Surrounded~ Digital Image Lori Singer

heart definition: a plane figure with rounded sides curving inward at the top and intersecting at the bottom

Our family likes to make a game of finding the hearts in nature. We find them everywhere.Try it sometime and you will begin to find your life is full of more Love than you ever thought.

The Lost Art of Hand Made Valentines

This year I convinced my daughter to make old fashion handmade Valentines. It was a project near and dear to my heart. There really is nothing like handmade Valentines, especially now with all the commercial boxed ones that mean little or nothing to the after the fact. There really isn't anything better than a handmade Valentine made with love.

In fact, the inspiration came from the sweetest Valentine a dear friend from my past made. I have kept it over 15 years and when I come across it I think of how special it is and how special the woman who made it is. In this age of computers and electronic mail, it is refreshing to know that a hand written and made message can still warm the heart better, faster and longer than the alternative. The best part is even though the years have parted us the sentiment and friendship is almost alive and new when I find this tiny piece of art in the back of my dresser drawers. After almost 8 years of no contact I have found my friend Kendra again, and thanks to electronic mail we correspond via Panama and I was able to communicate my special thanks and love to her after all this time. She is living the Rolling-Stone live style...free and on the beach! Happy Valentines to you all and Miss Kendra. My love to you all and I hope you too make your own Valentines! I promise you will not be disappointed! The process is heartfelt.

Tiny Handmade Valentines:
two sheets of watercolor paper
watercolor/ brushes
water
Glitter pen in colors of your choice
tiny ribbons
hole punch

Cut water color paper in to strips and then cut those in half
fold in half, you will paint on the cover then let dry
Once they are dry use a sparkly glitter pen or gold pen and create squiggly lines on top of heart.
Next punch two holes on the top on both sides and tie with your favorite ribbon color.
The final thing is to write your special message to your Valentine.

Have Fun!

Hearts On- Line~ Lori

"The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart." Anonymous



Recycled Heart Garland~

These were supposed to be the backing of a lesson plan I was preparing for this afternoon, and when I saw the cardboard shapes together I thought…done. I have a long tradition of "Heart Art", and it is ironically symbolic for me in so many ways now. This garland is yet another example of how "All Hearts" deserve love!

These garlands are very beautiful and fun to make. It's a great way to save and make art all in one!

To Make: Recycled food boxes (w/red or pastel colors for Valentines Garland)
Scissors
Heart Template
Thin ribbon from craft store~( cost about $.99 total to make)

Have FUN!!!!

Lori Singer

Sweet Violets

I think I love gardening because it gives me inner peace and confidence to know that some things last and are recurrent for a very long time. For me, there is this wonderful feeling of certainty and awe every year to have my perennials, tubesr, rhizomes, and bulb friends show up each year. They're so consistent, constant, and such loyal faithful friends, they give me reoccurring hope in my world. When so much change happens and relationships fade, they're there to greet me and remind me that some things are lasting for an indefinitely long time.

These sweet violets are something that has been with me since I was a toddler at my mom's side in her garden. I have such vivid strong sensory memories collecting tiny bouquets. I can't even begin to express how full I feel to see that they somehow they have followed me to my current home and now are beginning to thrive. Perhaps a tiny seed, or rhizome somehow transplanted and stowed away for the very moment I needed to be reminded that there are things in which are enduring, dependable and faithful...something that is continuing and recurrent that one can count on, something that makes one feel whole, sane and complete in the most modest and humble of ways. I like this feeling of complete humbleness!

I like how these tiny flowers can inspire me to create and share. I long for such long deep lasting female relations in my life, while I have a few more are always welcome. Such sweet delicate forever violet friends, ready to share together and sometimes hibernate only to show up fully present, as if not missing a beat or moment in each others lives. Ready to pick up were we left off to tell me of all it's distant journeys.

This is a photo of my new found stow away which I hope someday multiples so that I can share it's beauty with others. The fragrance of these tiny beauties is unbelievably sweet and reminiscent of the violet candies my mother bought for me as a child and a lovely perfume my mother wore. I still see the bottle in my minds eye, it was porcelian whie with tiny violets painted on the bottle and wore a lavender ribbon around its slender neck. We also bathed with sweet violet scented soap. We were very fond of natural floral fragrances in our home the fragrances that are very hard to find today, they contain so few chemicals and bore more natural scents. The new synthectic stuff just doesn't work on my scences the same way. During Victorian times they were gathered given in bouquets These sweet violets were give as gifts by the hundreds and the tiny flowers can often be seen painted in old victorian adds with lovely children and white flowing dresses. hmmmm...I can see why!

