Art Journey – Page 60

The Prophets March On!

Posted on January 19, 2020by sue boardman

On this third anniversary of our miraculous Newfoundland rescue dog, Luther’s, liberation from a hate-full puppy mill prison, I am pondering prophets. Two and four-footed ones. Perhaps you first met some in Sunday School, as I did. Amos and Micah. Isaiah and Jeremiah. Ezekiel and Joel.

Voices in my head that I did not quite understand, sounding somehow old and gruff no matter who was reading their words, rather like Walter Brueggemann when I first heard him teach through much younger ears!

And Dr. King, of course. Though I really don’t remember much before the night he was killed. We lived in Chicago and I was afraid.

And a way less old and gruff guy named Gary, who was my first church boss. He was, perhaps, ahead of the progressive curve in a small, rather 19th century-ish, southern town where he helped, a bit after I’d been there, to organize the near total boycott of a Klan parade, realizing that local leaders had to give the KKK a permit but nobody had to show up and watch.

And more recently, a whole tribe of women, joined by Red Thread and spattered in paint, putting empowered, I’d dare say prophetic, images of the divine feminine into a world filled with deep need and longing for their inspiration.

One of my new artist friends is a woman named Billie Brown who created Weeping Madonna #1 in 2019. The “series of six images depicts young mothers sorrowing over their newborn children as they contemplate the racism rampant in America today and how it may harm their children.”

Weeping Madonna is a sister in prophecy with my Bella Mama from 2018, sheltering immigrant children under the folds of her robed arms.

And then, to zig more than a bit, a tall, young challenger on Iron Chef America sporting a baseball sort of hat that read In Diversity We Trust. Bold words from a self-described Norwegian Japanese Black guy from Minneapolis named Justin Sutherland. (He won!)

I’m guessing you have some examples, too. I’d love to hear them!

For now, though, some prophetic words of wisdom from one of my girls.

Kenzie was 9 when she went with her mom to the 2017 Women’s March on D. C. Mostly they stood, for about five hours, because there were so many people that they couldn’t actually march. At one point, Kelly boosted Kenz up so she could see over the crowd and asked her where the people stopped. “The people don’t stop,” replied Kenzie. “They just keep going!”

We are the people! Or so say my gaggle of internal prophets who are more into questions than answers. Here’s their favorite:

If we believe what we say we believe, what, then, shall we do?

Only you can answer for you. If you’re not sure where to start, here are a couple of hints. Choose some candidates… local, state, national… who echo the long ago words of Mr. Jefferson and proclaim that we are all created equal. Then get involved.

(They don’t have to be the same folks I’ve chosen, but I wouldn’t mind if they were!)

March, in good shoes or in spirit, when you feel called. I marched on D.C. yesterday, in spirit and in connection with so many sisters.

Go check your mailbox for your 2020 ACLU membership card. Mine came this week! And, if you’re not a member yet, it’s easy. Just tell them Sue sent you.

Look deep for prophesy in the images around you. Which ones call out to you? What are they asking of you?

And join in creation. Words, paint, clay, buttons, soup, quilts, even babies. (Well, maybe grandbabies!)

We are the people. And we are partners in the future we dream.

p.s. Luther and Phoebe want you to know that you can reach our talented friend at billiebrown41@gmail.com and there are new workshops coming soon!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Onward with Annie!!!

Posted on January 15, 2020by sue boardman

I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do was to show up for my life and not be ashamed.

-The Word according to Anne Lamott

It’s been a week for clinging to just those words. (Actually, I’ve been clinging to them for a lot longer than that, and you’ve probably heard them here before, but I’m okay with that!)

Standing up, on Sunday, with a small tribe of bravely anxious women, to BE and to create.

Accepting help on Monday for something I “should” be able to do myself… traveling along with Luther on the grooming journey.

I don’t have the flexibility to do it alone. And it took a while to find him just the right expert who will sit on the floor in our family room and adjust every day professional patterns to the needs of a huge, blind dog with post traumatic stress.

Luther made it a whole 55 minutes!!! (And I could knit several dogs with what we swept off the floor!)

Then I spent some time painting with the very wise young man next door. While he worked away on his new project, and patiently explained the various categories of chaos from a video game, I felt this small canvas calling for some more love in the form of a Big, Scary Glaze (Dioxazine Purple) and then a good bit of silver, stirred with just a smidge of the purple left on my palette.

If we’re being real, it was was undoubtedly the wisdom of Anne Lamott just peeking through the drips and glaze that was calling to me!

Then I did something that is a major stretch for me personally but is completely aligned with what I believe. It was hard. It will probably be hard when I do it again on Thursday. And Friday. And some more next week and the week after.

I’m hoping it will be a little less hard each day.

I know it will be just as important.

