Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together

ArtoMatic Artists and a Tag for Thinking

Open House II, 44" x 60" by Diane Tesler

I love old houses.  I'm not a big fan of literal realism in paintings but I love old houses and magic realism - and while this isn't magic realism, it feels that way.  Diane Tesler paints the interiors of houses that are falling apart intriguingly.  (And, well, I find the realism here draws me into the interior of the house without getting in the way of my imagination.)  I want to know the stories that are hiding in the rooms that she is painting.  Since I could spend a great deal of time interacting with her paintings, I'd love to live with them - my definition of art.  Go see more of her art on her ArtOMatic page or run yourself on up to ArtOMatic and visit room R6A06.  On her ArtOMatic page she notes:  "Painting  is a way to construct a world where opposing forces - light/shadow, order/disintegration, what is lost and what remains - are held in eternal balance. "  If there aren't stories hiding in that energy, they don't hide anywhere!

Here's another realist painting that leaves room for imagination:  Patricia Di Bella's Big Red Jacket.  I wish I could deconstruct my own reaction to Tesler's paintings and this one.  I think the original impetus of attention in this one comes from the red, which I love - but it is more than color that keeps me lingering here to see what secrets this painting wants to whisper to me.  Perhaps it is the intimacy of the setting - someone's closet.  And we all know about closets.  And bogeymen.  And skeletons.  Perhaps it's that other people hang multiple things on their hangers like I do (okay, do not tell me that this is simply to make the painting interesting.  I know I am not the only one who does it because I don't have enough room or because I have to drape the arms over the hanger head to keep the piece from sliding to the floor).  At any rate, here is another painting I could live with for a very long time and love every time I interacted with it.  Her ArtOMatic page notes that her exhibit shows "some of those portraits and selections from her series, "Raiment," which features compositions of objects taken from her work in theatre."  (Oh.  Theater.  Hmmm.  I don't care, other people do hang multiple things in their own personal closets).   You can see her work in room Red6C03.

Finding Water Update:  Artist dates this week:  ArtOMatic opening night and Arts Council of Calvert County Spring in London fundraiser.  Morning pages:  I think 4 - still settling into my new part-time position with Port Tobacco River Conservancy and finding the rhythm of a new niche for everything has not yet happened.  Something I think is missing in check in:  art.  Are we doing our art?  Well yes.  I am currently working on a full body torso in my studio.  This is a first.  Am hoping it will go well.  Last night it was starting to crack at the shoulders (weight I'll just bet) so I had to swath it in plastic again.  I have to not let it get too hard to get off the armature, and not be too soft to stand on its own once I do get it off the armature, and then hope I can get it all back together in some form or another (it will have to be cut off and worked back together.  Very dicey).  Walks in my yard enjoying my flowers.  I have decided this counts.  I have been making the walks too big and therefore too hard to complete.  Oh yes, and walks out with the dog into the back yard at night where I can stand and drink in the stars.

Thinking Blogger Tag.  Thanks Tinker.  Really.  There's nothing I want more than to have to pare down all these wonderful blogs I read to only 5, having already done that for Blogtipping (well, no I didn't.  I tipped 5 and then mentioned more because, well, because I had to).  Rules:  List 5 blogs that make you think; link back to the original, pin your Thinking Blogger badge on your sidebar (I hope this is easy.  I'm not good at this technical stuff).  Okay, so here goes:

1.  Jana's Journey: because she is wise beyond her years and runs great weekly contests with quotes that I can never answer.  Her posts are open, and fresh and energetic and remind me to remember who I want to be and how I got to where I am.

2. Woolgathering:  I have no idea if she does things like this, but I love her blog.  It makes me think as an artist.  She presents herself to the page every day and every day she posts a new painting.  Every single day.  I love the way she positions her drawings and paintings on the page:  sometimes spare, sometimes lush, always wonderful.

