joyouslybecoming

remember me?

i won't be surprised if you don't - i'm having a hard time remembering me as well, the me i was a few months ago all chatty and outgoing. this me is very quiet and reflective. when it comes to communicating via blog, facebook, phone, letter, she wishes she could communicate by ESP, not have to use words at all, but still no luck on that front. why it feels so hard to make contact with the outside world sometimes, i don't understand. i just observe it in myself, especially in the autumn. fighting it doesn't help either, i just go, go, go with the flow. 

what have I been up to you might wonder? well i've been busy preparing for teaching my three classes at Portland Art and Soul - I leave tomorrow and aside from packing clothes and some incidental am ready. Of course I could spend another month getting ready, trying to get everything perfect, more and better of everything, but that mode is no fun at all and makes my head spin. so, it's good enough, as my dear walter would say, i can relax.

My friend made me the most beautiful easel and delivered it a couple weeks ago. We bartered: an easel for a painting. I'm starting on that when i get back from Portland. He is a talented artist and fine woodworker.

notice the beautiful wooden knob...all the knobs are like that. i promised him that he would remain anonymous as he doesn't want any more requests for his handmade easels - he made 3 last month for us friends who either heard or saw what he made and wanted one too. he doesn't say no well. I'm also going to start painting bigger now that i have the easel. neck pain be gone!

other places i've been, things i've seen:

the most beautiful night time sky

a lovely wedding for my neice allison

her dog lucy was there to witness the entire event

navigating the dozens (hundreds?) of spider webs on my morning walks

the last fragrant blooms of the season

I will try to be better in keeping in touch when i get back - wishing you the joy of autumn breezes and harvest moons. thank you for stopping by...

SP Wednesday and images from around me

The forest has a particular silence about it this time of year and like these trees I wander through year round, I notice I do as well; I have a sense that we share a lot this time of year, the trees and I. Just as their sap flows out of the once lovely green leaves and back home to the center,  I feel myself pulling away from activity that is no longer appealing,  and toward that core within which sustains me. 

I did a week long studio clean-up, moving rearranging, and deep cleaning my area. It is calming to have the space where I spend most of my time organized, clean, and tidy - like someone cares. I want to spread more of that around to the other neglected rooms and spaces in my house, to get to know the spaces again. The transformation begins.

I'm finding joy in the simple things and feeling reflective.

I've made decisions to cut back drastically teaching next year; 2010 has me comitted for only 4 venues, leaving more time for family, gardening, and personal artmaking eplorations. I'll be posting my 2010 teaching schedule in the next few weeks. Maybe we'll even get baby chicks next spring...it's been a long time since we raised our own, too busy in the outside world.

I never tire of exploring my own backyard.

Learning new dance steps with my shadow.

More time to experience the joy and curiosity of creating.

And best of all, to celebrate a new grandchild into the family! Yes - Marissa is pregnant and they are both thrilled, we all are, and she is due in March, just about the time of ArtFest. It worked out so perfectly that this year I wasn't chosen to teach as you see, I would have had to withdraw anyways. I believe things work out perfectly, even when i don't understand the reason at the time I can trust that all is just as it should be.

let's make some rain....