Healing Milestones

I’m just a day away from selling at my first art festival… and my emotions are all over the place. I’m SO excited, this is something I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl. Every summer, I went to a myriad of art festivals and left each one with a calling in my heart. I watched artists at their booths and talked to them and stood in awe of their work.. listening all the while to the whispers in my own soul of how badly I wanted to be one of them. And tomorrow, I will finally be stepping behind the booth with my own creations.

I’ve been hard at work the past month to get ready – and as I’m getting the final touches done on my booth setup and inventory, I’m in awe. I’m looking down at all these lovelies and thinking “did this actually come out of me?” Really… they are not mine as much as they are gifts to me in my dark night. I’ve just been trying to survive my emotions this past year, and looking for hope wherever I could find it. I believe each thing I’ve made was given to me to help carry me through the loss of my fiancé – to give me hope and joy and courage. To help me tell our story – an artist and a pilot – two lovers of nature, adventure, flight, creativity and so much more. There are small things that tell this story in each thing I make. They restore me daily. What magic to be able to share them with others and hope that they find their own healing, courage, and hope in them!

It is bittersweet of course, which is where my all-over-the-place emotions are coming from. I am both so excited and at the same time utterly heartbroken. To know that he should be here for this. To know how proud he would be and that he’d be by my side helping me out. There is absolutely no way around the deep sadness that this brings to the occasion. I’ve shed a lot of tears in the past few days… but felt a lot of excitement too. Tomorrow, I’m just going to focus on enjoying the moment with good friends and family around to support me. I know he’d kick my ass if I let his absence get in my way, after all! Here’s to a new adventures. Its going to be exciting. A little bit sad too, but mostly… exciting!!!

Making Art in the ‘Burbs

Tonight I wanted to give a little love to a fellow artist who has been a wonderful support to me through this past year and also well before that… I feel a bit like she has watched me grow my wings over the years since I first began my 12 Months of Creativity project in Jan 2011.

Laura Wooten did a year long project all her own, which began in January of 2012. She decided to take the brave journey of creating a piece of mixed media art every single week – for a year. To make it even better, she decided to use her own surroundings as her inspiration… gleaming scenes and stories right from her very own neighborhood. This always intrigued me and struck me as incredibly brave – partly because I was at the time living in the city and often made the excuse that there was nothing interesting or stimulating to photograph around me. No excuses for Laura!

She took what was all around her and created beauty with it. At the end of the year, she had 52 beautiful pieces that all came together into one giant presentationof awesome… all of it filled with memories and personal life stuff. I urge you to go check out her latest blog post where she shares about the whole journey, what she learned, the challenges, and so much more.

To wrap this up, I wanted to share my very favorite piece she did throughout the year… which was based on a true occurrence of a hot air balloon landing in her neighborhood! Yep I’m officially a believer in looking all around you for inspiration now. Congrats Laura on finishing a wonderful year-long project, and thank you for being an inspiration!

Wow where have I been??

Yup, sadly I have been neglecting this little space of creativity for a while now. It’s been an exhausting few months to say the least. I’ve been pretty busy doing photography and painting and am excited that a direction of sorts seems to be emerging a little at a time. A direction, I am hoping, that will touch others’ lives and help me to continue this path of making meaningful art for a living. I’m starting to see a style in my photography… a “something” that connects to my soul. That something has been emerging in whispers over the past 3 years, oh-so quietly, without me realizing it. As I look back, I see the moments where I connected to it, fleeting moments. But it seems that since the loss of my fiancé last year, I’ve been so in touch with my intuition and soul that a lot of things have become much clearer. Photography has also been such a huge part of my healing and navigating this new life without him. Which is perfect. He was the biggest supporter of my photography, so how exactly right that it become a part of how I will live again.

And that painted feather I shared on here in November? Well, it seems I might have fallen on something there. I’ve already sold several online and have two local art galleries that are interested in selling them! This thrills me to no end, especially because symbols of flight have become so important to me since losing Drew (for those who don’t know, he was a helicopter pilot). So every time I send one of these beauties out into the hands of another I feel like I am sending out his passion for flight as well as his belief that should never stop reaching for our dreams.

I’ve also been working on my fine art site Seven Shooting Stars (which may eventually end up being where I move the content for this blog over to) and started up a new Etsy shop to sell my photos and nature art. Yippee! I opened up a business bank account and worked with an accountant to get a crash course in what all I need to do as I enter into this self-employed world. I hired a creative coach in December to help keep me focused, accountable, and pumped up… and boy does she rock! There’s something about hiring someone else to help you out – its like telling yourself that you are now officially taking this seriously enough to invest in it and invest someone else’s time in it too. That’s a big move for me.

