Art Journey – Page 64

Crossing the Bridge!

Posted on April 8, 2020by sue boardman

It’s been quite a while since I was a Brownie Scout. I’m sure there are many things I’ve forgotten. Here’s one I remember:

When my friends and I “graduated” from being Brownies all the way to becoming Junior scouts, there was a ceremony. The ceremony involved a small wooden bridge in the gymnasium of the local elementary school. Each of us walked onto the bridge and stopped in the middle to say the magic words. Then we walked the rest of the way across, newly minted “big kids”. My mom always swore my dad cried!

Oh! The magic words…

Twist me and turn me and show me the elf. I looked in the water and saw myself!

I’m reasonably certain you’re wondering what on earth brought this to mind, let alone to blog-land. That’s easy! I crossed another bridge today. But, before I tell you more about that, there are a couple of things you need to know.

If you’ve been reading along for a while, you may have noticed occasional mention of a mysterious thing called Motherboard. Translation: Intentional Creativity® Coaching. I’ve been learning and practicing and pondering, not to mention buying markers by the truck-load since late last summer, to be a certified one of those coaches and graduation is looming before us, soon!

I have no idea whether an actual bridge will be involved but there have been plenty of figurative bridges along the way. The one I crossed today was one of the figurative kind.

Here’s the short version…

In the ICC pattern, two real, live people sit down together, often in the mythical world of Zoom, with some large-ish sheets of paper and an assortment of pens and markers. (Paint takes too long to dry. Chalk smears too much.) The photo, above, will get you in the ballpark.

One of those two is the Coach and the other is the Client. (These roles are fluid in the learning stages and may flip flop back and forth.) Today, it was my turn to be the Client.

After a bit of deep breathing and some gold “roots” in an imaginary journey, we moved along to, “What wants un-stuck?”

Wow, did I have an answer! It had to do with talking about what I do in the context of life in the Covid virus days.

My partner, the Coach, offered me a tool that was new to me. Again, the photo, will fill in the blanks.

Bottom line… externalizing (my language) all my inner yelling about what felt stuck. Swearing permissible, but not necessary.

Then, what I’d choose, intentionally, to say, having gotten all the ranting and raving out of the way.

I won’t bore you with the details.

I’m hoping you’ve gone hunting for a piece of paper and something that makes marks. Eye liner, if necessary!

Here’s the bottom line, or what I learned as I crossed the bridge from stuck to un-stuck…

I have lots of the power that gets things done. Starting with a business card, all designed, and a big reminder that the more my girls see me using my power to get things done – to get unstuck – the more they’ll take a chance on having some of that power of their own!

This was an awesome day’s work!!! And I am hugely grateful to Natalie, my partner, and to our mutual teacher in IC land, Jumpin’ Jenafer Joy who introduced Natalie to the magic spiral thing.

I kind of wish the story of this day had ended there, but it didn’t. When I emerged from Zoom land, I discovered that Bernie Sanders had suspended his campaign for POTUS. I wasn’t surprised. I am heartbroken.

You can fill in the blanks according to your particular perspectives.

Here’s what I know. Bernie is a guy with YUGE power to get things done and I’m beyond grateful for all he’s helped me see and learn and live. And I’m grateful for the fact that, in many ways, Bernie has been and will be leading the USA through the Covid crisis and into the future.

A future in which, as Bernie (echoing Nelson Mandela) said, we must believe that we deserve health care and education and civil rights, etc., etc., not just personally, but as human beings. There was more, but I’m crying again.

And holding on to my power, not over others, but to get things done. We have more bridges to cross. And I have a very important hearth to tend in the Red Thread Cafe Classroom this day.

PS… My friends at Learning Strategies and Centerpointe are offering a free sound meditation for days such as these. All you have to do is click Surviving Chaos and you can download the meditation to your device and listen to it as often as you please. I downloaded mine this morning. Now seems like a good time to go soak it up!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Giving the Pen to the Muse…

Posted on April 5, 2020by sue boardman

Yesterday was a good day in the way that sometimes happens when the world is upside down and you work your butt off trying to claim what’s true.

