New Site

Hello!
Thanks for stopping by Art Asana!
I have now moved to another site:
http://artasana.com

Please head on over there to continue on this journey with me! Thank you!

With Love and Light,
Eliza Lynn Tobin

New Site

Click here to head over to Art Asana on Etsy!

With Love and Light,

Eliza 

Cyber Monday Sale Announcement!

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday and I'm going to have an amazing sale in the Art Asana Shop to get you all geared up for the holidays! Have a yogi or yogini on the your list? How about one of my yoga-inspired prints!

Here's the low-down for the sale:
From 6am tomorrow morning until 11pm (EST), all prints in my shop will be on sale in a

I'll see you there! 

Also, I'll be randomly drawing a winner for the giveaway on the new Art Asana website tomorrow. So head on over there for your last chance to enter the "blue notes necklace pendant" giveaway! Click here to head over to the new site!

P.S...I'll be posting on both this site and my new site for the next few days and will conclude the posting here on this blog and start up full force over on the new site by Wednesday of this week! Thanks so much for sticking it out with me through this transition!

Cyber Monday Sale Announcement!

Friday Five: Exciting Art Asana Announcements and A Giveaway!

I have been away for a week, getting my ducks in a row, and now I'm back with lots of exciting things to share with you!

{Blue Notes Necklace}

1. Art Asana Necklaces
I've hinted at the fact that this has been in the works all fall and now I am finally pleased to announce that I have pendants available in my etsy shop! At the moment, I have created necklace pendants from the paintings, "Flow", "Shakti Drops", "Root Chakra-Symbol", "Root Chakra-Affirm", "Root Chakra-Yantra" and "Blue Notes Mandala". I even made one of the "blue notes" necklaces for myself and have been wearing it to my yoga classes to add a touch of shri (beauty) to my teaching outfits! Are there other designs you'd like to see? Let me know and I will create those ones in my next round of necklace pendant making!

2. Boston Handmade Downtown Holiday Gallery 
This show begins today at 11am! It will be up until December 24th. I am really excited to be part of this show with all these other amazing artist and crafters. The space looks amazing and there are so many enticingly beautiful handmade items. I'm going to do some of my own christmas shopping there! If you are in the Boston area, I am going to be at the gallery today from 3-7pm! I'd love to see you there!

3. Boston Bazaar Bizarre
In a spontaneous turn of events, a space opened up for the Boston Bazaar Bizarre show and I am going to be participating with the Boston Handmade Group! It is on December 5th at the BCA Cyclorama, 539 Tremont St. Boston from 12-7pm! This is going to be the first craft show I've ever been a part of! I am nervous and excited about the opportunity and going to have to work like a mad woman to get ready for it! I'l share lots more about it next week!

4. Cyber Monday Sale
Do you have a yogini or yogi on your gift list? How about a yoga-inspired art print! I'm going to have a Cyber Monday Sale in my etsy shop on Monday, November 29th. I will post more details about the sale on Sunday!

and last but not least, a launch and a giveaway....


5. The New Art Asana Website 
I'm excited to announce the launch of my new website!!! It's up and ready to go! I have spent a lot of time on the new space and I am so excited to get started over there! I am a little sad to be saying goodbye to this little blogger space because I have so many good memories here, but I have big plans for the new site to make your visit to Art Asana a great experience! To celebrate the kick off of the new space, I am hosting a giveaway of one of my new Art Asana necklaces on the new website! For more details, head on over to the new Art Asana to find out how to win!


Happy Friday!

Friday Five: Exciting Art Asana Announcements and A Giveaway!

Gratitude

{Late November light on Cape Cod}

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you" that would suffice." ~Meister Eckhart

Today, I am pausing to offer my gratitude for all this life has provided, for the full spectrum of my experiences, for my family, friends, home and health.  I am thankful for the love and the light that the day bring and for the difficulties that help mold me. I am thankful for the support of Grace, who I feel has forever got my back and reminds me of that whenever I forget.  