So that is what I’ve been up to since November. Good lord, when I read it all written out, its a crap ton of stuff! I have to give credit to everyone who has supported me fiercely this past 8 months, because the only way I’ve had the strength to do any of the above is because of the amazing support and love I’ve had along the way from my own family, from Drew’s family and from friends both new and old, near and far!

I’m hoping to get back on track with the monthly challenges this month. These challenges really are so helpful in pushing creative boundaries I’ve found. I’ll try to get a new theme posted up for this month before too long! In the meantime, I’m wondering what sort of creative challenges others have been up to? Please share in a comment below!

My November Challenge: Totem Feathers

I hope you are enjoying soaking up all the creative awesome from the November challengers. Of course, I could not very well create a challenge on my own blog without also participating in it myself! So here’s a few shots of my project for the month… a hand-painted, hand-cut totem feather!

So the story on this one is that my other piece was not done. lol. To be more specific, I need some “fresh” sparrow wings in order to do an imprint on the painting. I have always found it cool to give things a new life… I love salvage art for sure, but also in the more morbid arena of giving dead things a new life. In case this makes you wonder, no, I don’t have a freaky collection of taxidermic critters. ;) But I do have some bones, skulls, feathers, and other such elements hanging around. So for the painting (since I am not up to taking out the BB gun in the name of art) I am essentially still playing the waiting game with Daisy the cat until she decides to get hungry. ;)

To experiment with other ways to do the wing print, I gathered some feathers from a turkey vulture last week that had met an unfortunate end from a car on the highway… the things we do in the name of art! Here I am, on the phone with my best friend, running across the highway to snatch up this horribly stinky gross bird carcass. Phone in one hand, dead bird dangling by the wingtips from the other, I run back across the street and next to the truck. “Oh god, it stinks!” I am saying over and over to my girlfriend on the other end of the line. She’s having a good laugh and supporting my weirdness, as she always does! I grab one of Drew’s pocket knives (still supporting my art even from Heaven, thanks babe <3) and cut off a bunch of the larger feathers . Finally, I toss the nasty thing off to the side of the road and promptly drove home to wash my hands. ick!

The loose feathers didn’t work out for the wing print unfortunately, it just looked too forced when I tested it. But now I had all these feathers, so I thought “Hmmm what can I do with these??”  Voila… totem feathers!

I imagine these to be great tokens to have around you in your studio or workspace as you are focusing on taking flight with your dreams. The white dots represent a white light or spiritual energy that surrounds the colors – which are meant to represent parts of ourself. For me, these three colors represent passion, positivity, and serenity. I’ll be sure to have it up in my studio space bringing me good vibes from now on, and am excited to make some more of these! For me, this is what monthly projects are about… without the monthly challenge, I would have never ended up at this result!

 

Much thanks to Mr. Turkey Vulture, who likely never imagined in a million years that his high-fliying plumage lovely would go on to become art after he passed on to an even higher place in the sky. =)

 

 

November Submissions are In!

The submissions are in for 12MoC’s very first ever creative blog challenge… Woohoo! In case you missed the post announcing it early this month, the chosen theme for November was “Flight”. Without further ado, I give you the submissions of all our fabulous November creatives. Be sure to check out their blogs (linked to each image) for more photos and juicy details of their projects! Enjoy!

1. Laura Wooten of My Suburban Life

I’m loving this mixed media piece Laura did for this month’s theme – especially all the symbols on the balloon, which were from some of her own pattern designs. The curious little houses below truly made me smile, too. Please take a look at the full post on her blog, as she has some excellent process pictures and shares a wonderful story all about this piece and its inspiration!

1. Kristen Conley of Whimsy Inspired

Kristen did this beautiful acrylic painting of a hummingbird in flight! I love the colors and all the layers… and the messy drips. (I am a big fan of messiness!) You can check out some great process pictures and the story behind this one over at her blog, Whimsy Inspired. Thanks Kristen!

3. Rose Miho 

Oh ambitious Rose – she did not only one entry but THREE this month! You go girl! Rose is a very talented poet/artist and has shared with us three poems and complimentary art pieces on the theme of flight. Be sure to check out her blog for more of her poetic words.

FLYING CLOUDS

Clouds! Oh! soft clouds …

Floating above us,

silent and soothing.

Whispering, white tender cirrus.

In one beautiful blue sky

opening my heart to the world.

It’s beauty.

It’s softness.

As a blowing wind in the universe,

I’m floating and I have been rocked gently.

As a baby in a woman’s belly,

warm tender and sweet.

Softly floating among stars.

It is the flight,

of my gentle heart

For you dear.

