outdoors

Lately I have been spending a bit too much time inside.
I need to get out today, away from traffic and walls and cars and computers, breath in some woods air, take the dog on a long walk, and hear some birds and wind in the branches.
That will be just the ticket!



"Learn to poke around. Take your time. Go slow. Get down on your hands and knees and dig around. Sit in one place for an hour at a time and let the world come to you." --John Bates

in the studio. . . .

I go in the world and gather ideas and images.
then I come to the studio to work with them.
and I am so grateful for this space and time to work here - who knows how long it will last?



"Gather and hoard your inspirations as you live, then recapture them as needed in the studio." --Nita Engle

just being

My anemia has gotten a bit worse, so I have been just being.
(Well, in between all the work I have to do I have been being . . . . )
I will go to the doctor, but in the meantime, I am learning to be in my body without making myself crazy or stressed or pressured to be what I am not.
It feels pretty good.
I am what I am . . . . and life goes on.



"Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall." --Fulton J. Sheen

why we do this work

Because we find stuff out.
We find out about our inner selves, which in turn, helps us understand what about our inner selves is connected to All.
So my journal helps me find about my own truth, and the truth of the Universe.
Cool, huh?



"Epiphany! Light poured in, my soul took flight, and I had encountered why I was put here, and who to thank for it! Each portrait represents a fresh journey, a voyage of disclosure, as I am privileged to explore the uniqueness of others." --David Goatley

from Journaling Group

Whenever we get together to work in our journals on our monthly Journaling Group, I always do pages I sort of enjoy. I think it is the slowing down and taking 2 hours to work, where in my studio I have ten other things looming that I am eager to get to.
These pages, as I shared with the group, reflect the two sides of my emotions I deal with - dark swirling moodiness and pastel joy.
My journal helps me understand and express these feelings, and for that I am grateful.
One reason this is my consistent practice is for the awareness it always gives me.
Secrets of my unconscious seem to emerge from the playing with color and image, and then the words bring some truth to the feelings.

Now if only life's problems could be so easily solved, but I guess that is the path.
at least Journaling helps me find the way.





"Art must not be intelligent; art is a jouisance, an enjoyment." --Andre Derain

Creativity Cafe

Journaling group is tonight, and while you wait for more journal pages, here is my newest work - Creativity Cafe, a blog and printed journal to encourage and enhance our inter-connected human process of Becoming Conscious of our Universal Creativity . . . .
more here:
http://creativitycafejournal.blogspot.com/



"When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it." --Carl Sagan

last page of my latest journal

When I kept a diary in middle school, then high school, then college, it was just all words.
Lots and lots of words.
I kept a separate sketchbook with drawings, and all my school notebooks were covered in doodles.
It took me about 20 years to finally figure out how to put these things together, now everyone seems to know about visual journaling.
That's how ideas infiltrate through humanity - and it happens so fast now.
One person thinks of something, or ten people do all at the same time, they experiment, share it, it spreads, then everyone seems to know about it.
Visual journaling was unknown ten years ago, now it practically has it's own section in the bookstore.

My latest journal is now full, so I wrote this note on the last page.
In the new journal I am working differently. . . . .
pages to come.

journal page for today

"I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down..." --Abraham Lincoln

dog = love

"People tend to forget that play is serious." --David Hockney

just plugging along.

"That's the best thing about walking, the journey itself. It doesn't matter much whether you get where you're going or not. You'll get there anyway. Every good hike brings you eventually back home." --Edward Abbey

sometimes, it's about words:

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." --Howard Thurman

city? country?

I love to go into the city, to wander around, soaking in the frenetic chaos and noise, the myriad of people and buildings and things to tickle and tease the mind.
I love riding the bus and seeing an amazingly beautiful person walking a diamond collared dog, knowing I will never see that person again.
I love popping in and discovering a new museum or shop that has magical things previously unknown to me.
I love a great meal in a cozy restaurant, featuring the best food on the planet.
Somewhere I read that New York City has more French restaurants that Paris -- could that be true?
All the sights and sounds and tastes and glorious explosion of humanity that is the city is a wondrous place to go get inspired.

and I also love being in the quiet of nature, hugging a tree, laying in the grass admiring the sky.
I love to wander on a path in the woods, hearing nothing but birds and chattering squirrels, angry that I am interrupting their reverie.
I seem to need both of these places in my life.
But we only live in one place at a time.
Or do we have to?
I am envisioning a way to get the best of both worlds, not sure yet how it will happen, but one day, it might.



"The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors dull the taste.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Precious things lead one astray.
Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.
He lets go of that and chooses this."

-Tao Te Ching