Category: Phoebe and Luther

What was your first job?

Mine, other than babysitting, was working for the vet, which I adored, but it was only a summer gig. Then, being a camp counselor. (Also seriously seasonal.)

The summer before my senior year in high school, I became a part-time cashier at the local Publix store. This was back in the dark ages when cash registers still had mechanical buttons and math was required to make change. (Really!)

I used to entertain myself by seeing how fast I could ring up 8 packs of sodas and the bottle deposit.

The absolute worst part was inventory. And, yes, I mean with pencils and clipboards.

Bars of soap and jars of baby food were the worst possible assignments.

Soap made me sneeze the whole time and trying to re-stack all the little glass jars inevitably led to a mess on the floor. Somehow it always seemed to be strained peas or chicken mush. Aaaaaackkk!

You are, I imagine, wondering what triggered this stroll down memory lane.

Well, I’m shop-keeping again!

This time, art, which is way better than soap or baby food!

It’s going to take me a while to get used to the new system, though.

I tried. Bill tried. We made some progress. Veronica helped!

There are, however, a few things still to work out!

There’s a hint of a coming special collection of art by Gloria Venuh, MATS, who was my Intentional Creativity Intern this past year and is about 97 kinds of seriously talented! (Not to mention about to start her PhD in theology and art!) There are, indeed, more to come.

They should be there later this week!

And, I’ll be adding more and more items soon. Including more coffee mugs! (Very cool!)

There’s is a pretty, purple poster edition of the Grandmothers’ Manifesta, just in case you know someone who needs a gift or some moral support.

But, having resolved my meltdown over wanting it the way I want it, and convinced my inner critic to take a brief vacation, we’re open. I’m so hoping you’ll visit!

Also, if you missed Wednesday’s blog with the invitation to get a free, printable pdf of the Manifesta, just click here!

Here’s the thing… I really believe that this is part of my way of making things better for my girls and for all our littles! And that reminds me of a quote, sometimes attributed to Michaelangelo:

Art will save the world.

I hope so. At the very least, I think it makes us more fully human and that’s not a bad day’s work!

Thus, a new class, coming soon.

For this moment, feet up and prayer scarves. This one is dark blues and greens.

Whether you’re new here, or have been part of the family for a while, thank you! It takes a village to spread the word. And the images!

ps… Rule one of blog posts like this is to give people only one link to click. It’s a challenge but I’ve been working on it. However, today is an exception and, since you’re a bright and capable being, I’m going to trust that you’ll figure out what works for you and not give up.

pps… If you know where the studio elves are hiding, Phoebe and Luther would be grateful if you’d send them, please. It’s a bit hard for them to help paint, just now!

I come from a crowd of folks who believed they were of the we’ve always done it this way sort.

Even as a child, I thought that was a bit odd for people who were on a first name basis with the moving guys. I understand it better now, though. You see, I’ve met the Inner Critic.

She’s the one whispering in your ear that things are safe if we lived through them once and, therefore, we should always do them the same way. I’ll bet you’ve met one of her many, many sisters!

It’s not really a bad theory. It just doesn’t do so well if it’s the only theory!

This weekend has been a good example.

Juneteenth!

It will come as no surprise to most of you that this is a new-ish holiday in my particular part of the universe.

All my generations upon generations of Grandmothers would not know what “we’ve always eaten” for this day. Or which box of decorations to drag out of the basement. Or what to send for cards.

I’m not real sure either, but I’m ready to learn!

So, in between laps around the inside of our house to stretch out my deeply annoying SI Joint, I’ve spent some time wondering.

And, I’ve had some help! You guessed it… paintings! (And, yes, two of those in the photo have made recent appearances but could you really tell them no? Ever, really, but especially now? And they invited a couple of friends!)

If we start to the left, we have, What the World Needs Now, complete with her heart full of love, despite the scar.