I am thankful for all of you who come into my world through this little online space, I am deeply honored and grateful for your presence. You make my world more beautiful. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Gratitude

Ducks in a Row

{photo by Zedbee}

I've been rocking it out over here this week preparing for something very exciting! Last Friday, I was accepted as a member of Boston Handmade, a collective group of artists and crafters in the Boston area who all have shops on Etsy! AND they are having a Downtown Holiday Gallery show in Boston and I am going to be participating!
The show will run from November 26 through December 24, 2010 (Wednesday - Sunday, 11am - 7pm). 

So over the next few days, I'll be hastily getting ready for that, getting ready for the launch of my new website and finishing up some other long over due work on my thesis writing! Because of all this, I've decided to take some time off from blogging to get my ducks in a row. I'll be back in a week or so to announce the launch of the new website and then will be kicking things off from there! Hurray!

Here's to a busy, happy, healthy holiday!

Ducks in a Row

Teacher of the Month Questions

{me in urdhva daunurasana}

The Blossoming Lotus Yoga Studio (BLYS) where I've been teaching yoga is going to make me their "Teacher of the Month"! So today, I answered the following questions and I thought it would be fun to share my answers here on the blog too:

1) What is your favorite yoga pose?

I love the heart opening effects of backbending, especially in urdhva daunurasana, wheel pose. I used to get pain in my low back from deep backbending, but then I learned how to curl more from my upper back and root my tailbone down to lengthen my low back and this changed back bends for me dramatically! Now, I experience a pain-free, energizing and happy backbend that enlivens me from the inside out!

2) What is the primary style of yoga that you practice and teach?

I have been studying Anusara yoga for the past three years and did a teacher training in Anusara Yoga with Todd Norian and Ann Greene and am a registered Hatha yoga teacher! I love combining a flow of invigorating poses with an uplifting theme and a layering of alignment principles that have the ability to totally transform you. I include all of these elements in both my own practice and in the classes that I teach for an upbeat, inspiring and dynamic yoga.

3) What's the biggest challenge in your practice?

Sometimes, the biggest challenge I have in my practice is making it a priority. I always have a zillion reasons why I don’t have “time to practice”. I have to be very conscious of making time for it. It helps when I remind myself that making time for yoga actually makes everything else in my life easier. It helps me to be more productive, more creative, healthier and happier.

4) Why do you like teaching at BLYS?

I think community is really important. I have experienced first hand the powerful effects of being in a supportive community of people who embrace you for exactly who you are. I’d like to think that when we come together in a yoga class at BLYS, we are beginning to tap into that kind of experience. You just never know how your showing up might help someone else. I like teaching at BLYS because I like contributing to the creation of this kind of community right here in our town.

Teacher of the Month Questions

Notes from a busy week

Wow! How did it get to be Thursday already!? 

One reasons I've been so quiet here on the blog these last few weeks (besides being gone for the spontaneous road trip and the ongoing work on my graduate thesis) is that I've been hard at work on a new Word Press website that I am creating with the help of Tara Gentile's Website Kickstart e-course! The above screen shot is the site in it's current state and I have some more tweaking to do until it's ready, but once it's done, I'll have a website/blog all-in-one! I have lots of exciting ideas and plans for the new space and will let you know when it's ready!

On the painting front, here are the other two paintings that I finished this week:

This one's called "Love Roots Us". There was something about the deep plums and rich pink layers that reminded me of being rooted in the expansiveness of love...I'm not sure why. One of the reasons I love creating these mandala pieces is that I never really know how they are going to come out and the final visceral feeling that they invoke in me is always a surprise. 

I am curious to know if the effect they have on you is similar to my experience or if you receive different kinds of feelings from the work...Also, I've wondered if my naming and explaining their effect on me as I create them changes the way a viewer engages with them....I'd love to know your thoughts!

