Creative Outlets

I go though phases. They are motivated by time obviously and maybe less obvious, season. Fall makes me want to go outside. I have no time to sit and draw, I want to walk and play and experience the world at large. This is why I always loved photography. So, I decided to try a new project with the goal of posting one new photograph a day. I hope you will join me and if you stop by, say hello.

http://visualjournaling.blogspot.com

Little Universe

My children start school tomorrow. A new town with a new house having to go into a new school. They are excited over the thought of a new adventure. It doesn't scare them and they are not afraid to think the best. The world expands before them like a well-paved road and they see no bumps, no pot holes just a horizon of opportunity.

Makes you rethink things. Such a large world we live in but if we don't see the possibilities in our own little universe, then what good is the bigger picture?

Through a looking glass

I can welcome the rain. I can. It's just that I don't wish to right now. It's an uninvited guest. It didn't call before it knocked at my door and I'm still in my PJ's.
So, I'll live today as if it were blue and green with dollops of cream.

To connect or not to connect ....

What would happen if you shut off the phone and disconnected your computer/laptop? What if the T.V. was on the fritz and your cell phone stop offering text messaging or twitter pic uploads? What would you do then?

I'll tell you what I would do and for the sake of simplicity and honesty here, I'm gonna lay it out there.

• I'd have more quality time with my children.


• I'd have more time to clean.


• I'd have more time to do art


• I can be more active outside


• I can take more photographs


• I can create photography assignments for myself and my daughter


• I can read more


• I can decorate my home.


• I can garden


• I can do more art.


• I can journal more


• I can take long walks.


• I can discover the state that I live in.


• I can spend more time with my spouse.


• I can discover something new.

12 years ago I had no cell phone and I barely had an Internet connection. It wasn't very important to have one and if you wanted to get a hold of me you'd have to wait. Oh yes, that dreaded word. The world had to wait, was expected to wait. If you had to notify me of something you either left a voice message on my answering machine or you would mail me a letter. People were allowed to have lives. Instant describe more the type of coffee you drank, not the speed of communication. The Internet is a fantastic tool and a cell phone is a wonderful invention. Both have their place in my life but sometimes, it takes over what you are until you are left with nothing at all. So, for the next few months, I take back my time. I encourage you to take back yours as well.

On the edge

I'm always on the precipice of something. Always looking down as my feet teeter totter over the edge, wondering when it's the right time to jump. This whole summer has been a strong hand pushing me toward something but what, I do not know. The weather has been unseasonably cool, the rain a constant companion to the season. The clouds are Kamikaze fighters, battling for space in a claustrophobic sky. My mind has been focused. It has been here, it has been now. There is not time for creativity, there is no moment to dabble in arts. My mind has run a marathon and only when it crosses the finish line will it say, "enough."

I sense the marathon coming to an end. The summer is ending and so begins the best time of year. The air is beginning to stir and whisper through the leaves. Their repose is coming soon, their lullaby is in the making. It's time, my darlings' to become something other than the domesticated diva. The artist is beckoning like a siren and who am I to deny her?

So, I jump.

Rain, rain go away

Monday, 18th 2009The rain is incessant. It is like a quarrelsome woman for lack of a better stereotype. It refuses to lift its skirt and give anyone a peep of sunshine and quite honestly I am sick of it. Too much of anything can become burdensome and I am quite overdue for some bright sun and blue skies.

Today is the first day of gorgeous weather in some time. The sun is beginning to color everything summer and I find myself envying the life of a cat. I, too want to curl up in a ball by the window and warm myself to a lazy stupor. Alas, humanity claims my innate ability to stretch myself to oblivion and instead I find myself at work.

Recently, I utilized all the free space I have in my walk-out basement and made a little make-shift studio for myself. I have a ton of storage drawers that I use to house my art supplies but they were taking over my living room and worse yet, I wouldn't get any art done because I didn't want to hassle of having to put everything back. My basement is nice and dry, has a lovely large window that lets natural light in and I thought why not place a little set up there? I bought a 6 foot folding banquet table at home depot, threw a table cloth on it and tada! A studio was born.




What a different it makes to have a designated space to make art! I have found myself going downstairs in the evening and just creating for an hour or so. I have the kids small table down there as well and they come down to paint or draw as well. I have started art journals with both of them and it feels good to have a place where I'm not telling them, "be careful! Don't get paint on that!" Freedom is a wonderful thing.

I started up my large art journal again. I love creating on such a big space. I'll have more to share soon. Until then, enjoy the sun.

Rain Forrest Dreams

My world is a lush haze of green. Everything around me is soaked, wet and growing. The earth is greedy and why shouldn't it be? It's been denying itself for months now, sleeping soundly underneath the snow and ice. There are moments where I am overwhelmed. There is too much stimulation of the senses and I feel the need to shut it all out. I'm alright with the world around me. I may have my moments where I rant and rave about this or that but all in all, I'm okay. There is a school of thought where people feel they must force their happiness. I just recently posted over at twitter that, "Happiness does not barge into your front door. It's too busy waiting for you to invite it in." All I hear around me is, Goddess this and Sacred that. You are worthy, follow your bliss, listen to your heart and move without inhibitions. Dream big, dream small, dream not at all. So much to listen to, so much to aspire to, so much that it becomes too much all together.

Shut off the stimulation. The grandiouse gestures, melodramatic sentiments. Move past the sincere aspirations and miraculous synergy that you wish you were apart of. For one moment, sit in silence and be okay with the world. Understand that you cannot control anyone but yourself, that satisfaction is found in the simplicity of your happiness. That validation at times is the moment of your greatest sorrow. Be okay with the silence. Perhaps you might find what you're looking for after all.

I've been lazy with this journal. Languid and naughty like a kitten playing with the cream in her milk, I have let this journal go into disuse. In the area where I live, the weather cannot decide if it will deliver a deluge of mild weather or a rampage of summer heat. The trees exploded all at once as if they needed to put their Sunday best on for the parade. I live in a valley of dogwoods in pink frills and gentlemanly oak and ceder in gallant green attire.

My mind wanders endlessly. It hikes, it bikes, it swims through stories that gleefully skip away like rambunctious toddlers. Nevertheless I enjoy the occasional musing that I leave here. It's like inviting guests to tea on a picturesque day.

Time is a fickle thing. One moment it passes slowly, aging in seconds that linger on for eternity. The next moment it flutters away in the pause between a breath.

I'm holding my breath...

Contrast

The pain pounds above my left eye. It throbs insistently, trickling slowly down the side and filling the well below the socket. I am working but really I'm not here. I'm floating, my mind sort of resting against the possibility of sleep. I've grown so very tired. Which is nothing new but still irritating and annoying all the same. The weather is just barely beginning to warm up. There are soft murmurings of spring everywhere. Bright cloudless skies where your arms can expand and warm themselves against the sun stretch out as far as the eye can see. If you put on a fleece jacket and sit very still, you can close your eyes and hear the sweet breeze beckon the sleeping flora out of their shells. "Come out, come out" she sings and their sleepy little heads begin to peep out of the damp rich earth that has protected them from the cold heartless hand that is winter. The world around me is slowly awakening - the rebirth has begun.

I know, I know, I know it's been a while. It's been a LONG while. It's been so long that I actually sneezed when I opened this journal. Dusty with misuse, I can do nothing but say that life is what it is and unfortunately I am not up for writing or communicating much when I am in one of those phases. Temperamental, moi? You jest.

I though would like to share this video. It makes me smile and it makes me happy. I hope it does the same for you. (I'll be sharing some artwork soon.)