Just behind her is a Virgin of Guadalupe, muttering about revisions, especially to the background. She’s headed for a friend’s house when she’s finished.

Up above, my familiar Tree of Life painting with the ancient grandmother and her abundant bowl of water beneath the communal branches and roots and trunks of a banyan tree.

I’m counting on my shoulder deciding to behave soon so I can do some finishing work on the painting of Congressman John Lewis, to the right.

Since I wasn’t quite ready to paint, I decided that I could live without my usual parade of Iron Chef America re-runs. You see, I just figured out where Finding Your Roots moved after the cable fairy’s latest game of messing with my mind. And who was waiting for me there?

John Lewis! I’d seen the episode with him and Senator Cory Booker before but context is, indeed, much of everything so I heard new things tonight.

My favorite part was watching Congressman Lewis learn that his Great Great Great Grandfather, Tobias Carter, registered to vote in 1867, two years after he was freed from slavery and just after the 13th Amendment prohibited depriving anyone of the right to vote based on their race.

Tears ran down Lewis’s cheeks as he marveled to know that 98 years before he was injured and arrested in the march from Selma to Montgomery, his ancestor had registered to vote.

Tears ran down my cheeks, too, as Lewis said:

The vote is the most powerful non-violent tool in a democratic society.

Pens and laptops and paintbrushes do pretty important jobs, too.

So, despite the Critic’s efforts to send her Muse alter-ego on a long vacation, there are some new things coming up around here.

An image that took me about 35 years and 10 minutes to create.

And Camp! Think soothing the Critic…

I promise, no bug spray will be necessary! Stay tuned…

ps… Happy Fathers Day to Bill and Dave and all the very brave dads and grandpas reading this!

pps… the big, fuzzy kid communing with the art is Luther who, in many ways, has lived his own Juneteenth kind of story.

ppps… What the World Needs Now is available for adoption. Since Luther’s not much for email, you can check with me!

This is a phrase heard fairly often in the dinner hour Jeopardy games at our house.

Ask me about a computer issue or whether the Braves won their latest game, and you’re likely to get the same answer.

Today, it popped up in a different context. I was hanging with my new friend, the physical therapist. That, alone, suggests that things aren’t going quite as well as might be optimal.

Just between us, I think this pain episode is part of my personal re-engagement with the world outside our house in the story of the pandemic still being written.

You see, I’ve spent the last year choosing to, basically, stay home. A decision that was right for me even though it also meant way less movement and less engagement with the kind folks who keep me – metaphorically – up and running.

So, today, when my concerned buddy asked me what I knew about why my neck hurts my honest answer was, “I don’t know. But I can tell you what I feel.”

This devolved into a fascinating chat about Neurolinguistic Programming and how we store and access information. (Also the fact that I’m not good with right and left.)

Eventually, we devised a plan for moving forward, all the while learning to speak each others’ languages.

Here’s why I’m telling you this story…

I think anybody who’s been paying attention is in the midst of a cosmic game of Tilt! as we go on making choices about the pandemic context we’ve been living in. And many, many of those choices will be made through lenses of belief.

Once upon a time, my hypnosis/NLP guru was waxing poetic about things we could change, based on changing our beliefs.

So far so good.

THEN we got to the part about, “There’s nothing you can’t do if you just believe you can.”

When I was in high school, girls weren’t allowed to go out for track. (My very athletic granddaughters don’t believe this story!) I desperately wanted to learn to pole vault.

(Feel free to laugh!)

So, 40-ish years later, when I was sitting in that hypnosis training, I was pretty sure that no amount of believing was going to get my bad knees, injured back, sore neck, etc. over the bar on the pole vault gizmo.

Let’s just say that physics were not in my favor.

Here’s what I’ve learned in the meantime… While it is undoubtedly wiser for me to pass on pole vaulting, I have learned a bunch of things in the last decade or so that I never believed I could.

Things, like painting, that required me to suspend my disbelief and actually pick up a brush. And I’m enormously glad I did!

