Stars and Song

Thank you to Hubble. Not the person (although he deserves thanks in the field of Astronomy and physics) but the telescope. Every day I wake up to an astronomy picture of the day (see the link to the right in my blog) and over the years, the 1000's of pictures that I have in books, calendars and have seen on-line have helped to make my days more pleasant. Not because they are so wonderful to look at, but because somewhere, somehow, there was something beyond all of my conception that allowed this to exist in all of its' multidimensional glory. Wow. I consider the stars to be the visual of a Song - the Song of creation.

That Song of life pulses through everything - there is a deep rhythm that underlies the universe. Some scientists might consider it to be the vibration of a molecule, or perhaps the undulation of the strings in string theory. I look at it as music - Divine Music - the Song. These vibrant notes, beyond the ability of mere humans to hear, underlie all within the universe. And the Song is, in essence, Love. I think it was Dante who ended his Divine Comedy with the belief that it is the Eternal Spirit - Love - that moves the stars and causes them to dance and sing (paraphrased). So, through Hubble, we have all been privileged to see this divine dance and see the underlying Song. And now that Hubble has been fixed, upgraded, and released once more, we will again have the opportunity to see phenomena that were never dreamed of by our ancestors. Thanks are completely inadequate, but all that I can do. I look forward to many more years of inspiration and introspection brought about by the views from Hubble.

Staying Positive

I think nothing is more difficult than maintaining a positive outlook when surrounded by negativity. When the negativity gets too bad, that's when I drown my thoughts in my virtual bench. I'm sure that many of you also have a virtual bench - the place in your mind where you think over new projects, analyze project problems, think of new techniques, and allow the Spirit to talk to you. There are projects that I would love to see in real life that will probably only exist on my virtual bench because I simply do not have the skill sets to make them reality. There are others that I am still rounding out with the possibility that some or all of them may make it past the virtual barrier into the real world. And then there are the evocotive.

One of the things that I love is when an author or poet evokes internal imagery in my head that I wish I had the time/skills/etc to put onto paper/canvas/metal. Although I am not a major poetry fan, there are some times when the visions are so amazing that I can see them, completed, in my mind's eye. For instance, these few lines from "Spruce Street, Berkeley" by Naomi Shihab Nye:

..."the people are leaves drifting

downhill in morning fog. ...

...Now the cars sleep against curbs..."

I see this piece done in goache on board, in a rather Southwestern/Hispanic style of bright colors, stripes of color rather than blending, it's such an evocative word-soup. I look for things like these to pull me away from the daily negativity that is impossible to completely eliminate from my life. I'm sure that you also have things that allow you to stay positive in a world that is crashing. I hope that your virtual bench is well populated with both projects and inspiration. (The painting above is by Diego Rivera, one of Mexico's premier artists. Check him out on Google and Wikepedia.)

Accomplished

I had a great studio day yesterday. After dropping off the repair to my silversmith friend, I had a really nice breakfast at the Highland Grill and then went home and started work. I was determined to work on my cloak. I laid out the template (it takes the largest open floor space that I have in the house) and then grabbed my fabric. Laying out my fabric, I realized that it was 45" wide instead of the 60" wide that I had thought. That meant that I didn't have enough fabric for the cloak. AACCKKK. So, I grabbed the car and went back to the fabric store. Amazingly enough, even though it was a wool fabric and it is now summer, they still had a bit more than four yards left of the fabric. Call me happy. I bought all of the remaining cloak fabric and chose 7 yards of a new lining fabric since I knew I wouldn't have enough of the lining fabric either. The lining is a slightly different shade than I had originally chosen, but it will still be very attractive - just slightly more blue than the original teal I had picked.

Then I grabbed the groceries that I needed on the way home and continued work. While turning the corner into the den/sewing room, my skirt caught and pulled down a shelf component that my DH has had stacked for more than a year . I pulled it down directly onto the bridge of my foot and probably cracked the bones. I taped it up and continued work - I was determined to at least have the main cape sewn by the end of the day. So, in spite of the fact that by the end of the day I was relying on a walking stick to move and that everything took 5X longer to do because of the pain, I did succeed and my cloak is now hanging on my mannequin. I hope to get the lining finished on Sunday, but Sundays are always questionable based on what DH wants to do. I'm happy though, the cloak will shake itself out and I can determine the length and get the hem marked within the next day or so. Then I can start working on the neckline/collar. Just call me happy - I'm one step closer :-)