It started with an Intentional Creativity® livestream event called Magi, and led by Shiloh Sophia and Jonathan McCloud. You kinda had to be there, but you can! www.amazingmagi.com

We meditated and moved. We pondered things like etymology and history and legends and messages for the future. We listened deep inside and drew images of some of the things we hold most dear… the things we most long for.

It was daring work. Especially when we gave the pens to our Muses.

I learned a whole lot. And I’ll tell you more about it soon.

For this moment, though, my Muse asked for the pen (okay, the keyboard) again and I agreed.

She led me to a post from the past, tugging at my sleeve and insisting that these were words (and music!) for today, as well.

I’m not going to change them at all. (I promised.) I’ll simply ask you to notice the date this was first published and read with ears for then and now and the now that is still to come. I trust you!

(Oh… there were some technical problems with posting this which have something to do with updating my version of WordPress. Very scary!!! Also in progress, in hands more experienced than mine. All you have to do is click below where it says Continue reading. (After you click, when you get to the place where there’s a book title and then a blank square, keep scrolling. There’s a whole fabulous story, just past yet another tech issue…) Please Click!!!!

https://sueboardman.wpengine.com/we-shall-not-be-moved/

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Are You Hearing Confession???

Posted on April 1, 2020by sue boardman

One of my theology professors had a decidedly un-Reformed sign outside his study door. It read “Confessions heard Wednesdays 4pm.”

At least I think it was Wednesday at 4:00. Which, coincidentally, it will be, here, in about 10 minutes!

I’m pretty sure George got the sign at a junk store. I’m also pretty sure he was kidding.

I, on the other hand, am not kidding. Here’s mine…

On Monday, seemingly out of nowhere (as long as “nowhere” is code for divine inspiration) I had an idea!

An idea for a way I could actually help people doing a whole bunch of adapting in the midst of the Corona virus chaos, one of whom is me.

The same idea has the potential of letting a wider web of people know what I do, which seems like a good thing.

And, even better, it was an idea I actually believed I could just go POOF and make happen.

Today, with the help of a dear friend, I was ready for a test run.

Enter a bit of reality.

Let’s just say the technology was not quite as intuitively obvious as I dreamed it would be! (And yes, if you know me you’re welcome to laugh!)

The photo bears witness to the one line I actually managed to get on the demo paper. It’s a great line. Some of you may even recognize it as the beginning of a face!

And the really, really good news is that the dear, helpful test run buddy could see it! (This after about half an hour of camera, sound, signal and, undoubtedly, user error sorts of challenges!)

My friend, who probably would much rather have stayed to play with me, had to go see a guy about a leaky basement.

Here’s the confession part… I was ready for an old fashioned Southern comeapart. I blocked off half an hour on my calendar, until the canine fine dining event, busted out the really, really dark chocolate, and sought comfort in my magic chair, complete with my favorite quilt.

Giving her enough time for me to eat one row of chocolate squares, I let my Inner Critic have her say about how clueless I was and how old my toys were and how nobody ever actually answers the way-out questions I ask.

Then I tempted my Muse out of hiding with two rows of chocolate squares. She reminded me that my idea was actually a good one and people really did need this process. She also mentioned that there are a whole bunch of diplomas with my name on them hanging in the basement which might suggest that I’ve learned some hard stuff before. I was breathing more normally by then so we took a break to feed the beasties who want you to know that they were very polite and grateful.

Back in my chair, I invited my new imaginary friend, the Storytelling Ape, to help me tell you about my day. The Storytelling Ape uses her powers for good and is undoubtedly related to the Muse. (Thank you, Sam and Veronica, for the introduction!)

Just then, a surprise happened!

The Legendary Husband came wandering in with today’s batch of mail and a box I didn’t recognize. Who did I find inside but the embodied Storytelling Ape who used to live at EBay but has, clearly, now taken up residence in the Studio, ready to help!

And now that the Storytelling Ape, the Legendary Husband, and I all know a great deal more about what I didn’t know I didn’t know, my idea is a whole lot closer to becoming real. And, just for a bonus, I have progressed, in the last few hours, to the point where seeing myself on Zoom has actually started feeling like a good thing!!!