So, I made a deal with the P.T.

With the exception of the giant bouncy ball (A story for a different day!) my response to, “Can you……………..?” is going to be, “I’m not sure. Let’s find out.”

And, just in case this touches something a bit teary inside you, you’re welcome to join me!

For now, I’m off to choose pizza for dinner tonight. Carry out. First time in more than a year.

Then it’s off to cheer on my teacher, Shiloh Sophia McCloud, at the opening of her new museum show. This one both virtual and actual! And a bit of learning from the ancestors after that. Probably while painting the background for my first poster… The Grandmothers’ Manifesta!

For now, blessings to you and yours!

ps… Luther and Phoebe say, “hi!” and they want you to know that a little guy named Wasabi just won the Westminster Kennel Club show, even though it was “supposed to be” at Valentine’s Day.

pss… There’s some big stuff coming around here. (I believe!!!) And I’d be honored if you wanted to share this post with a friend who might want to be here, too. So would my buddy, the owl, who’s come bearing prayer dots!

First, the embarrassing part. Today has not gone at all as I planned. Zoom glitches, meetings moving, the aforementioned cranky SI joint. And, since we’re being real… I forgot it was Wednesday!

Lovely lady above to the rescue! You see, she was my first SuperPower SelfPortrait, back before I even had a name for what I was doing. A teaching painting for a workshop at Columbia Theological Seminary, she’s one of Shiloh Sophia McCloud’s famous face demos. Complete, because she’s also mine, with lots of drips and dots.

I love drips and dots.

The dots, of course, I love for the prayers that they make visual and kinesthetic.

Drips, on the other hand, having minds of their own, keep the artist from over-managing the work and allow it to become what it wants to be.

The super power part came to be the first time I did this with my girls, and we added a bit to the journey.

All this floated to the top of my pretty big pond of stuff that needs doing on Monday when I was chatting with an artist/Grammy buddy. Or, in this case, an artist/Bubbe buddy.

She was pondering a project to do with a couple of her girls and I told her about SuperPower SelfPortraits, or SP2 for short.

As you’ve no doubt guessed, one of the super powers my purple friend brings is bailing me out when there’s no blog post! This is a good thing!

It’s also a reminder that, before too long, there will be videos of the whole SP2 process available so you can have fun with your littles. Fun fun and self-confidence fun!

For tonight, though, my new Shopify store is ALMOST ready for the grand opening! Watch here for details. And, in the meantime, think about giving your super powers space to play!

ps… If you haven’t subscribed to this blog yet, now would be great! Just fill in the annoying pop-up thingie and you’re in. Subscribers will get a special discount for the grand opening event!

pps… Phoebe and Luther want you to know that they did, indeed, get fed, even with me wandering in the creative space known as newness!

I was listening, on Friday, to a program called Awakened Wealth. Our fearless leader announced, with a straight face, that, “Stepping out of our comfort zone is the key to abundance!”

It’s too early yet to know where all that is leading but I think the guy may be some kind of crystal ball predictor of the future because I’ve had a whole lot of “out of my comfort zone” going on ever since I heard that.

And, yes, I can think of several reasons why that might be true.

I said, “yes!” to an opportunity to be interviewed by a creativity sister and I’m declining to be terrified! One of the things we’re going to chat about is the program I’ve been hatching for three years which is likely to become real sometime later this summer. It’s called Grammy Camp! I’m waaaayyy past excited!

Then, there are some more new friends. One is the painting I’m doing, glimpsed above, which features an image of the late Congressman John Lewis. John is becoming a friend, instead of simply a mythical inspiration, as I paint over and swear and paint over some more.

As I’ve mentioned, I am not a portrait painter!

I am, however, a pretty decent notice-r and wonder-r. For example, as I’m still not real comfortable with the out and about bit, I’ve been noticing the details of black and brown skin tones on TV. CNN is especially helpful for this.

