Talking Art

I’ve been talking about art a lot lately! Yay art!

I recently found out about the website Divine Caroline from Jenny at Rising Sun Coaching. I’m pretty new to the website, but Divine Caroline is a site for women where members can read and write articles on anything from work to hobbies to money. I thought it would be fun to write an article about art and creativity, specifically, how the creative process can be applied to other parts of our lives. I talked about this in a recent conversation with Jenny, and I’ve thought about it before—I’ve learned how to be open and come up with creative solutions in my art, but I often forget to use these skills in other parts of my life and the business side of my art. I think this happens to a lot of people—we learn something in one situation, and miss what that skill would offer to another.

My article is called Anything is Possible: Art and Creative Living . Check it out! It is a musing on a lot of ideas I’ve been having recently as I try to figure out how I want to live my life—you’ll notice I stole the title from this recent post. My only minor complaint about Divine Caroline is that I wasn’t able to upload my artwork to put with the article—I had to pick a stock photo. That was kind of disappointing, but otherwise the website looks great, and I think the stock photos probably help the entire site look more professional, so perhaps it’s better that way.

I have also been talking about art as a recent member of a local Etsy Team called the SactoMetro Etsy Street Team. If you’re unfamiliar with Etsy Teams, they’re a way for Etsy members to get together based on a common interest or location to meet like-minded creative people, share tips, and promote together. Since I live just 20 minutes from Sacramento, CA and often do shows there, I joined a local group. As part of the team, I have started posting weekly interviews with team members about their art/craft on the team blog.

I just posted the second weekly interview with MrsTalbott, a lovely local maker with a penchant for historic crafts (think handmade dolls, aprons, and knit items), and last week, I did the first interview with M and J Designs, the maker of so many fun creative items (think monster plushes and blue squid t-shirts).

So much art to be seen and made! I better hop to it!

Kelp

Here’s a new addition to my Natural Patterns Alphabet:

“Kelp,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop, see all of them here

I have to admit, I struggled a little with this one—it was hard to fit such a giant and flowing mass into a small square. I want to call it a plant, but I’m not sure that’s correct—I read that kelp is a type of algae, and I thing algae is a separate type of organism from plants? Arrgh, I need to study up on my nature science.

Kelp, the word is as odd as the thing. It sounds very lowly, kind of like the word mud. It was a good challenge for the letter “k” and adds nicely to the other sea creatures I did for the series. I keep wanting to say that I’m closing in on finishing, but in truth, there are still five left, and they’ll have to wait until later this fall, as I will be leaving in just two days for my wedding.

A Quiet Calm

“A Quiet Calm,” 8 x 10 inches, pen and ink, available in my shop

This drawing has been in my head since I went on a hike a few weeks ago, so it felt good to finally get it down on paper. This is the first drawing I’ve done in a while that is not part of a series, so it was nice to do something totally random. While series are great fun because you can see all of the pieces developing and working together, there is something of the work-horse in finishing them. Speaking of which, I will hopefully be back with another piece for my Natural Patterns Alphabet series in the next couple of days. For now, I leave you with the breezy thoughts above.

Another Mary Oliver

Another Mary Oliver poem to share today. Last night, I was reading my new book of her poems again, and I realized what it is about her writing that is pulling me in these days—she reminds me of why I love reading and writing—I love those moments when you discover something so true or honest or mind-bending that it changes how you are in the world. Many of her poems do that so simply. They make you think of something in such a new way, changing how you see it forever. Thank you Mary Oliver.

White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field
by Mary Oliver

Coming down
out of the freezing sky
with its depths of light,
like an angel,
or a buddha with wings,
it was beautiful
and accurate,
striking the snow and whatever was there
with a force that left the imprint
of the tips of its wings—
five feet apart—and the grabbing
thrust of its feet,
and the indentation of what had been running
through the white valleys
of the snow—

and then it rose, gracefully,
and flew back to the frozen marshes,
to lurk there,
like a little lighthouse,
in the blue shadows—
so I thought:
maybe death
isn’t darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us—

as soft as feathers—
that we are instantly weary
of looking, and looking, and shut our eyes,
not without amazement,
and let ourselves be carried,
as through the translucence of mica,
to the river
that is without the least dapple or shadow—
that is nothing but light—scalding, aortal light—
in which we are washed and washed
out of our bones.

