If you look closely you can see the bumblebee hard at work.  This was taken with my iphone, not promoting apple but I'm amazed at the great pics I have gotten from that phone.

August 12th, 2012

My how fast this summer is passing by!  I've tried to make the most of my weekends, playing with my grandkids and sometimes my husband, (hehe).  And for some reason, I've become acutely aware of time.  So I've tried not to be too lazy or selfish with the ones I love.
Art is still very active in my brain, and I'm still working on things although at a slower pace.  I did however pick my own birthday present this summer in a great way.  A couple of  friends that are  also coworkers asked me if I would like to attend a scrapbooking retreat- to which I quickly said "YES."
It was a lovely bed n breakfast and nothing but girls scrapbooking and relaxing having a great time.  To which I had no excuses for the creative process to be present or not... The pool was cold, 100+ degree weather while we were there, I didn't touch dishes or even have to make my bed.  Our meals were awesome and the deserts were incredible.  This trip was a nice break from everyday life.
It was nice to plug in my music and go to town with my pictures and papers.  I felt that process get me inspired once again to "do" something with ideas swimming in my head.  I put together some nice pictures for my oldest daughter and kids, and now I need to work on one for the younger daughter and a special book for my husband.
At first I had a narrow view of scrapbooking, (cookie cutter pages, designs), but now I see how wrong I was with that opinion.  First off, we each add our own touch, even with identical formats etc... we still weave ourselves into the page, not to mention the personality and heart each picture represents.  I'm so thankful that I'm starting to see outside of my narrow minded self.  I am grateful to have had the time to focus on my family in an indirect but touching way.  It is sometimes a simple hobby that can trigger our hearts and imagination.
Now I must work a little more at preserving memories that are special to my family and those I love.  Thanks to wonderful pictures and the ability to save those special moments, I can see our family live on.

Beautiful Sunday afternoon

I'm so appreciative that I can be the grasshopper...life is such a collection of who we are...collectively...in so many themes I see this reality.  I see all the people in my life, new and old and I'm starting to see that the big picture is really a thousand pixels and I'm just one of those, not any less important or noticeable, but just one of many.  I'm just hangin on a Sunday afternoon, feeling good about me... I see that we all have something that we bring to the table.  

I've been doodling this morning, its so good for me on a lot of levels, not sure if I can explain, I think the linear lines may apply to the convolutions in our brain?  I just know that when I'm doodling my mind is clear, so simple and easy, I don't know really, but some how black ink helps me...  I'm in an altered state? I don't know, I just know it takes me away.  We all long for peace... somehow... someway...  

Art therapy, yep, that's me baby, copy it all day long... A great release and great fun...  I hope anyone, and I mean anyone who enjoys art, music, whatever, that we all share those few moments of peace, quiet, all is good in the world...

 

Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends

Maverick Sabre - I Need

What is Art - To me to you? That is the question.

The word "art" for three letters it packs a punch!  So subjective, it is. (My Yoda statement of the day.)  Mmmmm?  Seriously, its not a new question or discussion by any stretch.  I thought about posting the dictionary definition, but no, just a guts out try at expressing what art means to me.   (If this post sounds self indulgent, sorry not meant to be so).
Lets first define some mediums of expression.  Storytelling-verbal or written, a painter, a race car driver, a teacher, a gardener, a singer, a songwriter, etc...
Can you see how a person can be those things and in the active form of doing those things are expressing a passion, a drive, a desire to share something from within themselves to others.
After going to an art show (my first experience with competitive art), I contemplated some of my observations. I noticed firstly that it was very easy to put myself in the "judge" role.  I thought at the moment I was "judging", it was okay. Because my art was as good...blah, blah, blah. However I was lining up my very grasshopper-ish pea sized talent against those who had the courage, and drive to share their art.  I have really repented of this attitude and ask forgiveness from the universe, (since I can't do it in person), for the sin of pride and puffiness.
Since then I look back and reflect on simpler things in my heart and why I continue this grasshopper course of learning to do art.
As I mentioned in my two previous posts, I want to share the feelings that art evokes in me.  Sometimes its as simple as a single color that makes me go wow.  It might be the wonder I get when I look at paintings that are hundreds of years older or more and they are just as alive as the day they were created.
Can I ever aspire to do that?  I don't know, and I don't think it matters.
My closest connection to this reality was a painting I did as I first started doing art.  A co worker  had lost a  close family member and it struck my heart, she was a kind person who did not let her emotions show during the most painful moments of her life.  I came home on a Friday night and cried as I painted her eyes, crying for her loss.  I still have this painting and as I look at it, its so crude and raw, the very definition of "6th grade" art.  My husband framed it before I could make any improvements on it, stating "its perfect just like that."  I always want to remember  my heart when I do art. Most of the time my work is not that visceral. For me the motion of my emotion from my heart, to my head, to the canvas,that was the journey on that Friday night.  I equate that night with being on a mountain peak, just briefly getting to see the world open before me, and now wanting to get back to that peak, just to see the view again.
Now when I meet more artists in the world of the internet, I'm amazed at the willingness to share this expression, even the artists that are working on a professional level share freely a certain amount of information and all those I have met express the love of the creative process.
Its almost an oxymoron that art is so individual and yet so universal in its purest sense.  Let me leave you with a poem I wrote over a year ago about this very deep subject of being an artist.