UP AND DOWN

I flew

I flew so high I could touch the stars

and I sank

deep in the water

deep within my own body

and I flew

Hight again where no one could see or touch who I was

It was as if I was a cloud,

an invisible cumulus

a colorful cirrus flying hight

and vanished into the darkness of it’s soul

and this great dance went on and on

and I kept on dancing it

Going hight into the sky

and falling back deep into

the deepest water of my being.

FLIGHT

I have eaten the blood of the young

fed on the elder’s wisdom

I am standing within the earth

between walls of history

and wisdom

I am flying above the sky

and standing over the entire world from my own mount

I am the one who chooses where I walk

 

where I stand

I am the knowledge of the earth

the woman of the fields

the heart of the lovers

and the tears of the dead

I am everywhere you go

in every step you take forward

I am your path

future

present and past

I am the spirit of golden wings

the one you feel when you follow

the path of your heart

I speak to you in those words

so you know and remember

that I am everywhere you go and are

by your side

a golden sparkle in darkness and light.

 

4. Katharina Hoehendinger of Musical Chairs

Katharina has a great blog full of her creativity, travel stories and experiences. Her post for this month’s challenge is a one that is going to last well past the month! Take a look at an excerpt below or click here to read the full post!

“My personal carbon footprint is something of an ecological nightmare: 14 flights from January to December 2012 alone! I live abroad, fair enough, and my family and many of my friends are based in Germany. But somehow that seems a bit of a weak excuse when thinking about the long term impact of my individual choices.

According to WWF UK, a passenger on a flight to Paris is responsible for ten times more CO₂emissions than a person using the Eurostar. I actually wanted to go back home by train this year for Christmas. But then I got confused by the Eurostar’s online booking system and opted for easyjet instead. (Again, very weak excuse!)

Living in London has made me a bit more aware of the extent of air travel that is taking place across Europe. It is only during the night that no planes can be seen in the sky. Apart from that I hear them all the time starting from or flying to one of the city’s five airports. When I went to Heathrow for the first time I was genuinely shocked because of its enormous dimensions and the amount of people traveling to and from there every day. Where are they all going, and why?

Finally, I’ve decided to reduce my ecological footprint and will try not to fly in 2013. This will be difficult when visiting back home but it’s not impossible. And for going on holidays it’s actually quite good that I live in another country: there are lots of beautiful places in the UK that I haven’t seen yet.”

 

I love all the different viewpoints and perspectives that everyone had on this theme – as well as all the variety  of media we had. Even with just four artists, we had writing & poetry, painting, mixed media, drawing and photography! What an awesome mix. I want to thank these ladies again for sharing their lovely work and for taking on the challenge this month!  While you’re here, don’t forget to check out the December Challenge - you know you want to make something!!

December Blog Challenge! Beginnings & Endings

Since we are fast approaching the end of the year, I thought it fitting for this month’s theme to be on the subject of Beginnings and Endings. Where they take us, the excitement of them, relief of them, or fear of them. How they are related I have had some extremely significant beginnings and endings in 2012 – the most significant of my life to date. I plan on exploring this

Art credit: Lucien N.

November Blog Challenge nearly Over!

Hey all you creative folks! Just stopping in to remind you that the deadline to send me your fabulous results for this month’s creative blog challenge is TOMORROW! I hope to be getting some really inspiring “Flight” themed creations in. I must admit that I also have to finish my own piece too still! *gulp* It is very near done though – it will happen! I challenge anyone who’s just finding this to do a quick & dirty project and submit it tomorrow too… sometimes those last minute small projects can be such a delight and a great kickstarter to your creative energy! I will be posting everyone’s results in the next few days, as it will take a little time to compile things. So be on the lookout for November creations as well as a theme to kick off the month of December!

Juicy Tuesday! How would you really enjoy spending your life?

 

We’re almost to the end of the month! I’ve gotten a few submissions for the challenge already and am excited to see what else comes! How are your projects going? Hopefully better than mine… which is currently at a stand-still until I manage to retrieve some real bird wings (humanely of course). Hmmm yes I will leave you in suspense right there!

For the last Juicy Tuesday of the month I thought I would share a little something to help you think about our theme of flight in terms of living life without limits. I very much resonated with this, as I was taught by my parents what most of us have been, to go to college for something that you can make a good living at. After getting a degree in graphic design and five years of working in cubicles, I am realizing that I want more and – most importantly – I’m realizing I deserve more. We all do. Not something that we “like okay” but something that ignites a fire in us which glows so brilliantly that everyone around us can see that our heart is ablaze. We deserve that, and I think we can all have that, but we first must leave the tethers that tie us to the familiar, the old beliefs, the old way of doing.. and trust in what he says in this video… that if you do what you desire, instead of doing something for the money, the money will come, and you will be far happier than you ever imagined. What is it that that you desire?