Violets

I love the word and idea of violets. I don’t have any specific associations with the flower, but for some reason, the name evokes a very strong feeling in me. I can’t really explain it—there’s some mystical quality to it. Violets. Maybe I’m getting this association from literature, or movies, or something, but violets seem rare and precious, and yet, when I was looking at pictures of the flower for the most recent addition to my Natural Patterns Alphabet, these flowers seemed pretty common.

It is always amazing to me how a word can carry this entire other connotation. We have infused these seemingly random sounds with very specific meanings, both as a culture and personally. Violets connote to me a rare, delicate, unique, richness. I feel like this quality is almost inherent in the word, but I know that it’s my mind at work, and millions of minds before me.

And then again, perhaps you have a completely different association with violets—maybe your mean 2nd grade teacher (the one who made you stay after school again and again) loved violets, and so you hate them by default. The wonders of language! It’s very personal, and yet it has to be universal enough so we are actually able to communicate with each other.

Here’s my drawing:

“Violets,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, available in my shop, or in my Natural Patterns Alphabet section

Thistle

T is for thistle today! Another one for my Natural Patterns Alphabet series:

“Thistle,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

You can see all of these prints so far in my Natural Patterns Alphabet Shop Section.

During my drawing, I discovered many wonderful things about the thistle:

1. Don’t you just love the word! Thistle. This is a truly great word, and it sounds as prickly as it is in real life.
2. So many different textures to draw—what fun!
3. It is somewhat of a despised plant in the garden—a weed. It’s fun to admire weeds.
4. The beautiful shape of the plant, with it’s prickly bulb and flowing top.

Nature is as beautiful as ever, even the weeds.

Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration: week 5

I’m rounding the corner on my Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration. With 80 original hand-drawn buttons in the bag, I’m beginning to be able to see the finish line somewhere in the distance.

For any of you who submitted reader’s choice button ideas on the first post and others, I’m planning to do a group during the last week of my celebration (about two weeks from now), so stay tuned.

Some things about this week’s set:
-I got into a leaf theme, and as I am often inclined to do, I created a little mini-series of buttons with that theme.
-I tried out some black buttons, which was a fun twist.
-If you recently saw my girasole post (the one with the sunflower), you might check out the last button from this week. It’s a spiral inspired by the pattern in the center of a sunflower.

Yay for buttons! You can see all 80 so far in this flickr group. And without further ado, this week’s buttons:

Mary Oliver

It seems that lately, I’m doing more art business than I am art! And so it must be sometimes—there is show logistics and emails and orders. I am looking forward to the Fall when I will be able to have more of a balance. So, no drawings today, but I will let Mary Oliver draw you a picture with a poem.

I love Mary Oliver—her poetry is beautifully organic and honest. She has this way of creating a beautiful natural image and then weaving it into an astounding message about life. I have mentioned her on this blog before, but recently one of her poetry books found me at a library book sale, and I felt like it was destiny!

Here’s a poem included in that book, a collection of poems about birds called Owls and Other Fantasies:

“Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond”
by Mary Oliver

As for life,
I’m humbled,
I’m without words
sufficient to say

how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these
and over and over,

and long pale afternoons besides,
and so many mysteries
beautiful as eggs in a nest,
still unhatched

though warm and watched over
by something I have never seen—
a tree angel, perhaps,
or a ghost of holiness.

Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled, then to be reflective.
It suffices, it is all comfort—
along with human love,

dog love, water love, little-serpent love,
sunburst love, or love for that smallest of birds
flying among the scarlet flowers.
There is hardly time to think about

stopping, and lying down at last
to the long afterlife, to the tenderness
yet to come, when
time will brim over the singular pond, and become forever,

and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves.
As for death,
I can’t wait to be the hummingbird,
can you?

If My Life is My Message

Every Thursday I listen to this great radio show with Michael Neill, an amazing and very thought-provoking life coach. I found out about him quite some time ago through the blog Creative Thursday, another place I find lots of inspiration, and he is really the perfect combination of reality and dreaming for me, and I think for a lot of other people.

Last week, Michael Neill told a little story about the Dalai Lama in which the Dalai Lama was being harassed by a reporter asking for a message for the people, and the Dalai Lama responded by saying, “My life is my message.” With this story as a spring-board, Michael Neill posed the following question:

Of course I can’t remember any of the actual stories, but Neill uses this question with his coaching clients and had many funny answers to share—things like “pretend I really like people and then take all of their money” or “say I want to make a difference and then do nothing.”

