The Artist's Way

I'm starting the Artist's Way in January.
Morning pages here I come!
Go for it! 

Making Snow Angels

End of the year wisdom

I just finished reading a book called "18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done" by Peter Bregman. I found it in the library the other day, so I checked it out and brought it home. I'm always grabbing for these self help books because I do get distracted and I don't get as much done as I would like to on my artwork. Well, I read this book all the way through and I thought it was very, very good.

Yes, like most self help books of this type, he covers all the information about getting organized with lists. But then, he goes beyond. He covers topics that I have always been left wondering about. So this is my book of the "end of the" year. This is the one that is taking me into another dimension of myself and I am optimistic about these fascinating insights.

There's a harder set of distractions to master: the distractions you can't blame on anyone else. The distractions you create yourself. 

"The rule is simple: When you want to do something, Focus.  When you don't want to do something, Distract." 

Distraction, used intentionally, can be an asset! You may want to distract from "Y" so you can focus on "X". 

The world doesn't reward perfection. It rewards productivity!

Your mind can help you move forward or can get in the way. Choose the fantasy world that supports you.

Yup! A great book. I will refer to it again and again. 

Amidst the rubble

CHRISTMAS PORTRAITS

Procrastination.... this sums it up nicely!

Comic by Randy Glasbergen

Opening up to Change

Today is my last craft show for 2012.
I feel like my life is opening up to change.
This picture of Lake Champlain sums up what I mean visually. I'll explain it as best I can. See that solid piece of land? That little triangle piece represents my core. The water below and around the land is my present state and the fading mountains are my future. The blue green dividing line is my constant. The entire outlook is serene yet excitingly mysterious.....
Hey, you should see what's happening with my art right now, too.
Life is change.
Yes, I am opening up and ready for change!

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”
~ Eric Roth

So, this is what I've been doing....

Sets and cast for "SUPER" an original play by
 Jake, Kyle and their mom, Jodi Van Leer

See those sets? Well, I've been painting sets since September! We painted four drops and 11 flat boards and an assortment of angular attachment flats. There was scaffolding behind this set and some of the characters climbed up into it. It was very cool!
Okay, I'm hoping to catch up with this blog on a more regular basis in December. But then, I said that a few months ago, didn't I?  Ah well, whatever!

A sleepy kind of Saturday

Maybe I'll draw for a bit or read a book quietly before I go out to help at my daughters play.
The busyness of life makes me jealous of cats. How can they sleep so peacefully with all the stuff going on around them?

"A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not."

 ~ Earnest Hemingway

Upcoming events I will be vending at:

Look for me downstairs in this beautifully crafted juried show.

Look for my booth in this wonderful non juried crafts show,

Election Time Ahead

Susan Shie's 12 x 12 SAQA Auction piece

It's nearing our time to vote. And our choices are dramatic. Having been laid off by Bain Capital (and seen first hand how slick and sleazy they operate), I sincerely hope Obama wins this election.

I have never looked at Obama as the beam of light that was thrust upon him when he was voted into office. I took from his first speech to the world not to expect a miracle man AND that any change takes a lot of sacrifice and patience. (Yes, it took 40 years from MLK to see a black man get elected as president!)

As a middle aged self employed person, I have seen the job market dwindle and now start to come alive again. We are in a recovery at this point and I know that, slow and steady, with Obama, we will ALL benefit with his economic stimulus. Obama has directed his attention to the future growth of our country and that is where we are headed.

It's time to get out and give the man my vote.

Prayer Flag workshop

Margaret M Sheehan

My prayer flag workshop went really well this morning. As of today, more loving thoughts will be sent out into the universe along with loving brush strokes of paint and swirling thoughtful energy. I am so glad I can guide people in this process. It's all good.

NH Open Doors Weekend

This Weekend is NH Open Doors!

I will be leading a class on Prayer Flags at the Hanover Craftstudies studio from 10 - noon!
Come by and watch us or sign up ahead of time to participate.

