art

Patience and Trust

/ still a dreamer / 6 Comments

It seems that there are periods in our lives when we have plans, goals, dreams, and we are just not going to get to them when we want. Plans? What are those?

To create art, to plan a future, to write, to do any of the things that a freelancer wants and needs to do takes blocks of time, and more importantly, focus. And that’s what I have been sorely missing.

Sorting out my life in the interest of giving up 40% of my second floor has been a two-part journey. The first part is choosing what belongings need to stay and which to go. Thanks to Buy Nothing, mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to find new homes for 45 items. But the second part is the need to go through everything I own – every closet, dresser, storage area – to see what no longer aligns with who I am right now, and THAT has been a life review of large proportions.

It has entailed remembering so much – joy, sorrow, laughter – through photos, art, and other items infused with memories. I keep trying to focus on where I’m going, but between Buy Nothing and a life review, on top of the demands of everyday life, I have none. I’ve lost so much time. And energy. The blue heron is a tiny example – started out with a color sketch, then another version in watercolor, and my plan was/is to do a digital rendering. That was a week ago.

I remind myself to have patience, and to trust, as I do believe, that everything is unfolding in exactly the right way and at exactly the right time, always for me. It’s all almost done. Patience and trust … working on it, working on it.

Drawing in Pen and Ink All October

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That’s the Inktober challenge – one pen and ink drawing every day for the month of October. I completed it in 2022 for the first time, and am hoping to draw all 31 days again.

Artists are given a prompt for each day’s drawing, but we needn’t follow the prompt if we choose not to. For the drawing above, the prompt was “Golden”, and what came to mind was the Beatles song, Golden Slumbers. Even though the song was not really written for a baby, I liked the idea that it might apply.

I’m always stashing lots of quotes that appeal to me, and I love this one by Maya Angelou. The prompt was “Dodge”; nothing of interest came to mind so I went with this great quote.

I am posting daily on Instagram, so if you’d like to follow along on this month-long pen and ink journey, come visit me on Instagram. Every day will be a surprise – for me as well as you!!

An Inspiring Guide for All Who Create

/ still a dreamer / 7 Comments

Above are the two books I’m reading now, one, the memoir of a transracial adoptee, the other, a kind of guide to the act and nature of creativity. Both are excellent, but here I am going to focus on the second book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin.

Here we are in a familiar spot on my back porch. I’m sitting with my coffee, ceiling fan going, hoping to enjoy the fresh air until the heat gets too much. And reading The Creative Act. Rubin has been a well-known and highly successful music producer and record executive most of his life. He wanted to take his experiences and write a book to help artists. He said, “I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.”

And he wrote a phenomenal book, taking complex philosophical principles of how the artist exists and creates in this world , and makes them accessible and digestible to the reader. No easy feat. His thoughts on the various aspects of creativity are broken down into 1-1/2 to 2’1/2 page chapters, making it very easy to read in small bites and reflect on.

He addresses the artist in us all, looking at ultimately, how we live in the world being so critical to our creativity, and thoughts about how we can all be on our own road to bringing what is within us to light.

I feel I cannot truly do this book justice in the space of a blog, so I encourage you to read the in-depth description of this book on goodreads or the extensive reviews on Amazon. This is not a self-help book, but more of an illumination of the creative process that we artists engage in with insights guiding us to deeper exploration and understanding.

Thanks to a blogging friend, Kitty, at The Daily Round who suggested this to me; she knows my creative heart and soul. If you’d like to explore the deeper and very real issues of what it means to be a creative of any kind brought to you in a new and inspiring way, The Creative Act: A Way of Being may be just what you need.

p.s. Think you’ve already seen the photo Immediately above? You’ve seen the early hydrangea blooms (left) in a previous post, but what you didn’t see are all the smaller, bright ones in the sun. They are all the new blooms that grew in spite of the deer having eaten nearly all the hydrangeas, leaving only barren stems. Those little guys are the beauty and persistence of nature.

Come Meet Me at Tinicum!

/ still a dreamer / 6 Comments

In the area Saturday? Come join me at the Author’s Tent from 2-4, and I would be delighted to sign a copy of my picture book, Where Do Butterflies Go at Night? and talk picture books – or butterflies – with you!

The festival is almost completely in the shade, and makes for very pleasant touring about. The 130+ artists and artisans featured are truly top-notch, plus there’s live entertainment, and much more. Check here for details:

This is a 2-day event, so if Saturday is not good for you, come Sunday and enjoy the art and festivities!

Go Back to Go Through

/ still a dreamer / 8 Comments

Lately, I find myself drifting back through time. It seems necessary to my creativity for me to go back before I can go through.

I am searching – I want to use my writing and art to reach out in a different way than I have in the past. How will I do that?

Conversations about art, music, and writing with people in my life now get me reflecting. And remembering … recently, I felt a song trickling through my mind. It was a Peter, Paul and Mary song, but I could only grasp a phrase. A search brought it back to me – Bob Dylan’s Dream. And with it, a flood of memories.

One memory was of my junior and senior years in college when four friends and I would hang out in the evening in Susie’s apartment and play music and sing together. They all played guitar, and we all could sing and knew a wide range of folk songs. Just sitting and singing and playing by candlelight into the wee hours of the morning were such incredible times. I don’t yet know how that memory will play a part in my going forward, just that it will.

Bob Dylan’s Dream, written by Bob Dylan, sung by Peter, Paul and Mary, 1967

I recently went to see a fabulous show of Japanese printmaking from the 1950’s to the present. I looked so, so closely at those stunning prints, noticing just how they were made, recalling the necessary techniques. I studied printmaking for two semesters – woodcutting, etching, and lithography. And these masterful Japanese prints brought that back, too.

“Red Wall”-1992. Zinc etching and woodblock print on paper by Hodaka Yoshida

I am being readied. I am preparing for some leap forward that I cannot yet see, but these memories are stirring the things I need to know, so long put aside while I did other things with my life. Sometimes it seems like I’m dreaming or wasting time, but I know I’m not.

I’m taking a deep breath and – not always so easy – trusting in the process.