This one is called "Elephant Power", inspired by the Elephant God, Ganesha. While I was in Colorado, I  purchased a little Ganesha statue that I have started bringing to my classes when I teach. Ganesha is the remover of obstacles from our path and the go to guy when starting out on a new project. I have been working on this here Art Asana project for almost a year now, but it still feels so new, so I think I'll keep Ganesha around! 

Happy Thursday! 

Notes from a busy week

A New Yoga Painting

"Fearless Warrior" 

8x8 Print

Available in the Art Asana Shop

It feels like it's been a really long time since I've completed any new paintings....Today, however, I finished three! (I will share them over the next few days!) It felt wonderful to paint again. I am yet again, invigorated and refreshed by the incredible healing power of the creative process...

This piece is called "Fearless Warrior" and I created it as an affirmation:

I am a fearless warrior, steady and committed to my path.

I am rooted and connected to my source and pulling and pooling all that I can into the core of my being. From that place, I can think and soar. From that place I extend back down through my feet, like an affirmation that says, ‘I am Here and I belong’. I exist on this sacred ground. From the core, I also shimmer upward and outward, beyond the periphery of my outer most limits of body. I am more than body, I am also earth and sky and the line between where I end and they begin is not as much line as it is light that blurs and bends. I am grounded and strong and yet soft and limitless, both light and dark, and I am holding both with my heart open. I lead my life from there and I engage the world, others, my challenges and successes with this same grounded-ness, this same softness. In this way,

I am completely free.

A New Yoga Painting

Road Trip Pictures

Readers, Prajjwal and Americanepali, asked to see more pictures from the spontaneous road trip that I took with my brother last weekend. So here they are! 

I was amazed at how many wind turbines and wind farms we saw! It seemed like many more than the last time I drove out there (four years ago). I love their sculptural effect on the landscape and what to me seems like a symbol of positive, clean, green change. 

Once you leave Pennsylvania, the sky gets so big and wide and beautiful. We were usually up and on the road before sunrise and it was an incredible treat to get to witness the sun beginning to fill up all of that sky.

It was amazing to me how as soon as we crossed over a state line, the scenery changed, even if it was only from cornfield flat to grassland flat. As soon as we reached Colorado, we both felt a sense of excited anticipation, even though we didn't see the mountains for a few hours in. 

We arrived in beautiful Fort Collins and stayed with our cousin. She brought us up to Horsetooth reservoir and we went for a much needed walk along the "Bobcat trail". Fall had met the Rockies with crisp, golden yellows and the fields and aspen trees were all decked out in it.

On Halloween night, we carved pumpkins and set them out on my cousin's deck to welcome trick-o-treaters! It was fun to see the kids all dressed up in their costumes and to eat candy corn until my belly ached.

I really enjoyed spending that time with my brother, sharing laughter and exhaustion in turn, experiencing the big space of country I feel grateful to be a part of, and celebrating Halloween with my cousin. Saying "yes" to all of this experience was like saying "yes" to life, to spontaneity, to adventure, and to familial love and friendship. Thanks for inviting me along, Pat.

Road Trip Pictures

Unplanned Road Trip

Perhaps you have noticed that I have gone missing these past few days...disappeared from blogging, facebooking and tweeting. I was on a short, online media hiatus. Why, you might be wondering?

Well, on Wednesday of last week, I made a quick decision to accompany my brother on his move west. Over these past few days, I've been in a car, driving across the country with him. I was his wing sister from Cape Cod to Colorado.

I flew home last night.

We saw a lot of country: flat prairies, wind farms, funny billboards and that oh-so sweet first glimpse of the snow capped rockies.

Today, happy and exhausted, I'm playing catch up and am in dire need of a good long yoga practice.

After all that sitting, some hip opening poses are just what I need!

Unplanned Road Trip

Drawing Evolution

I've been thinking that the narrative piece of my thesis project needs to include some exploration into the origins of art-making in my life so, I went and looked through some of my old sketchbooks. It was pretty neat to see how differently I see things today.

