still life with flying bird

From where we stood, it looked effortless. A hawk hovering
inside the bay wind as if posing for a photograph. An hour earlier,
we’d nearly been knocked over by that same current, shivering
roadside to fix a flat tire. It was hard to believe this air
could have held that bird so gently. And yet, her body lay still
as sleep, and the hawk simply floated as if she had forgotten
the haste of hunger, as if home could wait. I wondered how it would feel
to fly into such weather and then let go, to quiet that great flapping
of wings and lean into the stream’s muscle, have it carry us as far
as it wanted while we rested inside it, patient and trusting as ever.

-maya stein

new eyes...

In order to see we must first forget the name of the things we are looking at.

~ monet

listen to your gut...

you are being called to your adventure now because we are stepping into an age of listening to your gut rather than the rest of the world.

what the world really needs is for you to take as many risks as you can, betting on yourself, so when you come out on the other side victorious, you will be a living inspiration for others to follow their own unique calling.

~ mastin kipp

artists of being alive...

the most invisible creators i know of are those artists whose medium is life itself. the ones who express the inexpressible - without brush, hammer, clay or guitar. they neither paint nor sculpt - their medium is being. whatsoever their presence touches has increased life. they see and don’t have to draw. they are the artists of being alive.

~ j. stone via MB

you'll see...

at squam i took marisa's 'painting in a day' class. i had always admired marisa (pronounced ma-REE-sa) and her work over at creative thursday. a while back, i asked her to do a custom portrait of my beloved sweet-doggie duncan. she did a fantastic job...and this portrait graces the coffee station in our kitchen - into his senior years now, (and just yesterday diagnosed with cancer) duncan usually chooses to sleep in and doesn't join us until we're on our second cup so i wanted to enjoy his face in the morning.

needless to say, when i heard she was teaching at squam i instantly signed up for her class. a few years ago, marisa took on this 'painting a day' project...and the idea inspired me. sometimes it's the starting, sometimes it's the finishing...but often there just seems to be some sort of resistance to the work of creating. and her commitment to a painting a day helps to tackle some of these obstacles. sometimes, she said, she was pushing aside papers and piles to crank that piece out in 30 minutes to stick to her commitment, and she also admitted her style of painting - while skilled, and with great color and beautiful detail, is graphically and aesthetically simple and it is also on relatively small wooden artboards (6x6?). all of which make getting it done in a day a feasible task. but still...what has developed is a style all her own. adorable, bright, sweet characters with such personality. i love her "photo opp" series with a cute polar bear peeking in the side of the frame to get in on the picture, and her sock monkeys are just too cute. i can't wait to decorate a nursery with her paintings!

the class was delightful...she created this really mellow, open, easy play-space and played very visual music. we had christmas lights all around us, and the lake out the windows. she began by talking a bit about her process and we got to it. she has a very subtle way about her, and a light-hearted sweetness, but at the same time she is precise and crystal-clear about what she says. i felt that i needed to be fully present to really "hear" what she was sharing with us because she puts it out there, simply, beautifully and if you weren't paying attention it was gone and you almost wouldn't realize what a gem of wisdom she just offered you.

i feel one of her messages was about allowing inspiration but at the same time, showing up to do the work. but, as tends to be my pattern, i got myself stumped and pushed myself to "plan" and "think" about what to do with my little squre of art board. i spent an hour tracing a photo i thought i wanted to paint only to discard it at the last minute. she had a great pile of inspiration that i went through many times and finally i settled on trying to capture a night-time color scheme based on some things i found in her pile that were similar to things i had in mine. i figured, what better place to attempt something like this than this welcoming, encouraging space. i so love the idea of dark blues and purples and trying to do stars and mood and elements of light. so i painted a dark purple background and out they came, the trees and birds that are my go-to themes in my doodling...it was another example of happy accidents, and stepping into the flow and just allowing...

just as i was feeling close to complete... grace told us a story. she said she had made a commitment this year to say YES! to everything art. you can only imagine the adventures that's brought her on. well, she got a phone call one day about an architect's drafting table that was for sale that her friend thought she might like. "what the hell am i going to do with a drafting table?" she asked to which her friend replied "you'll see". that whole idea...the adventures you'll have by saying yes to the art, the fun, to life... was summed up for me in those two words. you'll see. and so, they ended up in my painting. and it was done. ta-DAH.

as class was ending we had a little art show & tell, and got to speak about our process and inspiration and where we were going. here's marisa's photo of the line-up.

((clearly i need to get myself a real camera and some better skills at taking pictures of my creations.))

so there it is. say yes to art. say yes to life. say yes to fun. say yes to love...because it will bring you out of the darkness and because you'll never know the inspiration you'll find, the magic waiting for you, or even what "you'll see" until you get there.