Balance and chaos

I am starting to feel a little more comfortable with blogging. My question is how do I keep up with this and leave enough time for creating art? My questions are always about balance. Whether it's working outside of the home or at home, the key is in balance. I have not created for a week or so, and I feel like a carbonated drink that has been shaken and is ready to blow! We had some chaos in our family that caused distractions from life's routines, but that has settled down some (teenagers! Need I say more?). Now I am acutely aware of the clutter and chaos surrounding me in my studio (repurposed from our living room!), so I am itching to sort and straighten so I can focus on art instead of everything trying to distract me. I also know that not only is the clutter visually distracting, but everything carries energy and too much of that can be very distracting!

I am remembering the self-defeating believe one who works in the home has to battle: that not working outside the home means I have all the time in the world to do everything (and I am a life junkie, so I want to do everything)! I am reading a wonderful book right now (ah, the time to read! What a luxury!) entitled The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. McMeekin interviewed about 45 creative women to glean their thoughts on how to be creative. It's a fine book, informative and thought provoking as well as offering challenges to the reader to follow through on ideas.

I am pretty avid about using highlighters when I'm reading books, and this one is already marked on every page. I relish quotes and McMeekin does, too, because she has designed the book with wide margins where she inserts wonderful quotes. Such as:

"What you love is a sign from your higher self of what you are to do." -- Sanaya Roman, writer

"One exciting aspect of the current ferment by women is the fact that as they struggle for authenticity, they simultaneously illuminate their personal creativity." -- Jean Baker Miller, women's researcher and writer

"Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes I even have trouble doing it." -- Tallulah Bankhead, actress.

And a personal favorite that I am now incorporating into my morning ritual:

"In the sacred traditions, the first thing you do in the morning is ask for blessings from the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Because all that you are going to do that day will change the universe." --Laura Esquivel, writer.

Above all, McMeekin affirms the power of women. YES!

Anyway, one of the statements that struck me yesterday (as I was sitting on our deck in the warm sun of early spring... yum!) was that one needs to make time to create. Creating takes time. This sounds like stating the obvious, but so often we forget this important aspect of creating. I believe that each of us is creative; however most of us don't give ourselves the time to explore that creativity. One of the things I love most about teaching/facilitating "playshops" (we're not working, we're playing... so why call them workshops?) is seeing a light go off in someone's face who didn't believe she was at all creative and finds that she has created something beautiful and uniquely hers. What a teacher's reward!

So I need to set aside blocks of time (I did up until a couple of weeks ago since leaving my day job...) for my art. To show up.

About chaos and clutter on my worktable: sometimes it's a gift because pieces of art come together (by being unceremoniously shoved out of the way in a fervor of creating something else) and serendipitously present themselves as being perfect complements and connected to each other. That's how my "Light Catcher" Angels came to be. A couple of years ago I had been working with some vintage chandelier crystals. I had some mother of pearl "leaf" beads as well as some metal face beads shoved to the side of my work space on my desk (I have lots of space, but when I don't put things from previous projects away, it becomes a very small space!). When I again moved the chandelier prisms to the side in my hurry to start yet another project, the Muse gifted me with the realization that they all belonged together; I saw all those pieces miraculously arranged so that they made angels! So chaos isn't always a bad thing; but often it is really distracting!

I have decided to include a crop circle with each posting. I am so fascinated by their creation and their exquisite imagery. I hope you enjoy them, too. When I visited two crop circles this past summer, I felt peace, healing, and bliss from the grain and earth. More about that in another post.

I hope you feel peace, healing, and bliss today!

Peace,

Kate

Inside/Outside Book Arts

I just learned this afternoon that two of the books I submitted to the juried "Inside/Outside Book Arts" exhibit at the Foundry Arts Center in St. Charles, MO, were accepted! Hooray! Even though I received the invitation to submit entries in early December, I didn't have the time/energy to do that until February after leaving the Center. Both of these are ideas that have been needing to "get out" for quite a while now.

As I was putting it together, I found myself feeling grateful to have the time to create "Time Flies", which is a delightful way to "repurpose" a vintage travel alarm clock. On the front is an old bottle containing a rolled definition of "time" as well as bits and pieces of clock movements inside, stoppered by a cork with more movements creating a "crown". Pocketwatch movements cut in half create the wings. A circular movement that displays the day of the month on wristwatches doubles as a necklace. What fun this was to create; the Muse was whispering to me the entire time! Inside the case, I have removed the clock movements and replaced a clock hand with a hand charm. On the back of the clock is an accordian book that holds quotes about time. My favorites are: "The sooner I put something off, the more time I have to catch up." and "Time is a great teacher; unfortunately, it kills all its students."

The second book that has been patiently waiting to be manifested is "Flags". The flag structure of a book utilizes an accordian spine upon which miniature pages are attached, creating a pattern of pages or "flags". I have wanted to create a book to honor all the red flags that have popped up in my intuition through my adult live (that I didn't pay attention to at the time). I also decided to include white flags. The red flags are those of warning or foreboding (interestingly, most of these had men's names on them...). The white flags are those of recognition or epiphany, surrendering to the inevitable (such as meeting someone for the first time and knowing him/her from another lifetime, feeling an immediate and deep and joyful connection with him/her). After completing my pages in the book, I also decided to include a pocket inside the back cover that holds blank white and red flags so that whoever purchased the book could honor their own flags.

