Day 2 - pleased

Pleased I am. Spent almost all day yesterday reorganising my studio space. Moved just about everything to a new location, some of it into the storeroom, although not as much as I'd planned. The new layout might just work! But... it was late afternoon and I'd not painted. The room was a huge mess and I couldn't see the surface of my desk. I pushed a clear space in the mess and looked for something to paint on. A piece of watercolour paper 10cm x 10cm was in the mess pushed aside so I chose it and began. I started well, a bit of collage, a smear of gouache, some coloured pencil. Ugh, that stage where every fibre in my body seems to be screaming "Yuck! Stop it now! Try again." I persevered. I LOVE what resulted! I feel like I have broken the back of my block already. Painting everyday is going to be VERY good for me!

But there is a problem. I had that carefully cut piece of paper there for a project I'm not ready to talk about here. I actually have a couple of projects on the boil at the moment and I am not at a stage where I can show what I might paint. Solution A: If I paint every day it is likely that I'll be able to paint something just for fun and be able to show you that! Solution B: I'll show you some more of my Paris sketches, which is the solution I've chosen for today.

This is another sketch of those chimney pots I loved in our view from the apartment. This one has them almost obscured by T and the apartment itself, but I didn't think you'd mind. Ahh, Paris!

Day 1 of my new regime

I'm going to paint (or draw) every day this year.
Well, I took my sketchbook to the beach. I don't know why I haven't done that before. I love other peoples beach sketches! (I particularly love Marina's.) Maybe that's why I don't take mine there... I don't want to know mine are not as wonderful as theirs. Well, now I know it, but I also know practise will improve them!

On the painting front, I needed to do a bit more towards the reorganising of my studio space. I grandly call my little room my 'studio'. It is tiny and I have sooooo much stuff and furniture. I'm moving some of my stuff next door into a storeroom. It will mean I'll have to go in there on and off, but it will be better for painting. My problem is that the storeroom is already full so sorting, throwing out and reorganising is going on in both rooms. It will take time, but I'll get there. In the mean time I've almost made enough space to do some painting! Yay!

Well well well. I had to scan my Moleskine so I could show you my bad beach drawings so I scanned my Paris drawings at the same time. The reason I haven't shown you my drawings (I think) is that scanning them really means the trip is over. In my mind I race back to Paris at every moment I can. Scanning the drawings makes it really really over. Ahh, Paris!

Do I need to carry a sketchbook when I have an iPhone?

I'm packing to leave for Paris on the weekend. I have made my 'Perfect Journal' and am finally the owner of an iPhone 3GS. Both of these will slide into my shoulder bag and accompany me everywhere. Each has it's uses... but doesn't the iPhone win? (if there was a competition).


My iPhone is my new favourite thing. I will take a photo (at the very least) every where I go and these will be geotagged. T will be carrying a supa-dupa camera (it's his passion) and will be taking his own photos. My geotagged photos will assist him in identifying where he took his photos as he sifts through what will be thousands of shots when he gets back.

My iPhone will tell me where I am. We have a month in Paris and we are by nature wanderers. Last time we were there (which was also our first time) we frequently tossed up whether to go to ___ which is what we planned, or keep wandering because it was beautiful right where we were. (That's the thing about Paris, EVERYTHING is beautiful. You don't really have to see 'the sites' because what you are looking at every second is beautiful.)


The downside of being a wanderer is that you don't really know exactly where you are at any given time. We would get back to our apartment and find we had been just near ___ and not known, missed it completely. So our dilemma became whether to go purposefully back through our wandered territory, or go somewhere new. New always won of course, so there were things we missed. This time we will be able to wander AND to know where we are. But not only that, my iPhone will give us access to our Google Map.

We have created our own Google Map with place markers on it of all the places we would like to go "if we end up near there." We haven't put our must-see's on it, just the addresses of little shops, restaurants, markets and streets that we have read about or been told about. You know, you hear about a place and think "That sounds perfect! I must go there" and when you check the map it is way out to billy-o and it doesn't really warrant a full blown excursion just for the 'cute little ceramic shop'. But should we wander that way, we won't miss it this time!


And then there are the applications. It really is the 'apps' that makes the iPhone a winner over and above other smart phones. I have my translator app, the plan and tour app for the Palace of Versailles, lots of other travel apps. Then there are the photography apps. I was worried about the quality of the 3mpx camera, I would have like more, but the quality is surprisingly good and the sheer fun and pleasure the apps bring to taking photos is quite exhilarating. (I took these photos of my sketchbook with my iPhone!)


Oh and I can use it as a phone too. And email. And blogging and flickr and Facebook and twitter etc etc. Or listen to music. Or play games. (I wouldn't of course. I'd draw in my sketchbook instead!) So, my sexy little piece of hardware reduces the number of things I carry quite substantially; phone, camera, ipod, gps, guide book(s) and maps at the very least. And it weighs less than my ipod alone does.

My sketchbook, on the other hand, does the exact opposite. It creates more things I need to carry. I need my pens, my watercolours, water brushes, blotting paper, tissues to clean up with, glue, (and if the world was a different place) scissors or a knife; lucky I don't carry pencils and erasers any more.


The photos I intend to take are different from the ones T will take. They will be shots of patterns, details and reference shots for paintings I intend to do when I come back. I can get a lot of these shots taken in the time it takes to do a single sketch. It was the time it takes to do the sketches that surprised me last time. When you have the possibility of fitting in seeing Place Vendome this afternoon versus finishing the sketch you are doing in Place des Voges instead it actually gets a little stressful. We didn't see Place Vendome last time. It is on our list (and the Google Map) for this time.

This is part of the reason I wanted to stay for so long this time. To ease the pressure around the time it takes to sit and draw and see and experience and even wander. I don't know if we will actually have time to see everything on our list even with a month! But if I didn't take my sketchbook, if I only took my iPhone we could get around it all. I could paint from the photos I take and those photos would take me right back to the spot... or would they?

And I think that is the real difference between my sketchbook and my iPhone. When I look back through my sketchbooks I am truly transported back to that exact moment. I can see, hear, smell it all again. Vividly. When I flip back through my photos of last time I find myself thinking "where was that?"

I'll carry them both. I'll let you know who wins. I suspect there actually won't be a winner, that it will be more of a truce. But I'll let you know.
ps. This time I made my perfect travel journal out of a book with the all-time perfect title. Guess how long I'm going to be in Paris!? I filled it with my favourite paper - all the one kind this time because that is how I wanted it to be. It also has some pages from an old Paris Guide Book scattered throughout. I had another Paris book with beautiful illustrations in it that I was also going to incorporate. The book is in poor condition so a prime candidate for rebinding however I discovered it is a reasonably valuable book and a first edition. I couldn't bring myself to pull it apart. It has an elastic closer and a ribbon place marker, some loose sheets of blotting paper, but that is all this time. I wanted a simple version of my usual rebound journal this time. I love it. It IS perfect!

Temperature's rising...

...it seems to have curdled my brain.


Firstly I suddenly had to go away for a week. It was a bit crazy. I was either flat out, exhausted or had lots of time to kill. It resulted in some journal doodling which I haven't had time to do lately.
Secondly, I made a new 'artwork' today...
This is the view from my lounge/dining into the kitchen...
No comments on the mess you may or may not see here - I didn't clean up for the shots!
Ta Da! And here are the after shots...
Thermometer creates a dialogue with the adjacent room which has shape and colour as it's dominating theme...
It also 'speaks' of the function of the room itself... (it gets hot)...
...as well as linking the Aboriginal art objects (I bought from a local artist) to their natural environment...

...yes, I did it as part of my uni course. I'm a shocking house painter, but I quite like it!

Celebrating

Last weekend we celebrated my youngest daughters 21st birthday. Actually we are in the early stages of her birthday season - she is having 5 parties over about 5 weeks! She doesn't live nearby, so for her back home party she wanted to revisit a favourite weekend destination - Tom's Cabin in New England National Park between Ebor and Armidale.

The national park is now a World Heritage area and is absolutely beautiful with several different ecosystems including an arctic beech forest, heath and of course eucalyptus forests which are all the more beautiful for growing over the granite cliffs and down into the deep valleys. This drawing is of the area just a few minutes walk from the cabin which we have very affectionately always called Fairyland. It is truly magical with a creek, waterfall, and lichens and mosses everywhere, hanging like beards from the trees and forming cushions of vivid green on the ground, rocks and trees.
It was very cold and windy when we arrived. The cabin itself is VERY basic, but we soon had it warming with a fire that we lit (we all think we are fire experts and there was a bit of discussion as to the best method). I have to finish this drawing - it was too cold to sit still drawing for very long.
I am going to add a key for the plan of the cabin. I have actually numbered EVERYTHING in the place and around it. It doesn't have a lot going for it, but the shower is generally agreed to be the best shower of your life. There is plenty of hot water and the window is in the shower, so you look out on the bush as you enjoy the warmth.
Gas hot water, solar electricity, wood fire inside and bbq outside. We cook in a camp oven at night and on the bbq for lunch.
Not only are we all fire experts, but we also have a touch of pyromania. How mesmerising are fires!! Yes, that's the birthday girl poking the fire. We had a fabulous time.

