Another Beach House

Some much has altered in my life recently. Change has been a fixture.

A move.

Motherhood.

A new creative space.

As I spend my days moving into another beach house, I am longing for free time to create.

My son occupies my moments, beautifying them in ways I could have never imagined.

I have a small room to do up into a studio, for the longest time I pondered what exactly this small room was supposed to be??? Then it was reveled to be a sauna by the fuse box. I have my fabric cubbies filled, my machines set on a table, and as soon as hubby get the power, I will set to work. I hope for many hours in my sewing sauna, maybe it is a metaphor for my creative life heating up? I am ready for this new chapter.

For now I steal moments, pretend I'm not sleep deprived, and set to work in little chunks of time preparing the studio, I think my supplies have missed me, they breathe again.

As I unpack, I note what a different woman I am. How motherhood has altered my approach to creativity. I begin the process of narrowing down what is important and I center my vision to target in a way I have not before, a way I could not.

I think we all honor the world by being creative. Our creativity brings to others joy, pure, infant like. I want to be held in color as it were a pair of mothering arms restoring the weary sleepiness and tuning my heart to task.

Harder Said Than Done

I am going through the withdrawal of not having a studio. It is almost packed and ready for arrival in a heated local, and I'm not sure how long it will wait to see the light of day again. So I am taking comfort in my bravado for now.

I'm not going to stop creating art, so I think for a bit it will just be downsized. Smaller pieces that lend to faster completion. I have paired down my studio to the basics and will use those at the new place, then I can visit storage as needed.

Someone told me that maybe for a while my studio wasn't supposed to be at my home. And I wonder about that comment and so many others that are brought into our lives by people, some close, and some seeming strangers. How does one take these messages and heed them, and yet know what is of importance and what is not?

Ode To The Next Chapter

BLUE

You give your love and friendship unconditionally. You enjoy long, thoughtful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

It's been a little time since I posted. Life has edged in and I feel that all the changes which surround me are good for the soul, and I breathe. Blue is definitely my favorite color, always has been. I like the colors of the sea's palette: blue, green, and all the soft shades in between that range to violet and grey and white.

Somehow moving brings up ideas of sufficiency, and my husband and I had a conversation about the idea of self-sufficiency and how perhaps it is a misnomer. I agree to an extent, but I am much more an advocate of people creating things with their own hands.

I think about the stuff in our lives, and I want to make sure I pack my boxes with only very important things.
~What are my favorites?
~What are the things I cannot live without?
~What are the things that wear me down and I need to quickly get rid of?
~What are the things that I don't want right now, but are important enough to keep?

These questions are spurred by the moving process yes. I am finding things that do not belong in my life anymore. Things that are space fillers that I do not love, but have acquired through chance and the freedom of passage for which free things boast. But they are not my favorites, and they surely will obscure the windows in the new place that I will live.

I am also finding objects which perhaps have not been given their "due" and I will arrange them in a more prominent place next time. There are things which I know will go to someone else whom will need them more or be able to re-purpose.

I have vision of simplicity, yes. I have visions of that palette of the sea, the type of home where the focus is out towards the horizon, and the objects which compose it aid the mind in reaching out for new things and accomplishments. So they must themselves speak of that.

We will be living by the sea for a year. It will be a change from the country, and the valiant mountain sunrises that I am use to now. I will miss the deer and the lengthy buttercups, and hanging the wash to flap in the hot sun.

The back of my mind had been filled with a picture, a picture which contains sunset and the movement of water. Had I been able to clear away the debris of life, I might have allowed this vision prominence, as it now seems strangely a flash of the future, although I never gave it it's "due" at the time.

So excuse my absence, anyone, if you are out there and you read such blatherings. I am filling the boxes right now, making my decisions, allowing my future in by the things I exclude. I want so much to not to let who I am and the choices I make be defined by my "stuff".

I have decided to pack much away, and spend a year living and writing overlooking the sea.

I am giving up a lot, namely space and my sewing studio, the china of course will go into storage the the collection of crystal will rest somewhere as well. I remain confident of being lead by an invisible hand. And there are places in life which call us forward, challenge us to find ourselves not in the echo, but in the sun as it rises anew.

Please check in, I might need support. The sewing machines will come, but no longer have a room of their own, and my fear is surely that they will come to rest in the corner during the very time which I deemed to create a portfolio. But book #2 needs to be completed also, and these character hang in my mind like a nagging wife raging with a teenager who doesn't want a curfew. And it has been too long since I could indulge them, enter a space, a calm frame, where I can give them life on the page, enter into their time and their space, and forge them onwards to deal with their own changes and passions.

Here I go, where I stop? Moving along is about being open to being moved along. To letting that inner self be a guide, and quieting that nagging devil on the shoulder that says, "You can't do that, but what about.....

Draw a new circle people, do it, or else all you will have is truly an echo.

Fort S

Sometimes the studio feels about this big. And quilts are big things. They require space. As does the creation of projects. It's Friday and I'd like to say the studio was ready for some creating this weekend. It's well loved and well used, and I am convicting myself of piling.

The weather is suppose to be cruddy. So maybe I will hole up in there and spend and hour or two clearing out, and the rest of the time either machine quilting or working on my art quilt.

I'm guilty, I bought some new fabric at just stupid prices. I'm thinking of making lawn chair covers and matching pillows and so what if they fade. There is some striped stretch duck that I was thinking about for a trench?

Quote of the week:

Brick walls are there for a reason; they let us prove how badly we want things -

"But there is a special place where good work is done, a place where elegance is spun out of snippets and scraps"

-from a greeting card by Whimble Designs



The work week closes and the weekend is set to begin. I have a new goal. So I must share. It is the kind of goal that perhaps makes no sense. And yet I have never lived my life to make sense. It involves expense, time, and effort, and could realistically have little financial reward. But aren't those always the best goals?

I've decided I'd like to try out the possibility of getting a degree in fiber arts. It's not a matter of can I, I know I can. I suppose it's more a matter of time and chance at this point. Will my local institution of learning have me? Will the department? I start work on building a portfolio up: novel number two is running along nicely, the roses are sprayed and the house is clean, and a mini adventure is planned for tonight.

I feel a period of resurgence on the horizion. Not just because it is Spring, and the sun has finally appeared after all the wet, but because I have delineated my next step. This has been something I have pondered for sometime. I have achieved a lot of the goals I have set for myself (degree, international travel, work, marriage, getting in shape), excepting the challenge of creating new goals, which I think I just attained.

I spoke of this goal to a new friend, and she maintained that, "That would keep you busy". I felt somewhat insulted, as she proclaimed that I was merely doing this to keep busy, when in reality, the one thing that I have never had a problem with was inventing things to do to maintain productivity. Was this out of envy or just plain dissmissal, I wonder? And why the harsh tone? I hope I never reach the point where I bash down a fancy.

So here we go, check back. I much prefered my husband's response to these outlandish dreams,
"I'll support you with what you want to do"

Brilliant

"I TRY TO MAKE THINGS IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF CONTROLLED LUNACY"
- Danny Mansmith

In the Dec 06 issue of Fiber Arts, (a little behind, I know) there is an inspiring article about Danny. I appreciated the found style of his workspace and his originality.

Part of the problem with fiber art is materials have to be very available to work with in a studio environment. This can lead easily to chaos.

An so Danny teaches me that it is o.k., it is part of the process. But he takes it a step further. Into his art. I always knew I was good at making things. And when I hear an artist like Danny talk about making things, in fact making things full time, I smile.