Stitching My Story

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

  

I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment.

~Marc Chagall

As much as I like order and organization.....

"As I ran this morning I started to see a pattern in my life.  As much as I like order and organization, sometimes this inhibits me from making the important changes I need to make.  Because you see, some changes require a mandatory period of messiness in order to get to clarity or cleanliness."

Kristin Armstrong, Mile Markers

View from my Journal and Italy....

I have to apologize for not writing down where I got this quote from. It was tucked at the bottom of a journal page and struck me as perfect as I prepare to head off on an art retreat. I am looking forward to lots of time for relaxed art-making with friends.

Still..... It is hard to leave home, {dear cowboy} and the units. I have never been a very good traveler.

 
Unit Two will be flying back from Italy just as I am leaving town. I love how easily she travels... how small (and HUGE) the world has become to her because of it. BUT.... a long drive and a short ferry ride is perfect for me. I am a nest-er. I get home sick at the drop of a hat. An art-filled, close-to-home adventure is my favorite kind.... at least for now.

THIS was my request from Italy... pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa being held up.... Soooo funny!

 

"Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery."

 ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

~Douglas Adams

Instead of studying for my computer final...

I am making "computer ninja" buttons for my class!

And doing my current favorite form of "meditation".... drawing round things in my sketchbook.

  Another middle-age skill I've mastered: CREATIVE PROCRASTINATION!

"Look at everything. Dismiss nothing."

A Design Education Manifesto

Always take risks.

Be aggressive.

Break the rules.

Look at everything. Dismiss nothing. 

Be obsessive.

Be uncomfortable.

Be opinionated.

Be a cop.

2011 Art Book (re)Read of the Month: March

January 2011: The Confident Creative by Cat Bennett

February 2011: The View from the Studio Door by Ted Orland

March 2011: The Art Spirit by Robert Henri

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable."

~Robert Henri

"Your role... if not easy, is at least clear: learn the things you need to learn in order to do the work you need to do."

~The View From the Studio Door

 

A Gray and Gloomy Afternoon....

... completely lit up when I found these little notes left behind by my grandson...

("Hoopty do, Hoopty do... I hear a polka and my troubles are through.")

...and this poem in my email box from my friend Debbie...

God Says Yes to Me
 by Kaylen Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
and is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes