Art Journey – Page 68

A Place in the (Extroverted) Cosmos

Posted on September 22, 2019by sue boardman

I am, by natural tendency, an introvert. I’m the one pouring tea or doing dishes at church dinners or parties because I feel better when I have a task. I need quiet, reflective, alone time to re-charge when I’ve done too much.

Extroverts, however, are not unfamiliar to me. I’m married to one. Most of our Newfie rescue dogs have been extroverts.

Once upon a time, my official title was Evangelist. This is not an easy function for introverts!

This week, though, I found myself doing an extrovert imitation. It started with patching together homemade hang tags for four of my paintings and helping to hang my first show on a wall made available to me by a generous friend.

While we were hanging things, I met a woman who was prepping for an art bazaar, planned for the next day.

I actually followed her outside, introduced myself and asked about how I might get included in the next bazaar. (Not typical for me!) We chatted, I gave her my info, and she came back inside to see my art.

Since then, I shared my photos on Facebook, designed new hang tags, and stickers for the cellophane bags that hold small matted pieces, got a dear friend to do the layout, and ordered a bunch during the big sale going on at Moo.

I’ve emailed my new friend, the bazaar-organizing woman, about important things like tents and tables.

Along those lines, I’ve chosen a Musea sign to order for my new classroom space.

Spent a great afternoon with one of my paint peeps who is getting ready for a middle school art show.

The washer is washing. The dryer is drying. My studio is set to begin The Gospel According to Her tomorrow.

And, my leg is back on a pillow.

It occurred to me, a bit earlier, that being a member of the Intentional Creativity community is, for many of us, quite like being an evangelist. I just want to share the ways that working with images is changing my life, including my spiritual journey. And, I truly hope, the world my girls will inherit. Even if it means summoning my extroverted alter ego!

For now, I have a workshop to plan and I’m wondering what is calling you forth in your world!

First, one more adventure into the cosmos of extroverted evangelists, just in case you happen to be hunting for an awesome, sturdy phone case for that shiny new iPhone…

The case pictured above shows an under layer of one of my paintings which is known as A Place in the Cosmos. It’s available, along with several other choices, at Fine Art America. Android fans are invited, as well! And, should you not be into cell phones, there are yoga mats and tote bags and throw pillows, too.

Hugs, introverts, extroverts, and even ambiverts, all!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

It’s Wednesday, Again!

Posted on September 18, 2019by sue boardman

As you’ve no doubt noticed, Wednesday comes every week. One day in seven.

Hump Day for much of the Monday through Friday world. (A concept I found difficult in my nursing and preaching days!)

These days, as I’ve mentioned, Wednesdays are Work-in-Progress days. Officially, that has to do with paintings in progress. The ones that we need to get back to, or the ones we’re still listening to for more guidance, or the ones that may be begging for a big, scary glaze and a do-over.

Today, I had a different thought. It came to me while I was washing paint brushes this morning. Seemingly endless paint brushes!

There’s not much thinking involved in washing brushes and, apparently, my mind felt free to wander. And wonder.

What, I wondered, would my world look like if Wednesdays were Life-in-Progress days? Or Being-in-Progress days?

What if Wednesdays were to become days set aside for making progress on my personal journey? Or yours???

Perhaps some journaling. Not because I should, but because I’m curious.

A bit more time on Feng shui issues like closets. Tidying up things that are important but not necessarily urgent.

Possibly, even, sorting the freezers. Not because I’m supposed to, but because knowing what’s in them, and having it all where I can get at it means we’re way more likely to eat what we already have which is all kinds of good news for us and for the world.

Hearth Tending, as it were, for my own hearth.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one wondering!

As I finished up the brushes, and was wiping drips of paint-y water off the counter top, I noticed that I had a visitor. Being observant readers, you’ve probably guessed who!

There she sat, amidst an assortment of hair products, slightly the worse for wear and wiggling her one antenna at me. I dried my hands and tried to pick her up gently for a trip out to the deck.

Instead, she clung, with her bristly legs and feet, to her perch. She was still there when I last checked.

I went, as has become my habit when encountering unexpected friends, to look up the symbolism of grasshoppers.

Here’s some of what I found, courtesy of the mini library known as my cell phone.

Grasshoppers have the ability to leap into space where the mysteries of life exist. When the grasshopper appears to us we are being asked to take a leap of faith and jump forward into a specific area of life without fear. Usually that specific area is one that we have avoided and is often connected to change on a larger scale.

Grasshoppers can only jump forward…not backward, or sideways. So, when grasshopper shows up she could be reaffirming to you that your are taking the right steps to move forward in your current situation. Or… telling you to go ahead and move forward, getting past what is hindering you.

This is why grasshopper is the symbol of good luck all over the world.

Grasshopper’s ability to connect and understand sound vibrations is why she is also a symbol of your inner voice. She could be telling you to trust yours.

All of which sounds okay to me! And I can think of lots of reasons why I might need such a message from a grasshopper these days. I wonder what occurs to you…

(If you scroll on down, you’ll find a place for comments and I’d love to know what you’re thinking! Or you can email me. Or leave a Facebook comment.)

Before I head off to the closet, I’ll leave you with one more thought.

What might things be like if we all chose a day to move forward on some of the places where we’ve felt stuck? If we listened to our own voices? And used our own where we most need to? And helped our kids learn some of these possibilities, too?

I’ll keep you posted!

p.s. I’m delighted to report that our grasshopper friend was gently escorted outdoors and has wandered off in search of her own dreams!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Paying Attention!

Posted on September 15, 2019by sue boardman

One of the eternal truths of counseling, especially the sorts that involve couples, is that communication requires both sending and receiving messages.

I was pondering this the other day when Luther, one of our Newfie rescue dogs, was sending loud messages, as is his habit. When he first came to us, about two and half years ago, Luther wasn’t much for communication. In fact, his only response to virtually anything was an attempt to disappear into the floor.

I’m delighted that he is finding his voice. I’m less delighted that his particular voice is very loud and sharp. It reminds me of a radio station Bill used to like. It felt to me like nearly every other song they played was in some key that reminded me of nails on a chalkboard. And Luther doesn’t seem to be equipped with a wait button.

Thus, he barks, usually when he wants in or out the door. Receiving the message loud and clear, I respond, “I hear you!” and begin the process of liberating myself from wherever I’m sitting or whatever I’m doing to see what he needs.

I’ll freely admit that Luther’s messages probably feel somewhat more urgent to me than they might if he weren’t blind. I’m always concerned that he’s stuck someplace, or lost, which still happens sometimes.

Usually, though, he’s just impatient to get to wherever he wants to be next.

Recently, I’ve been receiving some similar messages from a muscle gone rogue in my right calf. Messages that remind me a bit of a conversation with the dogs.

Sit! Now! Owww!!! Stay! Down!

A week or so ago, I got some help from my friend and mentor, Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, known to many of you as the magical author and artist, SARK. She sent out an email, sharing about her recovery process from broken ankle. “Unlikely” as this seems, Susan was apparently trying to rush the healing!

Then she recalled some words of wisdom from a physical therapist who said something along the lines of the ligaments and tendons that were injured in the fracture are still healing and when you push them too fast they send “shut down” messages to your brain.

That sounds familiar! In fact, it sounds so familiar that I actually decided to pay attention and took Saturday off. Well, mostly.

It turns out that it is possible to knit prayer shawls while sitting with feet up and a good cup of tea. So, that’s pretty much what I did.

A set of size 11 circular needles and self-striping yarn. Around and around and around. Rainbows of hope.

Hope for me and my healing. Hope for my family. Hope for the ones who will eventually receive these particular shawls. Hope for the world.

That last one takes a bit of repetition for me. But, if you’re going to take a day off, it’s not a bad way to spend some time. And if, by chance, you don’t knit, prayer dots or blowing on dandelion fluffs or some time spent gazing at the spectacular moon will all work, too.

I suspect most of us could use all the hope we can get!