As far back as I can remember, I was encouraged to draw. My mom always had crayons and markers on hand when I was growing up. I was given sketchbooks for christmas and I learned all about the different grades of pencil lead from my dad. I used to go with him to the small art supply store in our town. It smelled of linseed oil and new paper in there and I loved going because my dad would let me pick out a few pencils, kneadable erasers and stomps (used to blend the pencil on the paper).

I always liked drawing people and faces. In one of my earliest drawing memories, I'm drawing a portrait of my dad and trying to decide if his mustache belongs above his mouth or below it. I think I may have tried it both ways to see which one worked best.

Later, I enjoyed making up characters in my drawings. Like this one drawing that I did when I was 9:

(note the Jonathan Taylor Thomas poster in the corner, LOL!)

Here is another face drawing done around the same time:

Art was always my favorite subject in school, but I first learned to draw at home from my dad. He taught me that learning to draw was really about learning to see. Learning to see the dark areas and the lights, the shadows and the highlights, learning to see not only the shape of something, but also it's depth, and how the light hits it. He taught me that drawing from life requires going beyond what the mind first encounters and labels, in order to look more deeply and see what is really there.

(These two drawings I did when I was a teenager)

In high school, I spent a lot of time drawing in my sketchbooks, drawing faces from magazines (like the ones above), flowers and still life's. I especially loved drawing eyes. Every once in awhile, I still catch myself doodling eyes and flowers in the margins of notebooks....

Have you ever kept a sketchbook? What kinds of things did you/do you like to draw? Did it change over time?

Drawing Evolution

Dear Life

Dear Life,
I really enjoyed writing to you last week, so I thought I would do it again this week. First of all I have to say thank you because you provided me with all of the things I asked for last week! You provided me with the time I needed to get done all I'd set out to do...somehow, even though I always think you won't, you always pull through. Thank you for proving me wrong once again. I also want to thank you for aligning me with yoga class podcasts by yoga teacher Hillary Rubin. This morning, I did the 60 minute "Your Life is a Work of Art" class. It was a wonderful way to start the day and the week. It helped to remind me that you are a work of art, Life. A full, vibrant canvas of beauty, passion, texture, darks, lights and love.
Until next time,
Eliza

Dear Life

Friday Five: Five New Items

I woke up this morning feeling bummed that I missed putting up a Friday 5 list yesterday. Then I remembered, "hey, this is my blog and I get to make the rules for it!" Wahoo! So, on this beautiful Saturday morning, I present to you my Friday 5 list!

In this week's Friday 5, I am sharing with you 5 brand new items now available in the Art Asana Shop:

1) "Root Chakra Collection Notecards (Set of Six)"

I created this collection of blank notecards from three of original paintings that were inspired by exploration of the Root Chakra.

The Root chakra is an energy center located at the base of the spine. Activities that engage the root chakra include standing yoga poses, spending time in nature, and physical movement. Activating the Root Charka creates a sense of grounding, support, abundance, physical health and stability while dissipating fear, restlessness, and disassociation from the physical body.

Each card measures 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches and is printed on photo quality matte white card stock with archival inks. Each card comes with a matching white envelope and both are sealed in a protective clear sleeve. I send them to carefully and colorfully packaged in a protective mailer!

2) "Root Chakra-Symbol Notecards (Set of Two)


3) "Root Chakra-Affirm Notecards (Set of Two)


4) "Root Chakra-Yantra Notecards (Set of Two)"

5) "One Wooden Stand"

I had my brother make these little wooden stands to go with my Art Asana 2011 Desk Calendar. They also can be used as stands for one of my notecards to create a "mini-print". Originally, he made these wooden stands as place holders for the table numbers at my wedding! Currently, I have 11 of these in the Art Asana Shop.  The grains colors and cuts of the wood vary on each piece. Each one is unique! 

