Good day

Man, its unbelievable how a productively creative day at the studio can change my whole mood, my whole outlook on life and the future; how I apparently glow with joy generated by the day of creative work, rather than exude that retracting aura, folding in on itself day after day of time lost at the other "work".

This good day was prefaced by a casual waking, some daydreaming in bed to set myself up for the day, dream recording, a morning stroll for a cup of coffee and a healthy hearty breakfast to carry me through the ride to my art studio and the hours ahead. 

At the studio, of course, I'm working on the Love Show piece,

for Love Show, in progress

which by the end of the night is coming together nicely and with promise.  But I like to have a few things flowing at a time to quell the downtime in which I might fall out of the creative current, so I also paid gentle attention to a new piece, that has been ongoing, and which has a special destination when its identity is intact.  Check it out:

garden (?)

Usually after 5 or 6 hours at the easel I get bleary-eyed and dehydrated, back crinkled from too much bending to 'get in there', but today I marathoned through at least seven hours of solid work time un-phased.  And with glorious results.  I love when this happens.

To my pleasant surprise, it was nice out tonight too, the stars making a rare but appreciated appearance in the winter night sky.  And I rode my bike fast and hard breathing the air into my lungs and feeling the night whizzing by, scooting around traffic lights and intermittent cars, feeling my heart beating, thinking the world was mine, time was on my side, reminding me that by fortune and blessing, I am alive.  And well.  And in the zone.

Yes, it was a good day.

On love...

L-O-V-E, that spells 'love'.  We all want it, seek it, latch onto it with iron grips.  What IS it anyway?  How can it be represented, how IS it represented?  This is the quandary of the week.
Thanks to the twenty-first century, I had many sources to poll for answers.  This early find with a lot of "hits" on google, Wikihow says:
Love is both an action and a feeling. The action of love generates a blissful feeling called by the same name. When the action stops, the blissful feeling is replaced with pain. Every person is capable of great love (and its opposite, fear, which generates all painful emotions such as hate, greed and jealousy)...(http://www.wikihow.com/Love)

Okay...but its hard to quantify love with anything concrete.  It cannot be encapsulated, or accurately represented.  It's like trying to render 'peace', or 'integrity'.  Automatically, due to the abstract nature of these concepts, and the limitations of these words that define the undefinable, one has to go another step further- we must 'define the word that we use to define the undefinable'. 

Not to mention when it comes to "love" there are so many different manifestations of  this idea 'love' depending on the circumstance, the back story, the individual doing the 'loving' and the individual who is the object of this 'love', or if the object of this love is indeed an object, and not a human.  To continue in this vein, sometimes there is love for a moment in time, a memory, an experience...the abstract 'love' of other abstract concepts (see saudade).

In partnerships individuals convey love with trite symbols like roses or jewelry, or other concrete gifts that suggest the abstract idea often associated with love, called thoughtfulness. But to 'define the word that we use to define the undefinable' for the artist, first a story must be created, a premise under which we can resurrect feelings of love, or commemorate love we have or had, or memories of love (double entendre abstractions!) or a scenario in which we as humans who are part of a society can instinctively acknowledge automatically that "there is love in this circumstance".

Then the artist must decide how, frozen in time, using symbols of this story that attempts to describe or portray the impossible, ethereal 'love', that she can give her portrayal, nay her interpretation, of the encapsulating word and notion "LOVE". visually.

Here's what I got so far:

Just the bare bones...
I'm still working out the kinks of my piece for the '6th annual Portland Love Show'.

If you want to see the finished piece and hear my musings and philosophical banter (perhaps with only myself...) further on this topic, may I remind you local Portlandia-ers to scurry your little bottoms down to the Gallery Homeland on February 12th post-6 P.M. and show some love for me and my friend Katie Brandy (amongst 298 other artists).

Consider this event announcement number two!

Much "love" (*wink*)

Leap Year Baby
( 'Work' of Art VI)

(author's note: as you can see, if I have this much time to ponder and philosophize over "love", I've got some extra time on my hands...maybe a little parched in the 'love' department...)