The Perfect Travel Journal

If you've been a reader for a while you will know of my search for the perfect journal and how I solved the ongoing dilemma by making my own.
'As For Italy' by Jean Francois Revel (copyright 1959) is one of the journals I made prior to my own trip to Italy at the end of 2006.  I took it with me all the way, and brought it home again, empty, untouched.  I had made too many journals to possibly fill on my trip, and this one was the last one, left blank.
I love this book!  I removed the original book block from it's cover, reinforced the spine, created a new book block out of the best quality artists watercolour and drawing papers, included a couple of the original pages (including the title page) and sewed it up using a technique that allows the book to open flat, but is strong and has no gaps at the spine.
I added a ribbon page marker, an elastic closer, a vellum pocket inside the back cover and some foldout maps I printed on my inkjet printer.  

I have no idea when, if ever, I will get to visit Italy again.  I think I'm finally ready to part with this perfect little gem, so I've actually listed it for sale in my Etsy shop.  It is very special and will be every bit as special to it's new owner, I'm sure!

ouch!

Don't you hate it when you read your own writing and find dumb spelling mistakes? I didn't 'feel' down the back steps! I FELL!!!

The Shop

The shop at the headland (now appropriately called "Headland Cafe") has not changed much at all since I saw it first as a little girl, and yet it is entirely different. When I was 7 it was owned and run by Mrs Jones. George (he was never called Mr Jones and she was never called... I don't even know her full name) drove the ute into Nambucca and Urunga to get the supplies, delivered the milk and papers, big blocks of ice to those who were camping and had no electricity, and I think even the mail for a long time, but he never set foot in the shop. He wasn't allowed or trusted by Mrs Jones. Or at least that's the way I remember it.

Last weekend I was there again. I have visited it regularly ever since that first day. This time I ordered the chargrilled vegetable turkish which is my favourite thing on the menu and in my opinion, hard to beat even in more sophisticated environments. (They got the order wrong again and I got the veggie burger - but that's OK; it's nice too.) While I was waiting I was again looking at the old photos of Mrs Jones, the shop and 'clientele' that could have been me (but I don't think my swimmers looked like the ones on the girl in the photo, so it probably isn't), I suggested to the 'shop keeper' (I have to call her that because that was Mrs Jones' title, and it seems only proper) that she sell 'Mrs Jones' postcards. She laughed and said that would be a funny thing to do. I said I'd buy them. I would. Every time I went there. I'd buy them.



It is an indication of how Mrs Jones affected the residents of Valla Beach, temporary and permanent, that her photos are hanging in the shop she last was in herself, what, I'm guessing 20 years ago or more. She was the glue of the community. Two-pack epoxy strength glue! When I was 7 there were 20 permanent residents in the village, but many more houses as it was the favoured destination for holidays for the families of inland towns. Mrs Jones had a key to just about every house. With George as her eyes (she was ALWAYS in the shop) she 'kept an eye on' each home. She knew who was where and why. In the holidays the sides of all the roads down to the beach would fill up with tents and people. George drove around to each tent and house several times a day. But it was Mrs Jones who was in charge. She pulled the strings and George made it happen.

In the shop she sold the best cheese, a huge wheel of cheddar wrapped in cheesecloth. Even in those days that was unusual as plastic wrapped processed cheese was the norm. She had one packet of everything on the shelves. I guess she got George to replace them when they finally sold. Except the tins, she would have 3 or 4 tins, each one so old the can was well and truly rusted. The packets were old too. I remember Rice Bubbles that had the texture of marshmallows. She had a fantastic collection of lollies in huge old jars. Her musk sticks are still the best I've ever tasted, so stale that they were astonishingly crunchy. I loved them!

She had hints for everything. I still remember her telling me how she came to have such beautiful skin. (I don't think a 13 year old can really appreciate how beautiful an 'old ladies' skin can be, but I listened anyway, you always listened to Mrs Jones.) She said she put rolled oats in her bath water and wiped metholated spirits on her face after washing it. I stuck to both these suggestions religiously, for a while anyway. Such was the power of Mrs Jones words.

I will still visit the shop. We always just called it 'the shop' and I always still will. The food is fabulous and fresh now, but somehow I still feel sentimental thinking about those ridiculously crunchy musk sticks.