Which is, I suspect, why the hand written intention that insisted on being included in my new painting, Oracle and Ally – otherwise known as Legend, is both prayer and promise to myself and to my teachers. To Annie and Shiloh and Stella Mac and all the rest. To all the generations of mothers and grandmothers, from all over the world, who came before me and made me and my girls, bit by bit, for this moment.

Yes, it’s scary. But that’s no reason to hide.

#WIP’s abound! And I’ve started a serious practice of “should-ing” on myself a whole lot less!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Goin’ On A Squeegie Hunt!

Posted on January 12, 2020by sue boardman

Let’s play a game! It’s a bit like that old summer camp song the little kids loved. Goin’ on a squeegie hunt. Gonna catch a big one. I’m not afraid!

For this moment, it’s just me goin’ on the hunt, with you eavesdropping, as it were. I’ll do (almost) all the work. This adventure can also be used for group processing, family counseling, all kinds of things. It starts like this..

I say something that’s true in this moment… at least for me… All kinds of things are swimming around in my head.

Then, I say… But before that… my DNA test results came back yesterday.

Then, I say… But after that… my sister found out that she got in to the Mayflower Society, today.

But before that… my sister also found out that she got in to the Daughters of the American Revolution.

But after that… I listened to a lot of people speaking in opposition to a possible war in Iran. (Yes, you’d know some of their names.) One young man spoke about his family, in Iran, having to watch his wedding via a web service because they couldn’t come to the USA for the ceremony.

But before that… We moved around a lot when I was a kid, and I never really felt a strong sense of place.

But after that… My girls wanted to hear stories about our family. Stories “from your mouff, Grammy.” So I told (tell) them lots of stories.

But before that… Elsie, my Farm Gramma, told me lots and lots of stories about our family. And my city grandparents, Elmer and Elizabeth, showed me lots of pictures. (Many of them, people fishing!)

But after that… I learned geography in middle school from a retired military officer who seemed mostly interested in places he’d served, which seemed to leave several of those big things called continents out of the discussion!

But before that… some of those people in some of my family stories came to America on boats. (The Mayflower thing was probably a hint!) The ones I knew about came from places like England and Scotland and Sweden.

But after that… one of my uncles, whose nickname we’ll skip, got deeply into the genealogy thing and I learned more stories about those people.

But before that… some of those people who came to America on boats had families who had come from places I didn’t know about.

But after that… I started my journey into the world of Intentional Creativity® and I made friends and deep connections with women from all over the world.

But before that… I was once a poor single mom and, somehow, I coped by trying to worry mostly about things happening in my neighborhood.

But after that… One of my new friends told me some stories that brought hurricanes and earthquakes in Puerto Rico into my neighborhood. And other friends brought fires in California and Australia into my neighborhood. And other friends brought earthquakes and floods in Mexico into my neighborhood. And most of them brought new images and legends and possibilities into my neighborhood, too!

But before that… and before that… and before that… My ancestors lived in what is now the UK and Sweden, for sure. They also lived in what we now call Germany and Tuscany (!) and France and Spain and Puerto Rico and Peru and East Asia and Iran and Africa. (I’ve probably missed a few but I’m still learning!)

And after that… my neighborhood got a whole lot bigger!

All of which makes me curious… What happened for you, before and after? Send me a note…

But before that… I’m off to pack paint. It’s TreeWoman day tomorrow!

And after that… I have some more stories to learn and to tell and, quite probably, to paint!

Art Journey Contemplations Food Grandmothers

Keeping My Eyes Open!

Posted on January 9, 2020by sue boardman

If the weather elves who inhabit my phone are correct, it will not quite freeze tonight.

That works for me. (Even Luther will be happy with the balmy 36 degrees. No ice on the back steps!)

Not being a Newfoundland, I’m looking forward to growth.

The mail is filled with seed catalogs, one of which was considerately printed on non-shiny, collage appropriate paper and is, appropriately, headed for Sunday’s painting workshop which is all about growth.

Aided, I trust, by the raft of new liner brushes pictured above. (Did they really have to put sticky labels on the handles of all 12 of them???)

A dear friend dropped by for a visit today with newborn herbs, a gift from her husband, the seed guy. Time to rearrange lamps a bit… it’s too cold for outside. Parsley and basil, here we come!

And then there’s the which one is not like the others item in the photo.

Raw cacao powder, headed for Friday’s baking project. A flourless chocolate cake for Sunday’s paint sisters. (Yes, there’s still time for a couple more of you to sign up!)

Though, compared to big brand cake in a box, which half my family couldn’t eat, I guess it is growth!

Here’s the way Kenzie and I did it for Christmas dinner, with considerable inspiration from Ina Garten, Alton Brown, some wise things I’ve learned along the way, and a couple of web site versions.

Chocolate Cake (Almost) All Of Us Can Love

Figure about 45 minutes for actual kitchen bonding and another couple of hours for the fridge to do its thing.