3.  Old Woman: Here's another blog I'm not sure about tagging in that it might not be passed on.  But I love this blog because it is a listing of writers - often writers I've already read and very much enjoyed so that when a new post comes up with a book I haven't yet read I know I can add it to my wish pile.  This is helpful - sorting through everything there is out there to read. 

4.  Christine Kane:  her blog seems to be down, and/but I'm sure it is only temporary.  She is a singer/songwriter and retreat leader and led the retreat I traveled to Asheville NC to attend.  Her music is storytelling at its best with most excellent information woven in if you listen closely (being very good at her craft, she shows through the story, doesn't tell through directives).  I'm sure she won't pass this along since I can't leave her a comment that she's been tagged, but you should keep an eye on her space for when it comes back up and browse through the backlog.

5.  One Hand Typing:  This is a new favorite and not one I always keep up with, but beautifully written so I'm tagging her and invite you to go read and see yourself.  Also, I love the title.  In my early 20s I was a production typist.  And then I broke a finger joint on my left hand and was in a cast for 6 weeks; work, however, had to go on.  So I was literally a one-handed typist - and could knock out about 50 wpm that way.  Not bad, huh?  go read.

Ok gang, that's enough for today.  Surely you have enough to think about without a final thought so I won't post one. 

Emerging Artist Interview: Angie C

The Pear, by Angie C.

Sometimes you just have to move over and make a space for the artists coming up behind you.  Well, not just move over and make a space, but reach out a hand and say:  "Come on up - your work is grand!," or two hands:  clapping "Hooray for you!"

The Finding Water group has been a wonderful excursion into art and networking (if not necessarily reading the book and following the activities), and I found Angie's work on her mom's blog one day when browsing the Finding Water list (one you can easily get lost in - so many good blogs.  So little time.)  It was during my dry spell, when I was grateful for the ArtOMatic [it opens today all you locals!] interviews so that I had something to write.

The Pear is what met my eyes as I was browsing, and I was thrilled with it's beautiful colors - and look, can you see the shadow behind the pear itself?  Angie is 6.  I claim discovery (Moms and Dads can't discover, but they sure can support - and Angie's Mom and Dad are behind Angie's art 200%).  I am seriously thinking about waiting in the wings and offering to be an agent.

What is your favorite thing to make a picture of?

I like to draw rabbits and angels.

How often do you make art and what do you use:  crayons?  watercolors, paints?

I make art two or three days a week, plus I have an art class in school on Mondays.  I use crayons, markers, colored pencils, oil crayons, and glitter glue.

How do you learn to make new pictures?  Do you read a book, watch a tv show, have a teacher or teach yourself?  Do you make pictures with friends?

I copy pictures from the t.v. and magazines.  Most of my artwork comes from my imagination.  Sometimes I draw pictures with my friends but I like to draw more by myself.

Do you have any suggestions you'd like to make to other children who want to make pictures like you?

I usually tell my friends that if they don't like how their pictures come out the first time, then they should try again using different colors or different shapes.  Also, I like to use a lot of color; it makes pictures cheerful.

Do you have anything you'd like to tell the people who are reading about your work?

I want to say "HI" and I hope that my pictures will give you new ideas.

Here and here are some blogs and pictures of Angie.  Below, in order, are Angie's pictures:  Angie Looks at April, Butterfly, Lighthouse, Gold Dust Woman and Pastel Butterfly.

Next, as if this isn't enough to feast your eyes on and take your breath away, I'm including some more photos from my ArtOMatic shift Wednesday evening.

In the spirit of today's Emerging Artist Interview with Angie, here are the ArtOMatic Peeps.  As far as I know, all of the creators of ArtOMatic Peeps are over 18.  But they have managed to keep the whimsy of childhood in tact, and are helping the landfills of the world by recycling Peeps, those sentimentally awful tasting Easter goodies that look great in the basket.  I was surprised that all of the Peeps were rabbits since the peeps of my childhood (were they ever tasty?) were all, well, peeps - another word for chicks.  Someone at ArtOMatic mentioned that the Peeps people have branched out with Peeps for Valentines and Halloween, among others, but the name "Peeps" hangs on.

