Wake-Up Call!

Once in awhile you NEED one of these!!!

co*lab*o*ra*tion

First of all I have to tell you that this is basically an ad but I have a reason for wanting to share it with you. I have recently found myself having an intense love affair with music---I can't get enough of it!! There is a young man named Ramin Niroomand who has some piano solos on YouTube and I think he is incredibly inspiring. So I was watching this trailer and when I saw the word collaboration and the definition I thought WOW!! That's what all of us in the AW tribe are---a collaboration and we are creating something beautiful!! We seem to have created this place where love just overflows all over the place and it is has been so incredible!! And then I had a mini-epiphany.....I realized that you have ALL managed to wrench my heart WIDE OPEN and everything I have inside of me is pouring out! The REAL me!! The me who has always been held in check by fear, expectations and social "norms". I SO want you to know me and I SO want to be known!!! THANK YOU!!

The Screaming Censor

I didn't give my censor a name when we started on the AW journey----I foolishly thought that she wasn't enough of a concern to bother. Silly me!!! I have a challenge this week and she is literally screaming in my ear---it's deafening!!! She is one nasty *itch!!! You see, the Make Your Mark Journals go on display today and for the rest of the week. On Saturday there is a reception. It is finally sinking in that MY journal will be there will all those other journals by other artists. My censor is screaming that mine will be compared with the others. And of course she says, "Yours doesn't measure up!". She is asking WHY I didn't pass it around---now almost all the work is mine---there to be judged. Why didn't I do this and why DID I do that? she wants to know. I will try to strangle her. I will slash her with an x-acto knife!! I will bludgeon her!! So many ways to silence her. Maybe the simplest would just be a piece of duct tape over her huge mouth!!! I need my affirmations! I need to look at all the positives that came out of doing that journal. First of all I FINISHED it!! That alone is a big accompishment--I am famous for unfinished projects. I also made a promise to myself to NOT tear any pages out, no matter how much I hated them, and I didn't!! I learned something from every single page I did! I learned the positive affects of the DAILY PRACTICE of making art. But most of all, I fell in love with the book and what it contained. I fell in love with myself a little bit. That book contains some of what is the very essence of who I am! And I must continue to love ME!!!! So censor, whatever your name is.....I don't give a *bleep* what you say!!!! I did my best!!! It will be fine!

Confession

Ok, I confess---I love reality TV shows. Well...at least SOME reality TV shows. I don't really watch very much TV and, when I do, it tends to be HGTV, The History Channel (love those American Pickers and Pawn Stars!!) or the Science Channel (Through the Wormhole is awesome!!). But the one show that I am totally addicted to (and I'm so excited---it starts tomorrow!!) is SURVIVOR!!! I NEVER get tired of it!! To me, it's like a sociology lesson. A group of people all start out determined to be ruthless and just play to win that million bucks. But as time goes on, they form relationships, whether they want to or not and it gets harder and harder for them to base their decisions strictly on smart game-play. It's hard to stab someone in the back when they have "had your back" for awhile. My son gets so frustrated because he is SURE he could play the game ruthlessly. I am quite sure that if he were in that situation he would find out it ain't so easy. I guess what this all means to me is that there is hope for the human race. That we can talk a good game but, when we are put in a postion of living and working with people for a period of time, we create bonds and we find it very hard to think with our heads and not our hearts. And I think that's a GOOD thing!!

@#$%@&!!$#@!!! Camera!!

Based on some thinking about my AW check-in, some of the comments, an email from Elena (I will respond soon!), I spent a good part of the afternoon doodling away on a goofy "split personality" self portrait. I really wanted to take a picture of it in progress but my camera has decided it doesn't want to take pictures the last couple days! It's done this before and, somehow, has recovered on it's own---very mysterious. I hope that happens again soon!!!

The Patterns in Nature are Infinite!!!

I had a wonderfully inspiring walk this morning!! I wish I lived closer to the woods! I never tire of seeing Mother Natures artwork!!!