It’s that time of year again. The days are getting incredibly long. The sun is shining with splendid warmth. The flowers are brilliant and vegetables are rapidly emerging from the ground. All I want to do is be outside and get my hands into the dirt. I want to plant and prune and pull weeds, and I want to bask in the results of my labor. Such concrete and immediate results! And there is so much to be done! But there are also baskets to be made, bracelets to create, mandalas to design, and of course, paintings to emerge. There are craft shows coming up and a group show in Pennsylvania in September. There are unfinished paintings and new ones ready to start. And I want to do it all. I so love it all. If only, there were more hours or I worked more quickly or I could split myself into two or more people. If only…but for today… the sun is shining….
Tag: art
New Basket
I just finished a two-day basket workshop, and this is the result. The material used is willow bark, and it is amazing to work with. Beautifully grown, harvested, and prepared by our teacher, Judy Zugish. With eleven people making a variation of the same basket, no two were the same. Such a great creative opportunity in such a nurturing environment.
One Red-ish Drawing
After posting last week on my inability to handle red in my work, I decided to try to rise to my own challenge, and to work with red this week. The results are here for you to see. A circle, but not quite a mandala. Not a terrible piece, but not quite red. Only red-ish for now. It’s a start.
Of Tulips and ipads
I love all the color in this photo. Especially all the red. The brand new ipad with its special red cover was waiting for me when I got back from PA this time. The vibrant red tulips and daffodils picked from our garden. The ipad happened to get set down next to the flowers and it really hit my eye. The promise of Spring and the challenge of learning about something new. When I took the photo, I didn’t expect that the red-patterned cover on the bench in the background would show so much.
Why do I love red so much in the world, but not so much to wear and rarely to paint with?
enormously grateful for my life
I am busily trying to pull all the loose ends of my loose life together by 5:10 pm tomorrow when I get on the ferry and begin my journey to Delaware Water Gap. Then I can sigh and sleep. Right now, it is as if a small tornado has taken hold of my consciousness and is quietly swirling within me. So many projects, so little time. The beaded bracelet project has taken over the dining room table. Garlic baskets are on the coffee table (a perfect project to do while watching a movie or football). Upstairs, my office is filled with neat little piles of mandala coasters needing to be sorted. And the newest addition to the mandala family is a mandala cutting board, waiting for me to attach feet to their bottoms. Dennis has taken to calling our house Susan’s Sweatshop (meant in the kindest of ways, but not without a little frustration since he does love clear surfaces and they seem to be impossible for me to achieve). And then there was Thanksgiving weekend with many meals and many people weaving their way into mix. Oh, and all the myriad of small and large things I need to do here before leaving.
So I woke up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving feeling so enormously grateful for my life and totally panicked at the same time. I thought of my list of things to do and I thought of my family coming. Part of me wanted to just be alone and keep beading bracelets or stay in bed with the covers over my head. I realized that I had a choice to make. I could look at the whole experience as stressful and the cooking as work and the time away from projects as really inconvenient. Or I could choose to have FUN and relax and trust that it would all get done. So I breathed life into that idea and let it grow as the day progressed. I made a bracelet in the morning and only then cleaned the house. I started cooking at 6 pm and just made dinner for that night, instead of being two days ahead of the meal situation. I threw my menu and most of the recipes out the window and improvised more. As a group, we all decided what to eat next and when to eat it. Everyone helped. I spent time outside. I watched some football, made some baskets, sent some emails, and really enjoyed the company of friends and family, cats and dog. I kept breathing and it kept flowing! Could this be the start of something big?
Written on 29th November, 2010
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