Month: March 2010

The Din of the Light Bulb Moment

In reading the latest of The Artist’s Way books, Walking in This World by Julia Cameron, I had a light bulb moment.  Yes, that weird feeling when suddenly things seem very clear.  I could feel a “pop” go off in my head.  I looked up and around me with a start.  You know the feeling when things seem to come together and make perfect sense?  That sometimes happens slowly, like a gradual awakening, the fog slowly lifting and you say to yourself, “Yeah, I see. I get it.”  No, that’s not what happened to me.  I had a rush, boom, clang, got hit on the head moment.  Ouch!

Before you think I lost my mind, I should explain.  As I’ve been stuck in resistance lately and I had put off the latest Artist’s Way course book, I decided it was time to re-direct, take a U-turn and pick up where I left off.  I’ve been very good about writing the morning pages, not so good at keeping up with artist’s dates, but here and there doing small things to stay in the loop: looking at old work, fussing with that bagpipe work, knitting on socks, ordering yarn.  Yesterday I picked up the course book and started reading again.

Chapter 3 is about discovering a sense of adventure to gain a greater feeling of freedom and open mindedness. One of the tasks was called Draw Yourself to Scale.  Interesting, I thought.  The task involves sketching.  Nice and easy, right?  To paraphrase: “Sketch each moment and enter adventure..The coffee mug, the doctor’s office..Don’t need to sketch well.  The adventure of life rushes past us in a blur.  Velocity is the culprit.  Velocity and pressure.  A sketchbook freezes time and is a form of meditation to focus on every moment.”  And here I was thinking I had to sketch myself.

CLICK!  The light bulb over my head popped really loud!

A couple of months ago I bought a teeny sketchpad and filled my old rapidograph with ink.  I don’t like to carry a large handbag for the weight of it, but okay, the one I have right now can fit a few things.  So there’s the sketchbook and pen, handy and ready.  When I had some time, and no knitting with me, I’d pop out my things and doodle.  Most of the time I forgot I had them with me in my bag.

POP!  Light bulb!  I have doodled waiting at the doctor’s office!  CLICK!  I drew a little girl in my teeny book after allergy shots in the waiting room!  SNAP!  I pulled out the little book last week at a coffee salon and sketched the live musicians while my company sipped their coffee!  I’m in the loop after all!  Where I thought I was out of the game, I really wasn’t.  Maybe I was coasting along the whole time?  If I hadn’t read this chapter I may have continued thinking I was still in resistance mode.  Talk about synchronicity!  Things were just falling into place of their own accord.  Could it be I just wasn’t really paying attention to myself?

Boy, that was some light bulb.

Thanks But I Need to Get Off the Computer, NOW

Surprised is not the word, when I checked here the other day and saw that a fellow facebook “friend”, fan, and Etsy shop seller thought enough of my creativity to send me this Sunshine Blog Award.  Michele is the purveyor of a shop called By Your Side.  Many of us creative types have a shop at Etsy with original art, hand crafts, vintage items, etc. 

Getting exposure is not an easy task, but most everyone is involved in the internet in some way, whether it’s facebook, twitter, blogs and the like.  Lately, on facebook artisans have been linking to each other’s business and fan pages in the hopes of more exposure to more people with similar interests and the possibility of sales of the various items.  SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is the focus.  Many of the artisans, but not all, are people at home with children, finding the time in their day to connect with others about their craft, maybe help with the family’s finances.  I’ve come in contact with some lovely people of all kinds.  Michele was nice enough to pass on this blog award, and in accepting it I now must pass it on to twelve other bloggers, link to their blog, let them know about the link with a comment, and finally share a thank you to the blogger bestowing the award.  A daunting task!  I’m not the most adept at computer stuff, so it will take a little work and possibly more time than I can spend on it. 

It’s fun and all, but I’m trying to get myself motivated for painting and creative pursuits rather than get stuck on the computer trying to figure out how to link to this and that.  Could take a fair amount of time that I would prefer to use otherwise.  Bad enough I’m in a bit of resistance and now I might be blocked again because I feel bad not to reciprocate.  It’s like those chain letters you get in the mail that say, “If you don’t send out 12 copies of this letter something bad will happen in 24 hours!  Do not break the chain!”  Oh when I see those things I throw them right in the trash.  There’s no way I’m falling for that one.  Have you ever received the ones that say something about holy prayers being said as the chain letter went out to all the selected people and if you break the chain Holy hellfire will erupt?  No, not going there either.  Dump that one even faster! 

So now a lovely person has added my blog to this award.  I’m really grateful, but now instead of getting on this computer, checking email, having my say here and there about art, now I’ve got a job.  I’m sorry to say it, but it really becomes a job and I was hoping my job would be to PAINT! 

I’m not sure I can do all the linking that’s been asked of me, but I’m happy to link Michele and her facebook fan page.  Have some fun, look around at her page and some of the other wonderful creatives there.  If I’m free I might try to link up a few more people, but hopefully they’re not like me and feel like this is the chain letter from hell.

Today is the Ides of March, I’ll Paint Tomorrow

“A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March” ~ Brutus to Caesar, Act I, Scene II from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

We arsty types always enjoyed acknowledging the fact that today, March 15th, is the Ides of March.  Thoroughly enjoyed pointing it out.  I don’t know why, but anyone I knew who was an artist made a big thing about the Ides.  So there it is, I’m continuing the tradition.  I used to tell this to my sons every year, very cryptically, “Beware the Ides of March.”  They’d look at me as if I had two heads.  Was it me?  I don’t know.

That said, let’s get on with it.

This weekend was horrible, crazy, scary weather.  Saturday saw a nor’easter that seems to be historic now that it’s over.  Sunday wasn’t great either with rain, thunder, lightening and flooding in areas.  I burrowed in my cave, so to speak.  I spent Sunday photographing some new jewelry I made, a couple of older paintings, and dug up my color charts.  Looking through my work gave me ideas and motivation.  It’s good to dig out old stuff every now and then. 

I had put the bagpipe painting on my easel to look at it whenever I came into the studio.  I like to do that with works in progress.  It gives me a feel for where I need to go with a piece.  The light in the studio may be out for good now, but I ignored it, turned on my desk light and did a little work on the painting. 

Each work teaches you something new.  With this painting I learned that the style I’m used to working with in oils may not be the right way to work in watercolors or I need a more durable surface.  Painting as with oils, I kept adding to certain areas with color.  Maybe it’s the paint, but I think the paper is wearing on those areas and making little balls of something.  Maybe watercolor is not meant for much reworking?  Am I using too much water?  The paper is Lanaquarelle 140lb cold press and usually fine to work with, but would Arches paper do the same thing?  Answers come with doing so I’m just going to keep working.

Overall, I’m painting, and I like the mood of this piece.  Maybe I should have worked this in oils?  It’s possible I will paint it again.  I have another photograph with a different position I could try in the future.  The chiarasciuro, darks and lights, is what I really like and it may be worth another go in another medium.  For now this just needs a little tweaking for me to say I’m done.

Not touching this painting today, though.  It’s the Ides of March and important things are better left until another day.

Friday Photos

(c)1996 Dora Sislian Themelis
Hillside at Agriolivadi Beach, Patmos Island, Greece
on location
(c)1996 Dora Sislian Themelis
Agriolivadi Beach, Patmos Island, Greece
on location
(c)1996 Dora Sislian Themelis
Hillside church Santorini, Greece
from photographs
(c)1996 Dora Sislian Themelis
Hillside church at Santorini, Greece  close-up
In the frenzy of travel, I sometimes remember to bring drawing materials for the times I see a scene and want to capture it as art, rather than as a photograph.  Those times are few.  Many years ago I did bring pen and sketchbook on our visit to family in Greece.  Luckily, I packed these items for our beach day and drew some pretty scenery from life, which I prefer over photos. 
The blue sky, azure beaches and non-stop sun was therapy for body, mind and soul.  When can I return?

Could it be Spring?

This is the last of the snow in front of my house.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed and asking the Universe to please melt it quick and send any to someplace else, not here, please.  Look, I know this is New York, and we’re supposed to have four seasons, winter among them, but come on!  This winter has been ridiculous with  snowfall after snowfall.  I can be a bit of a hermit, but after a while cabin fever does set in on the best of us cave lovers.  And I love my cave.  Tell me to stay home and I’m loving it.  A blizzard?  Great day to stay in and bake, cook up something hot and good.  The electricity is going to go out?  Break out the candles and play Scrabble!  We huddle in the candlelight and tell each other stories with the fireplace lit.  No problem for me.

Unless…it’s every other day.  Then I can’t do anything.  Stuck.  The choice to venture out or stay in is the thing.  If one day is a disaster, but the next you can get out and do your thing, it’s fine.  If that continues day in and day out you can get a little crazy. 

Springtime in New York is beautiful weather, when we have a spring time.  Some years we have two days of spring-like weather and then Boom! the summer hits.  You won’t hear me complaining.  Summer is real good, even better, in my opinion.  Bring on the heat and the humidity, I’m ready!  The hotter the better.  I’m not comfortable until the weather is in the 90’s and I’m dripping.  Good excuse to visit the beach or be out in my garden. The colors of the flowers in spring and summer are at their best.  I try to fill my garden with the brightest, deepest colors I can find.  And I need fragrance.  Strongly scented roses, spicy butterfly blush, hyacinth and daffodils, and others I can’t remember.  I just need to smell the fresh air mingled with flowers.  Even freshly cut grass is an amazing aroma. Yeah, I like the warmer days.

I just can’t wait for spring and summer.  Bring it!

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go…

Wrapped up in the latest B.S. going around and my own resistance, what does one do?  Well, I do a couple of things.  I can’t really say which one is the go-to perfect thing for me to do when I’m frustrated.  People would think, “Oh you’re an artist so you’ll go paint or draw something.”  No, I don’t go there when I’m annoyed.  Wish I did, but that’s not it. 

Some people go shopping.  My shopping wouldn’t make a dent anywhere.  Sometimes I go shopping and walk around the store with the things I’ve chosen and by the time I’m ready to check out I’m already done with the items I was holding.  No sale!

Dancing is a feel good thing for me, but I feel stupid dancing alone in my house.  Gardening is another good thing to do, but here in New York there’s no gardening going on right now.  Nope, not with all the half melting snow still around. 

From what I’ve been reading lately on resistance, it’s good to do something mundane, repetitive, or ordinary.  The Artist’s Way said to do your mending!  Who has mending today?  Nobody mends socks anymore.  You pop a toe hole and toss the socks in the trash these days.  Or maybe now with the huge recession people will think twice about throwing clothes away when they pop a hole.  I mended socks until I could no longer mend them.  So there.

Want to know what I did?  I ordered yarn!  Yup.  In the heat of the moment I went online and ordered yarn.  Enough to make a kind of big thing.  I’m not saying what kind of thing in case anyone’s looking over here!  And…I knit!  I took out every half knit thing I had this week and checked them over.  Then I started knitting.  Those half done socks from a couple of weeks ago?  Done.  The other pair of baby socks?  Done.  The new order has not arrived yet, but I can’t wait to get my hands on it!  Yeah, yarn gets my juices going! 

