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Snow began to fall and cover the drab earth on this grey but lovely morning in early January at the back section of our land.
As my first 13 Moons cycle winds down, I am feeling both reflective and appreciative. I had a strong intention to birth this new project for 2025, and an exciting idea for the basic structure:
I would make 13 books of daily research and observations, paying close attention to connecting my inner and outer worlds, responding to the land on which I live and expressing my appreciation to all living beings.
My hopes were: to pay more attention to cycles, seasons and the passage of time in photos, art and writing, to be more observant of the cycles and seasons of the natural world, to appreciate and wonder at their beauty and let this curiosity and observation lead my creative practice.
Some of the Best Take Aways from this First Cycle
It seems almost every day has been filled with new ideas and growing trust in my intuitive prompts. I was tense the first few days, then became more relaxed and appreciative as days passed and my ideas and the content grew. 13 Moons was actually coming into being and I was enjoying every step of the exploration and decision making.
I started with lots of options and ideas for what to put in the book, which I gathered and recorded. By the fourth quarter I knew I didn't want to include all the notes and research I had done. I loved all I had collected and learned, but I craved quiet, simple pages with minimal text. The images and drawings wanted to tell their own stories quietly.
That choice to simplify showed me how much more I am listening to my own strong knowing, and to an inner voice that is far more nurturing and forgiving than its ever been. That may well be one of my big lessons this lifetime: to be as kind to myself as I am to others and trust that I know what's right for me. Those feelings strengthened through this cycle as well, and that felt downright magical. When I chose my word for this year, it was "transformation", because that is what I feel is happening to me through both 13 Moons and last years A Full Circle Around the Sun..
I had planned to use my photos strictly as reference images for creating abstracted landscapes, but I felt they are an important part of this cycle and need to be included in the book. They evoke good memories and smiles when I look at them : bundling up and going outside before dawn or in the middle of the night, appreciating the play of light and shadow on new fallen snow, the feeling of seeing empty bird feeders just hours after Bob filled them, the hide and seek of the January full moon appearing and disappearing as clouds drifted across its face . Even the photo editing process has been fulfilling, as I acknowledge my eye for detail and composition is getting sharper.
Some of the Learning Curves for this First Cycle
It took me longer than I expected to select a first book format. I am just learning bookmaking, but knew I wanted the first book for 13 Moons to lay open flat and to work with a heavy watercolor paper that could stand up easily for display. So I found a tutorial on YouTube and did my best - it was a nervewracking process, but I made it through and the book I made looks good, so success! Glues have been a big challenge, particularly because I interspersed matte Mylar pages with the watercolor papers and a lot of my glues didn't work well with them. However, I will explore using mediums directly on Mylar in future cycles and see what possibilities that may offer.
I tried different tapes on the edges of the small works to create a border. The artist tapes pulled up the paper at times, the Scotch and Post-It repositionable tapes both allowed paint to leech under the edges(although the Scotch tape did better), A good friend suggested I try taping the borders again with artist tape with some freezer paper strips underneath all but the very edges for a better seal. This keeps her paper from getting damaged when she takes it off . I'll try that for this new cycle.

Another decision I'm making for the Snow Moon cycle is to not bind the paper so I can work directly on the pages, then arrange and bind them together into the book form at the end. MUCH easier than gluing!
I am not wedded to any particular book format for the other 12 cycles, so I'll need to decide - quickly! - whether to remake this one for the Snow Moon or try something new. I'm also still deciding what medium I want to focus on for this cycle.
The work of creating the 13 Moons books is evolving as a tool to explore and create with more purpose and direction, all the while deepening my appreciation for all human and other-than-human beings.
With the book almost finished, now I need to learn how to set up a space and camera mount to create and edit a video so I can share this first cycle's finished book, but that will have to happen after this is posted, since it's a very new learning curve and I need a good sunny day to tackle it!
Thanks for reading, I appreciate your friendship and interest!
Peace and love,
Jeanne
Metta Prayer (the world needs all of this and it only takes a minute to still the mind and speak these words.)
May I be happy. May all beings be happy.
May I be peaceful. May all beings be peaceful.
May I be safe. May all beings be safe.
May I awaken to the light of my true nature. May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.
May I be free from suffering. May all beings be free from suffering.
Namaste
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