White Oak Studio

I woke up Sunday morning with a tiny voice in my ear that whispered…”Check the heat in the gallery.”

When I walked over to check the therometer I found the furnace off and the heat at 34 degrees. The cold building led to a broken water pipe and water pouring in like a spring waterfall onto the floor of the gallery. PANIC!

I spent the next three days of hard work of moving everything in its way, drying it out, dealing with plumbers, insurance people, ServiceMaster of Kalamazoo and others. The following week was filled with wallboarders and painters scheduled to do the finish work and a meeting with the Amerigas officials to try to determine what is wrong with our furnace. (Three years in a row the furnace has conked out due to fine white dust that is clogging it.)

Once the dust settled, I asked myself what is the lesson I am meant to learn here?

It feels that this “crisis” (or as the Chinese might say this “opportunity”) is a symbolic washing away of my old life as a gallery owner and a purifying of the space for the new life of solo artist to come. It also seems to represent the fledgling shift in my thinking and my daily energies that I feel taking place. I feel my mindset changing from being a gallery owner whose focus was on finding artists and selling their work - to - being a solo artist who is focused on creating and selling my own artwork.

Hopefully the soft yellow paint “Provence Creme” that I selected will give the studio a fresh new look and reflect light as well. It looks like I will be spending the rest of the winter getting things moved back into place, sorted, freshly oganized and ready for my new creative work.

I am grateful for this amazing building I was blessed to build and to create art in. I am also grateful for the time and space to live this phenenomal creative life. Living the creative life, for me, is my spiritual practice.

“i DON’T THINK WE HAVE TIME TO WASTE BEING UNHAPPY,” From Everyday Sacred, by Sue Bender

Have you seen the DVD called The Secret? See it - tomorrow.  The secret is about the “The Law of Attractions.” The “Law of Attractions” helps you to attract people and resources that you desire and need. All of your choices have attracted this current situation you are involved in, to you.

The energy you put out into the world is going to be coming it back to you. Look at it as if you are at a restaurant and you place an order and you expect it to come just as your ordered. So what kind of energy do you place in the orders of your life?

Do you say I’ll never make it as an artist? I’ll never be out of debt? Or, I’ll never be in a good relationship? You just placed YOUR ORDER. The universe will send to you whatever you order.

Instead ask for what you want and need!!

Focus on the life you desire. That might be a life as a successful artist or a successful business owner.  Focus on creating the freedom and life you desire.

Make your action plan - Write out your plan, print them out and tape them to your mirror and read them out loud every morning. Keep those goals in the forefront of your mind at all times. Whenever anyone asks how you are doing. Reply in the positive.

Ask the experience “What are you here to teach me?”

If as an artist, you are living the talents and gifts you have been given - you are successful.

The new year is traditonally known as a time for change; a time for renewal and rebirth; a time to resolve ourselves to improve something in our lives; a time to grow.

This year, I am in transition having closed the art gallery. I have found that the first days following such a decision are like a release from the hospital after a protracted illness. One carefully learns how to walk again; slowly and wonderingly one raises one;’s head. I am in good health but I am innerly exhausted. I need a block of time to “not work,” not strategize or think - time to rest and to recover. This included time off from daily blog writing.

After a two-month sabatical from this blog I have returned to this blog, a bit clearer headed. While I had truly intended to do nothing, I have been busy these past two months with creating my new website and this blog, yoga classes, painting, cleaning and learning mosiac work. In addition, living in the snowbelt, means removing a LOT of snow.

This renewal period has been a much needed time to recover from the long and physically challenging 2006 season.

Taking a break from my primary craft of papermaking has been challenging as well as fun for me, mentally and spiritually. At first I felt like I never wanted to work in paper again and now, I am anxious to finish the mosiac birdbath and garden benches to begin a specific paper project. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder!

I have long been interested in the beauty of mosaic, having carried the work of several mosaic artists in the gallery over the years. Not only has this lovely, unique work sold well, it focus on using recycled materials like tiles, mirrors and china to create something beautiful - a process that has always intriqued me.

“Art is not what you see, but what you makes others see.” Edgar Degas