explore, imagine, invent, discover

“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.”
--Edward de Bono

another project of mine:

In April 2011, EtStudio celebrates the 4 year anniversary of starting
the Goddess Mail Art call of fabulouso Creative Exchange. We have had
submissions from 25 countries and one magnificent art show - and we will
have the FIFTH ANNIVERSARY show of Goddess art and artist trading cards
this SUMMER!
WOOHOO
All art will be posted and shown on the blog -- see below, and artist trading cards will be exchanged.
1. Please send us your Goddess mail art, AND/OR six original (6) ATCs— a set of 6, or 6 versions of your work.
All cards submitted will be displayed in the SPRING show, (venue to be decided.)
2. Please include with your 6 card ATC submission: a pre-stamped return
envelope (SASE), your contact information, including e-mail (if
possible) and 1 page maximum about you and the way you made your work--
tell us a little about yourself & discuss your techniques and tools,
and your image content.
3. Do you live outside the USA?
Don’t worry about return postage, send us something fun-- ephemera from your
country, or even an extra ATC. We’ll pay the return postage. it’s easier
that way.

Display Closing: Mid-August 2011, after which you will receive 6 trades mailed back!
For More Information, please contact Emily Townsend/11750 Carmel Drive/Lakewood, Colorado, 80215, USA.

http://goddessy-art.livejournal.com/

May we Honor the Goddess in all HER forms!

myth, meaning, mystery

I always have this urge for travel.
Not tourism, not just ticking off a list of sights, but being deeply in another place. The places that feed my soul the most deeply are natural, mountains, rivers, oceans, groves of trees, paths down natural and wild places.
But also, I have loved being in historic capitals of Europe and learning of the history of where my ancestors came from, and learning about amazing artists, writers, architects of these places and how they created brilliance that inspires me today.
I have given up wondering why I have this urge, and let these longings direct me, following my bliss, which Joseph Campbell talks about.
And although I do love wild places, my body also loves comfort, and sometimes the best way to experience the wonders of the world are by watching a film, or reading a book about it.
I think the connection to anyone in history who has lived the myth of their lives, found meaning in their work, used the Spirit of place to make meaning is what attracts me.
Getting out of our comfort zone makes us really see. The rut is what I am escaping. I love making art out of experience, hence, creative journaling!
I am finding my mission statement, my meaning for being, it's just taken me a few decades to get there.

"Tell me what it is that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? A ship is safe in port, but that is not what ships are for." --Mary Oliver

the vision

Inspiration sometimes just piles up in a backlog of ideas in my brain, and instead of working at expressing it, I seem to sit in front of this computer and waste time on this and that on the internet.
I know I have deep truths buried in me, but the trick is to express them clearly in images. How to get the whole of the world in one small cut up collage?
I sometimes come across an image that takes my breath away in it's complicated beauty combined with simplicity; and sometimes I come across a phrase in a book that captures it all. . . . my mind wants to hold all the meaning in one shot, so I do try to get this in my work - perhaps I am reaching too high -- to make something so clear as to hold all the meaning in the world?
That is the seed that I am after in my work right now.
We'll see if it can happen; why not try?

"The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us."
--Maria Mitchell

and finally a new journal page . . . .

I am being easy on myself these days, still working on getting the house all sorted out, enjoying some cooking and knitting for the holidays.
My journals are patiently waiting on the table, in a messy little stack, until I "feel it" again.
Sometimes I just fiddle with pens and paper, organizing and sorting, and not requiring myself to push forward yet.
Today I did manage to add some squiggly lines and a quote from the Tempest to this page I had started a few weeks ago.
I am settling into this time of fallow fields, and honoring the space that I am making for something new and big to start in Spring.
Sometimes I feel panicked nothing will happen.
But I have been at this long enough to know to stop, breathe deeply, maybe get up and stretch, and pick up a book if I need to.
Creativity does wax and wane, and that's fine.

"All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavour."
--William Shakespeare, The Tempest

waiting for my new direction.

"Old Woman . . . .
Under the words you are my silence."
--May Sarton

"I know there is a shift going on inside of me. A deceleration. I can feel the striving leaking out of my work. It's like I'm just figuring out how to lean back into the simplicities of being. It reminds me of the first time you try to learn to float, the way you have to keep letting go and resting in the moment, believing the water will hold you, that it is enough, that it is everything. And then you sink and you have to sputter back and start again."
--Sue Monk Kidd, Traveling with Pomegranates

This elf is busy getting ready for the holidays!

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup." --Buddy in the movie, "ELF"

what are you dreaming today?

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." --Anatole France

learning from a tree

I have been immersed in our new place and my new path, forgive me for not being here too often while my journal fields lie fallow, there will be more pages as the moon waxes and wanes, all in the fullness of time, as they say!

"A tree uses what comes its way to nurture itself. By sinking its roots deeply into the earth, by accepting the rain that flows towards it, by reaching out to the sun, the tree perfects it character and becomes great. Absorb, absorb, absorb. That is the secret of the tree." --Deng Ming-Dao

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"When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy." --Rumi

Wednesday's journal page

uncertainty.

To go to the studio each day and work on journals - to dedicate my creative expression to self exploration, experimentation and personal visual vocabulary . . . . this work is the core of what I do and it does make me wonder sometimes.
I am exploring some new media and my journal really helps me think about things visually. I just am not a verbal thinker.
I love flipping through old journals and letting the inspiration take off -- try it!

"Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence." --Rumi

finally. some journal pages.