I apologize for the photo quality of these - I was on the fly and taking pictures with one hand.  These are only two of many.  I believe the title of the first one is Mommy Dearest, but I didn't write it down, so am not absolute.  I did not see any individual artist attributions.

thought for the day:  We all get by with a little help from our friends.  Remember your friends today.  The ones you already know, and the ones you are about to make.  Thank them for helping you "get by" and remember to play it forward. Tammy V.

Miscellaney

Promise, designer tile 6" x 6.5", currently available at Etsy.com (see link under shops in left hand column) by Tammy Vitale

It's one of those mornings.  I've been off reading other's blogs about Finding Water and thought, "OK, I'll pick it up and do a Divining Rod this morning since I haven't done any reading and the DRs are usually helpful."  Can't find the book anywhere.  Haven't looked for it for weeks and now it is in hiding.  While looking for Finding Water,  find Walking in the World (also by Julia Cameron).  I shelved it.  Went to the dining room.  No book.  Made hot water for what passes for coffee for me these days (caffeine free herbal coffee.  Interesting.  Better than nothing).  Came back.  Sat down to write.  Realize I have no new photos of work because I haven't been making anything.  Instead I've gotten reattached to a silly computer video game that is totally mindless.  One day of mindless is nice.  Several is too much.  Pulled Walking in the World  back out.  This is a much underlined, notated, highlighted book.  Browsed through it and loved everything underlined, notated and highlighted all over again.

Thinks are shifting.  Right now the rising sun is straight in my face through the window behind my computer.  This only happens at certain times of the year.  During the winter it rises more to the right of where it is now.  Or maybe I'm typing in the dark more often during the winter(days are getting longer).  Something is incubating - I know this feeling - ready to be birthed.  I have no idea what it is.

Yesterday I had an endoscopy around all the acid reflux problems I've been having.  Two months ago an xray showed esophageal (sp?) erosion.  Yesterday there was none.  Although now there is a (an?) Hiatal Hernia showing up.  This is good news (no erosion) although the symptoms of reflux have not stopped.  Prescription medicine is $183 and change (apparently you have to have special okay from the insurance company, so we left the prescription at the store and will wait for them to get clearance.  If not, I guess I'll stay with Prilosec for a while longer).  I can manage this without the prescription.  I am told, finally, that I will not have to take anything forever, it will get better.  Of course in the meantime I'm relearning how to eat.  I take this as a reminder from my body that if I don't take care of it, I will be hearing from it loud and clear.  I think I've gotten the message (hence no coffee or decaf - only caffeine free.  Also no oil or fat.  Or tomato sauce.  Or oranges or pineapples.  Or garlic or onions.  Or spice.  Or pepper.  Or eating more than about 1.5 cups of anything at a time.  Or eating closer than 3 hours before bedtime.  Like I said:  things are shifting).  Would I listen to my body if there were no pain?  Apparently not as I haven't in the past.  I'm being taught to not run myself up against the wall and pain before I stop and pay attention.

So this is a rather random post.  I had no idea where it was going when I started and no new ideas have percolated.  Instead, I will share with you some of my underlines from this Julia Cameron book that does speak to me.

"One of the reasons artists need to talk to and hear from other artists is that the press is not a trustworthy mechanism for relaying information about the creative life."

This makes me think of ArtOMatic - how the real reason is to build community, not be lambasted by Washington Post critics (who, the word is, last time didn't bother coming by - just sent someone for photos and reviewed all 800 participants thusly.  Right.  I have been thinking about critics lately, and the art schools who turn them out.  Not to dwell, but I guess everyone has to have a some kind of job.  Which got me off onto thinking about power and perceived power and how ArtOMatic keeps on keeping on taking back its power, the critics be damned.  And often they are.  Vociferously). Which is all by way of saying I don't need Finding Water and Julia Cameron's obvious depression while writing it to drag me down right now.

Back to Walking in the World. 

