Random acts of nature

This awesome sunflower came up through a crack in the concrete behind my house.

It was probably planted by a bird or squirrel and this random act of nature provides me with a smile every time I walk out the back door.

It also reminds me that miracles can be small and unassuming, you just have to look in the right places.

There needs to be two of me

I really need a double. I want to be someone who can spend all their time being creative, making art & all together making the world a more funky place.

Too often life intrudes upon art. I have to feed the family and buy more dog food write emails and ship packages. This is more then enough for one person to sanely handle. I need a second "me" to run my life while the real me is busy creating.

Sometimes I wish I did not feel this creative urge and I could concentrate on things like on figuring out which health insurance plan I cannot afford the least. But damn it art calls and art always wins.

I am getting ready for the Bucktown Arts Fest in Chicago this month, and I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what I will make and what I have to finish.

I don't have time to eat, or eat the right things, sleep enough, or I sleep too much because I have exhausted myself trying to do it all. I blame art. It is like a drug. I only feel good when I am doing it.

I wonder if there is a 12 step program for recovering artists

Looking at the Moon

For some reason, I feel most creative at night. Perhaps it's the quiet, or I have gotten all the mundane tasks out of the way, but I truly feel some kind of energy during the night that I don't have during the daylight hours.

Last night I made my first post to "Watch Me Create". Somehow it didn't feel right to do it in the daylight hours.

Now if I could only figure out a way to get my daughter up for school at 7:30 am after I have been up to 3 am being creative, I would have some harmony in my schedule.

Walt Whitman's Angel

This is a sculpture I just finished. Its called Walt Whitman's Angel.

Lately, I have been fascinated, ( maybe even obsessed) with Walt Whitman.

His poetry and life are a bottomless source of inspiration.

He explored the nature of life and death in many poems, years before he even witnessed the horrors of the civil war and comforted dying soldiers in the hospitals of Washington DC.

In leaves of Grass he writes:

I will make the true poem of riches....

And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and can be none in the future,

And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to beautiful results,

And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death,

And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are compact,

And that all things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any.

I imagine him comforting the dying soldiers. He must have seemed like some strange large bearded angel helping them pass onto the next world, watching their souls leave their destroyed bodies. In his own estimation he tended 80 to 100 thousand wounded men. And yet he still saw beauty in everything, even death.

There is a magic in a garden

I love this quote by Walt Whitman "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. "
This time of year the day lilies bloom, the cone flowers are attracting finches and butterflies and the coreopsis look a a hundred little suns dancing in the breeze.

If there is a divine spirit anywhere it is surely in things growing up from the earth.

Whoopee its over!

The Ann Arbor Art Fair is behind me. It was great, but there is relief that it is over.

As an artist that spends most of her time working alone, it can be very exciting and overwhelming to come face to face with so many people. I get to meet people who are inspired and touched by my work, but it can be tiring too. You have to give away your energy.

I feel most comfortable alone working. That is when I find my prayer. I am plugged into something bigger then myself when I am creating.

I am happy to start back to work on some new pieces. I will be doing the Bucktown Art Fest in Chicago at the end of the month with my sculptures. I need to make a lot of work!

I have been blessed with inspiration and I can't wait to get my hands into the clay. That is how I recharge my soul.

There is a world outside of my studio...

This has been an incredible few weeks. I taped for Beads Baubles and Jewels last Thursday. It was a wonderful experience. Kerry Bogert was there and has lots of pictures on her blog. Yep, I forgot my camera.

I also have the Ann Arbor art fair happening this week. I have been working like a mad woman trying to get everything done. I actually stepped out into my garden and was surprised by the beauty there. I have been so focused on my work I forgot there were things like flowers that could take your breath away.

Reminder to self: take a few moments everyday to just be.

If you are in Ann Arbor this week, I will be on Main Street across from the seafood restaurant in booth 185.

From Here to There

I'm packing this morning to go to Cleveland to film a segmemt for the Beads Baubles and Jewels show.

I'll be demonstrating how I get from a lump of clay to a bead. That sounds funny, doesn't it? I won't personally be a lump of clay, but I'll be working with one.

Wish me luck. I may need it.

Inspiration

I'm not sure where inspiration comes from it is as elusive as the man in the moon sometimes. There seem to be many dark nights and then suddenly there it is, smiling down on you.

Tonight as I sat doing busy work, filling orders. My dog Kirby came in from the outdoors. He pawed at my leg for attention, so I began to talk to him. It was just nonsense, the sort of things I always say to him. But he didn't care. He looked at me with his sweet brown eyes, just beaming happiness (probably because he had pooped in the backyard) and it suddenly came to me; the design problem I had been wrestling with for the week.

BAM! Inspiration! Like the moon popping out of a cloud. It was simple and beautiful and unexpected. Maybe this is how Kirby felt.

Thank you Kirby! (That must have been a really good poop!)

Small and Mighty

Last night I was actually shook awake by rolling thunder. It made my entire house shake. It was pretty cool after I figured out what it was. I never felt anything so amazing and scary before.

Nature has a wonderful way of reminding us just how small we all are.

Being small is not a bad thing. Consider the bee. This little fellow in my garden has gotten more work done today then I have, (or probably anyone else reading this).