I’ll keep you posted! For now, hugs and much love from all the gang at my house to you and yours. Be safe. Be well. And check around for your Storytelling Ape!

Art Journey Contemplations

Welcome!

Posted on March 27, 2020by sue boardman

You’ve arrived in the land of the Fiercely Compassionate Grandmother where CONTEXT is almost everything. Let me tell you a bit about the context for our adventure…

Late one night, not long ago, I was watching Shiloh’s paint videos about Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, aka The Virgin of Guadalupe. Being from a faith tradition that considers itself Reformed, it was a journey through new territory for me.

Here’s what I remember Shiloh saying… that someone had asked if the story of the Holy Mother appearing to the indigenous and indigent Juan Diego was really so and the reply came that, “What’s true is that the people have made it so!”

I’ve found myself pondering that a lot in the last days, during this time of not knowing.

What, I wondered, is true because we have made it so that might not be working?

And what is true because we have made it so that heals and helps?

In a moment, I’m going to ask you to click one more link, but first let me tell you another story.

I sat, yesterday, in a meeting with the amazing Sam Bennett of The Organized Artist Company.

One of Sam’s team members, the also amazing Veronica Guzzardi, mentioned a Storytelling Ape with powers of good and evil whom she had apparently “stolen” from Sam.

You, of course, have already done the math. Having at the very least borrowed her myself, I’m wondering about the things we might, just now, believe are true and if the Storytelling Ape is using her powers for good or for evil.

And what, of course, it might mean to us to ponder such a question.

Now, if you’re so inclined, you can click gorilla and set yourself up with a printable pdf coloring sheet of a Storytelling Ape of your very own, with thanks to my granddaughter who coached my portrait and the Legendary Husband who made it appear here! She’ll need some details for her eyes, a mouth that makes sense to you, and whatever embellishments you’d like in terms of hair and color.

Or, you can draw your own Storytelling Ape. Or skip the drawing and proceed to the writing. It’s all good. My hope is simply that you’ll journey, for a bit, with the notion of what you might be believing that’s helpful and what you might be willing to experiment with setting aside, just to see what gets different.

I can’t wait to hear!

Art Journey Contemplations Food Grandmothers

Can you can???

Posted on March 25, 2020by sue boardman

Thirty years ago, almost exactly, I was preparing to graduate from Columbia Theological Seminary, planning a wedding, and exploring options for a call to serve a church.

One evening I went to a meeting on campus. It was an opportunity to talk with pastors of small, rural churches in a southern state and their wives (!). One of those pastors’ wives asked me if I could can.

A few questions helped me realize that she meant putting lots of veg in glass jars.

The answer then was the same as it is now. No. I don’t can.

With a few more questions, I learned that for the first three years her husband served a particular church, his “raise” came in the form of one of the members plowing them up an extra acre of garden.

All of which feels even more real now than it did then!

There’s a big online conversation happening in the corner of Atlanta where we hang out made up of folks who are wanting to learn about urban agriculture, given the current grocery shopping situation.

Who knew we’d be ahead of the curve???

Even though there isn’t much happening in the garden yet this year, there are 3 things on my list for today. The first is an online Red Thread Circle event around the topic of Medicine Baskets. (It’s an Intentional Creativity® thing.)

Then, there’s painting. I have three “in progress” just now.

This is What the World Needs Now. She’s almost finished!

And, then, there’s freezing. I still don’t can but we do have extra veg and they’re headed for the freezer, some blanched, some roasted, and all wrapped, ready for the soup pot. Especially the asparagus!

There’s also one other thing on my list, though it’s more of a non-thing.

I am fed up with crooked, fear-mongering politicians so I’m weeding my email list.

I’m unsubscribing to all the many, many emails that pretend to want to know what I think but actually want to scare me into “chipping in” to change things. I’m unsubscribing, with best wishes, to requests to help elect this candidate or that in places where I can’t vote. I’m unsubscribing to name calling and doom & gloom.

Instead, I’m going with gratitude and hope.