And, if you do knit, check with faith communities in your area to see who might need prayer shawls. These are headed for Shallowford Presbyterian Church, here in Atlanta.

ps… Here’s a sneak peak from my new painting, Blossom and Aria, complete with dandelions filled with hope! You can find more of my work at Sue’s Shop!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Thought Quilts

Posted on September 11, 2019by sue boardman

I have been a writer pretty much all my life. Somewhere around the year 2000, I became a quilter and a cauldron stirring creator of bone broth. It was during that time that I first began to think of myself as an artist.

These days, I’ve been painting way more than quilting. (There’s only so much room in my house!) I often notice, though, that my life feels a lot like quilting. I wander around the world collecting scraps of thoughts and dreams and images, much like bits of Gramma’s apron or a scrap from a first day of school dress and, eventually, they come together in a way that teaches me… that connects the puzzle pieces into new perceptions. There’s been a whole lot of that going on this week!

Today is, of course, the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the USA. Writer that I am, I need some words about that. I’m also Hearth Tending in the Red Thread Cafe Classroom today. (That’s Intentional Creativity ® speak for a Facebook group where Wednesdays are Work-in-Progress days and we share what we’re noticing and wondering, and what’s on our easels, with a bit of help from folks like me to hold space for witnessing, celebrating, and offering support.) I need some words for that, too.

I found bits and pieces of those words over the last 24 hours or so.

The first came in the form of a meme posted by a dear Newf Rescue buddy of mine which read, All I want for Christmas is Trump the [bleep] out of office!

I’ll admit, I was tempted to re-post it, which probably isn’t much of a surprise to most of you. Instead, I read on.

A few minutes later, I came across a post from an old friend of mine, The Rev. Jimmie R. Hawkins, on the right, who is the director of the Washington Office for the Presbyterian Church (USA), standing beside The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II who serves as national co-chair of the growing force known as the Poor People’s Campaign.

Suddenly the pieces of a new thought quilt began falling into place as I realized that both of those posts are true for me.

I do want the current occupant of the Oval Office out of there. And, through the lens of the Poor People’s Campaign, I can see that while he’s still there, he is, in fact, serving a purpose.

However unintentionally, in all his seeming efforts to kill the Constitution and healthcare and voting rights and the Statue of Liberty and the very planet we live on, he is holding up a mirror in which we have the chance to see reflections of what we truly value.

(Now, I’m not the first person to have had this thought. Carl Jung and Richard Rohr and Shiloh Sophia McCloud, to name just a few, have been there ahead of me, in one context or another. But somehow the vision became more clear for me when I “quilted” it myself.)

To be fair, the mess that we’re in nationally and globally right now isn’t new and it hasn’t all materialized since the 2016 national election. What does feel different, though, is that the threats to things many of us hold dear are coming so fast and so explicitly that we are, perhaps, becoming more aware of the importance of these days and what comes next.

I pray that it is so. And, if you’ll pardon a bit of redundancy, I’ve begun to suspect that my friend, Jim Morgan, may have read some of the work of an ancient philosopher named Epictetus, who wrote:

First say to yourself what you would be and then do what you have to do.

So, today, I am remembering. I’m making prayer dots for Global Abundance of the sort that makes life better for all beings. I’m supporting some causes and candidates I believe in. I’m hanging with my neighbor while we ponder a new painting on the theme of Reflections for an upcoming middle school PTA art exhibit.

And, in the midst of all of that, I’m reminding myself of the best thing that I learned in my exploration of Qigong:

The energy flows where the attention goes.

Which, while the language is different, is kind of like intending Abundance for all of Creation. It is, admittedly, a bit of a challenge. It’s also the best I’ve got, and I’m totally willing to share!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers Phoebe and Luther

Painting Abundance of Many Sorts

Posted on September 8, 2019by sue boardman

I have been a huge fan of the writer, Irving Stone, since I was in high school. My first encounter was Those Who Love, a biographical novel of John and Abigail Adams. I still consider it one of my more useful history texts, along with the play and movie, 1776.

Twenty five years or so later, I practically inhaled The Agony and the Ecstasy. This amazing account of the life and faith journey of Michelangelo struck a chord deep inside me long before I picked up a paintbrush.

