Tuesday, September 11, 2007

GAIA LUNA: By Design?


©2007 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing


Gaia Luna, my art garden, now has its own logo.


I constructed its elements from a scanned and altered image of one of my "Spiral Drop" pottery necklaces.




©2007 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing



During the summer I had designed new packaging for several new necklaces. The "Spiral Drop" is one of 8 new designs that grew from a whole new set of handmade pottery stamps I'd created this past winter.


The scan above was turned into the black and white graphic below using Photoshop.






©2007 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing


This simple image, in turn, became the germinal design element of the Gaia Luna logo. Each shape, each curve was derived from this basic form.


Stamps created just for fun lead to new necklaces, which lead to new packaging, which unfolded into the garden logo. I like the way it all interrelates and unfolds organically.


This logo combines symbols for the cycles of earth and moon, the cycles of the creative process, and our connection with these as co-creators of life. This image grew from many years of sun drenched of contemplation. It emerged as the culmination of a wonderful, peaceful, abundant summer just past.

The image grew more from a desire for artistic and spiritual expression than from necessity.

I envision painting it on a sign to hang at the garden entrance, printing it on canning labels for jams, relishes and pickles to give as gifts or sell along with my pottery and CDs, ... and who-knows-what else.

The idea is to create what seems right at the time then discover where it leads.

Gaia Luna is the reason I took the summer off from blogging. I've been too busy harvesting armloads of veggies and berries to spend much time at the computer.

I've been busy digging through cookbooks from the library, collecting recipes, and teaching myself to make jam and pickles, can, freeze, and dehydrate piles of produce. I've been busy weeding and composting, watering and petting the cats out in the summer sunshine.

I've been consumed with painting 25, 8-foot sections of purple picket fence to provide more substantial protection from animal intruders for the garden. We'll put up the fence early next spring as soon as the ground thaws. Plans also include an arbor.

I've taken lots of pictures of the garden this summer. I'll begin to post these once the flurry of gardening activity has subsided.

This is a celebration of summer's end, an anticipation of things to come as the seasons turn another time around.

©2007 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing