Love Wins.

Love Wins.

Fear loses....not hate, but Fear.  The opposite of love is fear.  For the second year in a row, on Valentines Day I have left messages of love in random public places to help people hear that message....that love wins.

 Little clay tiles on a piece of twine.  Tied somewhere obvious.  Hopefully not to only be admired, but to be captured and brought home as a stolen prize.  My hope is that a deserving viewer who understands that this tile was made for them, would take it.  They deserve it.  What I know about love is that it is not the opposite of disgust or despise or even of disagreement. Love is the opposite of being timid, of being unsure, love is the opposite of "Don't Do That!" it might hurt!  Love is the opposite of being closed off from the world, taking no stand on anything.  Love is the opposite of choosing to call yourself an introvert, being ok with sitting in routine, even though you really feel like you might like to be with people and take a ballroom dancing class.  Love unveils, love uncovers, love is truth and real TRUTH does not have fear.  Love has safety and hope.

I thought about the use of clay as a medium for this.  You have such a permanent material, something small, sometime you can slip into your pocket.  Clay lasts a long long time once it's fired.  It's a magical thing to see something that seems out of place, but is claimed by no one. 

Sitting there, waiting for you to claim it.  Or do you just enjoy it?  Claim it without taking the prize....take the message.  Love Wins.  I think about who might need it at the moment....who might be down on themselves, feel unloved, feeling like nothing works.

I hope that the messages were helpful.  The kids sure liked to play cupid.  They wanted to wait in the wings and see if someone took the prize.  No one in our presence did, but I am sure...almost 5 days after Valentines Day, they are gone.   The process of being in the Love instead of Fear state is simple.  Just believe that love always wins. 

wasting and waiting

"The world is too much with us....getting and spending we lay waste our powers" - Wordsworth

I found that in an old book that I love called Simple Abundance by Sara Ban Breathnach.  Sara talks about people being so spread thin that they can not find their authentic self.  That got me thinking about when I create with people, that I feel like the place where they are "making" art they are actually being "made" themselves.  The very act of being creative stirs a powerful healing to the maker not just the tangible of the art which was made.  The potter on the wheel creating a pot from nothing to something...made.  The painter who comes into the studio to make something with their children, leave the studio more sewn together.  The choice to sit and knit on a very tired afternoon, will give life and energy rather than put someone to sleep.  People leave the studio more connected to themselves than when their frazzled ends came in.  Let's face it, life unravels us.  Spending, getting, striving, meeting, driving, figuring, deciding, disciplining, cleaning up all the needs of the world...leaves us spent.  Wordsworth was talking about the world's demands bringing us to a place of depleted empty but POWERFUL beings.  The powers we have to create and love and be in this world are pulled apart by the demands.  Our call, as we try to live in this world, is to own our power and own who we are.  

How could you spend your time so that you feel more "made" and more powerful?

What are you wasting that is powerful within you?

Building Beliefs

When you make a clay box, it takes a couple days.  Ideally, you let the clay slabs (aka large clay pancakes) that you roll out sit for awhile.  You let the soft clay that so easily twists and turns - become harder and less mobile.  The reason you do this is so that the walls of your box will stand firm, and not droop.  No one can work with droopy walls.  The clay becomes what is called leather hard and it's really a beautiful state for clay to be in.  I actually like it best...it can be carved, painted, shaved, cut, and handled with ease.

I was thinking about how building clay walls is sort of like building belief systems.  A belief system is a set of core values assigned by yourself to yourself for living in a way that works best for you.....a sort of road map of safe places and not so safe places.
Beliefs are built by experiences in the world, experiences in the world are built by trial and error, your interpretation of experiences and people, and "bumping into" everyone else's beliefs.   Some of these experiences are not what you think they are.....and a wall goes up.  A belief takes shape.  No one can get in.

It takes time to build beliefs.  You core values take life experience to solidify the list.   Beliefs - and clay's shape - will not be instant, it will be a string of moments....and I want to enjoy every moment.  

What beliefs have you built that are UNchangeable for you?
What beliefs have you built that might need breaking down?

Collage College

Lucy's 4th Birthday Party

Art Life is really a special place for birthday parties.  One of the things I love about it is we get to make some really BIG messes....but it's not the kind of mess that comes with loud bangs, and high pitched screams, and kids making messes just to see the kind of face the grown up might have when they see it.  It's a real mess, the kind where you are so involved with what you are doing that you don't realize that an entire plate of glue has just dropped on the floor...or confetti is stuck to your cheek.  In fact, one of the things that children often do is sort of get upset if they make a mess, thinking I might get upset.  It's not often you hear an adult say....don't worry about the table....the more paint on it the better. 
I don't say that to challenge the average parent who says..."keep it clean"  I tell my kids that in our main house, it's just that an art studio doesn't follow those rules.  An art studio says....don't worry about the results....just create.  I titled this post "collage college" because of the collage work I did in the studio this weekend with a great group of kids.   I also had my first discussion about what college is all about with my 6 yr old.  He wanted to talk about when "he goes to college"  The things I have told him about college (on a 6 yr old level) are things that only college can teach you...1) you have to show up to make it 2) things won't get done unless you do them ( i.e. the laundry) 3) you are free to make the experience what you want it to be, a good one or a miserable one.
College is kind of like working with the confusing medium of collage.  So many choices, you better decide quick, look at your neighbor to see what they like, think fast!  I literally put about an acre of raw random materials on the table for the parents and kids....and they DUG IN!  As any 4 year old would do...if it's shiny...it's mine!  I appreciate the unbridled zest they have for experimentation with art materials.  It's easy for a 4 yr old to show up, do it so it will get done, and to create an experience of freedom in the art materials as only the little ones can. 
Granted it was supposed to sort of look like this when it was done....and resemble a dog.

or this

but most of them looked like one big "piece of glitter-beaded-pom-pom-mosaic-collage"

no more dog.

Just as they wanted it, because that's what being 4 is all about.

Happy Birthday Lucy.

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transformation is just a moment away

I worked with 20 painters last night, they were ending a conference weekend with a fun event and a celebration together (with me). The focus and goal was to help these folks let go of limitations by literally burning an old word and painting a new word. They were asked to turn the page. The new word was painted on the canvas, the new word was given a place of honor with color and paint. I saw people changing...as they painted and thought with a fresh perspective. The simple act of saying them out loud, changes. Most of the participants last night had never painted. I told them to pick a color that was out of their comfort zone. I told them to write a word that was out of their comfort zone. I told them to paint and not think. I told them there are no mistakes only things you would do differently next time...things can be fixed...everything can be painted over....things are not permanent unless you see them as that way. Things are not tragic and black and white and wrong. Things are just what they are, and if you don't like it, well change it. By providing the place, the challenge, and the simple act of taking something old and worn out, and painting over it with a new word...a new color, a new word, they were transformed. Some people left a lot messier than they thought they would. The ones that spoke the loudest about not being creative...were the most transformed. It was a letting go that helped those most transformed. It's really nothing you DO. The act of creating something transforms...a creative process is a spiritual process, the two can not be separated. Try it, it just takes a moment...but you have to set the stage. What can you do that feeds your creative self today?

there is a war - creative bandits

I am notorious for being optimistic and seeing the good in people. My high school class voted me "Most Gullible" -really? I was in the running for best legs, but it seems people saw me as deeper than that....thank God. My legs may have changed since high school, but my ability to believe people as they present themselves has not. There are events in my creative journey that have made me a little jaded. There are "traumas" that go along with pursuing a creative life. Today I am challenging myself to write about those who may (without knowing it) try to sabotage. People are going to try to steal your thunder...your creative velocity. They may not always be recognizable, they may come in sheep's clothing, they may be in your house. They may be at the grocery store, or worse, in your art class. The bandit may come as a teacher, a friend, a spouse. Staying true to your creative path may resemble war at times because it's a LOVE for what you want, the LOVE for a creative life, and the LOVE for yourself that may threaten these bandits. The thing to remember about the bandits is they are full of FEAR. Their fear is driving their comments. The comments are not grounded in LOVE for your creative path, but the FEAR of losing theirs. Th ey are not always intending the robbery, but nevertheless, the crimes are committed.

What do these crimes look like? What do they steal? These bandits try to steal that part of you who believes you can DO IT! They are not stealing your ideas or your work. These bandits are much more covert,. They may or may not know they are even stealing. When you leave the bandit's presence you feel a little naked. You feel like you had the gold, and now just straw. These bandits try to steal the pure part of your creative self. These bandits try to steal your enthusiasm, your velocity, your innocence, and your instinct for your next creative move.

"Wow...I am so excited to have finally finished that painting"
"That must feel good...but I think it's hard to tell if a painting is ever really finished, you may or may not know when it's done...when the time is right I listen and then I know.....blah blah blah...."

There are also the know it alls....those who throw facts about things that might be wrong, go wrong, or any terrible trivia that might try to scare you.

There are covert words that might injure your artist....take care of her. She needs to be protected from those words just as you would a child. Appropriate material and words for the appropriate time. If it feels like you are in the presence of yucky, zapping energy....you probably are. PLEASE trust your instinct and politely excuse yourself. Your artist has better things to do. Remember - everything in the world is either FEAR or LOVE, decide today what you are going to bring inside. Get rid of the rest.