The Artists Prayer

She sits in her room as the music plays

weaving thoughts and color onto the paper.

Sometimes its "wow" and at other times, "not"

What drives her heart?

What drives her hand?

Why would she even want to understand?

To be driven by a force so unique,

a gift, a talent, what does she believe?

Quietly she says an artists prayer,

"let others see the heart of my work"

"let it speak to them the way it speaks to me"

Monday Morning Motivation

Here I am facing Monday morning.  Starting my day as every day drinking some coffee, my brain slowly coming around.  Work consumes all of me during the day, I love my job and am blessed to be in  a great office surrounded by people who are positive and centered.  I know our "work" does not define us but somehow I was hardwired to be in the type of work I do.  (Numbers, accuracy, tunnel vision focus on tasks, etc...)  When I get home in the evenings, its sometimes difficult to shut down this part of my brain and allow the process of creating art to begin.  This is where the voices of others are starting to sink in for me.  "Put color down every day."  "Make marks on the paper, don't worry if its not perfect."  And I'm finding if I apply myself to practice it works.  I have also identified some things that are limiting me and as I learn these are things I can overcome.  Things such as, being perfect -(I hear many artists say they fight this compulsion), being blocked, not wanting to "copy" someone else's style, fighting the "I have to be in the right MOOD to paint. My husband might have some comments on that last one...
I want my art to naturally give to me and to others that feeling of  awe taken in by the colors or subject on the canvas.  Just as storytelling is captivating, I want my art to evoke those same feelings.  To be touched by someones art, what gift and a blessing. I want to share the blessing that the creative process brings.

He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a crafter. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." ---St. Francis of Assisi.




I wish for you all to have a great week, thank you for visiting. 

Hello

Upon some encouragement, I have decided to do a blog.  Art is now becoming an expressive part of myself.  I admire those who create beauty for the world to see and share.  This has become a deep issue for me and I will try not to go too far into the basement...  I came from a divorced family at a very young age and am an only child.  I grew up at the ripe age of 8 or 9 and stayed that way right into my 30s.  Now I realize blessings in that mixed bag of growing up and I feel more childlike now than I ever have.  From this more centered feeling of being, I noticed that I was drawn to color, light, sunrises and sunsets.  I never tire of picking the colors out of the sky, always amazed at how different every day is.  When my daughters were young and we would be going here and there, I always stopped for rainbows.  We would watch them until they disappeared, captivated by the colors that hung in the sky.  Its this kind of observation of nature that propelled me into wanting to get the "details" out of my head and onto paper.  And at this point I must introduce my catalyst of inspiration - Jess.  Long story short we met online and became fast friends.  I have had the honor of being a guest in her home and the pleasure of owning several of her works.  The "grasshopper" is my view of myself in this learning process, watching and learning from the "masters" I have found.  Jess has fueled my interest and skills by sharing her work, allowing me to watch and learn as she would create.  I always want to have fun with my art and tend to stay away from things that are "hard" for me.  I am learning to gently push myself to do better, but not ever at the point of losing the joy I am finding in the process of creating.  The next point is the exposure that the internet gives us.  The subject matter goes on forever and if you have a theme, the world wide web has a picture, a story, a name, a store, whatever it may be that you are looking for.  I know this is a really busy introduction, and thank you for reading.  I hope in future blogs I can broach smaller portions of some of these things I've mentioned.   Please comment or post back any replies.  I look forward to new friends and sharing.