Merry Christmas!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

When it snowed last week, our fence art gave us a Ho-Ho-Ho! Just in time for the holidays!

Happy Solstice!

We celebrated the winter solstice yesterday, which was somewhat unplanned, but very enjoyable. I photographed our activities throughout the day, and although they are rather ordinary and things we do almost everyday (seeing the sunrise, crafting, hiking), there was an added sense of wonder with conscientiously thinking about the shortest day of the year (or the longest night, depending on how you wish to think of it). I got the kids involved in noticing the light and talking about the number of daylight hours, and they were on board with thinking of the solstice as Solstice, a special day in the year. And of course, they always enjoy projects in the studio and hiking anywhere.

I cut up some grapes and pineapple to put in the dehydrator for snacking on later– pineapple and dried grapes are some of our favorite dehydrated foods! We've decided to call them dried grapes rather than raisins, because home-dried dried grapes are totally different than store-bought raisins in taste, texture, lack-of-stickiness, and overall appeal to us. They're a wonderful mid-winter snack, and the low solstice light coming in through the kitchen window was warming and highlighted the fruit.

I did a couple of prep paintings for some more Kumomi drawings.

And then she wanted to get involved– because who doesn't like painting and blowing through a straw to make crazy designs?

And if she's involved in something fun, he has to be, too! We had a few enlightening conversations on what it means to "pass out" and that it's important to stop blowing on the paint if you felt light headed...!

We also worked on a tree garland to hang in the house. Both kids really got into all of it, from choosing buttons to hot glue onto each tree, to stitching with floss on the trees. They were pretending that this sort of stitching was helping them practice for when they were ready to be doctors. I say they need to keep practicing!

We hiked as the sun was going down, which meant the beautiful warm day quickly got cold. But we were celebrating the light, noticing the angles of the winter rays, and I know I was thinking about gratitude for health, beauty, sunlight and family.

It doesn't get much better than this!

Since we were out with the intention of seeing Solstice, we noticed the environment around us in a different light. Beautiful.

We came home and had a small Solstice fire in the back yard, which is still under a bit of snow. We had seafood chowder for dinner by candle light, hoping for more snow this week, and appreciating the darkness.

Happy Solstice!

Saying Enough

I had a small personal crisis this last week, which as I'm attempting to type it sounds kind of pathetic, but it has made a big difference to acknowledge it. I declared "Enough!" and so we're done with the holiday season.

We're not packing up the tree and returning the gifts and going on a cruise or anything. I just decided we're done with the craziness. As I said in the last post, we're done shopping (although I did buy a couple of little stocking stuffers for my daughter at the grocery store yesterday, just for kicks). I've gotten shipping notification on a couple of things that aren't going to make it until the New Year. Oh well. I'm not going to make up with other gifts; the kids will just get an extra gift in a few weeks. We're also done with the teacher gifts, and cookies for the neighbors. We send out an email Christmas letter, and only a few cards to old neighbors and friends we don't have email addresses for, and that's been taken care of. The advent calendar is underway, and as we've come to each day's project, if it seems like we don't have the time or energy to complete the day's task, we skip it.

Most importantly, I made the decision to be done with all the potentials– all the projects I should do and all the projects I could do if I just worked harder. Or had more time. Or was willing to sacrifice my own good night's sleep to stay up and keep working. I'm not making any more things to sell, thinking I'll be able to take advantage of the last... how many? days of shopping till Christmas. I put away the canvas and paints, the burlap, the holiday fabric, the beads. The blankets I've been meaning to make the kids for Christmas 3 successive years in a row (I have all the materials and they were in a pile on the table to remind me) won't happen again this year. And the nature collection bags that the kids would really enjoy for hiking won't get sewn either. The hand-drawn Christmas cards that I would someday like to complete are going to sit un-drawn. I erased the lists of Things To Make from my project white board. This decision enabled this fantastic situation:

That is a clean worktable!

I can now move on to art and other projects that have nothing to do with the holidays! If I want to, I can work on the projects I listed above, but I have no need to finish them in the next 7 days. Without the pressure to finish, I feel so liberated! I can enjoy what is coming up over the next couple of weeks, and spending time with family is way more important anyway.

Interestingly, I had several conversations yesterday that highlighted the distinctiveness of this choice. The theme was the same for all: "Oh my gosh! This is such a crazy time of year! I have to do this, this, and that, and I don't know when it will all get done. And I haven't had the chance to do that. I also want to do this before tomorrow. And I'll have to go shopping this weekend! Let's avoid scheduling that thing in the next 3 weeks because I just don't know how I can do more than I already am doing. And I know you must be just as busy as me!" Thankfully, while I could have scheduled that thing, I now have plenty of extra time to spend with my family enjoying the season. Happy Holidays!

On the Worktable

Whew! I'm done with the holiday shopping (I'm pretty sure). Now, I've got a lot of holiday making!

This is the constant state of my worktable at any given moment:

I've been making even more Artist's Bucket for sale at Fuller Lodge Art Center.

The Buckets and Pockets look nice in their display at Fuller with some beautiful pottery!

And I actually have done some art– the cubes are part of it– more on the art later.

Since 'tis the season (and I've got my own blog on which to promote these things), in addition to the buckets and pockets at Fuller Lodge, I've got items for sale at Warm Hearts Yarn in White Rock that are perfect for gifting, including beaded window picture hangers, beaded lanyards (great for teachers!), and travel place mats made with re-purposed men's ties. The Pocket Warmers are surprise sellers this year, so get some while you still can!

I've still got to finish gifts for the kids' teachers, and a few small gifts for family. We'll also start our family advent calendar on Saturday (we like to limit it to 12 days of Christmas focused on family), which is heavy on making and activities like participating in a Giving Tree, making baked goods for the neighbors, hiking as a family, and making some seasonal decor like gingerbread houses and tree garlands. But it just so happens I LOVE making stuff, so I'm a pretty happy camper!

Happy mid-December!

Frosty Morning

We had some lovely rain several days ago, and although I wish it had been snow, it certainly left behind some much needed moisture. It also provided some gorgeous morning-after scenery with bright blue skies and frost and even a little fog. It's exciting to capture it with a new camera!

The early sun through my studio windows:

The view across my neighbor's back yard:

 

 The little frozen bits found in our back yard:

 

The view the dog and I had as we got on the trail for a walk (I even caught a bird wheeling through the air! In the far distance under the grey clouds is Chicoma Peak with snow):

The water droplets catching the light on all the grasses in the field:

 

Grass growing in a circular pattern (I had never noticed this before, but it was one of many wreath-like clumps near the trail):

Juniper berries with the frost melting in the sunlight:

The dog and I had a beautiful walk that morning!

Kitchen Concoctions

A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling a little down because I wasn't spending a lot of time creating in my studio. However, I realized that I had been creating a few things in the kitchen, which was where I had spent the time I wasn't spending at the worktable. There was, of course, the Thanksgiving feast (we hosted a small group of family, so we made all the typical dishes– and days of leftover creativity followed), but I also managed to squeeze in a couple of other concoctions that are important to our family.

Honey Lemon Syrup. This is one of my absolute favorites for the winter! Just fill a jar with sliced fresh lemons (I use organic ones that have been scrubbed clean) and top with honey (we use a local honey from the farmer's market. We're, uh, not hippies or anything...). I spoon out  some to mix into herbal teas like lemon balm/ginger, or even just mix it into a cup of hot water. It's amazing if you have a sore or dry throat, but it's also fantastic as a before-bed cup of warm goodness. Or as a mid-day sweet treat. Really, I can't think of a bad time to enjoy it!

As you use up the honey, just top it with more and use a spoon or chopstick to mush up the lemons a little to get the juice out. I usually keep a jar in the fridge for at least two or three weeks, eventually taking out the lemon slices one by one and adding them to tea or hot water, and not topping off the honey as I start taking out the lemons. Once it's all gone, I make a fresh batch.

Awesome Sauce. Elderberry, Ginger, Cinnamon, Honey, and Echinacea Syrup, but renamed Awesome Sauce by my husband. We take spoonfuls of it to help boost our immune system during cold and flu season, but it tastes so good, I think it's worth making just to spoon directly into your mouth, several times a day. I got the original recipe here (and Crunchy Betty provides an explanation of the herbs and their healthy properties) and have been using it for years.

If I could help you taste it through the interwebs, I would. It is a truly delicious concoction! And it has so much traditional herbal goodness.

Homemade mustard. The best! Sooo tasty and sooo easy.

And eating that cracker with a smear of mustard and a piece of parsley is part of why this blogging thing is so much fun– I get to eat the leftovers from the photo shoot! I also blogged about this mustard last year, and the recipe is included. I left out the lavender entirely this time.

I get almost all of my supplies (bulk herbs and spices, essential oils) from Mountain Rose Herbs. 

Enjoy!

December 1st

The weather is warm and sunny, but here we are in December! We successfully conquered Thanksgiving (the kids have declared a "no more turkey for dinner" status at our house), and we're dropping into the holiday season. I took an accidental hiatus... because I got a new camera! Once I had ordered it, my other camera options seemed like a waste of time– so unsophisticated, antiquated, and low-quality. It turns out I have a whole lotta learning to do to get up to speed with the new fancy camera, however. I lost all my Thanksgiving week photos due to a malfunctioning memory card, and I've spent the last hour trying to figure out the software to get the photos on the new memory card onto the computer so I can use them on the blog. And, well, suffice it to say, I'm still working on that whole process.

We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving week with family, even without photos to prove it (funny how that works). And I hope you did too! Now that we're officially in December, I have a lot of family gifts to make and classes to plan for the upcoming year. I'm excited to get to work!

I am teaching a class at Warm Hearts Yarn this Wednesday afternoon from 2-3pm, decorating gift boxes with yarn and paper. Note that our boxes will look like the boxes below. Should be a lot of fun!
 

Many Lives

I was busy sewing last week and didn't get any drawing done, but I hope to this week! I've been making Artist's Pockets to go along with my Artist's Buckets, for sale at Fuller Lodge Art Center in Los Alamos.

 

Despite it being so warm for November, spending time outside in the sunlight has been beautiful. We've hiked and played outside these last couple of weeks without extra layers of clothing, which I'm sure we'll miss doing once it turns cold (please get cold!!! Please snow!!!). Here's hoping we get into winter soon.

I've been musing on the change of seasons not only because of the unseasonable warmth, but also because today is my birthday and I'm entering yet another year of excitement. I read this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon several months ago, and keep thinking about it; to me, the idea of many lives is so inspiring! I'm approaching the end of a life, and am already working on fashioning the next one. The freedom in crafting my life, right here and now, as well as working toward my desired next life is exhilarating!

What are you doing with your current life? What will you do with the next one?

 

Also, please follow me on Facebook to keep up to date with all the goings on around here!

Tangled Tweeters

Bird with Feathers, Pen and Ink, Watercolor. 2014

No, these birds aren't plugged into a rockin' sound system, although I can imagine the chirps coming from them might be quite unusual. And I don't do that Twitter thing, so I'm not a Tweeter...

I did, however, have a blast making these birds! Although I find it difficult to draw on cold-press watercolor paper, these birds ended up showing their details nicely.

Bird I, Pen and Ink, Acrylic. 2014

After tangling the birds, I colored the first with watercolors. The colors were okay, but now that I've discovered the high-flow acrylic inks (previously), I don't know that I'll ever go back. The colors are so much more vibrant and easy to control, and again, they're waterproof, which is important for attaching the birds to the black masonite forms with gel medium. I added tangled feathers to the watercolor bird in order to dress it up some, which does add to its personality.

I even stretched my shop skills with this project, which is a move I've been meaning to make, but have been too chicken to follow through on. Waaaaay back in junior high, I had a small but meaningful run-in with a large belt sander, the experience of which I'm just now trying to get over– luckily, no injuries were incurred beyond my 7th-grade pride. Which, evidently, was traumatic enough that I avoided the wood shop in college, a decidedly challenging move as a painter needing to build frames for canvas paintings, needed in order to complete my degree. (Which I did, by the way; I just chose to go with pre-fab frames. Much to the chagrin of one of my professors.) Last weekend, with the help of the Shop Smith (and more importantly, my husband- he's indispensable), I cut out the bird silhouettes with the band saw and sanded them with the drum sander. Whoo-hoo! I'll have to do more projects like this because machinery is fu-un!