I did this sketch in my rebound sketchbook The Function of Voluntary Muscles. The right hand page is one of the original book pages reinserted when I rebound it, with a layer of gesso over it. The watercolour is done over the gesso, but the original words are still visible, ghostlike.

How about joining in?

I've seen the product of SketchCrawl days on others blogs. For the first time I've actually checked and found the date of the next one BEFORE IT HAPPENS. So, why not join in? I think I will. I'd love it if others from Coffs Harbour will join me, or even elsewhere in Australia. I have copied this from the SketchCrawl site: (I love the rules!)

The idea of SketchCrawl is that of a global drawing marathon: taking a day to journal and draw all that is around you.

How to participate to a World Wide SketchCrawl?

-Look around the forums and see if anyone in your area is getting together for the upcoming SketchCrawl (we set dates every 2 or 3 months).
-If not, put a call out to artists in your city or town.
-If no one responds to your call, you can still go out on the SketchCrawl day and draw away solo (you'll actually get more drawing done that way).
-Then be sure to come back to these forums after the SketchCrawl, share your sketches and experiences and peruse through drawings of fellow "crawlers" from all over the world.



In brief, these forums have those two goals:

1- Get artists together and organized for the upcoming Sketchcrawl.
2- Share artists' sketches and photos from all over the world after the SketchCrawl.
3- Create a community of friends passionate about drawing around the world.

There are no rules:
-Anyone can participate, be it to draw for 20 minutes or the full day .
-Any level of ability is welcome from veteran artists to first time sketchers.
-Any age! Try it with your kids!

From time to time we try and raise funds for a good cause. On those special SketchCrawl we ask this global drawing community to come together and give something back to the world.

- A key thing, help us spread the word!
If you are reading this, I am sure you have a number of friends that might be interested in this as much as you are. Tell them about SketchCrawl! Let's share this idea with the rest of the globe. No borders.

So, when is it happening? March 29th. Leave a comment if you want to join me, or email for that touch of privacy we all seem to love.

Let's talk about the blues

Well, I was pretty pleased when Eric Maisel dropped by my little blog to talk about his book Ten Zen Seconds. It was the first time I had a bone fide celebrity visit. Well, it looks like he enjoyed it too because he agreed to come back and talk about his book The Van Gogh Blues.

JA: Eric, can you tell us what The Van Gogh Blues is about?

EM: For more than 25 years I’ve been looking at the realities of the creative life and the make-up of the creative person in books like Fearless Creating, Creativity for Life, Coaching the Artist Within, and lots of others. A certain theme or idea began to emerge: that creative people are people who stand in relation to life in a certain way—they see themselves as active meaning-makers rather than as passive folks with no stake in the world and no inner potential to realize. This orientation makes meaning a certain kind of problem for them—if, in their own estimation, they aren’t making sufficient meaning, they get down. I began to see that this “simple” dynamic helped explain why so many creative people—I would say all of us at one time or another time—get the blues.

To say this more crisply, it seemed to me that the depression that we see in creative people was best conceptualized as existential depression, rather than as biological, psychological, or social depression. This meant that the treatment had to be existential in nature. You could medicate a depressed artist but you probably weren’t really getting at what was bothering him, namely that the meaning had leaked out of his life and that, as a result, he was just going through the motions, paralyzed by his meaning crisis.



JA: Are you saying that whenever a creative person is depressed, we are looking at existential depression? Or might that person be depressed in “some other way”?

EM: When you’re depressed, especially if you are severely depressed, if the depression won’t go away, or if it comes back regularly, you owe it to yourself to get a medical work-up, because the cause might be biological and antidepressants might prove valuable. You also owe it to yourself to do some psychological work (hopefully with a sensible, talented, and effective therapist), as there may be psychological issues at play. But you ALSO owe it to yourself to explore whether the depression might be existential in nature and to see if your “treatment plan” should revolve around some key existential actions like reaffirming that your efforts matter and reinvesting meaning in your art and your life.



JA: So you’re saying that a person who decides, for whatever reason, that she is going to be a “meaning maker,” is more likely to get depressed by virtue of that very decision. In addition to telling herself that she matters and that her creative work matters, what else should she do to “keep meaning afloat” in her life? What else helps?