The exhibit will open on Friday, April 24 and close on June 5. It would be great to attend! I did just receive a "fly anywhere in the US for free" for 2 certificate in the mail today... I need to read the fine print...

Here's hoping you have delightful surprises coming to you soon!

Peace,

Kate

Changes

This has been the second night of this full moon. I woke at 4:44am (since I'd fallen asleep at 8:30pm!) and decided to get up and write. As I let Indiana (our 2 year young dog) outside, I looked up and saw the moon softly shining through a heavy misty sky... it was like she was gently reverberating through the atmosphere. Exquisite.

This is the first full moon in Aries; some say this marks the beginning of the astrological year. All I know is that the Moon is rising when spring is surprising and delighting us at every turn. And with spring comes growth and transformation of major proportions!

Many of my friends (not to mention many of everyone's friends) are experiencing major transformation nowadays. These shifts and changes are mostly brought on by our current bleak economic conditions and outlook.

For the past 6 years, I was the executive director of our local non-profit mediation center. I loved promoting peaceful conversations in our community. I loved telling people what mediation entails, whether individually or to groups or via a monthly newspaper column. I loved representing an organization that walked the talk (and helped me to learn and strive to be more peaceable) and who taught others (youth and adults; neighbors, businesses, and families) the skills of respectful conversation and dialogue.

At the beginning of our fiscal year (July 1), we had 4 full-time and 4 part-time employees as well as numerous contractors providing services. By October 1, the officers of the board of directors had eliminated 2 full-time positions vacated through attrition. And on January 29, my position was eliminated. While it was sad to leave, it wasn't really surprising; I'd been suffering in many ways through the last six months of doom and gloom.

I had also been longing for a way to have the time and energy to create art. I felt a tension inside of me between earning a living and expressing my creative self. This internal conflict felt physical to me -- like a taffy pull in my upper chest -- and had been growing for about a year.

It really rose to a conscious level in June when I took a 2-week tour of sacred sites in southern England. Next to marrying Andrew, this was the best thing I'd done for myself in decades! The group was small (6 other women) and we traveled through England in a 12-passenger van (driven by yours truly. Am I The Woman, or what? Not a nick or a scratch in 12 days and 1500 miles! And you should have seen the narrow brick gate we had to drive through at a 45 degree angle outside of Marlboro each night for a week! Sometimes, back in NC, I still want to drive on the left side of the road; but I refrain. Folks just wouldn't understand.). When I first learned of the trip, I knew I needed to go; that was in December 2007. I flew over a couple of days before the group was to meet at Gatwick airport so that I could visit Bath. Together, our group visited The Shell Temple in Margate on the east coast; Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, Avebury, Glastonbury, and crop circles (!) in the center of southern England; and Tintagel, St. Nectan's Glen, and The Eden Project in Cornwall. We stayed in lovely B&Bs throughout as well as at a beautiful thatched roof cottage (built in 1670!) outside of Marlboro. It was a lovely adventure.

When I first started thinking about this upcoming pilgrimage, a vision of Stonehenge would rise in my mind's eye and I would see the spaces between the sarcens (standing stones) as a doorway of some kind for me. And indeed they were. And while all the places we visited and saw had their effects on me, the crop circles had the greatest effect. More details about them another time. Suffice it to say that I purchased a 2008 crop circle calendar to bring home with me to remind me of the power of those natural works of art, and when I hung it in my office upon my return, I saw that the photograph for June was of a complex doorway. Perfect. I just had to smile. (This circle is at the top of this entry, like a moon.) If you are interested in crop circles, check out the Crop Circle Connector http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/.

I believe that doorway has led me to this spring's growth and transformation. Losing one's livelihood and job identity is a major shift. I have chosen to look at my change as a positive one, an opportunity to manifest what I have been desiring for so long: to create an art-filled life as a way to feed my soul as well as my family. So instead of looking for a full-time "blanket" job, I am planting seeds to create a "crazy quilt": creating and selling my art as well as teaching and writing. I am excited about this opportunity. Another lesson in "be careful what you wish for; you WILL get it"! And a lesson in the Universe provides in perfect timing.

Understand, please, that I wouldn't have been able to make this transition as easily without my husband Andrew's support (monetarily through his working as well as emotionally) as well as the support of my family and friends. Thank you all for your love and encouragement! Our son Allen (18 years young today!) immediately said, "Mom, you can have my paycheck to help make ends meet." And he and Paige both immediately came to me and gave me huge hugs of support. Kathryn came over to lend me a shoulder and important practical considerations. Even more comforting was Andrew's hugs that evening when he came home. There's nothing like family, eh? And I count my friends -- and sistahs -- in that group, too.

So planting the amaryllis bulb on Imbolc (Nature's holyday celebrating the first stirring of seeds underground) was an important symbolic ritual for me to perform. I have lots of seeds to plant in order to follow my desires. Perhaps that's one reason that I'm so wondrous of the growth of the bulb!

Wishing you and yours positive changes and powerful growth under this full moon.

Peace,

Kate