This is a video of a marvelous poem by Marie Howe, illustrated by paper collage artist Elena Skoreyko Wagner and featuring original music by cellist Zoë Keating. As with most things, I found this video because is was shared by a friend on Facebook. And after I watched it, I wasn’t surprised to see that Maria Popova, the writer of BrainPickings, had helped the video come into being. Here is a link to her post about this poem and video.
I began a painting over a month ago, but work on it has stalled. I did a little work on it today but it frustrated me. The urge to create something was almost overwhelming, so I turned to a different medium: polymer clay. I just desperately needed to make something. The result — three Christmas ornaments and two ring dishes. They are very petite. Just right for a stocking stuffer. I’m not sure who will be the recipients, and maybe I will just release them into the world.
I struggle to balance my activities. It seems to me that there are some that I can do every single day without fail, and some I would like to do every day, but can’t manage.
Autonomic bodily activities (breathing, digesting, excreting) and survival tasks (eating, sleeping) are guaranteed to happen. Duh, right?
But then there are things that help my soul, my physical and mental health, that I just don’t get to each day. So I prioritize.
Everyday I:
Other things I would like to do every day:
Things I ought to probably do every day:
The thing about making art is that I like to get lost in the process. This takes time. There is not always a chunk of free time for it. Working out is similar. I can get some steps in, but a dedicated sustained workout is not always feasible. And yet, both of them feel nearly as necessary as food. I get depressed when I don’t do them. I have gone months without doing either. Everyone around me had to bear the result.
Regarding people, I interact with my husband and daughter, of course. I like solitude. Yet sometimes I get more of it than I need. I can tell, because I start to feel a little disembodied.
This ATC was created for a swap focusing on something in nature. At least one item in the card had to be from nature.
And a couple of haiku!
A sand dollar moon
peers heavenward, smiling to
her silver sister.
*****
Ocean origin
star within echoes secrets
hidden in apples.
–Kathryn Harper
Last day! I did it!
Photo of Port Hadlock, Washington
If light could be converted into gold…
Rush hour in San Francisco!
That’s Polly with the Purple Feet.
You might notice the refrigerator in the background. It’s plastered with printout of posts from this blog.
Light coming through the front door peep hole captured and played with. Looks like something in deep space to me.
Bean was two months old yesterday. There are more photos for friends and family at Flickr. Onward!
Wednesday was a very hard day with Bean (for me) — it started out with her cheerful. But her erratic eating, overstimulation, inability to sleep, more colicky crying late in the day put her over the top with exhaustion, but she could not find a way to sleep (despite all the usual that we do). Every day is variable. Keeps me on my toes. On days like this (and the past couple have been a little choppy) I feel anxiety. Just when I start feeling competent, things change. I guess this is parenting!
My art:
