One true eye

When last we talked I was learning how to draw a little bit. I had started focusing on eyes, because everything I read said that the eyes were the hardest part.  I got some amazing graphite pencils and read a lot of instruction and followed recommendations  - and drew this eye.

I was really happy with this eye, and decided to try the rest of the face.

That experiment taught me a couple important things:

• First, that I can draw.  And if I can draw, after years of saying that I could not - well then - I can do anything I put my mind to.  WHAT A REVELATION!  I am working hard to allow this awareness to change my life in 2013.
• Second, a lot of drawing is required to be a good artist.  Focus and practice is critical.
• Third,  for me, the eyes are NOT the hardest part.  Instead, for me, it is the nose.  I am not even going to show you my nose work because I have a long way to go to improve my noses.  I have a lot of noses to draw.  :)

Someday I will share with you here, a whole face.  I just know it.

But not today.

Small Masterworks

  

I am always amazed to watch art happen.  The evolution from a thought, a momentary wisp of an idea, into something real and substantive is nothing short of miraculous. Capturing the ephemeral. The genius of creation.  A divine moment.

It makes me lose my breath and gives me goosebumps when I stay open to the implications.

Working with leather, Aaron has made masks, collars, hats, and bracelets.  Someday he is going to sell them.  

I just know it. 

And I want one.  Just sayin.

Masking

From the Forest

Ever since DragonCon last year, ADR has been working with leather.  He made some amazing masks, cutting and forming the leather, carving and painting.  Each one is a work of art.

I keep telling him that these are things that people will want, but he is reluctant to market them, hesitant to share.  His inventory is growing, and the masks are becoming more and more incredible.  He carves them, paints them - all by hand. 

He has made design enhancements while he has been learning, and has even done a commission or two for custom design work.  I have my thinking cap on for what kind of mask design I would like myself, for DragonCon this year.  Something fanciful, yet really intense, somehow.  Something that is me, through and through, while I peek out through the eye holes. 

These are very cool.

Mask On

Today: Monday work day, the gift was being able to work from home.  Fed the cats, had my tea, worked those meetings and conference calls, kept it moving.

Now: Going to take the puppies for a nice long walk and then home for a late supper and some Jeopardy watching with Mr. Bryant.  Wrapping up preparations for early yoga class in the morning.  I am off!

Some little arts....

I have a goal to do 30.
I am not there yet, but here are some...

The Mint

Is that Mr. Bryant, holding up bunny ears? I think it is!

It was free museum night at the Mint, and they had Masterworks from the New Orleans Museum on display. We ate a SUPER FAST dinner of Turkey Chili (fast and yum!) with cornbread and then mini-cheesecakes for dessert. Asa first hesitated on the cheesecakes (Is that JAM on there? I am allergic to JAM.) but ultimately ate two. Jaya slept through dinner, but woke up to have a cheesecake before we left for the museum.

We arrived at the Mint about 7:00 and only had until 9 so we rushed through some of the coolest displays to get to the Masterworks. According to the flyers, "the exhibition represents the prized names in European and American art history – ranging from the 16th through the 20th century – including: Degas, Gauguin, Giacometti, Giordano, Kandinsky, Lipchitz, Lorrain, Matisse, Monet, Nattier, O'Keeffe, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir, Rodin, Sargent, Vigée-Lebrun, and Vlaminck, among many others" - and we saw them all. The Degas are so beautiful and subtle, his sculptures are amazing. The Picasso's are really interesting, and the Pollack was really fabulous. But the Monet? Oh my oh my.

Aunt Amanda and Jaya checking out the art.

After we checked out the Masterworks, we had time for a little bit of a walk through the rest of the museum, and ended our visit by checking out the Face It! exhibit, which cracked us all up with the "face jugs!"

It was a whirlwind evening and lots of fun! I encourage you all to check out the free cultural events near you - you may be surprised at the fun you find!

a story we need to keep

I try not to do posts with lots and lots of words. I like to accent the words with an appropriate number of suitable photographs and keep each post interesting.


Yet here is a post, a story if you will, with mostly words and only one photograph. I posted this story on another blog as a guest writer a week or so ago. That post was initially going to be about the joy of creativity, but I got stuck in writing it up - and this story just would not stay out of my head - or out of the post. When I finally gave in to writing it, the words poured out of me.

So here it is, just as I wrote it the first time. To everyone, from us.

****

SO, my daughter went off to a Fine Arts Academy for Contemporary Dance (a boarding school by any other name) in August, the week after she turned 16. It was a very hard time for her and for me. We were very close, and though we both knew that this was an incredible opportunity for her, we had a very difficult time being apart. The first night was the worst, and she called me several times, whispering into the phone so that her roommate wouldn’t be disturbed. She cried, but didn’t want me to come and get her. I cried too, but not when we were talking. I second guessed the decision to send her away, and rode an emotional roller coaster for the next several weeks.

My daughter was determined and stuck it out, and though she didn’t stop missing home for a moment, she made new friends, learned a new routine, began to understand her teachers, and started to dance. The dance brought her great joy although the discipline required made her grumble and complain. She was inspired by the upper classmen though, and worked hard to grow. She learned about the routine of the dorm and settled quickly into a rhythm of learning and living and laughing. All the things you want for your children!

In October, she told me about auditioning for pieces that were choreographed by upper classmen, and how excited she was to get some opportunities to perform. She was immersed in the creative and learning process (are they separate? maybe it is all one process.) and was very happy.

When she came home at the end of November for a long weekend at Thanksgiving, she was VERY EXCITED. I picked her up and she talked most of the way home. She told me about a boy, a college senior in the Contemporary Dance program, that was a beautiful and breathtaking dancer. She certainly didn’t have any classes with him, but she had seen him perform once and had been very inspired. Right before break her teacher told her that she was actually going to have the opportunity to dance with him in a piece they would be learning in December, to be performed before Christmas. She was absolutely thrilled to be chosen to perform, and even more thrilled to have a chance to learn from someone so astounding. She talked about how he danced – so strong and graceful – and about how perfect his technique was. It made her want to practice and stretch and grow better NOW.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and when I drove her back to school and dropped her off it was very different from the first time. She had a big smile and a wave, and didn’t need any help into the dorm. She immediately saw friends and they were laughing and talking before I drove from the parking lot.

I was about 20 minutes away when the cell phone rang. It was my daughter, and she was sobbing.

When she and her roommate got onto their hall (up the three flights of steps with their bags dragging behind them), they noticed papers stuck on every room door. Some announcement, they thought as they rushed down the hall to their little room-haven. When they got to their door they unlocked it and pulled the announcement off the door.

They both stood and read. The paper explained that the young man, the senior, the inspiring dancer that everyone knew from his performances, had committed suicide in his dorm room over the Thanksgiving holiday.

My daughter was filled with grief. Overcome. Bowed down. It brings tears to my eyes now, 7 years later, remembering our conversation and what she went through. She had never met this boy. I had never met this boy. But in my mind was the image of his dance, strong, muscled, perfect technique. In her mind was the actual memory. I was filled with grief.

The entire school student body felt the impact of the young man’s passing, and December was a more somber time than we ever expected. When Christmas break came, though, I felt strongly that we needed to have some serious conversations about what had happened. We talked then, and truly, we talked for the next several years. My daughter worked through this loss in her dance and when SHE was a senior, she danced in a piece dedicated to this young man – and it was a phenomenal and emotional experience.

Trying to make sense of the senseless must be a human foible, but we did come away from all this with a lesson that reminds us of this young man.

Our lesson, that neither my daughter nor I ever forget – You can never know the impact that your life has on another person. You may never even meet them, you may never see them, you may never know that they saw you. Your interactions may be slight, may not be in person, may be oblique. But your influence and contribution to the world and the lives of others is greater than you know, your impact ripples out from your life touching those you see and even those you don’t.

Your gift is grander than you ever imagine. So share it, and give it, and make your impact on the world.







Go!