Advent Calendar

For the last three years, my mom has sent her art across many miles, in a discarded wine box, always in time for December 1. My mom's creativity amazes and inspires me anyway and for the month of December I am especially in admiration. The excitement of childhood to discover what is behind little paper doors each day has carried over to adulthood...

I pulled off the cardboard that separates the two layers of images to be met with Olive's little face, replicated in watercolor. Underneath each mini-painting is a little gift, sometimes marked with and "A", sometimes a "J", and, most always, little treats for the beloved grand-dog. 

Olive and Jamie get just as excited as I do to see what each day holds. Olive eagerly shoves her nose into the box,  finding the days that hold presents for her. 

Although the box has traveled almost all the way across the country, it makes me feel close to home, to Maine, and to both my parents. Dad's influence and artistry is also present, coming in the form of mini Nepalese prayer flags and a handmade wooden puzzle, carved by his own hands.

It makes me realize, even more deeply, where my own love for creativity comes when I see the talents that both my parents possess.

The Joy of Learning

Tonight was my first Illustrator class.  Having not been in school for seven years, I forgot how wonderful it is to sit and be taught something, to soak in knowledge that you previously did not know.  I got a taste of this a little over a year ago, when I was thinking about acupuncture school and took a biology class. After working for eight hours I would go sit in a classroom and just be wide awake as I learned about the human body, the make-up of organisms, and the stages of the earth's development. I felt the same way tonight as John, our young architect instructor, walked us through just some of the many tools in Illustrator.  Suddenly I could picture myself as a designer, could see being creative in front of a computer screen.  Moments like that give me hope that I am on the right path...that through exploration of the things that interest me some greater occupational knowledge will occur. That one morning I will wake up just knowing that I am meant to be....It is also a good lesson to live each day and listen to those little urges that make you take a class, try a new sport, go up a new trail, read a new book. The lessons are daily and they all lead you somewhere.

Pods

I am obsessed with pods, in nature and in art. The shapes, the textures, the colors, what can be hidden inside.  

I came around the corner of the Emerson Center in Bozeman and saw this pod light hanging over a large table, housing a light bulb that allowed it to glow. I was immediately taken with it and took photos so that one day I can replicate it. Getting rid of the ugly chandeliers that hang above my dinner table and hallway is on the what-I-want-to-do- with my-house list....I think pods (at least one) would be a good addition.

The Emerson Center for Arts & Culture is amazing and I can't believe that in the five years I have been visiting Bozeman I have never been there. It is an old high school, the one Jamie went to his senior year, and it still has the feel, smell, creaks, and rooms of a school.  There is a theater (Martin Sexton had just played there), public art gallery spaces, and artists studios, many of which act as work areas and shops.  I loved the Emerson and wish that our own Jackson Center for the Arts had a little of it's grittiness and local flavor. Check it out at www.theemerson.org

This is for my Mom....

Holding little Emilia was pretty amazing, her perfection, innocence, and warmth radiating, and watching Jamie hold her was pretty special as well. Although I don't want one soon, I can see a baby in my future. There is hope Mom :)

Encaustic for Claire

I knew before I got too far on this piece that it was for my best friend Claire. The red, the smiling little girl, the playfulness....it had Dibble written all over it. 

Encaustic is a medium that is made up of beeswax and damar resin.  You can add pigment to it and use it like a paint or you can keep it clear and use it to seal collages and found objects to boards and paper. The later is what we did in the encaustic workshop with Judith Hoyt. I found myself much more engaged with the wax when it is used as a layer, not as a paint. 

I have ordered supplies and my friend Babs and I are going to set up an encaustic station in her studio. A heat gun, for fusing the layers of wax, and good ventilation are the most important necessities for this type of art-making....

Agility

We were moving very quickly. 

Or rather, Olive was moving quickly and I was trying to keep up. Therefore, Jamie's photo is quite blurry but does show how fast this little dog of ours is. She was moving so rapidly that on the teeter-totter she took a flying leap off of the end, a big deduction of points and slightly dangerous for her. 

It is hard slowing a fast dog down. 

Agility has introduced me to people that I probably would never have otherwise met, a population brought together because we all really love our dogs, love working with them. I look forward to going to the arena, the smell of horses strong in the air, and setting up obstacles that challenge Olive's mind. 

She is my little champion, even when she goes flying off of the teeter totter.

Being an Artist

It feels good to be an artist. It feels good to spend hours, watching pieces evolve and grow, putting paint to paper. It feels good to put up a body of work and see how hard you have worked, how much time you have spent on an act so precious and unique to you.

I was part of the Art Association's local art fair, Takin' It to the Streets, this September. It is a wonderful, small fair, with good people and an appreciative crowd.  It was a gorgeous day, although chilly setting up, and I was nestled in between my good friends Kate and Todd and Micah, an acquaintance-turned-friend. 

This is what I want my reality to be. I want to be an artist forever.