an amazing sky on a beautiful fall day

and here's my friend mo in the hay.  we took a break from our friday art day to do a bit of a road trip to enjoy the fall colours and smells.

Plaster "disaster"

Not really a disaster other than I am getting nothing done since I started taking the Plaster Workshop online with Stephanie Lee and Judy Wise.  I have made plaster nests, plaster eggs, wings, and now I'm working on a cracked plaster dress...It's so fun and messy....oh, and the boats....

It's another grey day

a bracelet for Susan

from a broken, discarded bracelet link

the chandelier crystal

I made this for my mom for mother's day.  It's her (biological)  mom

It's another grey, raining day. Just perfect for staying inside and playing...thought I post some of my metal work.  My friend Harmony gave me a chandelier that was hanging in her shed.....

journaling

One of this week's assignments is to take your camera everywhere and take pictures.  This I can do.  I love my camera, and, even though it is way more camera than I know how to use, I love taking pictures. And it is a really good excuse to get out and look around with new eyes.  The picture above is of marbles that my mom used to play with when she was a girl...

This is part of a parking meter that somehow got given to me.  I'm in a local environmental art show in April and the topic is "mining"....I think that somehow I'm going to have to use this...not sure how yet.

This is what it was like outside a few minutes ago.  Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am to live in a place where I am surrounded by trees, right outside my back door. 

These are some jewellery components waiting for inspiration.  And the will to go outside and shovel a path to the workshop.

And here's where we're at right now....resting up after a long photo shoot.  I just got my treadmill delivered today. It will take great effort to get off this couch....

Today we awoke to about 2 feet of fresh snow....it was beautiful, but I really was not in the mood to shovel, and shovel and shovel....who's idea was it to live on acerage anyhow?  All I want to do right now is draw, but I have to get some dolls at least started, and we (my friends Mo, Elaine, and Melanie and I) have been accepted to the Smithers art Gallery and Wells art Gallery to do our Toys in the Attic, Beasts in the Basement show, http://www.flickr.com/photos/toys-beasts/ and I need to put some effort into this....oh, well at least my to do list is fun stuff....

The new "assignment" is to write a letter to your 10 year old self, or yourself in 10 years...after a walk by yourself.  Well, I had every intention of taking the dogs out for a walk, but griffon made it to the end of the driveway and was already trying to walk on 3 legs becuase his paws were so cold (it's -34 with the wind chill and snowing). So it's back inside for today.  It's very hard to write to your 10 year old self without making it seem like there are regrets, or that you could change something, which might mean that I would not be here in this place today, and here is just where I want to be.  And to my then 60 year old self.  I sure hope I'm wonderful and wise and am exercising regularly (I better get cracking with only 10 years to go!)

I think I'll just work on my drawing and enjoy the quiet of being alone with the snow gently falling outside.

stretching within

I signed up for Misty Mawn's stretchinng within online workshop that starts on Monday....what a great way to start the new year.  The thought of painting is a bit intimidating, but I have the book made and all the supplies are ready.  Our first unoffical project is to write a "poem" that starts with "i come from"....the postings so far are amazing.  It's been a bonding experience and i think it really illustrates how alike we all really are.  it is also pretty amazing how you can learn so much about someone from the collection of words they have chosen to represent where they come from.  The other thing that I really find interesting is that you can't be critical when you are reading these poems, none are better than others, none are right or wrong, they just are what they are meant to be...
Here is mine


I come from a place where stretching within is dangerous, it's best to remain perfectly still.

I come from a place of soft lights and music and comfort and safety within.

I come from a place where it is okay to be a bit messy.

I come from a family where creativity was encouraged, and invention was expected

I come from a place where I know what grass, clover, white paste, and darkroom chemicals taste like

I come from a time when it was okay to feel the wind in your hair when you rode a bike

I come from a place where mother's were not allowed to cry or show weakness or fart

I come from a place where actions spoke louder than words

I come from a time and place and gender where body image messages abound, sometimes subtle, sometimes not.."she has her mother's thighs" - not a good thing?  really? they carried me for 42 kilometers just to prove they could...

I come from an oak and a perennial

I come from a place where I am neither one nor the other

I come from airplane trips, warm raspberries, dusty talcum powder grandmas, fear, open eyes underwater, galloping horses, silky dogs ears against my upper lip, sleeping under blankets made with love....

I come from the ocean

I come from being too sensitive, always afraid, a predisposition to depression, knowing the importance of being kind...not always being kind

I come from raising 2 boys into strong young men, sometimes in spite of myself

I come with a longing to be stretched  and make connections and grow into who I am to beccoming now.