"An artist in the midst of making a large creative jump - a concert tour, a book signing, a one-person show ) is a vulnerable and sometimes volatile creature [great alliteration]...We must find people who can see our vulnerability in such passages and neither encourage it to become terror nor discount it...Consciously or not, the withholding of approval and appreciation is a powerful manipulation that moves us off our personal perspective and into pleasing others...All of us need a private cheering section when we undergo a public creative jump...Artists are not fragile, but we are delicate.  We are subject to the weather conditions in our life...."

thought for the day:  It could be argued that creativity is a form of prayer, a form of thankfulness and recognition of all we have to be thankful for, walking in this world. [Amen}  Julia Cameron, Walking in this World

Journey/Process/Life

Made With Love, hand and slab built ceramic wall sculpture, approx 24" tall, by Tammy Vitale

Here is the final version of the pregnant torso, which, as you can see, now has a name.  Her name, Made with Love, comes from her belly heart charm which says that very same thing.  Over a spiral of life.

She has been on a journey.  Here she is drying, then fired.  You can see things have changed.  Now the real focus is on her belly,   which is where it should have been all along.  Once she was on her way to formed, she knew better than I when I was first making her.  And once she was in her own final form, her name came.

I have learned not to fight this.  To fight where the energy wants to go is just crazy making.  Ultimately, it will go where it wants.  This is the marvelous beauty of clay.  I am a midwife.  Some days it's pretty spectacular. 

There is a process here that brings me back time and again to myself.  I have an idea (not necessarily to do with clay; an idea about where I'm going, say).  I head out.  I almost get there, or, in some cases, arrive just where I thought I wanted to be only to have something shift.  Because I have become attached to a particular outcome of a particular idea, that shift isn't always welcome.  It has taken me a long time to recognize that in the interstices of transition, great gifts are born.  Clay teaches me to take a breath, not get rattled, and wait patiently for what is trying to emerge.  It is an on-going process.  Some days I remember to take the breath.  Other days I remember, but only after I'm red in the face from exertion without taking a breath.  When Husband and I worked together in live sound - loading in our PA system, doing a gig, and loading out again (one a night, sometimes after one in the day) - he used to always have to remind me to breath when I was lifting.  Same thing.  And with Husband, the end of the gig, when we were wrapping up microphone cords and putting things away, we would always get giddy.  Some of it was exhaustion.  Some was knowing the hard part was over and we could rest.  These are the things I try to remember when change sparkles in the air.

For your enjoyment, here are the final pictures of Mayan Artifact with a close up of her breast crystals and belly turquoise.  And a new mask, Contemplation (I'm not real sure that name is going to stick).

thought for the day:  To paraphrase Sun Tzu in his Art of War, when the going gets tough, the tough do not get going; they disappear, only to reappear again, renewed and reimagined.

...What you can plan is too small for you to live.  To be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others....

It is the reimagining of ourselves in our private time that allows us to then reshape ourselves in conversation with the world.  David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea:  Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity

First Person Singular

Door, Asheville, NC

I am being lazy and not going back to select a Wylde Woman for my primary picture today.  You can pick your own from the album in the left column.  Instead I'll give you a picture of one of several doors I took while walking Asheville.  Doors can have such character and can say so much about a place.  The fact that I have multiple door pictures from Asheville says to me that the place is so full of creative energy is just bursts out everywhere.  And yes, that's copper.

This morning I was doing morning pages for Finding Water.  Let me rephrase.  This morning I was doing morning pages for me and also as a part of the group that is tracking through Finding Water.  Up until now, the "A Student" (for those who haven't been following, that's one of my critical inner voices) has been very happily doing it all: morning pages, artist's date, walks, several but not all Divining Rod exercises - the one's that were pertinent. 