The class fee includes all supplies. I am making the flags for this class. You embellish it!

http://www.nhopendoors.com/participantsmain.php

Get out an support your favorite artists! I hope to see you in Hanover.

Working toward creativity

New piece! 7.5" x 7.5"

I had a struggling day in the studio yesterday. I just couldn't get myself started, and then, this happened! This little red number emerged from my psyche. It started with a piece of fabric I had mono-printed. Slowly, I got my groove going. I'm delighted that it is so vibrantly bright. That's a great sign.
Now, I'll add a few gold bugle beads or perhaps french knots here and there and then frame it.

Move Forward, Go Ahead!

YES!

Work That I Admire

These are a few pieces from the Vermont Institute of Contemporary Studies Fiber show that is just coming down today, in Chester Vermont. The show was fabulous! Great work done by all the participants! I particularly enjoyed these pieces the second time I saw the show.

Close up detail of Elizabeth Fram's work

Sandy Gregg's Quilt

Close up, Marilyn Gillis' Quilt

Apples & Crafts

40th Annual
Woodstock Vermont
Apples & Crafts Fair
Sat & Sun. Oct 6 & 7
10am -5pm

Look for me outside
under a tent in
Booth number 26

Recent pieces that sold

Next Show

I am currently preparing for my next show at the Apples and Crafts Fair in Woodstock, VT.
This is the fourth year I will have a booth in this juried crafts fair. I have sold several of my art quilts at this particular fair, so I am finishing up some of my UFO's specifically for this crowd.

The finished piece, "untitled".

Natural Art

I can see quilts in these photographs I took. I'm really loving the brilliant color of the fungus on that rock, too! It's simplicity with impact. Now that's what I call good design!

"Because the landscape has always been an integral part of my life, I have developed a deep sense of belonging to nature rather than feeling apart from it or above it." ~ Clyde Aspevig

Chazy Fossil Reef

Great textures are found in fossil rocks. I love the spiral, but the other lines in the image below talk to me. I love it.

I want to print these pictures out onto fabric and use them in a quilt. I think it would be very cool. We will see what the future holds! : )

"Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. " ~ Thomas Merton

Rock Formations

I found these wonderful rock formations on a beach in Grand Isle,  Vermont.  I did not stage these, they are just as I found them, the top photo, I believe, is natural, the bottom, most likely man made.
Wonderful discoveries!

Working on my Website

It's about time, I know! What took me so long? Me, myself and I got in the way.....
But, I am currently working on putting together my website, literally!
Yes, I have been awfully quiet this summer. I took time off from Blogging.
I drove my daughter around to various colleges and I took a Web Design class at Lebanon College. The culmination of the design class has me scrambling, yet producing! : ) It's all due August 13th!
The good news, it's forcing me to look at old photos of my work along with the new stuff. I am getting in touch with my work in a new light. So it's all good.
I hope you are enjoying your summer, too. I'll be back regularly in September.

The Grocery Store Photos

Sliced Cabbage Close up

How could I resist the beauty and color of this cabbage! Our co-op has an appealing way of displaying vegetables, especially this time of year when things are grown locally and in abundance. Look at these wonderful squiggly lines! I find myself drawing like this, doodling like this, admiring drawings like this! My subliminal influence has been brought to light. I see this all the time and draw it from memory. Therefore I am convinced, I am influenced by natural elements all around me.

Grocery store beauties!

"No one else knows your true potential. There is a power within you that can change everything. Decide to be a disciple of yourself. Let your heartbeat be your guru, pilot, and broker. You will know everything you’re meant to do, when you stop denying your design." ~ Tama J. Kieves

Great Quote

"Because the artist fears business, she hesitates to think as big as she could, to imagine the impact she might be able to make, to envision the leverage that's available to her." ~Seth Grodin

Celebrity Spotting in NYC

Matthew Broderick with an unknown fan

NYC Times Square at midnight!