Ingredients for the cake:

1 c. dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate. (In our case, Green & Black’s organic 85% dark.)
1/2 c. unsalted butter, preferably organic. Save wrapper!
3/4 c. granulated sugar. (Nobody’s perfect!)
1/4 tsp. finely ground sea salt.
1 tsp. real vanilla extract.
3 large room temp. eggs (preferably pasture raised) slightly beaten.
1/2 c. raw cacao powder or Dutch process cocoa powder. (We did 1/4 c. of each).
1 good pinch espresso powder for baking or INSTANT espresso powder.

Ingredients for chocolate ganache topping:

1 c. dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate. (The same type as above. Three 3.17 oz bars = the 2 c. total.)
1/2 c. heavy cream, preferably organic.

Optional ingredients for garnishing *

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Using the wrapper from the butter, grease an 8″ round cake pan (We used stainless steel.) Cut a circle of unbleached parchment paper to fit and place it on the bottom of the pan. (This is an excellent job for a young helper!) Grease the parchment paper with the rest of the butter on the wrapper.

Place the chopped chocolate and butter over low to medium-low heat in a heavy sauce pan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the butter and chocolate are melted and well combined. (If you have a microwave, rumor has it that will work, too.) Remove from heat.

Add sugar, salt, and vanilla extract, stirring to combine well.

Add the beaten eggs slowly, stirring well. (Kenzie is an excellent stir-er!)

Add the cacao/cocoa powder and espresso powder and mix just until combined.

Pour batter into prepared cake pan, keeping the sauce pan for later, unless you just love doing dishes! Bang bottom of cake pan on countertop to release air bubbles. Bake in center of oven for about 25 minutes, until the cake has a thin crust on top and a toothpick comes out not quite clean.

Cool cake on wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a table knife around the edges of the cake to loosen. Cover pan with a serving plate and flip so that the cake magically appears on the plate with the former bottom up. (This is, perhaps, not the best job for a young helper!) Discard parchment paper. Allow cake to cool completely, while making the ganache.

Combine 2nd batch of chopped chocolate and heavy cream in your sauce pan. Stir, over low to medium-low heat until all is melted, smooth, and shiny. (Or use microwave.)

Spread the miraculous ganache evenly over the cooled cake. Let it set up a couple hours or more before serving. The refrigerator works great and keeps the big dogs from very dangerous snacking!!!

*Slice cake into thin wedges (It’s rich!) and garnish with a dash of powdered sugar and fresh raspberries or strawberries if desired. Whipped cream or coffee ice cream would not be amiss.

This was REALLY good. And it keeps well in the fridge. Am experimenting with mini muffin tins for Sunday. I’ll keep you posted.

And do keep your eyes open with me. Noticing signs of growth seems like a pretty good practice just now!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

A Matter of Focus… and Vision

Posted on January 5, 2020by sue boardman

The rain has stopped and the temperature is falling fast.

The big dogs are dozing; sleeping off their fine dining experience for the day.

My prep email for a rapidly approaching Intentional Creativity ® workshop is written, and edited, and edited some more. (I’m going with done!)

I’ve shaken off last night’s hissy fit, prompted when a certain online shopping service’s designated delivery folks sent me a message saying that delivery was refused on my long awaited giant whiteboard.

So NOT!

After some rather loud “intentional” phone calls, my package seems to have been located and, rather than returning it so I could re-order it and wait 8 days or more for another, there is at least hope that it will appear Sunday or Monday.

No, the world won’t end if it doesn’t. It’s just that I’ve worked so hard to figure out the logistics of one of the big things I’m trying to accomplish and I was all set to test it out Monday.

For now, a front row seat, feet up, for the Saturday night Iron Chef mini-marathon. At this moment, the secret ingredient is sausage. Sounds good to me… as long as I know where it came from! Am also very glad that I’m not one of the sous chefs busy burning things.

Underneath all this “normal” life stuff, rather like drips on the first layers of a painting, a post from one of my paint sisters is muttering.

The inquiry, or perhaps journal prompt, went along the lines of whether we readers might have “left anything undone” in 2019 and had we, perhaps, made a list of those things, in the service of letting them go.

I will admit that my pulse picked up a bit of speed at that question.

I mean, Duh!!!

Both my faith tradition and my experience remind me that we leave things we wanted to do undone.

Sometimes because we’re stuck, or afraid. Sometimes because other things arise that feel more urgent. Sometimes because some of our intentions seem beyond our current abilities.

If you’re at all like me, the list of things you haven’t done is likely to be “posted” right in front of your face, like really bad wallpaper.

So big and loud and overwhelming that you can’t see through or around or even under it to the things you did get done.

Or maybe it seems more like having new glasses. The kind with the lenses called transitional, which is contemporary code for incognito bifocals.

