New Art Space

Woohoo! I've gone from this:


To this:
My “new” art room.


The decuttered sitting room.


I have managed to clear my sitting room of art materials and projects; my “designated art space” still needs some organising and a LOT of culling! Still, I feel it's going to work.

My heartfelt thanks to all who have been supportive of my decluttering and shift, most especially Vickie Enkoff of OrganisedStudio and all the group members. Vickie is the Patron Saint of the Decluttered Studio!

Still more transformation!

Freeing myself from the need to “improve” myself had interesting results. I felt less stressed, and much happier with who I am at present. But I also realised how very unhappy I am in my present work.

I have a seven-minute commute, walking. What could be better? I work in a library, housing ten stories of books. What could be better? I have no autonomy, my special abilities are ignored, and I push-pull-lug-sort-shelve-retrieve books all day. Ugh!

Clearly it’s Time for Transformation!

Meanwhile, on the homefront, I realised that expanding from my office/art room into the sitting room was not a clever idea. My art supplies were now all over the house, and I couldn't find anything I needed or wanted. Furthermore, hubby complained that he couldn't sit in front of the fire to toast his toes!

A trip to OrganizedStudio yahoo group, and joining FlyLady, had me working in 15 min increments to declutter my home. Assigning specific roles to each part of my tiny house made it possible to remove everything in those zones which does not support that zone’s activities. Suddenly my sink was shined and my bathroom was decluttered! Now my sitting room is clear for toes-toasting, my dining table is clear for dining, and my art supplies are stored in new, wheeled, storage shelving. My Art Room is beginning to get organised, I’m identifying items to sell, donate, or trash, and my Spirit, so much less encumbered, is lighter.

Now this is Transformation!

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.