Living with my Art

I have a friend who literally lives with his art.   Honestly, until I visited his amazing home for the first time, I hadn't even thought about how important that could be.   His walls are filled with his paintings which rotate as purchases are made or as his mood changes.   His walls are painted bright colours so that he can switch his pieces around to see how colour makes a difference to them.   I love visiting and I've thought a great deal about this whole idea of "living with one's art".   I remember when my Friend visited and he asked where my art was....um, living with others around the world.   Why didn't I have even one piece to show him?   I've decided this year to begin to make art just for me.  Okay, I don't yet have a piece of mine on a wall in my home but I have dug out journals that were never finished and I'm working on them.   I've also launched full force into art journaling and this has given me another opportunity to create just for myself.    I think it's somehow about having the confidence to say to a visitor "and this is one of mine".   I'm working towards this day.  These are a couple of journal pages that I created today.....just for me!

Snug at Home

All of the elements have come together today.   It's cold and snowing gently outside.   Breakfast and my run are things of the past.  Sweet chamomile tea is brewing and my art journal is calling to me.  Nowhere to be....a delicious Sunday afternoon ahead.    Ahhh.....well, shoveling may come later but that's later!   Hope you have a creative day.

The Sanctuary of Reading

I have always loved the idea of book clubs and have been a half-hearted member of several over the years.   I had really given up hope of finding one that suited me until this year when I was asked to join one that has been running for years in our community.   It is different from others in which I've participated in that professors from nearby University of Western Ontario lead the discussion and are paid to do so.   This means "no fooling around", two solid hours of talking about the book chosen.....and that suits me just fine!   Last night was one of the meetings and we discussed Alice Munro's "Too Much Happiness", a book of short stories written by one of the foremost writers in Canada.   The stories are so rich in complexity and sometimes disturbing details and happenings that the discussion was lively, intriguing and literally could have gone on for a few more hours.  I walked home afterwards still deeply immersed in thinking about the book and feeling blessed to be invited to be in a group of people who treasure reading as much as I do.

Just thought I'd leave you with a few lines from two books that are favourites of mine.  The first is "The Shadow of the Wind"  by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

"This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary.   Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul.   The soul of the person who wrote it and those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.   Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens....In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader's hand.  In the shop we buy and sell them but in truth books have no owner.   Every book you see here has been somebody's best friend.   Now they only have us."

"....few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart.   Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a place in our memory to which, sooner or later - no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget- we will return."

The other book is "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt.   I love this passage, again about books.

"Turner" he said, "books can be fire, you know."   "Fire?"  "Fire.   Books can ignite fires in your mind, because they carry ideas for kindling, and art for matches."

Ever wonder what books in a bookstore or library do when humans aren't around?   .....Check out this YouTube video:

Special Energy

I just spontaneously decided to send the photograph below to a few of my lovely friends.   I have it on my background at home and at work and it honestly makes me laugh each and every time I look at it.  Whenever I'm having a bad day, I seem to gravitate towards things in nature that give me great pleasure and comfort and this little guy is one of them.   We met him at a cottage that we'd rented and we fed him so well on peanuts that we're quite sure he's still feeding off them from his "stash".   I always am tempted to write a caption to accompany him!    I had a response from one of my friends who received the photograph.   She sent me her own picture of a squirrel with attitude taken that day and she said this,
I know that artists tap into a special energy that connects us all together.
Cool.

How wise and how very true.   Thanks dear Trudi!!

One of Those Days.....

Do you ever have "one of those days" when you feel as though you are so different that you barely seem to fit into the world?   Your beliefs seems to be so at odds from everyone else's and are ridiculed by others?   It's that old "square peg in a round hole" syndrome.   These pages above were created for a round robin journal swap that I'm participating in and just seemed to epitomize my feelings about myself....in a rambunctious and positive way.   Somehow I just need to put them out there and remember that life doesn't always have to rhyme!!

I thought I'd also share this YouTube video that was awaiting me when I arrived home this evening.   It was exactly what I needed to hear and perhaps for some of you, it will be the same:

Shrine

I have always been intrigued by shrines.   I think it's because they appeal to my librarian sense of gathering and organizing.   After all, items on a particular theme are brought together to create a three dimensional object.   I had taken a course from Zinnia on how to make one "from scratch" and had painstakingly done so but that's about as far as I'd gotten.   The empty shrine had been hanging around in my cupboard for months.   As so often happens, a shrine exchange was posted on one of my groups so I jumped at the chance to give my piece some meaning.  The shrine for the group was to celebrate their 6th anniversary so I incorporated some sixes in the piece.   The rest is open for interpretation.

