Changing Places

The dream of the golden retriever ranch continues… this is my image for the Artist’s Way “Environment” task this week. My ideal environment is a big ranch near a lake or perhaps ocean shore where I can raise goldens, train them, and prepare them to be service dogs. I also want to be able to rescue dogs and repurpose them as service dogs or pets. It needs to be near a town where the dogs can go and be socialized at nursing care facilities, schools, etc. But I want enough “country” around me that I can garden, have a stable and horses, be near a guest house or bed and breakfast that could use our kennels as a place for their guests pets to stay near them. I want to be able to have enough staff or family here that we can take off and travel when we want, so it would truly serve as our “base camp” for exploring the world.

And of course, we would do dog yoga.

Hecate: The Gift

Once, when I was doing chemotherapy, had just been abandoned by my lover of twenty-some years, and was about as sorry for myself as it was possible to feel, I was sitting in a restaurant trying to make myself eat something. I called for the check and the waitress said, “A man saw you sitting in the window, came in and paid for your meal. He left this.” It was a tiny, dirty scrap of paper, torn off of an envelope and it said: “Believe.” I still have that scrap of paper and it keeps me going sometimes when I feel like giving up.

Escherized Wiener Dogs

And a Happy New Year of the Red Dog from my own red dogs, too!

Just a quick note - if you’re interested in doing a postcard exchange, please comment here or email me - donna at woodka dot com. Thanks!

One of the last pictures and letters from my Grandmother Holton, my mother’s mom, from 1992. She was “resident of the month” at her nursing home so she had her picture done, one of the rare formal pictures I have of her.

Starting week 4 of Artist’s Way this week, so I will not be doing my usual blog reading. Guess I’ll miss all the fussing over Alito and the SOTU and all that fun stuff. I DO have to read enough to study for my Japanese midterm, though. But, I’ll be reading in Japanese. ;^)

Hopefully I will be posting all the art I’m doing while I’m not reading, though!

Starting to read through Jennifer New’s ” Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art”

“I think we are well-advised to to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.” — Joan Didion, On Keeping a Notebook

“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior” — Christina Baldwin

“I set about filling the notebook with odd facts, stories from the past, and all sorts of other things, often including the most trivial material. On the whole I concentrated on things I found charming and splendid; my notes are also full of poetry and observations on trees and plants, birds and insects.” — The Pillow Books of Sei Shonagon

“I was out walking the dog and I saw 500 things that made me want to make art” — Maria Kalman

.. we’ll have to make do with my friend John Pierce’s sketch….

“Shame is pride’s cloak.”

William Blake

“We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Once my heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?” — George Sand

“The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but the ignominy, the humiliation we feel that we must be what we are without any choice in the matter, and that this humiliation is seen by everyone.”
– Milan Kundera

“Good words do more than hard speeches, as the sunbeams without any noise will make the traveler cast off his cloak, which all the blustering winds could not do, but only make him bind it closer to him” — Robert Leighton

So here was the original set:

And here are the slightly altered versions, which I didn’t do too much too since I liked the basic design and colors, but just wanted them to have some “oomph”:

Total cost of today’s altered art project - $10! (I already had paint and brushes anyway, so their cost is not included)

And now I have new art for the bathroom! Yeah!

OK, I bought these really cheap pictures at Michaels because I wanted some art in these Tuscan colors to add to my bathroom. They come in sets of two, so I painted one of them in my style. Now I’m debating - do I leave the other as is, or repaint it also? I find the originals kind of static and boring, so added a bit of impressionistic style.

Here’s the original:

And here’s my altered version:

And on to the synchrocity - playing Sting’s “Fields of Gold” as I did my alteration on the really cheap canvases in just the right sizes and colors, easy to redo in my own style.