I've hung the birds above the sliding glass doors going out to the patio from my studio so that I can be reminded of their cheerfulness on the way outside. Birds like this certainly don't live around here, but they brighten up the studio!

As a note, spray lacquer is also fu-un! I'm thinking of more ways to include shiny, lacquered things around the house...

Meaning in Randomness

Pink Embrace, Pen and Ink, Acrylic. 4" x 4" 2014

I was lucky enough to take a couple of classes at the Artisan's Expo at Buffalo Thunder (near Santa Fe) last week. The class that really piqued my interest was Kumomi: Finding Meaning in Randomness. The title says a lot, doesn't it? Kumomi roughly means "cloud watching" and is meant to be a contemplative approach to mark making. But I also think it is exciting to be making connections out of chaos on a page!

Sunrise, Pen and Ink, Acrylic. 4" x 4". 2014

The basic technique begins with making free and colorful paintings on cards (or gesso board- we used both; all about 4" x 4"), with no particular direction in mind. It's harder than it seems to just let the paintbrush swipe across the page without a plan... I couldn't help but attempt a certain balance in color and shape, but the idea is to let go and let the paint just be on the card. Moving quickly, most of us in the class got through over a dozen cards in a short amount of time. The paint we were using was new to me- but, WOW do I like it. It's a super high-flow acrylic, so it goes on like ink or liquid water color, keeps its color intensity, and is waterproof. So much fun!

Interestingly, we all had different interpretations of the methodology, which I suppose is to be expected. One woman, working across from me at the table, seemed unable to let go of the control during the painting. She took significantly longer to complete the painting step, managing in the end to have little paintings already created, before adding the pen drawings. They had a beauty, of course, but my own interpretation of the philosophy behind this technique is to learn to let go of that level of control, and know that it will turn out beautifully in the end (without a plan) anyway. And on the same token, another women working across from me was particularly harsh in her criticism of her own work, calling her paintings, "ugly little things," and cynically "hoping for the best" when she started drawing. To shoot down her own random paint marks was rather self defeating at the outset, I think, and not at all what the intention of the workshop was about.

After allowing the freedom of random paint, including dripping and melding and flowing– or even using a straw to blow the paint into spatters and wild shapes– to open up the blankness of an empty piece of paper, we took to it with pen and ink to fill in the white space. With no preconceived notions, the pen transforms the negative space into something with presence. An artist (or practitioner of any sort) can leave a certain ambiguity filled with shape and line and beauty, or she can find some sort of meaning in the random shapes and colors. In my experience with Kumomi thus far, I can't help but have my own thoughts and images sneak through the apparent chaos. Developing a concept in visual form from what appears at first to be meaningless is quite empowering, actually!

Kumomi Monster and Tank by Rhys, age 8

Of course, part of the beauty of this technique is that anyone can do it. My son, 8, jumped right in and illustrated one of my cards, including finding a monster in the middle. He was satisfied with leaving some white space, which was something I was finding hard to do. We can all learn from each other!

Tiny Tangles

I did some tiny tangling yesterday, resulting in some new jewelry! I have wanted to do something with pretty glass tiles, and it finally occurred to me that tiny tangles would be the answer.

I did a series of tangles to fit the size of the glass (1 inch square), and scanned, printed, and hand colored a couple with color pencils. They are then adhered to the back of the glass with dimensional lacquer. With a bale and a cord for the necklace, it's a beautiful pendant!

 

I also tried the necklace style on the left (above), but I like the glass pendant a lot more. The colored tangles also add another dimension, which is nice.

In a couple of days I'm headed to the Santa Fe Artisan's Expo at the Buffalo Thunder Casino, which I'm really looking forward to! I'm taking two workshops and will be watching many demos and ogling lots of art supplies. I should probably leave the Visa at home...