One of my favorite scenes was young Michelangelo, as an apprentice, spending years learning to grind minerals and gem stones into pigments for paint.

I, personally, am pretty fond of Dick Blick when it comes to buying paint. It has, however, been a weekend in the life of the artist kind of time at our house.

Tomorrow, I have a workshop. My first in the classroom at Jabula Dog Academy. For a few hours, the dog beds known as “place” will be set against the walls, while tables and chairs and easels will be set up for about a dozen artists.

It’s a big room and my dear friend Kate, whose space it is the rest of the week, doesn’t care if a bit of paint spills on the concrete floor. This is big for art classes!!!

The prep work has taken quite a bit of help. The young man next store who paints with me did an extra background for one participant who is flying home tomorrow morning and may be running a bit late.

The Legendary Husband has schlepped and toted and hunted and gathered like a champ.

My sample painting is complete. As is the sign for the front door of the classroom.

I was feeling really good about the plan and the progress until we were setting up furniture this afternoon. Suddenly, as I headed up a short, but rather steep, ramp from one room to another, the place in my calf that “popped” a couple of weeks ago and has been feeling better for the last few days, “popped” again.

It’s actually an auditory sensation. Not to mention the pain. And the timing is, well, pretty lousy.

So, back to the magic chair tonight. Small prints to mat and package. Larger Giclées to put in temporary frames. And, I suspect Bill might agree that there’s been a little more directing involved than would otherwise be optimal!

We have roses and chocolate and nuts and even some shortbread biscuits straight from Scotland. I have four flavors of tea and a marvelous new machine to make the water hot.

We still need ice!!!

Mostly though, I have an intention.

The quote from a song by an old friend named Jim Morgan came to me while I was reviewing my outline.

You gotta do the things that you pray.

It’s Sunday now and there’s a glimpse of my painted intention above. Interesting that this particular quote should show up on Grandparents Day.

There are a whole lot of things I can’t change in this moment, but I can help women claim their power and envision a world that works better for all of us, which happens to be what I pray for my girls every day.

Anyway, the workshop went really well, in the sense that everybody tried new things and learned about themselves and noticed, as they listened to each other, that maybe, just maybe, they weren’t the only ones who might have a limiting belief or two that had been holding them back, which then makes room for new beliefs that help create new futures.

There’s only a little bit of paint on the floor. I more or less managed to stand up long enough and am giving thanks for the new wheelie chair and lots of help from Jabula friends and paint friends and the Legendary Husband. Phoebe and Luther are really glad their dinner was only a little bit late.

Next month, we’re going to do it again. I’m excited already, though I’m going to need some more time with my leg up. And some more of the magic Hawaiian joint and muscle oil!

For now, I’m just really, really glad I decided I might be an artistic kid after all!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Buttons are dots, too!

Posted on September 4, 2019by sue boardman

Okay… I get that this will sound a bit random to many of you, but I never saw the movie, The Karate Kid, which was released in 1984, until 20 years later.

There are reasons for this, beyond the fact that I’m not a huge fan of the film genre known as “kick butt” movies.

I spent the 80’s as a seriously broke single mom. And, for most of those years, I was a seriously broke full-time student single mom. Four college degrees in 10 years cuts down on the movies a whole lot! (Though Dave and I did make it to E.T. !!!)

In fact, I didn’t see The Karate Kid until my hypnosis guru sent a whole bunch of us for homework. That was when I was beginning to put together the puzzle pieces of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning.

To be specific, “Wax on. Wax off.” It’s all three of those processing paths in one!

Oddly, Mr. Miyagi seems to have taken up residence in my head again this week. Then, as I closed my book one night, and reached to turn off the light, I figured it out.

It’s the buttons!!!

Many, many buttons, as you may have noticed. It goes like this:

Choose a button of the right size for the space. Make a blob of glue. Put button on blob. All the while, focusing on the message of the Muse-in-progress.

