Creative Diversions

If you have been reading my blog for very long, you know I have written of my concerns with staying on course with my Art, whatever that course is. Basically, since I consider myself to be a sculptor of stone, I guess one should expect that I would be writing mostly about sculpting in stone. I feel, however, that this would be unfair to you as a reader, since, if I only talked about stone sculpting you would miss out on the "real" me - that being a passionately creative person of multiple interests at various levels of skills that I enjoy exploring to the nth degree.

Whether it is playing the piano and trying to re-master a Chopin Prelude that I haven't played in a year, baking something that I have never tried, painting a picture, working on my stone or sewing an apron, I try to put my whole being into it, and just get lost in the process. That being said, is one of the main reasons I have most likely never become a great master at any one and only one thing in life. I have always said that there are just too many crayons in the box to just color with one!


When I read about the great musicians like Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and really great painters like Van Gogh, Monet and the Renaissance Sculptors like Michaelangelo, who accomplished SO much in their relatively short lives, I often wonder if they would have been as prolific in a world where there is so much coming at us every day - so much that it is extremely difficult to concentrate and focus on our gifts and talents. How much time do we waste in a day on meaningless stuff? How much more could we accomplish if we didn't have to sleep, I think!

I have several stones staring at me in my studio and I am about to finish two of them, soon, but in the meantime, just before Christmas, I went into my local coffee shop in town and someone there was showing jewelry made from - would you believe - Dominos!? She was offering a class to demonstrate how to make them for only $15 for a two-hour class. I thought it would be fun to make pendants, magnets and pins as little stocking stuffer gifts at Christmas and other times of the year. Miniature art! Who doesn't need another magnet, right? Well, I took the class and had so much fun I was afraid that I was going off the deep end again into another "craft" phase for a few weeks. Not that I needed another artistic adventure, but it is a nice diversion to learn something entirely new that you have never tried. It forges new creative pathways in the brain! Plus, they're easy to make and you have almost instant art for practically pennies.

One thing I have learned about myself and art, is that it doesn't really matter what it is you are making- or doing - it could be sculpting but it could also be just making bread, or baking a cake or as in this case, making domino art! It is the process - not the product - that counts. I have been creatively stuck for a few months now, in the sense that I feel as though I have lost my direction or focus, and there is no better way than to dawdle away your time making art - no matter what it is - to get your creative juices flowing again. Writers have discovered this same phenomenon too, that even when they are the most stuck if they can be still, sit down and write even if it is about the weather. Pretty soon your ideas start coming back and your enthusiasm about your projects takes flight again and you can see your vision with clear eyes and a clear heart.

In fact it is akin to meditation in its finest form. Philosophers talk about the mindset of "being in the flow" when we are creating something and totally intent on the process and Buddhists describe it as "Satori", or enlightenment, but also letting go of the result, we are in an "enlightened" state of mind where creative ideas just flow into our brains. This is why meditation is so good for us, but for some of us who find it harder to meditate for whatever reason, creating art or being involved in the creative process has much the same effect. When I am at my best, or can allow myself the time to sculpt I actually lose my sense of time and can work for hours without realizing it. For anyone who has other responsibilities this can be a real deterrent to creation, for creation does not like to be interrupted.

My venture into the strange world of Itty-bitty-Art with Linda K. Moore, gave me a great sense of accomplishment even though it is "art" in the pure sense, I often do not consider "crafts" to be "fine" art, which is one reason- in the past - I have never taken my craft ventures seriously. Over the years I dabbled in beadwork in many forms, stained glass construction and design, woodworking, painting, macrame, crochet, needlework, sewing, clay work, and lastly copper enameling in addition to playing the piano and I am an excellent cook and baker. I have made things that were really interesting and very nicely done since I am usually a perfectionist whenever I do anything, but none of these projects held my interest as much, once I felt I had "mastered" the technique, but what I did take away from all of them was the knowledge and value of the process. Often one technique learned in one project would help me solve a problem in another project. Everything is connected, everything is relevant. And the best part is that I am never bored with myself. I can always find something to do that is fun and interesting and rarely am I sitting idle for very long.

The pictures scattered throughout my post are photos of my Domino art and the Itty-bitty-Art pendant that I also learned from Linda K. Moore's class. If anyone is so inclined to try it, please check out her website for more information. She is an amazing artist who has truly created an "art form" from this hobby and it is her obsession.

The Domino's are created simply by coloring the background with permanent ink markers in various shades and blending the colors with Alcohol and a Q-tip or brush. After that dries you stamp an image on the domino with permanent ink and let that dry. Embellishment can be added but it is optional. I used miniature rhinestones on the Domino's to enhance the images. Later you can glue a magnet in back or a pin, depending on what you want to use it for. They were so much fun to create and I'm still thinking of how I can use the method in other ways. Its all part of the fun of living a creative life!

Anyone can do this!

Have a great day!

"The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."
Henry Miller...

