It is what it is.

I am really different from the people I work with. It's not like I have 2 heads or suck blood - it's a priority thing, I guess. I would rather make art than anything. My house gets a half-hearted cleaning twice a year when my sister comes to visit, I do the dishes every week, I never dust really, and I hate lawn work. I bought the house because my mom lived with me and she thought it would be economical and she was right. She loved lawn work and I did it to please her. She died 4 years ago and that lawn knows the boss is gone. Those damn Mulberry trees are taking over! The people I work with would be horrified to walk in, their houses are spotless. Of course, they all have husbands and children which makes a person accountable. I have a cat and a dog. They haven't learned to run the sweeper yet so I guess they are good with the dust.

Sometimes I wish I could retrain my brain to feel the same excitement about a clean and shiny house I do for a new art technique or a finished project. It seems doable, doesn't it? But really, it's like saying it's just as easy to fall for a rich man as a poor one... It is what it is. Our dance with life is capricious and not a little amusing. That seductive excitment of creativity obscures my (small) embarrassment over dust bunny herds and peeling paint on the back porch and I'm swept away. Madeline L'Engle wrote something about being in the moment and being truly who we are when we forget ourselves in the creative process and time passes without notice. (I think it was in A Circle of Quiet - well worth the reading). More and more I live in that timeless place, coming up for air to socialize and recharge. Do you think it is a function of age that the balance between inner and outer life begins to swing toward the inner? Maybe it isn't even all that different timewise. Maybe the difference it that I am consciously choosing what I want over what I should.


Have you heard about Artist Trading Cards and Art Cards, Editions and Originals? They are mini (2.5" by 3.5") pieces of art. ATC are actually traded and not sold. ACEO can be sold. Etsy, where I have my knitting shop, and Ebay both do a good trade in ACEO. I am really intrigued and have to start making some. My niece and nephew are visiting from Iowa this week and it's on our project list. Of course it's 4H Fair week so I'm not sure how much art is getting made ,, altho' we could combine the two and incorporate their wristband and all the commercial building handouts into something. Hmmm.


I taught a small class on glass painting last week and as soon as my photographer friend, Melanie, gets back I'll post some pics of my samples. Very satisfying. Next class is wooden doll Apple Fairies, that's in September.







My newest yarn project may have to be the Molly Weasley sweater. I purchased the pattern from Shelle Cain, who is listed on etsy and has her own website:
www.crochetcabin.
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