100 Ideas

Today has bee one of those days where things just don't evolve organically, and every turn I make, every word I say or action I engage in just comes up wrong.  Not that I'm a staunch believer or "right" and "wrong", but I guess I mean every step seems to be a misstep and the Universe keeps chucking minor upsets, tension, and stress in my path.  Try as I might to refocus and reclaim my day, sometimes it just ain't gonna happen.  Yes, today I slipped into old patterns most certainly, spiraling to the pit of pessimism and cynicism as I tend to do, wondering what the world will become [if left in the hands of the younger generation that surrounds me] and what my world will become [because I can't bear to do another day of this work].  So, I played around in my sketchbook and recalled the gimmicks of Keri Smith, always trying to creatively launch her readers from the bottom of their moody holes with tricks like her 100 Ideas list to get positivity and creativity a-brewin'.  Because any creative knows that we feel so much better if we just knock off the bad attitude and take to making something of it: draw a picture, sing in the shower, take a walk with a camera, record the beauty of the natural [and man-made] world, marvel at colors and shapes, fashion a letter, write a haiku...So that's exactly what I did.

 

Ironically, as I went to link Keri's fabulous blog to my own post, I noticed that she was feeling in need of a little escapism this week too.  When we can't drag ourselves out of the funk by external means, sometimes it is the best practice to “put [my] ear down next to [my] soul” as she says, and make something constructive of it...practice creativity, however small.

Looking ahead

 

I'm in the thick of 2011 already.  

It happens so fast!  

In honor of M.L.King the public school cohort enjoyed a long weekend.  Like most, I count on these holiday Mondays like I count pennies at the end of the month.  In the past I might have packed up my gear and headed out to the wilderness for some time with nature.  A big part of me really wanted to do that....but instead I held down three solid "shifts" at the art studio.  I rode my bike to St. John's in lieu of wilderness.  The sun was shining and the breeze was warm.  And creativity was a-flowing.  And here it is Tuesday and I'm feeling like I worked overtime when everyone else was lounging, sleeping in, and taking strolls, hiking the woods on a balmy holiday weekend in January.  But its worth it.  I'm on my own trail...I'm navigating the path forward, looking ahead, finding the river.  Which is the phrase to encompass my latest work:

                                       'Finding The River' will be getting some face time at Posie's Cafe in the Kenton neighborhood of North Portland beginning this Thursday, January 20th from 5ish-8ish, through mid-February.

Here are some visual previews:

 

As usual, I'd love company and I cherish drop-ins, but I am getting more adept at holding down the fort solo...

But looking ahead, as some like to do,  I would also like to announce my participation in the 6th Annual Portland Love Show at Gallery Homeland, Opening February 12.  Yes, in honor, I suppose, of my least favorite (Hallmark) holiday, I'll be describing 'love' in all its glory (?).  And though I'll still feel inevitably ironically sad and lonely come Monday, the fateful day, at least I'll be brushing elbows with hundreds of creative souls on Saturday night- wine in hand, smile on face, warmth in heart.  And the most exciting part: my dear friend Kate Brandy is joining the ranks this time! 
So be warned...you have plenty of time, oh those who are bound by the datebook...pencil me in.  I'll have images up as soon as I get finished with my piece...or started....

A resounding happy new year!

Today I tightrolled my pants and thought of you...

 

 

 

 

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more ones...

I couldn't go without mentioning the second series of ones that this month and this year have to offer:
1.11.11.

more ones?? I feel it in my bones...good things are happening people!  I have been saying this for a week and a half now, and seem to be in unison with everyone around me.  So why do we all feel fortune and opportunity on the horizon?


Because it's the year of the rabbit.  And most of us have had a trying, perhaps deeply internally rewarding, but trying last year. No?

