Y is for

Well this is the penultimate post in my alpha series and the bus has almost reached its destination, However, don't jump off just yet there are still a couple of letters to go.

We have arrived at 'Y' and I've got not just one, but two words for you - 'Yin and Yang'. This is part of Chinese philosophy in which Yin and Yang represent the two opposite principles in nature, that everything comes in pairs. For example the sun and the moon, male and female, cold and hot - you get the drift; and  that although they are opposites, they rely on eachother.  Basically Yin and Yang are all about balance, if one is stronger, then the other will be weaker.  Possibly the best way to illustrate this is with night and day. During the Winter the nights are longer, the days shorter, in Summer it is the reverse, but there are still only 24 hours in the day - they balance themselves out across this period.

This is how we would all like to live our lives - in balance. David (my OH) and I have a Yin and Yang relationship; most times its 50/50 but sometimes the scales move and then its a case of whoever needs to be stronger in a particular situation will take the lead and then the scales return to the 50/50 mark.

And our art is all about balance - juggling our creativity with everyday lives, understanding the light and shade in our masterpieces. Learning that for every one thing there is an opposite and exploring that opposite when we can.

Today's artwork again started life as an acrylic block background. You really can't beat doing a batch of these.

This one was created with Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogany Distress inks. I stamped it with a variety of stamps using Archival Deep Purple and Blue Violet.  

The butterfly from Tangled Garden was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on a self adhesive label and then coloured with Promarkers. I then covered the whole image with Diamond Stickles and cut it out when completely dry.

I coloured a piece of sisal ribbon with Archival Orange Blossom and attached with PVA glue and added an assortment of flowers in shades of orange and purple, together with pins etc, using a glue gun. I used black pearl stamens for the antennae and glued the butterfly in place (I did not remove the backing from the label on this occasion).

Here is a close up of the butterfly so you can see the colouring a little better. And I have angled it away from the light so that the sparkle from the Stickles doesn't obscure the image.

These colours are almost Yin and Yang, (the opposite colours on the colour wheel would be purple and yellow) but I still think they are in balance.

And that's how it is in our day to day lives, making adjustments where needed so that we can live in balance as closely as possible.

See you tomorrow with the last letter.