I have to admit I found Chapter 3 a downer.  I found Julia Cameron's voice whiney and her complaints about jet lag from Paris (alas, poor dear), grating.  I think I am supposed to identify with the fact that all artists have doubts, but it is difficult for me to identify with a millionaire seller of her own books, once married to Martin Scorsese (sp?), who can drop known names in every paragraph - and does.  Needless to say, despite A Student's prodding, another part of me with no name yet (The Pouter?) has put the skids on all this work.  I didn't finish Chapter 4, haven't started Chapter 5, didn't take a walk.  On the other hand, I am now dedicated to morning pages for myself and for this I am grateful.

Which MK from the retreat reminds us is important, and even writes about in rhyme (Hey, MK, well done!).  Which brings me to the title of this post.  As an artist, I do not have room for first person singular in my vocabulary.  I understand clearly that I need a loving supportive group of people around me who "can sing my song back to me when I've forgotten how it goes."  That includes a Husband who does not choose to say things like:  "You're the one who turned the job down" when the subject of money is broached.

I've been to the mountain (off on retreat with an amazing group of women and a wise woman facilitator in Christine Kane) and now have returned to common day and the adoration of idols (no, not a golden calf - that might be a step in the right direction):  our culture's set up which "encourages" the beaten path, the road well trod, the usual, the mediocre, that which does not rock the boat, just doing what it takes to go along, a lack of imagination.  Perhaps that is only The Pouter at work.  Perhaps it is the moon (which is not moving to full, so perhaps not), the cold weather which is supposed to be gone or the time change (longer days should make it all better).

Enough.  This is what I AM grateful for:  the opportunity to retreat, get my priorities straight, write them down, vision board them up and have things to refer to when the Pouter and the A Student and the Hamster (not mentioned - thats the one that says, over and over:  why can't you just be like everyone else?) are all in full cry.  I am grateful for my warm house in this cold weather.  I am grateful for friends here and in cyberspace who help me remember how to sing, even if it is off key.  I am grateful for finding Christine Kane's music which is a daily reminder of what is really true.  I am grateful for the space to write morning pages, to type this blog, and to make my art - even when I can't quite figure out what wants to be made.  I am grateful for knowing that if "I" (first person singular) get out of the way, the energy will carry it through.

thought for the day: 

Peace is more than the absence of war, violence, or conflict, though that is an important first step. Peace is a presence--the presence of connection.

Inner peace is about connection with our true and natural self, and a sense of being part of something larger. This connection gives rise to serenity, balance, and a feeling of well-being. We connect to the living spirit of life within us all, that allows us to know all people as our brothers and sisters, and every living being – including the earth – a relative.

~ Louise Diamond

Finding Water - Week 3 Walk: Bend of Ivy Lodge, Marshall, NC

Am running out the door and decided to take one minute to go ahead and post Week 3's walk.  More from the Christine Kane retreat at Bend of Ivy Lodge in Marshall (close to Asheville), NC.

The music is once again Christine Kane's, Everything Green, from her "Rain and Mud...." CD.

Hope you enjoy it!

Finding Water - I am Water

Wylde Women:  Claim Your Power, hand-made, unique ceramic wall sculptures, appox 9" tall by Tammy Vitale.

Would have posted sooner; however, I managed to lock myself out of typepad and couldn't remember my user name or password.  There are days like this.  I even had it written down.  I simply did not read my shorthand code.  You never know who might break into my house and try to decipher all these user names and passwords. 

I was thinking this morning about the moon, and how the moon affects tides and water and that we are mostly water and all of a sudden the title "Finding Water" took on the new meaning of finding myself.  Which made me think I've seen no references to water at all in Julia Cameron's book (maybe later?) and started me wondering whether that's what it meant to start with.  Nothing like a little philosophical mystery first thing in the morning.

So I shall check in on last week's work on Finding Water since I wasn't here to do that.

Artist's Date:  Yep.  Asheville; Walk:  Yep.  Bend of Ivy Lodge; morning pages: every single day plus some since I was on retreat.  A student voice happy?  You bet.

This week I'm covered already too:  Artist's Date:  Yep.  Biltmore (omg was that an artist's date - less than Asheville in area but oh wow in content).  Walk.  Yep.  Bend of Ivy Lodge again.  Morning Pages:  so far so good.

