International Freedom From Self-Improvement Day is Here!

Take today, and the rest of this week, as a holiday from self-improvement. Get in on the action here

This week, instead of improving myself so I can make art, I am just going ahead and making the art. Presently I am up to my elbows in decorative paper-making, enjoying being good enough just as I am!

International Freedom From Self-Improvement Day

May 15 is International Freedom From Self-Improvement Day! Come celebrate! Details here

Being publicly invested in personal transformation, how is it that I wholeheartedly support International Freedom From Self-Improvement Day?

After all, don’t most people need to improve themselves? Maybe they’re carrying a few extra kilos, or have an unfulfilled dream, or just want a better Life. Isn’t self-improvement what personal transformation is all about?

The answer is No.

Jennifer Louden, best-selling author of The Woman’s Comfort Book, points out, “we know, deep down inside, that we already have everything we need right now, exactly as we are, and that accepting ourselves moment by moment, over and over again, is the fastest, cheapest and actually only way to ever be truly at peace, happy, and content.” She asks, “what if we all collectively gave up on being any different than we are, just for 24 hours?”

I think that would be a good start. Then we could expand — to a week, a month, a year…a lifetime! We have everything we need in order to live the Life we want; we don’t need improving!

Like the caterpillar, we already are the ingredients necessary to become the butterfly. All that is required is that we engage in the process of transformation. The caterpillar withdraws into his chrysalis and emerges a butterfly; we withdraw into contemplation and emerge as ourselves.

Is the butterfly “an improvement” on the caterpillar? If so, why does the butterfly lay caterpillar eggs?

Fresh StARTwork

I like to think of myself as pretty well aware of the invitations in my life to use my art for personal transformation.

But that’s not where I was last week when I confessed to a journaling group that I don’t know why I’ve saved my old journals, as it’s too painful to read them, and I don’t want my children or husband to have to deal with them later. I simply couldn’t think what to do with them. “They aren’t like old clothes that can be recycled,” said I.

So I received a Wonderful, mind-opening gift when a new member suggested, among other great ideas, that I could use bits of my destroyed journals in “new, healing, fresh start artwork”.

And that is what I am going to do — I’m calling it my Fresh StARTwork.

Cicadas’ Summer Love Song

Summer has finally arrived…it’s been hot and sunny, and the cicadas are filling the air with their love songs. It’s such a short time now til Easter and autumn.

My February postcards are far in arrears, and March’s offering is only an idea. Meanwhile, the month and the seasons march on with little notice of my sluggishness. I don’t know that I’m marching to a Different drummer, but I am certainly marching to a Slower one.

Transformation

What is transformation really? And what has my art to do with it?

Transformation is the process by which one thing is converted into another that is equivalent in some important respect but is differently expressed or represented. Like a caterpillar into a butterfly.

My art expresses transformation in several ways. First, it expresses my own transformation as I live and learn. And because people are more alike than different and share more characteristics and experiences than not, other people frequently see themselves and their experiences in my art.

Second, the books I alter are themselves transformed, from literary expressions into graphical ones, and sometimes from “pages glued or sewn together on one side and bound in covers” into interactive objects with reader-activated parts. I do this by conveying my ideas and experiences by way of multimedia images which I then attach to the pages of printed books. I may alter the architecture of the book as well, creating windows, doors, foldouts, pop-ups, sliders and other devices which allow each viewer to engage with the art uniquely.

And finally, it is my hope that each viewer will be affected by my art in some transformative way, taking away from the experience some shared truth or feeling and expressing it uniquely.

Depression — an artist’s book

Did you know that artists are over-represented among those diagnosed with major depressive disorder?

I am extremely fortunate to collaborate with the brilliant wordsmith Linda Gray on an artist’s book which delves into the whys and wherefores of depression. How does one come to be depressed? If one is diagnosed with it, how can one best live with it? These questions and more are graphically answered in our experimental artist’s book “Depression”.

Check in here for updates!

Beach Kaleidoscope