Stay tuned for next week....I have plans to finally unveil another surprise for the shop that I hinted at a few weeks ago!!! I can't wait to share it with you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Five: Five New Items

(Guest Post) Six Ways Yoga and Art Connect

Last week, Courtney, from the wonderful blog Yoga G33K asked if I'd be interested in having her write a guest post about her experience with a Yoga and Art Workshop she was a part of! I was so excited about the possibility and to hear about her experience. Today, I am excited to share it with you! Welcome Courtney, Thanks so much for sharing your story with us!

Hi! My name is Courtney and I’m visiting from www.YogaG33k.com where I write about yoga and all kinds of geeky stuff! I recently modeled yoga poses for an “Art and Yoga” workshop and wanted to write about the experience here at Art Asana! Eliza’s blog is always bringing art and yoga together in the most organic way and this workshop spoke to that so strongly. The students grabbed their charcoal and sketched madly as Blythe and I held yoga poses for minutes at a time. Throughout the workshop, several parallels between art and yoga arose and I wanted to share them with you.

Art and Yoga both invite….

1. Intention. Whether you’re on the mat or at the easel you always begin with an intention. We set an intention at the beginning of the workshop and no matter what it was it could’ve been translated into the yoga practice or the sketching process.
2. Breath & Body Awareness. Yoga may incorporate the use of breath and body awareness in a more literal sense, but this is a powerful way for your yoga practice to enhance your creativity and art. Being aware of the space within you and around you is very powerful on the mat and when being creative.
3. Relaxation. Both yoga and art allow for a space of non-judgment and peace. Letting go of your own expectations as well as the expectations of others is common ground for art and yoga. During the workshop it was easy to see the students opening up and letting their walls come down with each moment that passed and I’m sure you find the same experience at home on the mat or when you’re being creative.
4. A Practice. In yoga and in your creative space, there is a sense of coming back again and again to “practice”. Rolling the mat out and setting out your art supplies brings a sense of building on where you’ve been. A little bit at a time each day and you build your skills and confidence.
5. Movement and Fluidity. The brush across the canvas, catching a fleeting moment with your camera, and flowing through a vinyasa practice all invite you to be in the moment and flow. Being too rigid in either practice is considered something to avoid!
6. Energy Awareness. Being aware of the energy around you is something that makes art and yoga pop! A piece of art that captures the essence/energy of a moment is the piece that you connect with and yoga postures each hold their own energy that the student connects with as well. Being able to read this energy as an artist or a yoga teacher is immensely helpful.

So there you have it! I hope that combining your creative outlet with yoga will enhance both practices in every way! Namaste.

(Guest Post) Six Ways Yoga and Art Connect

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

{"Create" Original Mixed-Media Painting}

Over at Scoutie Girl it's We Scout Wednesday and this week Tara Gentile asks,

"What will you teach the new generation about creativity?"

Ironically enough, as part of the thesis paper I'm working on, I've been exploring the idea that we are all innately creative. Every single one of us possesses an incredible creative capacity. Have you ever made a meal? Decorated a house? Made up a song? Written a sentence? Done an experiment? Spun around the dance floor to your own rhythm? Made a baby? Made someone laugh? Made something else? Congratulations, you have created! You are a creator! You have flexed your creative abilities! I believe that one of the main features of being human is our ability to create. In the past, our species has created fire, tools, methods of communication, social systems, and incredible structures to live, work and worship in, just to name a few. We come from a long legacy of creators. But over the course of life, we often become disconnected from our creative power, disconnected to this element of ourselves that is ultimately our link line to a greater power source. Our creative abilities disappear from our view under the layers of who we think we are.

I believe that our work in this life is to unearth who we really are from those layers. Each experience we encounter becomes yet another stage to perform that very act. Part of the fun of life is in the re-discovery of who we really are: bright, expressive, full, creative beings.

So, I will say to a new generation, to you, and to myself:

Do the work of unearthing the creativity that you possess and that is your birthright. Know you already have all the tools you need to find it and that doing so will make the world a better place. Make art. Make music. Practice. Dance. Move. Take in beauty. Make a meal. Make up a song. Make a positive change in your life. Make an offering to someone. Play. And don't ever give up.