This Used to Be a Landscape

I missed the lunar eclipse this morning, but I think it was cloudy, so even if I had actually woken up at 4:45am, I couldn't have seen it anyway... Instead, I slept through it. ;-)


As part of a New Year's-ish resolution a few years ago, I decided to focus on finishing projects. I have an inordinate number of half-finished sewing projects and fabric, yarn, paintings and general crafty supplies sitting around. Having to pack it all up and move it across town this summer, I not only realized just how much I have, but how easy it is to have it "out of sight, out of mind." Now that I have everything stored in my studio, I am facing some of the piles and boxes. Over the last several years I've developed my purging muscles to the point that I can be somewhat ruthless: I don't like storing unnecessary things, even if they have sentimental value (really, do I need to save a lump of clay my two-year old squeezed? Absolutely not). Art has been more difficult to toss, however.


Several weeks ago, I had a small burst of inspiration. I have a couple of stretched canvases sitting around with unfinished paintings on them– a couple are at least a decade old (what!?!!? Why has a 12 year old canvas with an unfinished painting on it taken up storage space in my life??). I know I'll never get back to finishing the paintings on these canvases, but the canvas is too stiff to make into Artist's Buckets. They need to be repainted!

It just so happened, I was making more canvas for more Artist's Buckets, so I had splashy paint and the desire to fling it around. In the case of the old painted canvas above, I actually poured and spread the paint instead of dripping and flinging, which was also quite satisfying. I wasn't sure where I was going to begin with, but decided to not entirely obliterate the base painting so that in the end it could show a certain evolution of the art on it. After the paint was dry, I hit on the idea of juxtaposing the traditions of landscape and portraiture on one canvas and thus: This Used to Be a Landscape.


But here's the thing about storing all those bits and pieces as they devolve past their prime: they are no longer pristine. Whether it's the fabric that is stained or the plastic that becomes brittle, the stored things degrade. As did this canvas situation. We haven't owned cats in years, yet this canvas had been marked at some point in our cat-ownership. As I worked on the canvas, there was the unmistakeable odor of cat urine– one that cannot be scrubbed out of anything once it's there, in my opinion.

So,  we have a new piece of yard art! It's the first fence art we've had, and now that it's there, I might add more in the years to come. It brightens up a somewhat dreary fence and adds color, especially on this cloudy morning. It's a talking piece, too– the dishwasher repair guy asked about it, though he wondered if we'd had a fight and I'd splashed paint on a portrait of my husband in retaliation...

Well, the piles aren't diminishing as I type, so I'm off to do more project finishing!

Wedding Tree

My little Bro is getting married (gasp!) on Saturday. In Italy. To a lovely Italian lady, who I like very much. I will be here in New Mexico, thinking of them, and wishing them the best. And hoping to see them soon, but knowing it will be some time before I make it to Italy.

Alice requested a Wedding Tree to have at the wedding/reception, and so I drew one to send to Italy. Unfortunately, I don't know if it will arrive in time, as I got it sent late enough that unless there is some sort of divine intervention, it's likely to get stuck in Italian customs. I'm still crossing my fingers, though!

The basic idea is a bare, branched tree that becomes leafy as guests of the lucky couple add their thumbprint to the tree; Pinterest has a plethora of trees to get inspiration from. So, my photos are of a bare tree, but if it makes it to Italy in time, it should be quite covered in foliage by the end of the wedding event. I chose to make this one a bit on the small side since I was shipping it, so I think pinky fingerprints will be the best.

Part of the reason it was sent on the late side was that I actually did two. The first one... sucked. I planned and sketched and practiced with ink and brushes, since that was what I was seeing around the internet. But, I like drawing. After letting the icky painted tree sit a few days, I finally faced that I was going to have to redo it. Probably in part due to the pre-planning and execution of an ugly tree, the drawn one came together very quickly and I'm soooo much more satisfied with it. The lesson for me is that right now, I love the doodling and ink drawing, so I should stick with it.

Hand lettering, on the other hand, I should probably spend more time practicing. I chose to only go with initials because I was pretty sure that "Chris and Alice" would have resulted in travesty.

Congratulations to my brother and his Italian amore! I send kisses and hugs– and I look forward to seeing the pictures afterward!

Alice is pronounced Ah-lee-chey, which makes her even cooler.