The three

They never fail to astound me. My three girls. Stair steps of unabashed liveliness.

They can be cruel to each other. They can be loving to each other. In minutes. But always creative. Always constructing something out of whatever is around. Together.

I can imagine the grown up sisters they will be. The unity. The support. The conversations. The calls. The texts. The boys who will be, who already are discussed.

I am blessed to be around such people. My hands are so lightly parenting them for fear of messing up what God has made already so rich.

The sad song of Alfred J.

"Everyday is for creating something. Something not necessarily for a purpose. Or to please someone else. But because it is better to do than to not do."

I have heard those words. I have written and read those words. Yes. But do I live them?

I am almost 40 years old. Half a life lived in Prufrock spoons. All measured and calculated.

This child, my Laura she is the opposite. No measurement. No calculation. Only doing. Forging ahead to the beat of her own drum.

Did the Lord know my child would be my teacher too?

traveling with friends

We drove from Magnolia, Texas to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. With friends. The Muchas. Artists. Journeyers.

Our children swapping cars. Eating together. Sharing hotels rooms. Excited about everything. Writing in their travel journals. Discussing the architecture of everything we saw along the way.

Our kids were magnificent in their interest in being together and claiming the world as their own.

Our kids are comfortable in their own skins. 

Our kids are the people I always wished I been like or at least known.

It's the season

It's the season of sparkles

and lights, evergreens and globes,

smiles and counting down,

full days and forgotten diets.

It's the season of caroling, 

red scarfs and hats,

plates of cookies, homemade and sugary

of silent nights, 

stars that appear in the sky, magically.

It's the season of the nativity

being shepherds or angels,

Mary wearing blue, Joseph standing by

in awe of what his woman has done.

It's the season of a gift given

wrapped and unwrapped

so inspiring

the thank you note is a book

written day in, day out

until the season comes again

and we find the next chapter is only beginning.

Creative Spring

First things first....

Homeschool Mom advice.
Beading - colorful. bold.
It is the thing to do when she is 5 and everyone else is doing school.

Second. This: I am taking my own advice (the words I laid down in my book). Living day by day my own creative dream. Fitting art time into my day, everyday.

This time not mixed media, not even photography. I am writing. Creative writing. I feel like I am flying.

I hate to be so oblique here and not tell you exactly what I am working on. It is so against my nature to not be straight forward. But I have to honor the Spring of my creative venture. At least for now.

And my kids are ever growing and pushing inwards and I have to meet that challenge. I have to help keep their world moving forward. I have to keep them challenged and encouraged. Everyday my husband and I wonder where each of their huge personalities come from. One day is more awesome and creative than the next.

I look back at this blog and I am amazed at how many people I have met. It is wonderful to have found so many people who 'get' what I am doing here with my art and book and homeschooling and all that. People that are committed to living the artistic life in their homes too. I don't want to loose that. So please, while I am not blogging regularly please don't forget me. I will have something awesome for you in a few months. Seriously. Trust me. I am using my time diligently. I am excited and hopeful.

Stamp from CRESCENDOh 'Everyday Me' by Christine Mason Miller.

Around my home

I took a workshop called 'A Slice of Inspiration' with Darrah Parker over at the wishstudio. I didn't know it until I was doing it that I really, really needed that class. It was refreshing to walk around with her 'seeing' suggestions, capturing those details that I see but sometimes don't see.....

printer's drawers that house my bills and receipts

the almost tidy stairs where the light is lovely in the morning

lamp that was a glass jar at my entry

Max's trike in the fireplace???!!!

oh my speakers that make everything lovely

his patient waiting to get up

school in PJs

fridge love

I think that I like when my art time allows me 'see' my life, cause when I am just living it I know only the messy mundane.

Max is a typical 15 month old - climbing on tables and chairs, flushing the toilet, opening the fridge, rummaging in the pantry, spilling things just because he can. He is not bad, just curious. And messy. I can't watch him like I would a first child because I have to do school with the others. And so, he bounces around making messes that I have to tidy. I am so glad that God saw fit to give me an artistic vision. He knew I would not survive this crazy life without it!

Art has a life of it's own

 

I was really moved by this quote on Chatting at the Sky this week. Emily has been writing about art this year on her blog, so I have become a regular reader. She is a lovely writer, and seems like a nice, gentle, kind soul herself.

I am looking ahead and laying out possible 'big' artistic projects I want to work on. I have things I am making and I am doing creative things everyday - recently I have made 3 necklaces, altered a small journal cover, made a couple of cards, did a home photoshoot for the wishBIG ecamp (which I posted on Flickr), played with photoshopping two images together, wrote a few poems, edited 2 super short kid's videos and have a couple of mixed media projects for the weekend. And this will continue, but I need something new and consuming. Something exciting.

Usually, I panic when I don't have a project right in front of me. I get insecure. I call Shannon. I bug my husband. I flap my hands at God, even though I know that this in between project stage is part of the creative process. I just have to learn to let it sit well with me. Be okay with the uncertainty.

I think there is a little fear in me that I may never do anything worth a lick again. I am afraid that is it, the well is closed. But when I look back, that is never the case. I am constantly finding new things that excite me to do. 

But also, and why I like Emily's quote, "art has a life of it's own". So, art will find me as it always does. 

 

What happened at the front gate?

1:30 pm, I am at the front gate
sitting on the iron two seater
listening to my son cry for 'out' -
out of the stroller
out the straps that contain his form
of the wheels that brought him here.
He wants to explore -
walk the road
pick up rocks
examine the mail.

He knows not that there
is danger on the road -
fast cars, fire ants piled on the edge.
But more, he knows not that I am tired
I want to, no need to, sit here
quietly on this solid bench
away from the house
from the familiar asking of his siblings
from the sound of Schoolhouse Rock
multiplication songs,
songs, I know now by heart

He persists
he is his own energy force
and I am weak to his red round lips
his blond layers, his little boy blue.

A simple click of the red button
and he is free!

I rise and follow,
capture.

My camera now full of life.

I am breaking all the poetry rules by doing something so literal, but you know poetry of the ordinary is worth the rebellion ;)

Motherhood v the world

I am not deaf to his call,

his smile, his neediness

I am not confused by the next step

he and I will take

His grip on my leg

so constant, so familiar

easing my days,

eclipsing the world outside.

By Shona Cole

Storyland

I live with interesting people. These people, together with a very inventive neighbor boy, create stories every day. Out of fresh minds. Out leaves and sticks and near by forests. Out of a love for adventure.

Oh, the future is exciting! How beautiful that I get to see it unfold. 

(no live trees were cut down to create this house, they gathered trees, branches already felled)

I wrote about ACTIVE SATISFACTION on the Wishstudio! It is one of my favorite articles, I am really trying to live in active satisfaction. It is hard, but doable. Let me know what you think.

These words sound sad, but my focus is on 'conviction'. I am utterly convicted that my path is here with my children. Nothing will tear me away from them and this deep seated desire to raise my kids here, at home with my husband.

I want my art to reflect my life here. Somehow. Even the purely decorative things I make, the things that look nice with little deeper meaning, the stamping, the crafts - they are for my girls, to inspire them to create too. To make the world a more beautiful place. To use their hands for good.

And boy do they create. Constantly. Completely. Larger than life. This pattern is working!

Forest Nymph

Art Finds Friday - Jan 6, 2011

1)  MIXED MEDIA

I am delighted to announce that this year I have joined Jenny Doh's CRESCENDOh design team. It is so nice to have this deadline and inspiration to get me creating. Maximus has become such a challenge at 14 months, zooming here and there, pulling things out of cupboards and drawers, by the evening without a strong reason to create I find it hard to not give into the desire to veg. You know what I mean Momma?

My first card made using CRESCENDOh products has been posted here. It is a kind of Workshop - I describe in words and pictures how I went about making this card with these Alice in Wonderland stamps.

I am full of ideas for things to make with the CRESCENDOh stamp lines and looking forward to creating lots in 2011 despite my crazy toddler!


2) GIVEAWAY

Tara Sophia Mohr is hosting an online workshop: Living Your Brilliance: Quieting Your Inner Critic and Reclaiming the Driver's Seat in Your Work and Your Life. Doesn't that sound nice? I am really practicing quieting my inner critic this year. My word for 2011 is positive. Specifically, I am determined to be more positive about myself! I am often so positive about the world around me, my kids, other artist's work, other folks blogs and books and on and on, reserving all my negativity for myself. I am so tired of feeling down about myself. I want to feel that what I choose and do is okay. So Tara's course sounds right along those lines.

You can win a spot on this course over here at Shelley Kommers blog Oiseaux (I love Shelley's collages, so her blog is always worth a visit). This giveaway is open until January 9th, so hurry on over.


3) MUSIC

If you grew up in the 80's then you probably loved George Michael's Careless Whispers. Guilty. But oh, Seether has done an amazing re-make. I can't get enough. I am not really into that video.....

but... someone has put Seether's song to the best bits of the movie 'Twilight'. Check it out here on YouTube.  Let me rant for a minute - I loved Twilight... yes it was cheesy but it captured perfectly the emotion, the awkwardness of new love, Edward's agony and desire, the first desirable male since Mr. Darcy. It inspired me to read all the Twilight series books (in like a week). I felt the coloring of the movie really complimented them... but then Summit stole the project from director Catherine Hardwick, who is first and foremost an artist, and gave it to directors who made the other movies into blah, blah big Hollywood movies. New Moon and Eclipse lack energy, the edgy coloring, the raw longing, the passion of the books and the first movie. They are simply wooden. Worse - pieces of plastic covered wood. Like toys you would see in Walmart rather than on Etsy. Sigh. Such a shame.

Another Seether song I love is 'Broken' with Amy Lee.....

The singer of Seether and Amy Lee were a couple when they wrote this song and I was thinking I wish I could create some art with my mate..... but then I remembered 1) my commitment to being positive towards myself... so I am not going to lament my lack of singing talent/creative opportunity. Check. Re-focus. 2) My husband and I have made some, no, the ultimate art - our beautiful children! 

Re-focus. Positive. Create.

4 inspirations

1) Line and form

2) Perspective

3) Color

4) Flora and fauna

Thanks Shannon for the photo inspiration and the enjoyable walk to the park.

Wordless Wednesday

Splinter