After seeing, "Nice Work If You Can Get It", we waited outside the theater to meet one of our favorite celebrities, Matthew Broderick. It was a thrill to see him casually enjoying his fans and allowing photo ops and giving autographs. My daughter was sooooo happy!

The ghost of me

Sorry, folks... I need to take time off to college tour with my daughter...
I'll be back, but this month may be a little spotty.
Keep on making your art.

"I live in my creativity, a very sweet mansion" ~Tama J. Kieves

Work in progress

For sculpturefest... 

Thoughts on teaching

Parfait Dying, Anyone?

I am currently proposing new classes for the League. "What would I like to teach this time," is the question I usually ask myself, but the economy has me thinking the opposite now. "What do I think the public wants to learn?" is the present question.  So, I joyfully propose some new classes (and a few past, well attended classes), what I think would make both me and my prospective students happy.
In an ever changing world, the term "follow your bliss" has been replaced with "do what is economical and practical". One must remember to fill the well, though. An art/craft class can bring you joy.

"We can deny our hearts or we can deny our limits. We can choose to be practical or we can dare to be magical" ~ Tama J. Kieves

Summer!

Sorry for the lapse. School is out, so the schedule is whacky right now. I have been busy outside of the studio... so I'll post something more interesting soon. Sculpturefest installations are due soon!

“…Weren’t you always distracted by expectation, as if every event announced a beloved? (Where can you find a place to keep her, with all the huge strange thoughts inside you going and coming and often staying all night.)…” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

It's time to get me a kayak!

Today, it was a hot one.  I stayed home, indoors, and worked on my Sculpturefest stuff and some pillows for my crafts fairs.

But, I'd rather be on the river exploring.....

Yes, I'm doing what I need to do, but I'm dreaming of being somewhere else. Isn't that how it always is?

Kayaking on the river

The Connecticut River

I went kayaking with my high school girlfriend all weekend. She brought up her new kayaks for us to play with. We explored a part of the Connecticut river in the late afternoon when the lighting was really wonderful. I shot this image with my android phone. It was weird sitting in my boat and transmitting it to my Facebook page! Ah, the joys of modern life.

We drove over to my families summer place and explored Long Pond in Maine, too. It may just be time to get myself a kayak. I really loved it.

Sunday's Surface Design Blowout

The blue tent was my workspace. I shared with Nellie Pennington with the
hope that I could absorb some of her creative energy! Rose Birch was in
the brown tent. Lots of good stuff happened there, too!

My sweatshirt. I was very pleased with the outcome!

Lisa Johnson got some great dying results!

Nellie Pennington hanging up another successful piece.

Sarah Monego painted this silk scarf using glue as a resist.

Surface Design Saturday!

Peggy Sadler's newly dyed fabrics

Sue Geno's dyed scarves

Joanne Shapp's printed T-Shirts

Surface Design Blowout Weekend

The annual Surface Design Blowout is happening live and in color this weekend!.  It's an opportunity for textile artists to get all the messy work done, in all types of mediums, outside, with a bunch of like minded individuals.  We all come together to work, share and express our passion for textiles.
The weather looks like it will be fabulous! So, we will get really good results with any dye baths and drying.

I am very, very psyched.
I hope to see you there!
I'll post some images after the event.

Cat tested and approved!

My three boys

I'd like to introduce you to my quality assurance team.  They oversee the production of all my work.  I should make up little tags for them that say," approved by moi, meow!' and insert them in hidden crevasses of my quilts after they have been walked on, laid on or "pawed" in any way by them.
Most of the time this team thinks I'm pretty boring.  But every once in awhile, they glance up at me as I rev the engine of my sewing machine.  "Aren't you done yet? That's so boring, you know!" is what their glance reveals.
I keep sewing away anyway.  "Don't mind me," I say, "just sleep through it!" And surprisingly, they do!