Nzc0MTcxMXwyNzI0NjgxMTY0/pixies-faeries-and-other-sprites?ref=pr_treasury ) Here is the letter to Etsy:
*******
Thank you for all your work. Etsy is a wonderful resource and great community.
I care about this community, so i hope you will change your suggestion that sellers not include any of their own items when they make a treasury.
Many of your sellers are women. Women often need encouragement around self-promotion. Instead, your suggestion “Don’t include your own items. Spread the love!” implies that self-promotion is wrong and keeps love from spreading.
If people offer beautiful objects, they spread their love by promoting their wares.
Promoting fellow Etsy sellers should not require doing no promotion for oneself. It would be another story if one made treasuries entirely out of one’s own inventory.
I hope you change your suggestion to “Do not include more than one of your own items. Spread the love!”
Thank you again for your fabulous work. I hope this post serves you and the rest of our Etsy community, Francesca De Grandis
———
So, that is what I sent. What do you think? Pls post here, not on FB, so visitors see yr comments, bc your thoughts r important. Thank you!!!!!!
I am happy. Can’t afford to buy many clothes but, bit by bit, have up cycled, stitched, and painted cloth, until I have more and more days like today. I’m wearing a blouse I painted and bloomers I made from an old blouse of mine. I feel comfy in the heat and adorable.
Throw your heart into it, and the rest will follow.” —Velveteen Rabbit.
That’s one smart bunny.