Being, by nature, more tuned to words than images, I seem to have spent more time listening to what the folks on TV were saying than I did studying their facial features. But, learning happens everywhere we let it and, at the very least, I have new things to try.

And I’m wondering how I’ve gotten this far with faces painted purple and blue. (Don’t laugh. It works!)

It has never been my plan to be a realist. (Well, not with paint.)

But, we’re making progress, John and I. I know two people who have actually looked at my painting-in-progress and recognized him!

Then, today, I made another new friend.

I was sitting at my easel in the studio which has a big window facing out to our garden. And the front porch.

A young black man in an Amazon vest arrived and flung a (blessedly unbreakable) package at the door. I acknowledged the thump with a wave.

Then my visitor was back, just outside the window, pointing at my painting, grinning and doing a thumbs up dance.

Suddenly, I suspect, we became real people. And it felt like something we could all use a lot more of!

Back to the canvas. I’m currently sketching in the Capitol dome. Rough sketching. And John has decided he wants cherry blossoms!

I’m thrilled. Lots more of my favorite kind of prayer dots… the ones I make with a fingertip.

By the time you read this, I will have taught some more new friends at Envoys for Humanity about the magic of prayer dots. (Or, Dots of Hope.) And, if Phoebe has anything to say about it, she’ll have made a bunch more friends, too.

Luther finds Zoom more challenging than he used to and will no doubt nap during the dot-fest.

Here’s our question for you…

Where are you going out of your comfort zone to make new friends? I’d love to hear! If you click on John’s photo at the top of this post and scroll way on down past these words, there’s a place to leave a comment.

ps… if you do wander from your comfort zone, making new friends, you’re pretty much guaranteed some abundance of spirit. Maybe, just maybe, some of the other kind, too.

pps… the intention for the painting of Congressman Lewis, which you can see glimpses of in the blue sky, was a quote of his: We may not have chosen the time but the time has chosen us. Let’s be Good Trouble!

It’s been a bit of a day. As the old song begins, It’s raining. It’s pouring…

There are 265 total pounds of wet, snoring Newfoundlands lying at my feet.

We made it home from an excursion not only out of the house, but up the big road, to visit my ortho guy. It went the way I hoped it would. Basically, “Yes, several things hurt but the bionic knee parts are holding up well!”

This is powerful good news. And a perfect reason to catch up with my physical therapist buddy.

The new laptop registration thing they’ve added to the office, though, needs to go!

While Republicans booed Liz Cheney today, I am cheering. I agree with her about virtually nothing except that we need truthful leaders we can trust to uphold the Constitution and rule of law. Which brings to mind one of the new questions on my list of hugely important things to wonder… What are the girls learning by watching us?

Just in case you have littles, too, I’m happy to loan you my question!

All of which, in a round-about way, brings me to my work-in-progress painting for this particular Wednesday.

It’s supposed to be last year’s Red Madonna painting, which I only began in January or February, in the company of a dear Paint Sister. I tried following the process. Really!

Somehow, though, there’s a message in there insisting on being heard.

And, in my world, that means it’s been time for the heavy body paints (Think brightly colored toothpaste!) and the palette knives. (I’ve moved on from swiping kitchen spatulas!)

It’s an amazing tool for new perspective. And there are lots of layers on this canvas. I think I know what’s coming next, but only time will tell. For this moment, I’m in love with the colors and the energy.

And the reminder that we often don’t know where we’re going until we wind up somewhere else.

Actually, I’m winding up somewhere else on Sunday, and you’re invited! (Really!) We’re going to learn how to use prayer dots, or Dots of Hope, to energize postcards (and their writers) for things like getting out voters.

Here’s the link for all the info. Great people. One of those ways we hope our kids will learn from watching what we do. And, maybe even by helping!

ps… the dots work for other things, too. Like peace signs to go with prayers for our sisters and brothers around the world. Or a healing heart for those struggling with loss and fear and loneliness. You get the drift…