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

Applesauce and Artlessness

I'm still cranking out writing/ideas/brainstorm papers for my grad study and although it's about a topic I love, I am feeling a little Artless, especially with no clear frame of time in which I'll be able to get out my paints again....Not to worry though, I'll be back at it soon enough... 

For today's post, I thought I'd share what I did this past weekend during a few quick days at my parent's home in Vermont. I was still pretty sick from last week, but I did get out for a little late season apple picking. With those apples we made homemade applesauce!

{me, bundled up to pick apples...it was pretty cold out}

{dropped apples floating in puddles left from the nor'easter the night before}

{back at home, we cut the apples up and let them soften in a pan over heat}

{once the apples were soft, we put them into the "squeezo" machine. We had to push them down into the funnel with a mallet as we turned the hand crank}

{that pushes the apple guts out through a hole}

{and leaves all the sweet, mushy goodness to fall into the bowl}

{and then you have warm, delicious applesauce. And the whole house smelled good!}

This is one of the reasons I love fall. It was also fun to do a project that had an end in sight and that I was actually able to finish! 

Now, back to work on my grad study....

Happy Tuesday!

Applesauce and Artlessness

Dear Life

Dear Life,
You have been moving along very fast lately. I can't seem to keep up with you. If you could slow down a little bit, I would really appreciate that. If you could give just a little more of the time I need to finish some of the papers for my graduate study, time to make some new art work and update my etsy shop, and time to create better planned yoga classes this week, I would be forever grateful. Also, if you wouldn't mind doing laundry for me, that would be really awesome too. Thanks so much, Life.
With Love and Graditude,
Eliza

Dear Life

Friday Five: Glimpses from my week!

I am sitting here wondering what happened to this week!

It's been one of those weeks that has felt as though I can't keep up with life. I am still a little bit under the weather, but getting better. For today's friday five, I thought I'd share five glimpses into the happenings in my life this week:

1. I have been hard at work on a part of my thesis this week. It has taken precident over my art-making for the time being as I try and make some good progress on it. I'll go back to art-making soon and then float back and forth between the two.

2. My brother has been in town! He spent the summer in Alaska, but is back for a bit and it has been a blast having him around!

3. We made delicious homemade pizza

4. We went to a back yard barb-e-que (perhaps the last of the season) dressed in warm sweaters and sat around a campfire. It was wonderful.

5. I received my "Registered Yoga Teacher 200 hours" id card in the mail! I'm official! Hurray!

I hope you had a wonderful week and have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Five: Glimpses from my week!

"Regard everyone you meet as a purposeful character in the movie you've scripted...." 
~Alan Cohen in Wisdom of the Heart

Impossible to Embrace
On Tuesday, Kristen Walker, reader and blog friend (can I call you my blog friend, Kristen?) asked for advice in embracing the people in our lives that seem impossible to embrace. It's such a good question, I decided to write about it in a post! It's one I struggle with as well. 

I too have/have had people in my life who know how to push my buttons, drive me crazy, and make me angry and upset. They are the people who set me off so quickly, that all my well intentioned beliefs of being compassionate and seeing the good in others, go right out the window before they even have a chance. 

I recently read this wonderful article in the newest Yoga Journal (November issue, I think) by Sally Kempton that had some great advice about dealing with people in our lives that we have difficulty with. The article was referring to family specifically, but I think the advice could apply to anybody we come into contact with.

Everyone is a Teacher
In the article, Sally suggests that we begin to regard everyone we meet as a teacher. The most difficult people in our lives often have the most to teach us about ourselves. She suggests looking at the people we have difficulty with and asking ourselves: "what do these people show me about myself? What do I have in common with them? What do they teach me about how to live?"

She says that the answers to these questions tell us a whole lot about ourselves and help us to not only accept and embrace the other person a little more easily, but also accept and embrace those parts of ourselves that we dislike. 

To me, that's what "embracing the whole spectrum" means. Not always easy to do, but it's something we can experiment with...