katiemae_days

somewhere over the clouds...

I just flew in from Chicago via Denver a couple of hours ago marking the cap to a great few days away in the windy, although not this weekend, city.

I woke up early today, very early: 3:45am CT/1:45 am PST to start my journey home.  The sky today was beautiful all the way from the midwest to Pacific Northwest. We took off in the dark of the early morning and flew as the sun rose.  I sat in the window seat from Denver to Seattle in order to take in the clouds. Scattered in places and constant in others. Cumulus, cirrus I don't know except to say these beautiful cloudscapes looked like yards of cotton balls laid across the sky and potatoes mashed and whipped into billowy sculptures. Meditating in the quiet above the clouds on this early morning focusing only on the beauty in the sky. 

Fast forward to now feeling both energized and a little travel worn, sitting in a food court here in Seattle taking advantage of free wifi and enjoying a cup of hot tea. As I sit, I challenge myself to write something.

So this is a post of meandering with purpose. The intention is  to see where my thoughts go without over-thinking and to write for practice. And even in this moment there is self-doubt which turns to fear that rears its head issuing warning that what I write may not be good enough.  

There is this fear  and the self-imposed expectations that everything I write must be good. This fear I challenge and practice letting go in order to free myself to write and release.  I write in order to not stop what I dream. I dream to write, and so write I must. Practice in every word, every sentence, every post. 

To accomplish something we have to start somewhere. To move forward, we must challenge what we fear. Stepping out of what feels safe stretches us into a whole new place of possibility. 

 

”You learn how to make your work by making your work … art you care about -- and lots of it!” 

From Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking written by David Bayles and Ted Orland 

 

 

 

dreaming in action, tour of art.....

This last weekend marked one of my favorite local events....the Whatcom Artist Studio Tour.    Artists that include painters, sculptors, photographers, potters, woodturners, textile artists open their studios to the public and at points throughout the weekend demostrate their art in action.

I am inspired each year not just by the artist and their art but their surrounds. There are some forty artists involved in this tour which can wind and weave its way through our town and out into the county. My choice is usually to head out into the county away from town and hit those studios first. I like the opportunity to get out of town and see some of the farms and acreage where these artists are living and creating.

My girl and our crew visited maybe seven artists on Sunday. We returned to see three artists who struck us deeply last year. Potter: Brian O'Neill. Woodturner: Vernon Liebrant and sculptors: Don Anderson and Susan Averre. We were lucky to get to watch Vernon turn a bowl on his hand-made lathe. Sawdust flies as the wood takes shape. He gave my girl a piece of wood trimmed from the bowl in the making. A treasure to be sure.

And this year, We added to the list Deanna Elliott an abstract painter. Her paintings are about texture, color. In some new works, she uses wool, hand-dyed by her Mom from her own sheep to create what look like water color paintings. We stopped in next to see Julia Clifford who paints big expansive gorgeous pieces of trees and pasture, flowers. Her pieces are layered and surprising, dreamy like her website says. Our day ended with a visit to Tommy Gibson a photographer who quite simply blew me away and reminded me of how much I have to learn. In a good way. That reminder is inspiration in action. Each of these artists resonating in some way with me. Their work or their surrounds or in others we were lucky enough to see demonstrate their work, the quiet and grace in which they work.

Really, I should call this my fantasy tour because that's what it is. Most of the studios we visited sprung from old barns or timber frame loft or came alive in a beautiful yurt. i have visioned myself for years living on some land facing the mountains and having a studio out back to work my art...whatever that may be..for now I say card-making, design, photography, writing, working with people one on one and in groups, listening and guiding. All about art that is learning and experimentation in action.

I took pictures from the day to bring into focus pieces of my dream. Images from my dreamscape brought to life perhaps. Giant sunflowers wilting, dying off, a sign of summer passing. Through the leaves, I see an old barn in the background.

Gardens in mountain view dappled in color with the remains of this season's harvest, apples that fell early, discovered by worms, brilliant deep green chard still sprouting leaves, linden grapes nothing short of luscious. One bite and plump tart sweetness bursts in your mouth.

Fall color, a brisk chill in the air makes me feel happy. I am inspired by art and the land with freedom to roam and the land that is open expanse.

Here I am writing and talking the dream aloud: A warm, efficient, open home for us. One that doesn't need much fixing. A studio out back. A dog and cat. Chickens too if I'm dreaming real big. And room to garden. I see my rubber boots and old pair of pants in the mud room ready to go out to work again. I see our hands at work in art and dirt. Pots on the stove. Fire burning. Mountains in view.

This is one dream that lives in my soul. I've had the same dream for years and years. I can see the studio, feel myself in it. Feel others there too. The important part of any dream is to keep dreaming it, putting it out there, working and shaping it like a piece of clay. And I will keep shaping, visioning, feeling and working this dream into reality one step at a time.

I am glad for this day touring art and dreaming my dream and oh yes feeling the burn from a beautiful, early morning, chilly bike ride with a very good friend. We climbed hills and coasted down again. Sharing as we pedaled on.

 

 

where our feet can carry us...

"Two little feet to get me 'cross the mountain
Two little feet to carry me away into the woods
Two little feet, big mountain, and a
Cloud comin' down cloud comin' down cloud comin' down"

Greg Brown, "Two Little Feet"

This song has been playing in my head for days and weeks actually this whole Greg Brown album called "Further In". I took this shot and thought of the song and thought about moving forward on our path, seeing just where our feet carry us...sinking into and trusting in each step. Planting one foot firmly on the earth, then the other ... two little feet ....makes me smile...

these two little feet  have been sitting with me as I write, listening to our song, singing right along.

my friend and the dream she had...

So the other morning, my friend called to to share this dream she had about me and well it made my entire day.

See, I stepped out on my little limb this last weekend and shared with her what I have recently been dreaming about related to my work and creative life. You know, the stuff about what I really really really want to do. I'm not necessarily known among my friends and family as being the shy type I mean for pete's sake here I am writing out there in the ether for whoever happens to read my streaming consciousness otherwise known as this blog.  But, truth is I am shy when it comes to putting myself out there when it involves my creativity and talking about that inner journey type stuff related to my dreams around work. And as for why, well that would take pages and pages and frankly it doesn't matter why, I'm just trying to move past the shyness!

But of late, after writing that post a week or so ago, I've had a few ah ha moments about what my future workrelatedtofamilyrelatedtocreativity life could look like.

....So now imagine those swirly dream sequence shots from the movies or old TV shows and cut to my friend's dream. I am sharing this in effort to continue putting my dream out there... ..

The setting is a mid 18th century European maybe even French suite...a woman's bedroom....very large, luxuriant and beautiful.

The woman is regal, maybe royalty. My friend in her dream sees me dressing the woman's hair. Her hair is chestnut brown, very long and trailing to the floor ( which is covered with a dove grey satin that changes colors ever so subtly )... I am she says pinning it up into a very elaborate up do with bejeweled pins.
She tells me I am wearing a dark magenta velvet frockcoat...lace dripping from the cuffs. (oh and how i love a velvet frock coat) ,,,.

Hmmm, dressing hair perhaps not in the 18th century maybe now in the 21st... I like this dream....

...now, back to swirly dream sequence shots and cut to the present....well yesterday...

I shared my dream once again with my very very dear sister friend. And wow my did we start to brainstorm all sorts of possibilities. We created a dreamscape, a vision of how my workcreative life could look incorporating just about everything I love together in one place..the way, the what, the how I want to work and more so how it could incorporate into my mama-hood and goals for my own creative path. ....Ahhh, back to my regularly scheduled dream...

Thanks for tuning in.