Art Blog

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Heart Failure

Well, hello there. It’s been a while hasn’t it? My apologies and a very Happy New You to my readers and subscribers. My absence is not without reason; I am, just as each of you are I’m sure, multi-roled.

No, I’m not talking about holiday excess and double chins, Tim Hortons soup accompaniments, or workplace chairs or overload. I’m talking about the distinct roles we play for others and ourselves. If you read my blog, you know that in addition to artist, I am a recently retired teacher. You might have also picked up that I am a mother and a wife. I could list myriad roles that make up the ‘I’ that I am. I won’t list them but I will add one: daughter. img_7565

I’m not a believer in ‘daughter’ duties. It’s an old misogynistic idea that I can get pretty riled up about. I do however, believe in taking the steps to feel the way I want to feel, in kindness and in love, and in service to others, especially to those I love and who love me.Hearts on Rings

I chose to accompany my father (he’s 80 and had a pacemaker put into his body on his last trip alone) on his most recent, planned ‘not so solitary anymore’ trip out of the country. He was pretty happy to have me tagging along. On the second day of the trip, he thought he was experiencing acid reflux, for his first time ever. It wasn’t that.

When I heard the words ‘heart failure’ in the context of someone close to me, it was as if I was in some cheesy movie. I said, What? twice and still could not comprehend what I was hearing.

Now, more than a month later (was there even a holiday season this year?) I’m still hanging out with my father. (My studio beckons as does my husband.) We have been in four hospitals, three ambulances, a medi-vac, a leer jet, and now, we are ensconced in his fairly remote home (no wireless or cell service…what!!!) while he recoops.

He’s doing well at getting better thanks to the wonderful people in those four hospitals, in the ambulances and in the leer jet. He’s feeling loved thanks to his family and friends.

For me, it’s another little adventure on life’s journey that, of course, had ‘news’ for me to experience and learn from.

I’ve never been so whole ‘heart’edly aware. Here’s some great heart links for your exploration! Add some of your own in the comment section!

For figuring out how you want to feel (heartwork)

The Desire Map http://www.daniellelaporte.com/thedesiremap/

Hiro Boga https://www.amazon.ca/Be-Soul-Do-Adventures-Consciousness/dp/1775083705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515541223&sr=8-1&keywords=hiro+boga

For Looking After Your Heart

http://www.heartandstroke.ca/

https://goiheart.com/

 

 

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The Shop is Open!

Hurray! My first product, Artist Heart, is now available through the store on my website. You will see these beautiful hearts, along with my signature on many of my originals and giclees, they were intended to show the owner where I live.

And then I thought, after seeing this 3-D design by Ryan Norbury at Craftech Labs, that perhaps everybody might want to show where they are from!

Kindness and love are absolutely everything, people. Everything.

Wear this simple, recognizable symbol with pride, knowing that they too have been designed and created with love. They come in twos so that you can also gift them to others who come from love. Join the ‘I’m From Love’ club and be kind.

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I’m Going to be an Artist in Residence!

Months ago I mentioned to my family that I was thinking about applying for some of the artist residencies that happen annually around the world. I ended up applying for only one; the residency at Chateau Orquevaux, in France. Only one, because life got busy and one was what I had the energy for. Only one that was in the north east of France, because I often dream of seeing Paris and the Louvre and I’d never been to this region of France and the pictures of the Chateau looked positively dreamy. It wasn’t that I was sure my art was good enough, it wasn’t that I was sure I would be selected, it was only this one because this one was enough for my heart.

And last week, I found out that I was selected to be in residence at Chateau Orquevaux, in France, in the spring of 2018. Yes, me! For all of April, I will be immersed in the beautiful life and culture of France and surrounded by artists from all over the world exploring this same dream in our own medium, in our own voice, in our own colours.

I AM OVER THE MOON EXCITED! Whoo Hoo!!!!!!!!!

Which reminds me of years ago, when as a teacher I was at the CSA, I got to ask a question of an astronaut on the space shuttle. (My voice has been heard in outer space.) The reporter who interviewed me afterward refered to me as giddy with excitement. I wasn’t giddy then, but the excitement I’m feeling now is closer to it.

I have high expectations for a beautiful life full of beautiful experiences that I know I will love. I look for what is right and good and beautiful and I dream my dreams. There has been interference along my journey; things that took me down, slowed me down,  and took me out, but it is the sum of those experiences that also lit me up, so I’m not complaining. My high expectations for life create endless opportunities for gratitude…and as I’ve said before, gratitude paves the road to joy!

In my teaching past, I was twice told by a superior to keep my expectations low so that I could be happily surprised. That was terrible advice, and me being me, I completely ignored it.

I am so extremely grateful to have been chosen to create in Orquevaux, France and I’m already curious to see what will intuitively come up for me there.

 

I love to take photos with my Iphone 6 wherever I go to document my travels and to feed my creative habits.

In addition to painting on this trip watch my instagram account to see what I post after I manipulate my photos with my favourite creative apps. France will be amazing!

 

Oh, please remember to sign up to receive my newsletter while you’re here. I’m going to begin offering artful adult classes soon, in person and online, so stay tuned! Yes, I just retired from a 33 year teaching career. No, retirement doesn’t mean I am ‘done’. At 57, I find I am now who I was always meant to be.

 

 

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A Visit To Alert Bay

I hadn’t been back for 35 years; since that first time when the shy young man offered me a gift of a silver, shimmering salmon. I remember how grateful I was to receive the small piece of art.

At that time I knew nothing of residential schools or discrimination. Now, I know so much more.

I have always loved the art. The shapes and form are unique in the world. The colours used are distinct. The craftsmanship, evident.