Just to mix it up, and not get bored, I always have at least 3 journals going at once. This little one was a real treat -- I have boxes of postcards sent to me over the years, many with magnificent collage art that I wanted to enjoy. I chose my 30 or so favorite postcards, and stitched them together in an accordion-style booklet. Then I added some paint and stickers and doodles and stamps and words when I felt it.
So it ended up a collaborative little book, 30 generous wonderful artists who shared their work in the mail with me, and a bit of my own hand.
Just because we tend to work alone in a studio does not mean we can't join a collaborative mayhem of art; make some awesome messy collages with other similar soul-searching spirits, sharing our creativity in ways not even predicted by the original artist.
Every time I flip through this book I get ideas for new work.
Here are some of these pages:



"There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise." --Rumi

Saturday's Garden - the last day of our garden tour

Saturday, a day of many chores inside, is a day of mostly enjoying what is there, and not doing too much work. (ha.)
This area includes the waterfall (now dry so the pump won't freeze) and some brick pathways.
There is a nice grouping of 2 pine trees and an aspen here, and some colorful groundcover that won't need much maintenance.
Not totally a day of rest, but the smallest bit of work possible in this, the last zone of the week.
I also found a papery wasp nest here, and will scan that and use it in some collages - so already the garden is giving gifts, inspiring me with textures and colors. Art to follow!





"It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought." --James Douglas

Friday's garden

Friday's part of the garden includes the rear raised beds -- which actually are quite large and filled with who knows what. I can identify a large wonderful sage bush, but not much else - might have to wait 'til Spring to really get a sense of what is there. Today the sun is out again and Simba and I took our morning walk; just when I thought this house couldn't get any better, we found a little path along a spillway, called the Highland Canal just up the street - it goes for miles. There are mature trees all along it, and as we pass various fenced yards, Simba gets to greet each dog with barks and a bit of running. It's awesome. Our neighbor told us her kids tube down it in the summer when the water is high.
A canal. Right here.
My last two favorite places in the world to walk were along the C&O Canal when we lived in Bethesda, MD, and along the D&R Canal when we lived in Princeton, NJ.
and now, a canal right here just steps from our house.
Who could have planned that?
and although I haven't journaled in a while, I am starting to get back into the swing -- here is a journal cover I made for printing little pocket journals, maybe it will inspire you (and me) to open up the journal again and play.

"I've discovered the secret of life. A lot of hard work, a lot of sense of humor, a lot of joy, and a lot of tra-la-la."
--Kay Thompson, author of the Eloise books

Thursday's Garden - with snow!

First snow of the season, and we are only part way through our garden tour. Thursday's garden includes the East side and rear beds, and my favorite -- a huge ancient tree, I think a Ginko but I have to check with my brother, the tree expert, when he comes.
That rope hammock swing is great to sit and spin in, even in the snow.
These beds will be dormant until Spring, then I'll see what comes up.
I already found some surprise rosemary in the front, gifts for the kitchen.
I am glad for the quiet today, and time to just enjoy the coming winter and stillness.


"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." --Robert Henri

Wednesday's garden - day 3

Wednesday's garden is the East side yard - there is a brick path leading to the back yard fence, and I counted FIVE rose bushes planted here.
There are also beds of pine needles, which will make great pine baskets, if I could learn how to do that.
and the roses, well FIVE bushes means lots of flowers. wOw.
Wednesday has the smallest bit of garden, so mid week is my lightest day for work in the garden, a middle of the week mini-sabbath, although maybe those roses will want lots of attention. They can be quite the prima donnas.
This morning was both misty and sunny, and the first frost of the season dusted the plants. This is going to be so fun.



"So you see imagination needs noodling, long inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering." --Brenda Ueland

Tuesday - day 2 in the garden

Tuesday's garden includes the wild flower beds in the front, some climbing vines on the garage, a little stone area with chairs, and a lovely pine bed with yet another stone paver area.
There is so much here and it is so overgrown right now, I trimmed some of the rose bushes, but just wandered perplexed with the rest -- I don't know how much to cut back.
There are still flowers blooming, although it is supposed to snow later this week so that will end that . . . . although even the "lifeless" brown seed pods are quite beautiful.
At some point, I should cut it all back, and just see what comes up in the Spring. In the meantime -- some images:






"Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through, and be silent." --Rumi

Monday -- first day working in the new GaRdEn!!!

Although we are still unloading boxes, and getting the gazillion individual items we own each to their right place, I stopped to work a bit in our greenhouse and gardens!
I have divided the land into six zones, and Monday's zone is the GREENHOUSE and the western edge gardens, including some wonderful rose bushes.
I found an old box of seeds from two houses ago -- mice had eaten all the corn, sunflower seeds, and pepper seeds - but left me a nice array:

I hung an amulet from a Hawaiian Buddhist Temple given to me by Chaz, my Shamanic friend who did the house blessing; it is designed to protect and nurture all that grows in this space, and then I added the first sage bundle ever from the herb bed:

The tables are ready to be filled with little seed pots, the worms are busy making me some awesome compost, the tools need to be cleaned and oiled, leaves raked, roses trimmed back to allow new growth in the Spring . . . .
Nature Spirits will be letting me know what is needed, and I am ready to be the worker in this little oasis we have been gifted with.
So much will come to life in this space, I am filled with gratitude for this new part of my life! Can you just see the foothills of the Rockies through the glass?
Journal pages, for sure, to follow.

"The place where your great gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet."
--vocation as defined by Frederick Buechner

still organizing studio -- journal pages to come!

“Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or another. The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment and the world.”
--Joseph Campbell.