EM: I think it is a great help just to have a “vocabulary of meaning” and to have language to use so that you know what is going on in your life. If you can’t accurately name a thing, it is very hard to think about that thing. That’s why I present a whole vocabulary of meaning in The Van Gogh Blues and introduce ideas and phrases like “meaning effort,” “meaning drain,” “meaning container,” and many others. When we get a rejection letter, we want to be able to say, “Oh, this is a meaning threat to my life as a novelist” and instantly reinvest meaning in our decision to write novels, because if we don’t think that way and speak that way, it is terribly easy to let that rejection letter precipitate a meaning crisis and get us seriously blue. By reminding ourselves that is our job not only to make meaning but also to maintain meaning when it is threatened, we get in the habit of remembering that we and we alone are in charge of keeping meaning afloat—no one else will do that for us. Having a vocabulary of meaning available to talk about these matters is a crucial part of the process.



JA: Could you explain more about the importance of creating a life plan sentence/statement?

EM: If you agree to commit to active meaning-making, you need to know where to make your meaning investments, both in the short-term sense of knowing what to do with the next hour and in the long-term sense of knowing which novel you are
writing or which career you’re pursuing. Having a life purpose statement or life plan statement in place serves as an ongoing reminder of the sorts of meaning investments that you intend to make, both short-term and long-term, and helps you make the right “meaning decision” about where to spend your capital and how to realize your potential.




JA: In the book, you say, "The centerpiece of a meaningful life for creators is meaningful creating." In aiming to achieve this, do you think there are benefits for people to create outside their "usual" medium? (i.e., artists try their hand at writing; writers dabble in a visual art project, etc.)

EM: There are; and obvious dangers, too. Our first job is to make meaning in a particular discipline over time, because this gives us the best sense of continuity and completion and is the best way to make ourselves feel proud, existentially speaking. If we are a writer, we want to write well and regularly—other mediums come second. If we are a painter, we don’t want to
neglect our painting because of some momentary meaning enthusiasm. So, first things first: our lifelong apprenticeship in one discipline. That having been said, it can be wonderful to work in another discipline, especially if your primary one is at the mercy of others: for instance, if you are an actor waiting to be hired, it can be grand to get your performance piece written and produced. So the short answer is yes—but beware that you don’t shortchange your primary discipline.



JA: You list a number of core questions relating to creativity and making meaning in our lives. Do you feel that over time we will alternate between which question applies to us? Or is finding one question that applies to an artist is permanent, not changing over time?

EM: There is no one question, just as there is no one meaning. The meaning-making process is a process of constant re-evaluation and ongoing analysis as we not only provide answers to our own questions but also provide ourselves with the right questions. For one period of time the questions may center on productivity, creativity, career, and the like, and during another period of time they may center on relationships, service, and the interpersonal sphere. Even on a single day, we might switch from asking ourselves one sort of question (about what project to tackle) to asking ourselves another sort of question (about how to help our addicted child or what to do about a community problem). Meaning shifts; and so do the questions that we pose to ourselves about how to make and maintain meaning.




JA: What strategies about making and maintaining meaning can we expect you to discuss in your book to assist creative people in averting debilitating depression?

EM: A main strategy is simply to become aware of the concept that meaning does not exist until you make it and that it does not stay afloat unless you actively maintain it. A corollary idea is that without a vocabulary of meaning, it is very hard to think about and talk about meaning issues, which is why I include such a vocabulary as an appendix to the book. When you have phrases like meaning investment, meaning crisis, meaning spark, meaning leak, and similar terms to employ internally, you have a new way of speaking to yourself that reminds you about your central obligations and helps you actually become a passionate meaning-maker.



JA: You mention that intimacy and personal relationships are as important to alleviating depression as are individual accomplishments. What is the link between the two and are they forged in similar ways?

EM: It is important that we create and it is also important that we relate. Many artists have discovered that even though their creating feels supremely meaningful to them, creating alone does not alleviate depression. If it did, we would predict that productive and prolific creators would be spared depression, but we know that they have not been spared. More than creating is needed to fend off depression, because we have other meaning needs as well as the need to actualize our potential via creating. We also have the meaning need for human warmth, love, and intimacy: we find loving meaningful. Therefore we work on treating our existential depression in at least these two ways: by reminding ourselves that our creating matters and that therefore we must actively create; and by reminding ourselves that our relationships also matters, and that therefore we must actively relate.



JA: What do you suggest we do if we sense the blues are descending? What questions could an artist ask themselves to locate the source of their discontent?