I have a recent pair of those I’m still trying to adjust to. Between tipping my head forward and backward, juggling my glasses, and fiddling with the angles of the monitors on my various toys, I seem to feel more aware of what’s not working than what is.

It’s also true that I’m a life long list maker!

So, for this moment, wondering how I might reframe such a question if I were to ask my girls, and with deep love and respect for those who do it differently, I’m making a list of things I have gotten done. (Or made progress on…)

And I’m listening to that list for what might be there for me to learn.

What does it suggest about 2020?

Just in case you’re now busy with such a list of your own, starting – of course – wherever it works for you, I’ll just share the first thing I noticed, pondering all of this.

I took on too much in 2019.

So, while I’m not likely to ever have 20:20 vision, I’m hoping to focus more on where I’d like to be a year from now, rather than on all the marvelous, shiny things I could, hypothetically, manage to squish into next week, preferably (gulp!) without disappointing anyone.

I suspect it will take some practice…

Companions on the road welcome!!!

ps… The glimpse of art, today, which will eventually become TreeWoman 2, was blessed last night with bright teal prayer dots for the healing and new growth of rain across Australia and wherever else it is needed.

Art Journey Contemplations Food Grandmothers

What do you see? What do you hear?

Posted on January 1, 2020by sue boardman

Dear Hearts, according to the calendar most commonly accepted in much of the world, today is New Year’s Day. In my world, it’s also Work-in-Progress Wednesday, which somehow feels appropriate! And a day for the Studio Angels to recover from all the very noisy celebrating in our neighborhood last night!

Here’s what seems real.

My Tree Woman emails are out, with much prayer and huge help from a patient paint sister. That’s one big step forward for 2020! (And a hint in the photo, above!)

There’s a soup pot on the stove. Bird broth. Pulled pork and boar salami. (Really!) Brussels sprouts and arugula. Lots of aromatics. Gorgeous mushrooms.

It’s not hog jowls and collard greens, but it works for us.

The bones of my MotherBoard space now exist in this dimension! This, too, is a huge step forward for 2020 and will make more sense as time goes on. (Really big whiteboard due Friday!)

And, quite probably prompted by an avalanche of emails beating the drums for a major (US) election fundraising deadline, I have been casting about for something to say in this moment. Only one thing made sense.

Please hear, now, the words of the prophet known as The Dangerous Old Woman, probably not for the first time, with ears of this moment.

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.

We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn’t you say you were a believer? Didn’t you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn’t you ask for grace? Don’t you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.

By Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
American poet, post-trauma specialist and Jungian psychoanalyst, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves and Untie the Strong Woman.

Holding Light for the New Year, Sue and Phoebe and Luther

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Miracles!

Posted on December 29, 2019by sue boardman

This season is always a reminder of miracles, for me.

Our Christmas tree is still lighting its corner of the family room, while Phoebe and Luther wander around searching, each in their own way, for the miracle of four much loved family members, now headed back to their more usual home.

Next door, our neighbors’ house is ablaze with a celebration of the eighth night of Hanukkah and the miracle of the light that lasted much longer than anyone could have expected.

The Legendary Husband and I have spent considerable time playing Furniture Yahtzee, as is our tradition.

And I’ve been reflecting on smaller, more personal miracles.

Take a minute to check out the photo at the beginning of this post. A miraculous gift from a dear paint sister, it’s a silicone thing originally meant to scrub pots and pans. Turns out, it’s the greatest paint brush cleaner ever!!!

And quite handy, given the fact that there’s been a whole lot of painting going on in the studio.

Here are three masterpieces by my talented and persistent girls.

And a piece we worked on together… three generations of Boardman women.

It began, as my work so often does, with drips. Then a chance for everyone to try out a palette knife and some heavy body paints Santa brought.

Then, some wisdom borrowed from Jassy Watson’s Tree Woman process, inspired by things that grow where we live, at least when it’s not winter!

And dots. Stamped dots. Dots made with the bristle end of brushes, and dots made with the handle end, as I so often do.

I’d even go so far as to say miraculous dots, for they were made with intentions and prayers of healing for dear friends who could use a great deal of that just now.

And then one more masterpiece. You’ll have to help me with this one. I didn’t get a picture as we drove by, so a bit of imagination is in order.

Yesterday, Bill and I were headed home from picking up a print at Digital Arts Studio and lunch at my favorite local oyster joint, Stiles Fish Camp.

We stopped in the spitting rain for a red light at an intersection with a big church on one corner. It’s changed names recently and I’m not really sure what it is, these days.

That wasn’t the part of the sign I was reading.

You know the kind. The ones with the moveable letters behind glass doors.

About that time, the light changed, and I’m not sure I got this just right, but here’s the jist of it:

A brighter future does not lie in wishing for a different past.

If you happen to be near Atlanta, moving toward some miracles of your own, click here!