Admittedly, “Wax on. Wax off.” is tidier. It really kind of works the same way, though. The visual choice of the button and the place to put it on the canvas. The auditory/digital repetition of the message. The tactile movement of placing the button. And, the internalizing of the process which is, in and of itself, creating change.

It will be a while longer before she’s ready for viewing. A few more buttons. Some dandelions to paint. (Really!) Lots of honoring and tending which, in the land of Intentional Creativity ®, basically means cleaning up rough edges, bringing some things forward and some back, and, especially if I’m the artist, about seven more coats of lipstick.

I’ll get the hang of mouths one of these days!

She’ll also need some more prayer dots. This time for the victims of the shooting in west Texas over the weekend.

For this moment, though, the internet is back on and Bill has dinner in the oven. Exhausted beasties, just home from Camp, are napped out, each in their personal favorite traffic pattern. Leaping over them hurts a bit less. And my girls had a good first week in school. All of which means more dots. These, for gratitude.

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

A Holiday from Stuck!

Posted on September 1, 2019by sue boardman

Well, it’s been an interesting weekend!

Order out of chaos work (Read that moving closets and drapes!) going on in the house. Also, painting. Lots of painting! Mostly art. Only a tiny bit of touch up on walls.

After my ortho doc assured me, provided I rested a bunch in the meantime, that doing the Abundance Workshop I have coming up next weekend wasn’t going to make what hurts worse, my current Muse painting, who insists on going along, has been in quite the rush to get things done.

It’s the resting part that has presented a bit of a challenge.

I can paint sitting down, which pretty much counts but, in order to get my legs up, I need the magic chair. No problem with the chair.

The problem, instead, is with the TV and internet. There hasn’t been any!!!

Now, I realize that, in the face of hurricanes and wars and crushing poverty and a huge lack of health care and major challenges with our educational system and tragic mass shootings and overwhelming questions about human rights, this is not actually a big deal.

I, however, am a pattern learner.

You know how, if you happen to have a front lawn, and you head out your door every day and walk to the mailbox by the exact same route, pretty soon you’ll have an actual path worn in your lawn? You know… grass mashed down, then worn away, then soil compacted until there is, essentially, a very obvious groove in your otherwise lovely lawn.

Well, our brains work the same way. Doing the same thing, the same way, over and over again, actually creates neuro-pathways, or grooves, in our brains and then we tend to “stay in the grooves,” as it were, and keep doing things the same way.

Loathe as I am to admit this, after all the years of knee surgeries, one of my grooves is put feet up… turn on TV. Lots and lots of Food Network and Cooking Channel. Lots of HGTV. (Well, less these days. I mean, even I can only stand just so much house flipping!)

Then there’s the wonder of ROKU and Netflix. The West Wing, whenever I want it. Tony Bourdain.

And, just between us, it took me a while to wear a new groove in my brain to juggle two remotes and figure out which buttons to push and when. I am not a techie person. (At least, historically, I haven’t been!)

This weekend, since somebody put a huge roadblock in my path, and Bill was off communing with tens of thousands of techie/geeky folks at Dragon Con, and the thing called a router, which may be part of the problem, lives in the basement where I can’t get right now, doing some new things was called for.

Here’s what I’ve learned…

YouTube TV doesn’t work on a laptop though they don’t mention that until you’ve already signed up for the free trial.

You can get a whole season of Next Iron Chef in your I-tunes library. (Probably more!)

There are a couple of music mixes on YouTube that actually work for me and I can knit while I listen. Next task… figuring out how to get rid of the ads!!!

And, I can watch Netflix on my laptop! Who knew???

(Feel free to laugh!)

All of these miracles, and this blog post, are possible because my dear neighbor shared her internet access with me. Apparently their signal works at our house, too!

Here’s the cool part… I’ve downloaded apps and figured out how to find them again. I’ve found some stuff that works for me and some other stuff that doesn’t. I’ve had some new experiences to learn from. Which is, just as my old friend Steve Glenn promised, empowering. And the Muses all agree!

One of the songs from that music mix on YouTube keeps running through my head. Here it is… just in case you’d like for it to run around in your head, too….

http://https://youtu.be/EkaKwXddT_I