Gratitude for honest, concerned representatives of “we the people.”

Hope for some new names in the news, standing up for all of us.

And the kind of hope that comes with a contribution or two to people and causes focused on a future where as many of us as possible have what we need. I’m truly grateful for them.

I can’t do it all. Neither can you. I can stay home. Mostly. I can freeze veg. I can encourage loved ones and reach out to friends. And I can paint stories of hope.

Fear doesn’t help us learn and grow. It makes us angry and separates us.

But, because fear is a feeling, we don’t get to choose not to feel it, if we do.

We DO get to choose not to act out of it. Not to be defined or limited by it. And, usually, it’s a choice we need to make over and over again.

That’s okay.

Just think about what the world might be like if we all joined in and kept choosing hope, over and over again. Even if we can’t can!

ps… Earlier, I sat down with my lunch and flipped on the tv. What appeared was about the last 20 minutes of the movie, E.T. Context is, indeed, everything, which had me first hating/envying all the haz-mat suits and then giving thanks for the courage of those kids in helping one who was different, even in the midst of great unknown. May it be so for me, as well. And for us. ALL of us.

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

When Life Gives You Lemons…

Posted on March 22, 2020by sue boardman

True confession… I’m quite the fan of Iron Chef America. Today, however, we’re playing a different game. Instead of lemonade or yummy little lemon bars or (better yet!) my fabulous lemon chess pie… we’re making room for the possibility that we can take lemons and build a bridge! Really!

But first, take just a moment to visualize a bridge. What comes to mind?

And old fashioned covered bridge? The Golden Gate Bridge? The Chain Bridge across the Danube in Budapest?

Any bridge will do, as long as it still does what bridges do! Hold that thought, please. Or sketch it out if you’re in a place where that works. We’ll come back to it in a bit.

I’ve been busy, since last fall, learning the tools of Intentional Creativity® Coaching. It starts in a place similar to where my paintings start… with an intention.

The coaching journey, however, takes way fewer tools and considerably less time which is good if you happen to be sitting around with a big load of figurative lemons.

The Corona virus crisis comes to mind.

First, the Legendary Husband and I are, personally, blessed to be fine.

Our friends from The Corner Pub are out of work for “a while.” Our church friends are scrambling for strategies not covered in the ordination exams. The girls are out of school for at least a month, leaving their dad sorting out how to work full time and be the primary home school teacher while their mama is busy trying to help people stay healthy. A dear friend is worried about her kid who has been diagnosed with the virus.

And you, no doubt, have examples of your own. Things that hurt. Things that are struggles. Things that feel stuck.

Well, thanks to Intentional Creativity® Coaching, I help people turn those things into art… and new possibilities.

I hear you… muttering that you’re not an artist! Trust me. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve found your inner artist or not. Here’s the secret… pain leads, if we let it, to creativity!

So, on Thursday, when I needed a new plan for an individual paint client after we decided that “in person” was probably not our best move just now, it was time to build bridges!

And, since the Zoom elves were busy doing their thing, we were in business!

We both needed a decent sized piece of paper (like a page from a sketch book, or even an old fashioned paper bag) and some tools to make marks with. A few colored markers are a good choice. Something handy that doesn’t smear. I had my building plans ready. She needed an intention or, in this case, an inquiry.

I’ll let my bridge buddy tell the next part of the story…

Sue, spending time with you – via Zoom – where you don’t always think creativity can breed between two people across a distance, it did!

Your new coaching process was a great mechanism for reminding me that shifting is possible and change CAN occur, through drawing, even when you start at a point where it seems like there are only two answers – YES or NO!

By drawing my voices – and then the contextual frame – I quickly realized that I was dealing with my Critic-project-manager and my Muse-project-creator. Ah-hah!!!

So, with the drawing, all of a sudden it wasn’t a face off. Instead, it was how to work together to come up with the third alternative – and that got me to a positive, hopeful, empowering way to move forward.

I’ve already made real progress – in just 48 hours!

So, in this moment, I’m looking for a few more people ready to build bridges in their lives while, at the same time, magically helping me finish the requirements for my certification in Intentional Creativity® Coaching.