Thoughts on Finding Water chapter 3?  Julia's getting a bit whiney and not very helpful.  And she's a name dropper to boot.  Not identifying much with Julia and her jet lag and her depressions and her money worries.   Hoping this week will be better.  Finding myself happier with the exercises than the book itself.  Thinking about switching back to the original Artist's Way as a supplement.

For those of you who could not join us at the Bend of Ivy Lodge retreat house, here is a taste of that space.  More tomorrow if muvee maker works as well as last night (only 1 take - woohoo!).  Then there will be one on Asheville buildings and art and some Biltmore.  I think all in all I'll get 3 or 4 out of my picture batch so as to not make any one too long.  The music is, of course, Christine Kane.  You can buy her songs on ITunes.  I'd be happy to share my favorites with you (hint:  all of both CDs I currently own).

Check in from self-commitments while on retreat:  ordered the book Karen recommended for Photoshop learning:  Masking and Compositing by Katrin Eismann.  I will be spending at least 15 minutes a day learning Photoshop once it arrives.  I suspect the beautiful work Karen does and shows on her blog is mostly her talent, but I can quit wishing I could do Photoshop and finally learn.

thought for the day:  We have not reached the pinnacle of human being-ness.  We are a part of a path of potential.  It is the ego which wishes to claim this particular point as highest and best - and for just now - it may be but it is not stagnant.  Humanity is moving together as One because that is what we are - together all things form what some call God, some call Spirit, some call Universe - and perhaps like lemmings we are all running toward and over the edge of the cliff so we can finally all remember how to fly.  [I think this is Eckhart Tolle.  Or maybe it is just me musing in my journal.  I did not identify.]

Retreat!

Wylde Women, 9" tall, hand-made ceramic wall sculpture by Tammy Vitale

Pre-posted

Today I will start my retreat at the Bend of Ivy Lodge in Marshall, NC, where I have never been.  It says there are 63 acres of paths here and water near by.  This is being led by Christine Kane who I discovered through blogging.  So much has come into my life via the blogosphere - I am very grateful!

I have found my water for my Finding Water adventure (as if I don't already live on the shores of the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay - but each water has its own energy.  It is important to pay attention to the water where you are.  Right now).  I trust that I will manage this week's walk.  And I take the drive as this week's artist's adventure, and the new shops in Asheville which I should have been introduced to yesterday, even if with someone else.  Or I can count the facial and pedicure on Tuesday as my artist's date.  Being pampered as a date works for me!

thought for the day:  What does the word morning bring to mind?  Say the word; think about it; morning...morning...morning.  What do you see?  Think about the earliest, faintest beginnings of morning - in spring, summer, autumn, winter.  How does daybreak change from season to season?

Ware are the colors of morning?  How do the colors of night change as light comes to the sky, to the land, to the water?  What color words show us a winter morning?  a hot summer morning?  What colors are in a rainy morning?...

What are morning's smells?  Are they heavy or light?  Salt breeze?  Newly mown hay?  Breakfast cooking?

How does morning make you feel?  Do you get up early to greet the sun?  Or do you bury our head under the covers?  What are some words that describe how you feel in the morning.

What are the sounds of early morning, the ones you hear before you're even awake?  Early birds?  The garbage collector rattling cans in the alley?  An alarm clock that won't shut up?  Someone calling you to breakfast?     Barbara Juster Esbensen, A Celebration of Bees:  Helping Children to Write Poetry

Finding Water - Week 2 Walk: Annmarie Garden, Solomons MD

If YouTube will kindly upload the muvee that has taken me 3 hours and 8 attempts (it kept freezing and every time it froze I had to start over.  Do I need to say this was an exercise in patience?), I will be happy to share it with you here.  YouTube is taking its own sweet time tonight.

What I am learning from taking walks and taking my camera with me:  to see with new eyes. 

