regrouping

Sometimes it is truly better to be away from one's creative work.

I started this morning by walking down our long private driveway in my pajamas with the camera to catch the morning light.

This great mast of a maple must come down soon as it is rotting from the inside.

Such a pity; I will miss it.

These mysterious beauties are growing just about to the right of me as I took that last picture.

Don't they look somewhat ominous!

The Echinacea or Coneflowers have a white imposter growing amongst them- a Shasta Daisy.

I do love to walk in nature when it is so-o quiet in the morning.  I keep expecting to come upon some creature that never expected to find me there.  But the only thing I scared up was a bright green leopard frog that went bounding through the grasses as I approached.

It was another day out of the studio.  It rained most of the day.  I took a friend's invitation to run off to the farmers' market in town and scraped up enough pennies, with her help,  to buy a fully rooted basil to plant at home.  Regrouping after a disjointed week and a half of waiting for the roofers to come and go still has me reassembling the house after removing pictures and other art from the walls.  Now we're talking about painting- the walls that is.   We've been talking for quite a while now about down-sizing, but the house still needs an overhaul before we can put it on the market.  It is a wonderful place to live, but requires the attention I'd rather be putting in my artwork.  I can't help but feel I will regret a move even though I know it is the practical thing to do.

I often half-jokingly call us  'grasshoppers'  because we neglect the work we should do in the summer.

Wally says he could cry when he looks at his "poor garden".   He never meant to neglect it,  but once the moose and deer got in it,  it was never the same.  Still, there are a few stray tomatoes and some zucchini or squash in there somewhere .

Creativity is like a garden.   It is still alive with growth;  just not the growth we intended.

Left fallow,  there is the much needed rest the soil (soul) requires,  still full of potential when one is ready to start back at it.   I have a lot of incubating to do as I rethink the point of my etsy store.  When I started it,  it was meant to be incentive for me to have a daily habit,  as was this blog for that matter.  But there is an artificiality to this discipline  I require of myself that has nothing to do with matters of the heart.  You will often hear about  'showing up' for the daily routine of creativity as if it were a 9 to 5 job.   While that may be great for a direction already chosen,  I'm not convinced it is the way to find one's true calling,  or "bliss" as Joseph Campbell would call it.   Within my love of creativity lays a golden nugget that has more to do with hearing my soul's voice  than making just any old thing.   I don't really want to just make stuff.   Each session for me is like a prayer,  a communion with my higher self.

I know there is something very special calling me if only I will be still enough to hear it.  I share this with you because I think it must matter to you too.

I'll stop here as it is late.  A warm welcome to eveyinorbit who I discovered 2 days ago on etsy.

Believe in your dreams.

  There is something wonderful waiting for each of us

if only we would give it the space to come in.

demi-anniversary sale

 

 

I hope you are feeling the balance of a quiet reflectful day as I am.  Summer is in her glory here.

I have been away from this blog longer than I expected.  August has been full of distractions that have kept me from my creative play.  But everything goes into the mix I suppose.  It certainly makes me eager to get back into the swing of things.  And now I've set myself a goal by making a  SALE   in my etsy shop til the end of August.

In September I will remove the pieces now displayed and replace them with new items I have been working on.   It has been one of the most interesting times of my life,   the reinvention of my creative life,   moving from a 34 year careet as a potter,  with painting and collage art on the side,   to putting the pottery in the background as I pursue an expression more personal to me.

It has been a little over 6 months since I opened my etsy shop.  What an amazing adventure it has been,  meeting more folks there than on my blog where I had hoped to interact with other souls interested in the creative arts as I am.   Living and working in creative isolation has its benefits and challenges.   I can't begin to tell you how meaningful and helpful it has been to have the input and support from those of you who have cared to write.
 
I am so grateful to those of you who have cared to follow this process of personal growth. It can be more difficult than one might imagine to   P L a Y  .    There is more to it than one might expect.   Releasing the constraints of everyday life and coming to your table   f R e E    is as simple as jumping into the deep end of one's right brain.   But if one doesn't make a habit of it,  there is the same initial fear of the blank page so to speak.   Freedom and play are so intertwined and I marvel at those folks who seem to have an access to it in everyday aspects of life,   problem-solving with an ease and grace based on  TRUST.   Trust is one of those things that come to us when we are in a safe place.  It can be a material safe place, or an internal one.   If we carry our demons inside who mock us,  then that must be addressed first.   Creativity or problem-solving may not be successful,  but that always,  ALWAYS,  something will be learned from it and,  hence,  be put to further use.   It's exciting this inner journery.   I believe,  I truly believe,  it is in all of us to discover, both the inner journey and the creative one.

Peace my friends

                         

stepping into August

Another glorious day in Muskoka.
We live in a little bubble of Eden here in the woods.

When I moved here almost 23 years ago a friend told me,  half seriously,  not to tell anyone;  that we should keep it to ourselves.  It surely is a luxury to live among the trees and birds and nature when she's kind.

a little watercolour, as yet unnamed that I did recently

Welcome August in all its wistful glory.