“Whether we name divine presence synchronicity, serendipity, or graced moment matters little. What matters is the reality that our hearts have been understood. Nothing is as real as a healthy dose of magic which restores our spirits.”
– Nancy Long

“I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path.” — Dalai Lama

My favorite childhood toy was … my dump truck

My favorite childhood game was … playing “freeze tag”

The best movie I ever saw as a kid was … Mary Poppins - the first movie we saw as a family in the theatre instead of the drive-in

I don’t do it much but I enjoy … singing

If I could lighten up a little, I’d let myself … make friends with lots of other artists and creative people

If it weren’t too late, I’d … get a degree in Organizational Psychology

My favorite musical instrument is … the flute

The amount of money I spend on treating myself to entertainment each month is … I don’t tend to treat “myself” - my husband usually buys - hmm, I need more artist’s dates?

If I weren’t so stingy with my artist I’d buy her … studio space and more art classes

Taking time out for myself is … something I try to do daily

I am afraid that if I start dreaming … I’ll succeed - I’m not afraid of failure, just success

If it didn’t sound so crazy, I’d … hop a plane to New York or Florida for a few days’ vacation by myself

What makes me feel weird about this recovery is …I don’t see it as recovery, but expansion

Learning to trust myself is probably … the hardest thing I’ve ever done

My most cheer-me-up music is … Dave Koz or Peter White, depending on whether I need to be more “up” or “calm”

My favorite way to dress is … jeans and a t-shirt (that’s what happens when you’re a 70s kid!)

Dragon of anger
Calls for us to take action
Anger is the fuel

My artist saw these wonderful brooms and mats online today and had to buy them. Since my artist was running this show, I think it was sort of an online “artist’s date”. Yeah, I’ll probably still take her out later and do something, but I’m not buying her anything else today! (Unless it’s really cool, of course!) And their prices are really good considering what I’ve seen these brooms go for at other places when I’ve wanted one. And free shipping, so that was a win, too. Anyway, I thought they were cool and ecologically correct, considering the mats are recycled polypropylene.

This is a body print I did several years ago in one of artist Pamela Underwood’s Bodywriting classes and then embellished. The image is a gesso print colored with ground artists’ pastels.

Of course, I thought this was all in good fun, since the friend who had told me about the retreat never mentioned it was for people with body image problems and that Pamela was an art therapist. So there I was running around naked and having a great time and not getting that others were really struggling with this process. Oops. I had a good time anyway, until the last day when I was being rushed to finish my work and go back to the group circle. I really resented being rushed to finish up, and all the tears spilled out. My biggest personal issue has always been dealing with groups of women, and it felt like “here we go again”. I had to go sit with all these women while they confronted me with their anger about me having a good time being naked. Hmm. Was this my problem, or theirs? Anyway, it was just an unpleasant wrapper to put around a really good experience. I did get a lot out of the whole idea of the circles, and the constructive criticism and all, but it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for group art classes.

BTW, Pamela charges several hundred dollars for her Artist’s Way classes, so you can see what a huge bennie doing this online is for me. No confrontational groups, and it’s free….

And yes, I still like getting naked and smearing my body with paint and onto canvas. It’s great fun. I just do it without other people around these days.

Mom with me, my brother and sister, circa 1960. We were all cowboys and cowgirls, then…

By Danny Gregory

“I was reminded today of an important turning point in my creative life. A woman wrote to me and asked, “How do you keep your confidence up (without letting it dissipate) to keep living your creative dream?”

What came to mind is something a friend of mine told me years ago. I was saying something self-deprecating and insecure about my artwork and he turned to me and said, “When are you going to take it for granted that you are a talented artist? When are you going to stop trying to prove it? Assume it. Take it for granted and imagine what you could create from that place…”

My whole life changed that day.

I finally saw how much energy I was putting into becoming an artist. I thought I had to somehow earn the title, that there was some special magic attached to it. I thought I had to be plucked from the crowd, that someone from the outside (who? I have no idea) would say to me, NOW. You are good enough.

What a bunch of crap.

I think the label of “artist” is loaded and has a strange sort of baggage attached to it. People say, “I’m not an artist! I can barely draw a straight line” and I always cringe when I hear this. What’s so interesting about a straight line anyway?

It is not an exclusive club, this artist thing. It’s just a bunch of people who like to play, to make things, to dream up ideas, to color, to sing, to build, to string words together. Don’t we all? I think it helps to remove the labels. — Andrea Scher

From my watercolor postcard series…