'year of the rabbit', mixed media.  part of 'Work' of Art series (#5)

The 'year of the rabbit' in Chinese astrology (which begins on February 3rd), 2011 is supposed to be a universally calm year of moderation, relaxation and ease.  The rabbit being a symbol of endurance and related to the moon, this year will grant us all a little reprieve from the brutal Tiger-ness of last year.  We won't worry too much about money, regulation, structure or unease.  How nice!  We can put off all the undesirable aspects of life 'til next year and for the moment manifest some sweet sweet goodness!
So, dream big and seize the day, the week, the year.  Practice mindfulness and peacefulness, be well, be active, and take a deep breath. Or a few...you've got a year to do....and a few more 'ones' in the bill on the other side of this, the year of the rabbit.

Monkey Business

It's First Friday people- the monthly "see-and-be-seen" event for all the introvert-y, nocturnal, vampirical arty kids to don their hippest gear and mingle with the equally awkward creatively inclined.  This month I'm socially obligated to wait in the wings of the 100th Monkey Studio/Gallery with other fellow artists for the January exhibit, themed "Light".  The biggest anxiety inducer for me with events like this is that my friends and loved ones are tired of showing up for these events, and that I'll end up lingering alone for hours, forced to engage in endless small-talk-and-mingle with a bunch of people I don't know but would love to know if I had less "I" in my INFJ (Myers-Briggs personality) and a little more social gumption...and maybe one more glass of wine.
At any rate, the monthly night of monkey business is upon me...wish me luck!

100th Monkey January show

'Work' of Art IV

'free and open to the public'

1.1.11 (the Workings of the Universe, part 2)

The start of the new year.  A series of ones.  That's got to be a sign!  Everyone I've talked to, unprovoked, agrees- something about 2011 feels open, loaded with possibility and good things, a year of personal and universal expansion.  

And lately, say, for about a few months now, I've been looking at the clock daily when it reads a series of ones...1:11, 11:11...sometimes twice in one day...its uncanny. 

 

I've never before so frequently found these series of ones in my life.  As I have been working towards a great expansion of my creative self with intensity since July, I have become more open to ideas of synchronicity, fortune, the universe on my side, and a great immense connectivity.  So, I look it up...the repetitive number  ones...I "Google it"...because I just want to check and see what the Universe might have to say.   Then I remember my mom spent all of October finding dimes...that's ten cents...a 1.and a 0. 1+0 is still 1 in numerology...more ones!  I "Google" that too. 

And here's what I find (skeptics aside):

"Seeing the 11:11, or 11's in general (and noticing how often you see it) means that you are aware of synchronicity. Your mind is open and aware. You are probably a very intuitive or spiritual minded person...the 11:11 may be a personal "wake up call" from the universe, or from your spirit guides, angels, god, source, the universal mind, or whatever other term or word you feel comfortable using. You can even think of this expression as the "energy" that makes up everything that ever was... Everything is energy. This energy is happening everywhere, simultaneously, right now at this very moment. Having an 11 11 experience reminds us that we are all connected. We are all one. Just like how the 11:11 is connected (11+11). When you see 11 (especially on a clock) you can always stop and take a moment to be thankful for this gift of life, the present moment in time, and to send love and light out into the universe. You will always get back more of what you give. 11:11 can remind you of this balance and of the infinite potential of this energy.

Those who are having the eleven eleven experiences are tapping into the universal mind-energy. The purpose of this one-energy is to manifest Love and Light for all of creation. All things including numbers have specific vibrations. When someone notices the synchronicity with a number like the 11, they are aware and "tuned in" to that specific vibration at that time."  [from http://www.dimension1111.com/eleven-eleven3.html ]

And on finding dimes:

In numerology the numbers 1-9 are used as well as the double digit (master) numbers 11,22,33 and so on. I think that finding a dime could signify a new beginning. In numerology you take the numbers down as far as they go, so 10 would be 1+0=1. The end of the single digit cycle, and the beginning of the double digit cycle. It's a perfect number. A perfect balance of positive and negative. The Yin and Yang of the number world. So. Take finding dimes as a sign of change (quite literally).  [from www.abovetopsecret.com/forum]

In other words, good things are happening.

So here's to a year that begins with 1.1.11.

Chances are, its going to be something!  Cheers and Happy New Year.

three of me on New Year's Eve, 2007