You may be feeling skeptical about this. That’s okay! This is a time for careful choices.

You might be feeling curious. Curious is awesome. It’s our best mental state for learning.

You might even be feeling hopeful and wondering where to start, which is a very empowered place to be.

There’s just one action needed to learn more. Click here. It’s really, really, really okay!

And, if now’s not the time or you don’t have any lemons that want to be bridges, come on back and I’ll try really hard to hunt up the recipe for my lemon chess pie by Wednesday. (It’s full of antioxidants!)

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Then and Now…

Posted on March 18, 2020by sue boardman

Last Tuesday I had the pure pleasure of being interviewed by a new artist friend named Angela Treat Lyon about my book, Grandmothers Are In Charge Of Hope!

(There’s a link to our conversation on down a bit…)

Let’s start with the rather remarkable news that I made it through the interview without being anxious and listened to it afterward without my usual fixation about “hating” my recorded voice.

I did!!! And I think that’s because I so believe in what I was sharing.

Just between us, though, the world has changed since then. Well, technically it’s not so much the world that has changed as it is the experience so many of us are having of it.

And, yes, I’m talking about the Corona virus.

First, let me say that I made 122 prayer dots today for you and yours, and me and mine, and all the ours in the world. If you squint really hard, you’ll see a bunch of those dots in the picture, above, complete with a guaranteed germ free Red Thread, from my #Legend #WIP. I made them gold so they’d blend in and be, literally, part of the fabric of the work and the world.

And yes, I’ll make more tomorrow. And the next day. And as many days as it takes.

In the meantime, I’m listening and learning.

Listening to wise medical and scientific types with real world advice. Please find some you trust and listen, too.

And listening to some world leaders I trust as well. The kind who are more interested helping real people than they are in looking powerful. If you’d like some suggestions, I’m happy to help.

And, then, me listening to me, as well. Not only what do I need, but what can I do?

All of which brought to mind some words I wrote a while back, which wandered into the book. They’re part of a poem called Grandmothers Lament:

…All over the world, children are crying.
Let us take our fingers out of our ears.
Let us open our eyes in the light of day.
Let us shout until we cannot be ignored.
All over the world, children are crying.
Let us dare to hear.
Let us dare to hope.
Let us dare to act.

Amen. Amen. Selah.

Boardman, 2016, p. 13

Those words feel even more true in this moment. So, let us indeed dare to hear and to hope and to act. Starting with a few tips for being with the littles we love in light of the changes in their worlds.

Tell the truth, though not necessarily all of it in any moment. And focus on the hopeful parts.
Let them know that whatever they’re feeling is okay. Feelings are just that… feelings. Not right or wrong. Just feelings. And all of them are trying, in some way, to help. (This applies to grown-ups, too!)
Give them tools to express those feelings. Age appropriate art supplies are great. Get in there with them. Greens and purples are timely Feng shui colors. Big, loopy circles are neurologically balancing… just be sure to go both directions!
Musical instruments. Even pots to bang on, though ONLY until the timer rings! (Sanity counts, too…)
Remember their ages. Their sense of time and ability to think abstractly are all developmental. Make a paper (!) calendar to mark off days until school starts again, or they can play in the park, or whatever.
Teach them (again, if need be) to wash their hands. Two choruses of the Happy Birthday song is 20 seconds! (You sing, too!)
Have a manicure party and massage hands with olive or coconut oil. (They’re antimicrobial!!!)

You get the drift. Yes, these and more are in the book. And find somebody for you to share feelings with, too!

For now, the promised interview link. Which, ironically, fits pretty well in this moment.

And, please, get into the conversation. Add a comment. email me. Ask me about MetaCognitive Drawing! (And why I chose the photo of Shiloh and me on a bridge!!!) We’re all in this together. And, to copy the hashtag craze of the moment… #wecandothis !

ps… “My” Decatur gallery and online source for local and regional art, known as Wild Oats & Billy Goats has special shopping opportunities for this time of “distancing”, including special pricing and hours. I’ve got my eye on a goat!