200 and Still Going Strong

Amazingly enough, this is my 200th post. Since I write this virtual journal for my personal edification, I am patting myself on the back. It's not that I don't have the ability to focus on something for periods of time. Any person will have their own areas of focii. But I have never been a person who has been able to keep a diary. Yet, here I am, keeping a virtual diary and a regular schedule. So...congratulations to me. I'll raise a glass of wine to perseverence tonight :-)

And today is a studio day. Basically, today that means a trip to my silversmith who will do a resize job for me that I simply don't have time to do. I'll probably grab a quick breatfast at Gigi's on the way - excellent breakfast quiche. Then, run home and start work. Two or three loads of laundry. Pulling my cloak template off the mannequin and laying out the actual fabric, getting it cut and sewn. Finishing up the last of my Beading For A Cure project which I want complete by this weekend. Starting my housecleaning before my friend from California arrives to join me on the drive to Milwaukee next week Sunday. And I probably should start thinking about packing - but that can wait until the last minute. It is more important that I do things that I simply can't do after a full day's work or in stolen minutes through the day.

And I brought my sketchbook home from the shop to flesh out a couple of ideas. It would be delightful if I could find a few minutes (30-60) to do that, get measurements correct, and revise a couple of things. Also, I have photographs on my camera that need to be downloaded onto my computer....and....and. Well, let's just say that I have many more things to do today than I have minutes in which to do them . It's a normal studio day - and again the kiln won't be fired up because I have too many other things that need to be completed first before I can indulge myself in some glass/enamel work.

Blah. Blah....blah....blah.....

Ever had one of those days where nothing really seemed to be exciting and you weren't motivated to do much of anything? I'm having one of those days today, and that means that I need to kick-start myself out of these blahs. Blahs are actually not horrible things to have, and everyone will have occasional days like these, but the real key is how to still stay creative through periods like this. Since I am blah, I don't want to work on any current projects. It's supposed to be raining today, so outside photography for some image references that I need for another project probably won't work well. So, I think I'll concentrate on my heraldic images that I want to etch and enamel for my panel of Lord of the Rings Houses of Note.

I have many of the sigils downloaded already, although some of the images are incorrectly aligned with the actual color and heraldic descriptions that Tolkien placed in his works. So they need to be redrawn and reconfigured to be the correct size/shape that I need, and so that I know what areas I need to etch out for the champleve. (Since I haven't been able to really conquer my gravers yet, I'll resort to etching for this.) And tomorrow, for my "day off" I'm flooded with stuff to do since I leave for Milwaukee in less than two weeks. EEEKKKK. All of a sudden my blahs are gone and I am once again in a creative (and rushed) mode. New projects and new steps for existing projects are always exciting to me. So...if the day is beautiful for your area, take some pictures or work outside for a while. If the day is rainy or "ooky", turn to some inside focus. But live a creative day!

Remodeling and Robins - Signs of Spring

Sunday was very pleasant. The weather was perfect - a little cool but sunny and blue skies. After DH finished putting on his fertilizer/dandelion killer we loaded the lawn mower into my Cruiser and went to the "old house" to mow the lawn there. The Old House is a 1916 house that has been in my family since the early 1920's. My DH's father was raised there and his grandmother lived there for most of her life. We lived there as the first house that we owned. But it is very small - 700 square feet according to the property tax description, and we outgrew it rather quickly. We probably should have sold it right away after we moved, but we gave in to pleas and rented it to several relatives over a few years instead. That left us with a lot of repairs to make and no time to make them. The house has been in the process of repair, update and remodel ever since. Expenses are fairly low, but I think we have to get rid of it soon - it is money we really don't have. What I need is someone who can replace two celings for us - cheap. When those are done, then it's just painting and I can do that rather quickly.

I have a robin's nest on the light next to my front door. Mom has been very conscientious, sitting on the nest as long as possible. I feel fairly certain that we will have little ones soon. I always enjoy seeing the robins in our yard, so I'm willing to put up with the small inconvenience (and much larger mess) that the nest causes. However, this year I'm going to pressure wash the siding again, and the nest will be history until they rebuild next year. I'm sure they will since the surface is flat, protected, and relatively undisturbed. It is also an easy location to defend. The robins are no fools - they choose well. Long life to their babies and to you on this fine Monday.