The accompanying magic, mysticism, and stories are captivating; place-based versions of something vaguely familiar.

This art; the art of The First Nations People, touches me so deeply that my soul sings along.

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to visit Alert Bay and it’s people’s art once more and I can’t wait to return!

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How I Paint

  1. I like Golden paints. Their rich colours and variety are ready to go. I always start with heavy bodied paint and keep the colour wheel in mind. No mud. Drying time between layers.
  2. I begin by just making marks to get what is inside of me out. Sometimes I begin with collage. Sometimes I begin with huge charcoal toned sticks. I don’t usually need music in the background if I’m expressing what’s in my body. ‘It’ wants out. My hands want to dance the canvas. I can do this for as many layers as I have angst or joy.
  3. Music, the kind I find soul soothing, comes in handy for this next step of intentional paint play. Still using heavy body paint. Still just mark making fun.
  4. Dry now, the canvas has some life to it. Texture, colour, shapes. Usually, a lot of life! Sometimes too much life. At this point, I sit with it for a bit and see what comes up. I might see/feel something right away but I’m not disappointed to have to put it aside for weeks or months. I trust that something will eventually emerge.
  5. I set the content free. This is the exciting part. Sometimes it’s related to the layers before but sometimes it’s not. I just never really know what will show up or what will withdraw from the work.
  6. I add high viscosity colours, glazes, and drips. More play!
  7.  Finishing touches…edges, sides, details, etc… are my least favourite part. I usually feel ‘done’ before the canvas is finished. For me, this finishing is the drudgery that must happen for the viewer’s sake and I don’t paint for the viewer. I paint because I have to; it’s a birthing process that creates space and well being. It’s beautiful, cyclical, and creative, and very much like how a bulb or tuber, tree or flower sends forth it’s seed.cropped-img_31021.jpg
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Autumnal Daze

Without breeze or wind to blow them, leaves of red and gold tumbled to the base of tall maples in our yard today. Walking in them was a joy. They crunched and flew with an upward, playful toe flick. In the sun, it was 21 degrees. A delightful respite, a reminder of our dry, warm summer before the temperature will inevitably drop to bone chilling; before this evening’s dazzling sunset of reds and golds.

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#Me Too

Our culture is, once again in flux. Changing for the better because we are speaking about what feels wrong. About what is wrong.

It’s emotional for all parties, those who speak, those who listen, those who deny, those who’ve received, those who’ve participated, those who are blamed, those who forgive, those who remember and those who are triggered.

We all reel in the newest revelation and absorb it’s impact. We all change a little bit. Harden. Soften. Wise-up.

It is a time for great compassion. For self, for others. It is also a time for reflection. How have we perpetrated the ideology behind it? How have we helped create the time for revelation? How will we be? What will we be for others?

Better. Better for every child unborn. That’s what I want to come out of this. We are waking up thanks to our speaking out. So much has been wrong; we knew it soul deep, but we needed to speak. To hear it.

I remember when the sexual abuse of children was an unspoken, private, unimaginable thing. I remember when coaches who did unspeakable things to boys, sons, came to light.  I remember the moment when I realized that the history of our aboriginal people in Canada was not so different from the holocaust. So many atrocious things. Perpetrated things. Extinctions in progress needing to be extinguished. Such misuse of strength and power over others. BUT, we are learning with regularity to speak out, and we are learning to listen to one another.

We are waking up. We are cleaning up.

It will be better.

#metoo

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanksgiving Food for Thought 2017

We had a thoughtful philosophical round table here on Thanksgiving led by my daughter who’s questions were served up like amuse-gueule. Listening to the sometimes frayed sometimes fresh inter-generational similarities and differences within each response filled me up, the way hors d’oeuvres always do.

As always, I continue to ‘digest’ what went down… turkeys

The elders are satiated, the parents are getting there, and the youth altruistically want to save the world through education and service…unless they’ve decided it’s insatiability leaves it beyond hope and saving oneself may be the most reliable course of action.

 

And for dessert…

Phil Town talks of a mentor who insists that being thankful 1000 times a day is the road to happiness. Joe Vitale teaches the methods of Ho’oponopono, a Hawaiian tradition grounded in loving kindness. As a parent, my greatest hope for my children is that they are happy and fulfilled and I know they will find their way to it down different, self-determined paths, just as I and my siblings are. Life is a journey, not predictable, but neither, arbitrarily measured.

 

As my longest career comes to an end, I am beginning to reflect on and appreciate how my way of doing the work so wholeheartedly filled me up while depleting me.

Teaching is relationships. When I reminisce, the relationships I enjoyed with colleagues and students will always make me smile. Teaching is also documentation, assessment, substantiating, professional development, counselling, volunteering, crisis management, bookkeeping, event planning,… and I took it all on with seriousness and conviction. It was a way of life for me and my family.  It was the greedy child that was never satiated.

When David Whyte said wholeheartedness was the anecdote to exhaustion, I’m sure he was excluding B.C. public school teachers during the last round of Liberal governing years. Wholeheartness drove many of us to the physical and mental edge. While teaching gave me joy, the enormity of the task depleted me and the “no new shoes for you” budget years, backfired.

The aperitif:

  1. Remember that working harder doesn’t make us happier.
  2. Set boundaries for your work life and stick to them.
  3. Linger in aspects of work that fill you up, avoid languishing in those that don’t.
  4. It’s the love, the kindness, the laughter, and ultimately, the gratitude of giving and receiving those experiences that matters.
  5. Striving and money are likely highly overrated so recognize ‘enough’ and enjoy that as a touchstone for all the freedom and joy it can provides.