EM: A medical work-up is a good idea, especially if her depressions in the past have been severe or long-lasting, as the coming depression might possibly be avoided with antidepressants (if it the “right” sort of depression). She can
also engage in some simple “home remedies”: exercise is a depression-fighter, as is getting out in the sun. From an existential point of view, what she wants to ask herself is if her current creative work matters to her—if at some level it doesn’t, she will need to reinvest meaning in it by telling herself that she and it do matter; or, if she can’t imbue it with meaning, she will need to turn to other, more meaningful work.



JA: Should you fight the blues or let them come?

EM: It is my opinion that we should fight them, though not necessarily in the first five minutes or the first hour. Being in “that space” for a little while may be unavoidable and even necessary, but remaining in that painful place of inaction and despair has nothing really to recommend it. As soon as we can—and if we have gotten in the habit of disputing the blues, this will be sooner rather than later—we stand up tall, remind ourselves that we make the meaning in our life and that there is no meaning until we make it, and decide where we want to make our next meaning investment: in a new project, in the business of art, or in another sphere like relationships. If we can nip the blues in the bud before they even come by making that next meaning investment before meaninglessness even has a chance to rear its head, so much the better!



JA: This is the paperback version of The Van Gogh Blues, How was the hardback version received?

EM: Very well! The reviewer for the Midwest Book Review called The Van Gogh Blues “a mind-blowingly wonderful book.” The reviewer for Library Journal wrote, "Maisel persuasively argues that creative individuals measure their happiness and success by how much meaning they create in their work.” I’ve received countless emails from artists all over the world thanking me for identifying their “brand” of depression and for providing them with a clear and complete program for dealing with that depression. I hope that the paperback version will reach even more creative folks—and the people who care about them.



JA: How does The Van Gogh Blues tie in with other books that you’ve written?

EM: I’m interested in everything that makes a creative person creative and I’m also interested in every challenge that we creative people face. I believe that we have special anxiety issues and I spelled those out in Fearless Creating. I believe that we have a special relationship to addiction (and addictive tendencies) and with Dr. Susan Raeburn, an addiction professional, I’ve just finished a book called Creative Recovery, which spells out the first complete recovery program for creative people. That’ll appear from Shambhala late in 2008. I’m fascinated by our special relationship to obsessions and compulsions and am currently working on a book about that. Everything that we are and do interests me—that’s my “meaning agenda”!




JA: What might a person interested in these issues do to keep abreast of your work?

EM: They might subscribe to my two podcast shows, The Joy of Living Creatively and Your Purpose-Centered Life, both on the Personal Life Media Network. You can find a show list for The Joy of Living Creatively here and one for Your Purpose-Centered Life here. They might also follow this tour, since each host on the tour will be asking his or her own special questions. Here is the complete tour schedule. If they are writers, they might be interested in my new book, A Writer’s Space, which appears this spring and in which I look at many existential issues in the lives of writers. They might also want to subscribe to my free newsletter, in which I preview a lot of the material that ends up in my books (and also keep folks abreast of my workshops and trainings). But of the course the most important thing is that they get their hands on The Van Gogh Blues!—since it is really likely to help them.

Thanks Eric. It has been wonderful to be able to talk to you again. I know you are on a tight schedule, so I won't hold you up. Thanks again.



How special was that???

p.s. the drawings in this post don't really have anything to do with the interview. I thought they might just demonstrate how simple it can be to make meaning. It does sound like a 'big' thing to do at times. But I've had my own copy of Van Gogh Blues for a number of years now, and I highly recommend it, and through it I've found that it was important to remind myself that when I make meaning (which for me means 'make art') that it is my meaning and that it is art for me - me alone in the first instance. I've also discovered the second instance takes care of itself.

Excitement with a stamp on it

Look at this! This gorgeous surprise arrived in my mail box all the way from Janey! She has created this fabric postcard of one of her fabulous drawings by stitching with various machine embroidery stitches onto patterned fabric (ingenious! I would never have thought of that!) and then, it looks to me like she has also added some ink into the mix just to finish it off. THANK YOU JANEY! I love it! And what Janey didn't know was that it arrived just in time for my birthday! And what a lovely birthday I've had. I had a nice one last year - this is the sketch I drew in San Gimignano last birthday.

And a year ago today I went to the Uffizi Gallery in Firenze (Florence, Italy). I LOVE art and (strangely) I love kitch. And I love it when the two coincide. This pencil case is what I bought in the shop at the Uffizi.

I said I've had a lovely birthday this year and here is just a small portion of it...
But the excitement that comes through the mail with a stamp on it won't be ending just yet. For my birthday I'm getting something I'm really excited about, and all I have to do is wait for it to turn up in the mail... Don't worry, you'll be the second to know (after me)!