Peace Lori Singer Jan 2010

Fall is in the air again

Apple Crumble

Fall and all the earthly treasures it brings, including an abundance of delicious tree fresh apples. This recipe is even better if you can have a few varieties of apples mixed together. You definitely want to pick tart and a sweet varieties, also try to choose firm crisp apples. If you don’t have access to local tree apples visit your local farmers market and I am sure you will find apples ready to be baked for your pleasure. A store bought version would be a Granny Smith, Golden delicious and more. Not all apples are great for baking and will change the outcome of the recipe. Well, this is one recipe that will not disappoint in flavor, texture and comfort. There are so many versions of the Apple Crisp, it’s one of those recipes you don’t really need a recipe once you know the basics, but today I followed one and tweaked it a tiny bit. This one is definitely more of a crumble while you pulverize the oats, flour, sugar, spice and butter together, which forms huge buttery balls to be devoured.

Preheat oven to 375

Bake in a 13 by 9 inch glass baking dish

Apples Middle filling:

4 pounds of apple or 7-8 cups (I used a variety of tree picked apples. Granny Smith work well paired with Golden delicious. It really helps to have tart apples.)

Core apples, then cut them into both chunks and thin slices. I peeled the tarter apples and left the skins on the others.

Juice of two Meyers lemons

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

2 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 tablespoons of cinnamon

Toss all ingredients together and set aside

(Make sure to sample a few of these babies before filling! What a great snack for kids!)

Crust

1 cup of all purpose four

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons butterJ enjoy occasionally right!

2/3 cup old fashion oats

Put all the above “dry” ingredients into a large bowl. Take half the mixture and 6-7 Tablespoons of the butter.. put into the food processor and process until it has a course meal look and no large chunks of butter are left. Then press this into your baking pan. Next cut some small chunks of butter and put on top of crust evenly over the top. Maybe 5 Tablespoons cut into chunks

Put apple topping on top of this

Mix the rest of the topping together and it should form large ball like crumbles. Coat all apples.
Then bake until golden brown or bubbly. Bake about 35-45 minutes. Make sure its golden brown. Let it cool and serve it 20-30min latter.

Ok, so I wanted a double crust. The above crust is for the double. It will give you miles of thick buttery sweet cinnamony crust. You could just top it with this and cup the recipe back to half but I think it made for a special occasion crumbleJ Top it with fresh whip cream or fat scoop of vanilla gelato. This would be a beautiful change to the apple pie on Thanksgiving day.

Enjoy! Life is short and so we must enjoy the treats we receive!

The Creative Process-Don't Let your Artist wait too long!

Creative Process (written for CP class June 2009) 

What kind of Artist am I?   

I think that most people have the potential to be creative and its like muscle that needs to be exercised.   For me I believe that being creative is a language that we all have inside and if we did not speak we would create in some form and use this as an expression of the self and  as a communication means. 

Creativity is a universal language.   

Being creative for me is a way of working through problems and reworking them until the need is no longer there or the problem solved.  Creativity can help build many life skills that can be applied in real life such as critical thinking skills, problem solving, cooperation, brainstorming for solutions, engaging and persisting, collaboration, self-esteem.  Creativity helps one with thinking outside of the box and is very important for today’s world.  

Being a single discipline today is  no longer enough for most graduating college students. 

For my creative process I am most inspired by my environment.  I guess you would say that makes me a person who reconstructs.  I like to have a start point as a reference even if it’s as simple as a feeling or a color.  I am a beginning artist who has not played nearly enough to be able to invent things purely on my own.  I am still gathering my bad of skills as an artist.   I use my environment to be my point of departure and that could be just about anything.  I see inspiration everywhere.    

I do a lot of problem solving while driving in my car and often have to pull over to jot things down.  I gather bits and pieces of articles and magazine cut outs to be used in my art at some point and time.  The biggest lesson I have learned about being creative and believe is an important life skill is to engage and persist.   

In art as in much in life, it’s very easy to give up before the lesson is learned.   Staying with your art through persistence always shows growth on the other side.   It’s easy to give up before the lesson is learned.  

I value all the skills that I have learned in my art classes and think that each one has taught me lessons that can translate to real world application.  We each have an inner creative artist who  lives awaiting for the play to begin.

Don't let your Artist wait to long!  Ask yourself, "What Kind of Artist am I"?  We are all artists...we just need to find out what kind to make the process flow.  

"All Hearts" 

These hearts were painted one late night wildly passionately blindly and are part of my "All Hearts" series

Trying to capture the warmth and passion that runs deep when the heart is full.