Annmarie Garden is where one of my shows is this weekend (you will see my art toward the end).  It is 5 minutes from home.  It is beautiful in its own way (I didn't take any picture of where they are, um, rearranging the landscape with very large yellow tractors and other machinery), and I seldom take advantage of it.

In the past they didn't have all this Smithsonian art, they had a contest every year and had art you could touch...without cameras watching your every move and without a chain link fence around the whole property - you could actually get down to the water that borders the garden.  That was then.  They have, um, hmmm, "upgraded."  No you can't touch.  And many trees have come down.  Still, it has its own beauty and this walk taught me to start looking for it.  I hope you enjoy this.

Check in:  morning pages every day.  Artist's date:  to the Bead Boutique for a day of necklace making.  I suppose today counts too:  art, art and more art.

Walk.  Check.

Keeping up with reading other folks' blogs.  Not so good.

Finding Water - Week 1 Check in

Wylde Women: Claim Your Power, hand made ceramic and multi-media wall sculptures, 9" high, by Tammy Vitale

Somehow I'm off in calculating my "weeks."  I have been thinking of Sunday as the start of the new week when actually Saturday is.  So I have a bit of an overlap.  And because this is my process.  I'm going to count Sunday as the actual start of the new week for me, otherwise my head, which is full of stuff, will lose track.

Check in:  I wrote morning pages every day, mostly first thing.  They were as amazing as I remember them being when I take the time to remember.  What I remember is that "doing the work" of making my life is work.  It isn't thoughts roaming around in my head and sometimes hopping on the hamster wheel (zen:  monkey mind).  It is thoughts nailed down to the page to get them out of the way so that creativity came come roaring through.  Which it has.  Time can actually expand.  We just have to want it to.  Here's the other thing....thinking (and, horrors, saying out loud, which really brings the karma imps hovering):  I don't have enough time - creates that.  That is how we create our lives.  We tell ourselves:  I don't have enough time (for whatever) or money (for whatever) and we create scarcity of both because our subconscious believes everything we feed it.  And it's just a story!  So I am changing my stories.

A friend told me yesterday (as I was visiting just prior to doing my walk):  make your life a series of intentions.  If you are answering the phone, answer it with the intention that it is positive.  If you are taking a walk, think about what you want to see and call that to you.  Don't just plow through the day not thinking.  Which made me think of driving down the road lost in my head - all the time - never seeing what is actually around me.

I took my artist's date to JoAnne's Fabric where I bought notions and material remnants for my  Shadow Wymyn series that was just born this week, and spend time dawdling through the store instead of running in and running out with exactly what I came for.  I browsed books and discovered wonderful wire words for the Wymyn that I would not have found without nosing around because I didn't know to look for them!

Which is why I took my camera on the walk, determined to see my walking space as a tourist might.

And here it is:

Daggone.  I already seem to have forgotten how to embed the YouTube muvees.  Well, hop on over and view my walk while I consult with Leah who taught me how to do this in the first place with one of her Create Challenge Sundays.

Which reminds me.  Don't forget to visit Create a Connection's Creative Challenge Sunday where I have posted my last post as February's Sunday host.  It's on making Spirit Dolls and I think you'll enjoy it.

Did I mention I Finding Water seems to be hiding from me?  I have no idea where it's gone off to.

thought for the day:  There are many ways to go home; many are mundane, some are divine. ..Rereading passages of books and single poems that have touched [us].  Spending even a few minutes near a river, a stream, a creek.  Lying on the ground in dappled light.  Being with a loved one without kids around.  sitting on the porch shelling something, knitting something, peeling something.  Walking or driving for an hour, any direction, then returning.  Getting on any bus, destination unknown.  Making drums while listening to music.  Greeting sunrise.  Driving out to where the city lights do not interfere with the night sky...Sitting on a bridge with legs dangling over.  Holding an infant.  Sitting by a window in a cafe and writing.  Sitting in a circle of trees.  Drying hair in the sun.  Putting hands in a rain barrel.  otting plants, being sure to get hands very muddy.  Beholding beauty, grace, the touching frailty of human beings.   Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who run With the Wolves