Thoughts of a Dear Friend

Do you ever have times when you have an unidentifiable feeling of discomfort?   You're just "off" and you have no idea why.   I had that feeling most of last week.  I just happened to have a look at my calendar and realized that January 27th marked the 5 year anniversary of the passing of a very dear friend of mine.   I felt compelled to honour him in some way and did so in a journal spread.  I met Arnold at the library and after getting to know him, he invited me to go canoeing with him.   He called his red canoe "Cricket" and he was out in it as often as he could be exploring, often with a tiny teddy bear for company that he called "Grunt".  It was a delightful day and one of many more that I shared with Arnold.    He was one of those people who just brought sunshine and richness to life.   He loved music, movies, fine wine, nature, good books....the simple pleasures of life....and he shared them freely with friends, family and neighbours.  I gave him a copy of  Kate DiCamillo's "Beacause of Winn-Dixie" and he enjoyed it so much that he spent several evenings reading it aloud to his neighbourhood  children.  He set up a tent in his living room and camped over Christmas and decorated a tree in the woods for the season.   His passing was like a whisper but his life and all he shared lives strongly in my heart and the hearts of many others.    He once told me that when he died, he wanted to be remembered by this poem:

Prophecy

Elinor Wylie

I hall lie hidden in a hut

In the middle of an alder wood

With the back door blind and bolted shut

And the front door locked for good.

 I shall lie folded like a saint

Lapped in a scented linen sheet

On a bedstead striped with bright blue paint

Narrow and cold and neat

The midnight will be glassy black

Behind the panes with wind about

To set his mouth against a crack

And blow the candle out.

Gone from this earth but never forgotten.

Butterfly Garden 4" X 4"

I belong to a marvelous group of artists who collaborate each year to work on a project.   One year it was a round robin journal book, the next skinnies and this year it is 4" X 4"s.   We each choose a theme and take turns creating a piece for each person month by month.    "Butterfly Garden" was the subject of this creation.   I wanted to capture that serene feeling that comes from losing oneself in a garden when all of the sense are tuned into the rhythms of nature....the flap of a wing, the rustle of the leaves in the trees, a butterfly or bee that alights on a flower, a critter that just happens to appear not knowing that you are near.   When we are still, wonderful things can happen.

"Beannacht" by John Donohue

Effy Wild shared this YouTube poem with us on the weekend and I have watched it time and again because it moves me very deeply.    It is especially powerful when read by the poet, John O'Donohue.
 

Beannacht ("Blessing")
by John O’Donohue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Truth in Decorating and My Art Studio

I am crazy about decorating magazines.   I always have been.  There's just something about the photographs in them that make my heart go pitter pat.  I study the textures, the arrangements of furnishings, the ways that patterns are combined, the colours.   I was reading "Canadian House and Home" in July 2011 and stumbled across an article written by Lynda Reeve.   She was talking about the miniseries of "Mildred Pierce" starring Kate Winslet.  At one point in the show, Kate's new husband has redecorated their house and has added a wall heralding Mildred's accomplishments as a restaurant owner and pie maker extraordinaire.   Mildred is frankly embarrassed but her husband tells her that this gives the rooms warmth and character and makes it come alive.   I've always believed that decorating a room is about combining what one loves and values in a pleasing and comforting manner.   Have you ever been in a room  that is devoid of character?    It is disconcerting and unsettling not to be able to get a sense of a person from the way that they decorate.

Not surprisingly, I am also passionate about magazines and books that show artists' studios.   Here are a few of my favourites:

Creative Time and Space:   Making room for Making Art by Rice Freeman-Zachery
Organizing Your Craft Space by Jo Packham
Where Women Create:  Book of Inspiration by Jo Packham and Jenny Doh
Art Making and Studio Spaces by Lynne Perrella
Where Women Create:   Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women by Jo Packham
Inside the Creative Studio:  Inspiration and Ideas for your Art and Craft Space  by Cate Coulacos Prato

Cloth Paper Scissors Studios magazine
Where Women Create magazine

That being said, I thought I'd give you a tour of my sanctuary, my art studio on the second floor of our home.   Welcome....

Summer Afternoons

Don't get me wrong.   I like winter.   In fact, I really do enjoy the changing of the seasons and the changes that each brings with it.   However,  I've been reminiscing very fondly about summer the last few days.   Perhaps it's because I've been scouring cottage rental sites and choosing a destination for a vacation in August.   Yes, I'm dreaming about packing all my art journalling supplies and taking them on the road to a place where the livin' is easy.  Honestly, I find packing my art supplies to be the most arduous part of any vacation.   It causes me a great deal of angst and, believe me, the car sinks lower when the "art box" is slid into the trunk!!    Here's to dreaming about summer and vacations!  

Not a Fan of Housework

Well, this was Saturday's journal page.   Ummm....can you tell what I was doing....and what I wasn't particularly enjoying?   Okay, I've tried liking housework....vacuuming, dusting, washing floors, you know the drill....but honestly, it's difficult to cherish living in the moment with my head stuck in a toilet bowl.   Just sayin'....