This question came up for me again today because it feels like the exact question I am trying to answer in my life right now. In reality, it is a question I hope to be wise enough to keep asking and answering all of my life. I think it really puts things in perspective. This question is why I am quitting my day-job to start doing art full time—I don’t want my message to be “complain and whine about how much I hate my job and then don’t do anything about it.”

I think we all have a lot of answers to this question, and as Neill went on to say, maybe a good follow-up question is “what would I like my message to be?” It sounds really interesting to me to use the answer to this question to help figure out what actions you want to take. This question could be a framework for making decisions and living the life you want to live, even on a small level.

I just wanted to share this with you because I think it is such an expansive thought that will always lead to beautiful things! I would love to read your answers! Comment away!

Wait . . . I never answered either of the questions myself!

I’m not quite sure what my message is right now—I think I’m in transition, and I think there are many different messages from different parts of my life.

I would like my messages to be a lot of things: do what you love, have faith, be calm, open your heart, appreciate being alive, anything is possible, give of yourself.

Weekly Inspiration Digest: movement

To all Weekly Inspiration Digest readers, as you can see from all of the new announcements on this blog, I’m getting pretty busy over here at Blue Bicicletta! With trying to prepare for a transition to art full-time, many new projects, and planning the final details of my wedding in September, I’ve decided to take some time off from this weekly column to give myself more time for other pursuits.

Thanks so much for exploring these ideas with me, and I hope I have inspired you to keep looking for inspiration and appreciating life! Once I return from my honeymoon and start doing art full-time in October, I will reassess my projects and decide on how I want to continue with this topic. For now, please do take a look at all of the Weekly Inspiration Digest posts if you haven’t had a chance to read them yet! Thanks again for your support! Here is Weekly Inspiration Digest #10. Enjoy!

Now that I’ve been making and sharing art for a while, I often get asked questions about inspiration. Where does my inspiration come from to make the art that I do? It’s hard to answer this question specifically—inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere, but mostly from making art. Basically art leads to more art. It’s through making one thing that you find another, and through constantly placing yourself in a creative mindset that more creative thoughts develop.

But when I begin to think about where and when I get some of my best ideas, it’s not often while sitting at a desk with a pen, or sitting at a desk staring at the wall, waiting for an idea to come. The ideas come when life is happening, most often encouraged by movement.

There’s some amazing dynamic that happens when you make your body busy with one activity, like walking, biking, or swimming. Something slow and meditative, something you don’t have to think about too much. The movement keeps the busy-body part of you occupied, and lets your creative brain wander and roam.

When I first started this blog, I picked the name “blue bicicletta” because I love riding my bike (and I love the Italian word for bike, and the color blue), but I hadn’t fully wrapped my head around how my bike would be an essential tool in my art-making. Now I know, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come up with creative ideas while biking across town. My feet keep pedaling along the same route I take every day, and I relax into the routine movement, letting my brain open wide into thought.

Sometimes a word will come into my head, and then I’ll start matching it with other words and images, and I’ll keep cycling them around in my head, just like my feet are cycling on the pedals. This is how I’ve “written” many of the little bits of poetry for my word drawings—all the way home from work I repeat the words and refine them, my feet on the pedals churning me along, and churning up ideas. It’s like I’ve entered some other realm, and there’s just me moving through space with the words and pictures working themselves out.

Similar things happen to me when I’m walking or swimming. It’s the ultimate multi-tasking, but really, it’s a kind of symbiosis—the repeated movement generates the ideas, and the ideas in my head make the movement feel even more dynamic. These are the moments that I love—I feel like I’m some sort of a receptor, like I’m full of electricity, and I’m able to weave things together to create some meaning that’s bigger than any one idea.

It’s always funny, but so true how ideas come when you least expect them, when you let go of trying to make them. This is not to say that you should only make art when you have a brilliant idea, because the brilliant ideas come when you’ve been creating regularly. Creating gets your head into a place that generates new thoughts.

There must be some willingness, when all else fails, to sit down and put your pen on the paper and see what comes. When you’ve done that, then you’ll be ready when the lightening strikes some day on a walk or ride. You’ll have opened the door and you’ll know what to do with the lightening. You’ll walk home in a daze, and sit down, and put pen to paper without needing to think.

So in answer to that first question, “where does my inspiration come from?” I say, it comes from anywhere and everywhere, but mostly it comes from being a working artist. I’m constantly trying to open the door and then allow my brain the time to roam, creating space and place for lightening to strike.