Painting is hard.  Knitting is easy!  Ordering yarn is even easier!  I’m licking my lips just thinking about the mailman coming with my yarn order.  And the color is delicious.  Come to think of it, it’s the colors that really get me.  Yarn colors can be amazing!  Just go visit a yarn shop and see all the colors and textures.  Some yarns are real eye candy.  Heaven can be found in a yarn shop.  OK, most yarn shop proprietors are the meanest, nastiest, snobbiest people on earth.  Oh yes they are and the shop nearest my house is a testament to that.  Yarn is not cheap by any means and they have the nerve to be nasty!  So I snub them and order on line.  It’s great.  The only draw back is that you can’t see it all or touch it.  It’s fine and less expensive, sometimes free shipping, no tax.  Wonderful not to deal with crazy people. I’ve had enough of dopey, crazy people for the moment.

The other thing I like to do to escape is read. What am I reading NOW you ask?   Take a look below and let out a nice laugh, go ahead, I laughed too!

 

Had it in the Fun House. Now Where’s the exit?

It’s Monday morning and my day has been well under way for hours.  I awake most days at around 6:00-6:30AM, no later.  My usual routine is to get myself together and go to the kitchen to get the coffee started.  Must have coffee.  In an old post I told you how I like to make coffee in my old fashioned Corning Ware stove-top percolator.  Old school style, I know, but drip just doesn’t offer the aroma of perked coffee.  Sorry, just doesn’t and what’s a morning without the coffee wafting through the house?

I get the coffee going and make lunches for the Mr. and Son #2.  Son #1 is married and out so I’m down to the three of us. I bring in the newspaper from the sidewalk and read it with my coffee.  It’s the perfect time of day.  If I’m lucky I write the Morning Pages while they’re still asleep.  Most days that doesn’t happen and I write after they leave for the day when my time is my own. I write every day.

The Morning Pages, from the book The Artist’s Way, have become a lifeline, as I’ve said before.  I write the date and time at the top of the page and then all this stuff starts pouring out of my head, through my arm, the pen, and to the page. Then the fun begins.  Good thoughts and ideas, stupid stuff and dopey people wind up in the pages.  Lately the focus has been on my own resistance, and the dopey people.  Every day another block.  Every day another thing from these dopey people.  The pages are supposed to help one see where one needs the most attention.  Okay, my resistance I’m working on, but how about the dopey people?

I’m being mild here when I say “dopey people.”  I’d like to call them something else, but I’m just not that way.  How long can you excuse their actions by calling it jealousy?  This is no longer 4th grade no-clue stupid stuff, but real life adult dopey people. What are you supposed to do, hide in a cave?  In a previous post I was talking about reading Walking in This World, how other people try to fit you into how they’re used to seeing you, but they can’t now that you’ve become who you’re meant to be.  Okay, find a better mirror, but how long does it take? When will it be over and how do you get out of the fun house?

Here’s a scenario.  Let’s say there’s a young person who loves doing a thing, and someone a little older loves doing the same thing, that’s nice.  Over time they grow older, learn more, become more talented, more interested, more adept, more out there with this thing they love, and do it better than the older person.  Suddenly, the older person is annoyed, upset, surprised, and combative.  Just because the younger person grew up and became more of who they really are, and is better at the thing than the older person will ever be, why is that a problem?  Why can’t the older person say, “Good for you!  Look at how you’ve grown and what you’ve become!”  No, this previous mentor becomes the aggressor, the enemy.  We’re talking about an adult with responsibilities, children, in an adult world having a tantrum, pouting, screaming, ignoring, sulking, pounding their chest like a big ape because they’re surprised this younger person showed them up by doing the thing they love to do differently, better, new.  “Since you’re doing it like that, now I’m not going to be your friend. He has a swelled head.” Give me a break.  Who really has the swelled head?

What keeps coming up in my pages is the question, “Why?”  I know I said in the other post that people are jealous when you grow.  But, how does the word jealous cover all this dopey person’s stuff?  I can’t figure it out.  I’m hoping that in writing about the negativity it will dissipate and the morning pages will give me an answer.  I need to know how to react when I see said dopey person. Soon.