Trying to Keep up the Daily Practice

While working on the Make Your Mark journal project I really started to feel the positive effects of creating on a daily basis. A combination of discipline and practice which I usually think of as "dirty words" and a feeling of being more fearless were what I feel I gained from the whole experience. Now that it's done, I'm TRYING to continue that discipline and daily practice. I bought a small brown sketchbook with brown paper pages and have been doing these pen and ink mandalas. Any small thing I do, as long as I do SOMETHING is progress in the right direction. You know, I used to go for days and weeks intending to get into the studio and create without ever actually getting it done. Nowdays, I can hardly keep myself out of there, even if it's just to clean or organize things!!! I LOVE the shift that I'm feeling!!!

The Virtue Trap

"An artist must have downtime, time to do nothing. Defending our right to such time takes courage, conviction, and resiliency. Such time, space, and quiet will strike our family and friends as a withdrawal from them. It is. For an artist withdrawal is necessary. Without it, the artist in us feels vexed, angry, out of sorts. If such deprivation continues, our artist becomes sullen, depressed, hostile. We eventually become like cornered animals, snarling at our family and friends to leave us alone and stop making unreasonable demands. We are the ones making unreasonable demands. We expect our artist to be able to function without giving it what it needs to do so. An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude. An artist requires the healing of time alone. Without this period of recharging, our artist becomes depleted. Over time, it becomes something worse than out of sorts Death threats are issued."

This is just one of the reasons why I LOVE Julia Cameron and The Artist's Way!! She is just sheer genius (in my humble opinion!).

Illustration Love!!!

My whole life I have had a love affair with children's picture books. Some of the illustrations I remember from my childhood have had a profound impact on me and my love of art. When I was much, much younger I thought I would grow up to write and illustrate children's books but, somewhere along the way, I realized that I cannot draw people and figured that that wouldn't work too well!!! NOW, I realize that it would take some intensive life-drawing classes and lots of practice and then, I probably could draw people!! But, in the meantime, I thought I would share a few illustrations from some of the books that my son and I loved to read when he was small. These are from Eric Carle, Jan Brett, Jane Hissey, Chris Van Allsburg, Tasha Tudor and Constanza Droop. ENJOY!!!!

A Wonderful Movie!!

I coerced my husband into going to see "The Help" on Sunday. He didn't know anything about it and I knew just a little. I actually thought it had come out several weeks ago but this was the first weekend! The theater was totally sold out and we had to sit in the third row but it didn't matter a bit. This was such a great movie!! Waaaay better than what I was expecting!! And my husband actually said it might be the best movie he's seen in about the last 10 yrs.!! This movie is such an intimate look into the early civil rights movement---every highschool kid in America should have to watch this!!! We laughed, we cried and everything in between!! I truly cannot recommend it enough!!!!

Kids with Passion

Last night I surprised my husband with tickets to a Drum Corps International event in Michigan City, IN. He belonged to a drum corps for several years when he was a teenager and LOVED it!! These kids are so dedicated and work so hard perfecting their performances---I can't even imagine the effort that goes into it. And drum corps as a whole has really evolved over the years. It's become MUCH more artistic and is, in fact more like performance art!!! Taking pictures was frustrating because the photos just don't do justice to the real thing. But here are a few anyway!!!

29 Years Ago Today

I have never been fond of our wedding pictures---it was 98 degrees and humid that day and in most photos we LOOK it---totally melted!! I was skinnier(that's one good thing!), hubby was chubbier, I should have changed my hairstyle, yada yada yada!! But we had a great ride the last 29 years (not without some bumps in the road!) and we are still here, still together!! Sometimes I think it's a miracle!! Anyway, this has always been one photo I DO like!!

Paul McCartney Concert and the Lurie Garden

I spent a very hot and humid weekend downtown with my best friend from Green Bay. We had a wonderful time in spite of the heat and humidity. I feel like we walked 100 miles!!!