Category: Art Journey

The windows are open, probably for the first time in six or seven months! The sun is shining. A gentle breeze is blowing. And the humidity is a miraculous 39% !!!

This is one of those days that comes with a huge reminder to luxuriate in them when they’re here.

Assuming, of course, that one of the definitions for luxuriate is nest. 

There’s a lot of that going on around here. You see, our kids are coming for Christmas! We’re thrilled. And also very aware that a house which is a bit tight for two humans and two very large dogs has some functional stretching to do.

Bill’s job is to run up and down the basement steps with boxes for me to sort, organize, and consolidate… after some significant recycling, trashing, and donating.

Last night, one of the boxes in the heap was filled with old notebooks from an almost forgotten adventure in quilt school, some very welcome clean sketch pads, a couple of matted prints from our favorite fish house in Florida, a whole stack of great stuff for TreeWoman’s collage collection, and the sweet little reminder you see above of why this all matters so much.

That’s our first granddaughter, snuggled into a hat I just had to have for her and a blanket I made.

It’s also all of our kids and grandkids. Yours and mine and all the world’s. The wee teachers who help us grow. The reasons we vote and recycle and make space in our worlds. The ones we so want to keep safe and perfectly who they are.

So, as the machines go round and round, and I remind myself for the umpteenth time that the washer needs to be leveled, I’m headed back to seasonal closet re-arranging in the room that’s usually known as the dressing room but doubles as the girls’ room when they’re here.

There’s dog food to unpack when Bill gets home with, I truly hope, the shelves I ordered from Container Store.

Tomorrow, more painting. Art, not walls. And a pot of soup.

Some days I wish there were three of me and I could get more done. Today, I’m enjoying nesting. With a bit of time for prayer dots…………………………………………..

Writing while paint dries for tomorrow’s big event… my first artist market!

Two carloads full of stuff have already been dispatched to the classroom where I teach group workshops, conveniently located just across the street from the bazaar. There’s another full load of art for morning!

The studio angels are already begging to go, too. Doesn’t matter where. They just don’t want to miss the fun!

We ventured out today for last minute necessities like a first aid kit, a desperately needed picture frame, a hole punch, and bungie cords to hang the banner. Oh, and flowers and chocolate. Can’t do Intentional Creativity® without them!

I have a plan for lunch and some fizzy stuff chilling.

I have a wardrobe plan in case it rains and one in case it doesn’t. (The weather is looking better… prayers appreciated!)

The printing is printed and the email sign up list is ready, thanks to help from some gifted, patient friends! I have gift bags and bubble wrap. I even have a participation event – assuming it actually doesn’t rain – which, obviously, includes dots!

It’s been a long day.

Finally, about half an hour ago, I fired up my laptop and checked Facebook.

Reality check, indeed.

You see, lots of my paint sisters live in California, much of which is, once again, on fire. Some 50,000 souls have been ordered to evacuate, many of them in Sonoma County. The word historic is appearing in the news. And it seems the news is getting worse.

My teacher is safe and offering beds to those who are not.

And I am, in this moment, deeply conscious of the luxury lurking in the hour Bill and I spent today rearranging “stuff” in the kitchen so that it works a bit better than it did, especially when it comes to counter space for feeding the Beasties.

I know I’ve shared this with you before but I’m about to add it to the last painting to be finished tonight. It’s a practice known as metta or loving kindness meditation. There are many forms of this ancient prayer. Here’s the somewhat abbreviated one I’ll be adding to the gallery sides of my small canvas:

May all beings be… peaceful, happy, well, safe, and free from suffering. 

You are most welcome to join in the sense of this prayer, whatever your tradition. And may you and yours be peaceful, happy, well, safe, and free from suffering.

So be it. Amen.

PS… Market survived. Am about extroverted out! One of my favorite parts of the day was the dots for peace participation project. The picture, above, is of two young brothers who started out afraid of “messing it up” and finished with extra large dots made by  their brilliant notion of dipping acorns in paint!

Amen, again!

It’s been about two years, now, since I switched to twice weekly blog posts at the encouragement of the miraculous Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, known to much of the world as SARK.

It was scary at first. And there have been times when it was a stretch.

Today, I’m working hard to come to the end of a very inconvenient cold.

I’m scrambling to be ready for the Sunday’s Artist Market in the parking lot of Avondale’s The Beer Growler. Up to my eyebrows in works-in-progress. Hearth Tending in Red Thread Cafe Classroom land.

And somewhere, under my favorite painting tunes, I heard a hoarse voice croaking, Take care of you… 

If you’ve known me a while, you’ve already guessed that it was my voice!

So… I’m going with a couple of gifts for you and half an hour for a nap, before it’s time to feed the Beasties.

First, a whole patch of intentions for a bountiful harvest in your world, pictured above.

And, a quote from United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who, today, was awarded the 2019 Berggruen Prize which is give to a thinker whose ideas, “have profoundly shaped human self-understanding and advancement in a rapidly changing world.”

Let our lives be full of both THANKS and GIVING! 

So be it for me. So be it for you. So be it for all the world.

Amen. Amen. Selah.

There’s an old saying that goes something like this:

You don’t know what you don’t know until you know.

Today was a day like that.  And, no, we’re not going camping! It’s just that next Sunday, the 27th, I’m doing my first outdoor artist market, known as the Bizarre Bazaar.

Trust me when I tell you that such an adventure involves a lot of things that I didn’t know I don’t know.

Never mind that  there’s paint drying all over the house. I thought figuring out which tent to invest in was a big project. Turns out the trial run of putting it up was an even bigger adventure which had me longing for the good old days when things came with pictures and instructions!

Thank goodness for the Legendary Eagle Scout. (Though apparently this is not the kind of tent Bill remembers from back in the day!)

Me, either!

I’m just glad for a cool, sunny day and the kind friend who loaned me a box of tent weights.

We never quite got the thing that raises the center of the frame figured out but made it far enough to fold the whole contraption back up and stash it in my car until we can take it to the marvelous storage room where my classroom is, conveniently located across the street from said bazaar. A step stool is going, too!

One of our favorite servers at the Corner Pub was kind enough to give me some marketing advice over lunch. A couple of other friends have answered endless questions and filled in the things I didn’t know to ask. And huge thanks to the buddy who’s coming to help during the big event.

Apparently it takes a village to make an artist!

We have easy plans for dinner this week. There’s more painting to do!

And information sheets about upcoming workshops and commission work to create. And rope or bungie cords to get for hanging the very cool banner another dear friend made appear. And wires to put on original canvases. I wish our girls could be here!

My friends at Amazon are supposed to show up still today with necessities like chairs and table cloths and pumpkin leaves. (Again, who knew?)

All the while, I’m busy reminding myself of something I once learned in a workshop on hypnotherapy. The feeling we call nervous and the one we call excited are exactly the same, physiologically. How we experience them is simply a matter of context and interpretation. I’m going with excited!

If you live in the Atlanta vicinity, I hope you’ll come join the fun. Lot’s of cool local art, interesting people, and a great chance to get a jump on holiday shopping! There might even be dots to make!!!

The bazaar will be from noon – 6pm, on the 27th, in the parking lot of The Beer Growler (and along the side street) at 38A N. Avondale Rd. Avondale Estates, GA 30002

If you’re not close by, you can join the fun by visiting my online shop, here.

And one more thing… if you’d cross your fingers or make some prayer dots that I won’t need my cool purple rain boots, I’d be grateful. Original canvases and rain, not so much… though I’m thrilled after a whole day of rain yesterday!