Owls and the Art of Becoming

new beginning, a photo by Mara ~earth light~ on Flickr.

Sharp-beaked, death-taloned,

Ruler of the night

Soft-feathered, feral-scented,

Unfurl yourself. Take flight.

Watching + Listening

"A Girl, A Boy, and A Graveyard"

by Jeremy Messersmith

"Boy With A Coin"

by Iron & Wine

Wild Yourself

Eelus, a photo by Romany WG on Flickr.

Let yourself be other,
something wilder than you were,
growing, rooting, nesting,
‘til your flesh doth crawl with fur.

(Written by Amanda Amos)

Good Work Monday: Louis Schwartzberg

On Flowers and Bees:

"Beauty and seduction, I believe, are nature's tool for survival.

Because we will protect what we fall in love with."

~ Louie Schwartzberg

This is a clip from Schwartzberg's Ted2011 talk. He has devoted his professional career to photographing pollinators up close. If you've spent any of the last month complaining about the pollen dirtying up your car, please watch this video and fall in love with the dance of life of which we are all a part.

What The Owls Talk About When You're Talking To Owls

The owls came again last night, talking. Do you want to hear about it? You'll say yes, but truly, you wish they were talking to you instead of me. I'm here to tell you, dear friend, that they were. Did you hear them?

"How do you talk to owls" is a fine question to ask at the start. How don't you? Find those places, all those civilized bits, and push them as far away as you can, to the periphery of yourself. Only let the wild you free, to roam, to listen. Wild speaks to wild and when you find that part of yourself that understands the birds and the trees and the things that go bump in the night.....then you will hear the message and you will never unhear it again.

You are one of us.

You are wild of us.

You are bigger and smaller than you ever imagined.

They will guide you home.

How "Not" To Talk To Owls

 photo courtesy of Lynn Griffin-Roberts

"Dreams are illustrations...from the book your soul is writing about you."

~ Marsha Norman

I had this big, wonderful blog post knocking around in my head for the last week or so. It was about a fantastic dream involving eggs and owlets (and cat food!) and the beauty of growing things that will eventually fly away from you. I just need to jot it down so they'll understand, I kept telling myself. But every time I sat down to jot, nothing came.

Well, that's not true. Words came out -- they just weren't the right words. They kept twisting themselves up into knots, bending over backwards trying to please me. They made a valiant effort.

But it didn't feel right. It didn't feel right at all.

I'm embarrassed to admit I worked on this "problem" for almost a week before I finally stepped away from myself long enough to see what was going on -- I was forcing it. And it didn't want to come.

Art is a finicky business, like herding cats. You can push and prod and cajole and sprinkle moon fairy dust over an idea as much as you like. It'll still dart behind a rock and stick it's tongue out at you if it's not ready to be born.

So, in spite of my initial frustration, I'm glad for the lesson I'm taking away: Always remember to feel for the resistance in a thing, feel around the edges, feel around your heart. Ask it if it wants to come out from its nice, warm hiding place in the cosmos.

Then, trust yourself. Trust the answer. 

And if need be, move on.

Namaste.

Good Work Monday: Rob Ryan

"Ask yourself, 'If all jobs paid $2 an hour, what job would I want to do?' 

When you answer that question, start doing it, even if you have to do it for free at first."

~ Greg Aldrik

Whether you're happily engaged in the most inspired, groundbreaking, creative work of your life or you're trudging along at a job that can't eat up the hours fast enough, we could all use a little extra inspiration on a Monday. So I offer you a new addition to the blog: Good Work Monday.

One video. One person. One passion.

Enjoy!

Paper Crane Mobiles

First off, thanks to everyone for the positive feedback and support on my new blog. I really appreciate it! I'm still trying to work out some photography kinks (basically, my apartment is dark, dark, dark) and I'm having trouble getting a great shot of the crane mobiles I've been working on. Here are my first few attempts.

 

Can't you just see her flying through the trees?

 

 This one is my favorite. Notice the Bead for Life bead? I love the bright, turquoise loveliness.

 This girl is pretty as well.

What I'm having trouble with is showing you how several of them are attached to a lovely branch so they fly across the opening between my kitchen and dining room. Again, the apartment is dark so I can't seem to catch a good shot of it. But I'm quite pleased with the result. 

I'll be adding these to my etsy shop as single mobiles (to hang from your rear view mirror, as a sun catcher, or in whatever way catches your fancy!) They make me feel happy and peaceful every time I look at them. I'll take as much happy and peaceful in my life as I can get! 

Welcome to my blog!

I've wanted to put this together for a loooooonnnnnggg time but it wasn't until I had a loooooooonnnnnngggg string of sick days (she's finally feeling better) that I had enough time on my hands to finally do it. And I'm so glad I did! In this space I will share my creative projects, inspirations and info on my new etsy shop where you can find my stuff.

The bird, above, was a joint project between Katie and me. While laid up on the couch, we played around with some drawing projects from my very favorite (at the moment) art book: Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists by Carla Sonheim.

My father gave us a wonderful new magazine subscription to Birds & Blooms which became our drawing inspiration for the afternoon. We took out our Sharpies and drew to our hearts content. I loved Katie's drawing of a female sparrow so much, I asked if I could embellish it. I colored it in and collaged the whole thing up to the piece you see above. She's excited to see her art up on the wall and I'm happy to have some new decorations for the apartment!

Thank you for stopping by to check out the site. I hope you'll keep coming back and leave me some comments. I love your feedback!