A Rainy Day in Paradise

What better day to read a book while curled up on the sofa with a down comforter, in front of the fireplace, than one that is cold, dreary, rainy and a Sunday besides? Living in "sunny San Diego", we don't often see rain, but when we do it is kind of nice to just sit back and enjoy it by taking time off to reflect on things. My daughter just left to drive back up the coast and meet up with her husband who left last week on business. They had been visiting since Thanksgiving and it's always a little sad to see them go. Sad and Glad. I now have my refrigerator back...since they were in-between winery jobs from Napa to Paso Robles, they came with half a frig full of food to store, so Mom's place is as good as theirs. I was unable to see the back of my frig however for two weeks. Friday we spent one whole day baking six recipes of Christmas cookies together for her annual "cookie party" at her old time friend's house, and she came back yesterday loaded with what seemed like hundreds of assorted home-made goodies. Less quantities but quadruple the assortment of cookies. Nothing says lovin like something from the oven....especially when its only once a year at Christmas! One of those family "traditions" I was talking about last post.

Last night I started writing out some Christmas cards (another "tradition") to send to friends around the globe that I only contact a few times a year. Its always nice to get a note back from someone you love but don't see much. Its always a wonder what to write in such a small space...other than a few cryptic notes...I now refer my friends to my blog if they really care to know what I've been doing and thinking. Those that do will check in, those that don't, won't. Meanwhile, my friendly carved cedar Bear totem guards my front door in the rain...

Rain is so cleansing for the soul and for the earth. Its a good day to take off from the insanity of society and the roads and just meditate on life, or nothingness.

If anyone is interested in learning more about meditation and enjoy reading insightful books, some good books I have found to help develop the thought and meditation processes are: Life after Life by Raymond Moody; In the Footsteps of Gandhi by Catherine Ingram; Peace is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh; A Still Forest Pool by Jack Kornfield and Paul Breiter; A Stormy Search for Self by Stan and Cristina Grof; The Sacred Path of the Warrior, by Chogyam Trungpa.

I have decided to re-assert my meditation practice for many reasons. First, I miss the time I used to spend alone, in front of my own personal altar, in reflection of "life", MY life, and others in my life, as well as just breathing and slowing down to think. I try to encourage others, especially my clients when I was in the business of massage therapy and healing, as to how important it is to meditate. I also realize how easy it is to get out of the habit. Bad habits are hard to break but good habits are easy to lose if you don't practice daily. It is simply exercising the brain, like walking or any physical exercise. You must be devoted to it. You must put IT first, before everything. There are no RULES, its just five or fifteen minutes a day or an hour...whatever is comfortable for you. It's not work, it's something you do for your soul.

I am always curious, and love to read all kinds of books. I also have many different interests even though art is probably the first and most satisfying thing to me, or creating something new and fun out of simple raw materials, whether it is fabric or Stone or Glass...its the creative process that counts. Meditation actually helps to focus your intentions and thoughts by practicing breathing and thoughtful silence. Our minds are constantly active and its nearly impossible to stop thoughts, but you meditate on your breath, and thereby keep going back to the breath, to focus. After a time, you can actually be in silent meditation for longer and longer periods of time. When you come back to your thoughts, you don't stay with them as long. Its easier to realize what distracts you and how meaningless most of our thoughts are. WHAT do you focus on? Thoughts become words, become actions, become reality.

I am focusing on practicing meaningful intention to work, creating productive connections in regard to my art and creating more prosperity in my life. Secondly I am focusing on creating more gratitude and a sense of wonder at all that we do have in our lives. Gratitude is like giving thanks for life - period. We can always find someone who is so much worse off that us, not that it makes life any easier to bear for our own pain and suffering, I believe it is really all in our mind, again, what we focus on, we increase. If we focus on being grateful for the cookies in life, we create more cookies. If we focus on the crap in life - we usually get more crap.

I think that's the reality, the task is to change our thoughts if we want to change our reality. To change our thoughts we sometimes have to dig really deep and start changing some of the old belief's. Open our minds to new ideas and other concepts. Life is not black and white, which some would have us think. It is full of inconsistencies, but there is a powerful pool of creative power in the Universe which if we can focus long enough to tap into, can create miracles in life. Do you believe in miracles? What about a Guardian Angel? They are there and they happen. Allow it into your mindset. Stop "thinking" long enough to hear the magic. Listen to the rain. Listen to your breath.
Yeats writes in this poem:

My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book, an empty cup
On the marble tabletop.
While on the shop and street I gazed,
My body of a sudden blazed!
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed so great, my happiness,
That I was blessed--and could bless.

To discover the capacity to bless and find gratitude in whatever is in front of us, this is the enlightenment that is intimate with all things. It is a freedom and happiness with no cause, a gift we bring to each moment and each encounter.

What a way to move through the world, to bring our blessings and gratitude on all that we touch. To learn how to bless, to honor, to listen with respect, to welcome with the heart, is a great art in itself. It is never done in grand or monumental ways, but in this moment, in the most immediate and intimate way. May we all learn to achieve a state of blessing, silence, understanding and forgiveness as a blessing and that it will allow us all to bless all around us.

As the Zen poet Basho reminds us: The temple bell stops; But the sound keeps coming out of the flowers...

Be at Peace.