Bits of Squam Through My Lens

Home from chilly New Hampshire where I spent four delightful days by Squam Lake. Rustic surroundings. Moonlit nights. Delicious food. Abundant art. Delightful people. Rain. Sunshine. Fires. Stars. 

I hope to return. 

Ann Wood handmade. Check out her Paper Mache Ships 

Elizabeth, brainchild behind this thing… You go girl! 

Ann Wood mushrooms. What fun we had making these! 

Mine.  Fun, aren't they? 

Trail Magic

I'm a hiker and am well aware that "Trail Magic" defines the delectable gifts bestowed upon faithful AT through hikers! However, I choose to temporarily adopt the term as it also applied to the trails (not far from the AT in the Whites in New Hampshire!) at the most recent Squam Art Workshop.  

Oh, lucky me! I am basking in the delight of having spent a few days with 100+ artsy types traipsing around the woods, enjoying art classes, meeting new people and trail magic. As I hoped, other 'Squamies' (is that what they are called??) are a lot like me! Creating little natural tableaus in the woods for others to happen upon is simple, creative and infuses delight in the simple act of walking along a trail. Smile.  

I'm a serial collector of feathers and acorns and leaves and stones and shells. The natural world offers us abundant resources to feed our souls and I was happy to take it all in… and contribute a bit of my own magic, I might add.  Next time my wand will hold even more secrets now that I know what to expect!  

On a whim, I grabbed a few of my little ceramic houses as I loaded the car to leave. I'm glad I did. This small magic tableau brought a few smiles to the grown ups among us.  Two little girls came along as I was taking this photo and asked me "Do you think they are REAL?"  "Why, yes, of course they are real," came my reply. A moment to savor and make that small effort totally worthwhile. They then asked if they could make some trail magic as well.  "OF COURSE!" Create your own magic next time you are OUT THERE… 

12 Dancing Princesses

If you've made your way over here from Carla's  Sonheim's blog, welcome.  I was delighted to contribute to our Year of the Fairy Tale course call for some fancy schmancy princesses!  Carla does a great job inspiring us and encouraging us. These online art classes are wonderful and I could easily take 12 at a time, though I know better….  My dad and I are going to begin a sketching class together this fall. We are a couple thousand miles apart, so how fun is that do something artsy together?  But, I digress.

My princesses came about as I glommed onto some techniques I've been learning this year. When I clean up my hands from messing with my clay sculptures, I am enjoying making another kind of mixed media mess. I have a theme here, do I not:  messes.  (Another blog post)

Here are some Princesses In Progress.

I love my iPhone for trying out positioning in art projects.  These dancers found their way all over the canvas before I settled on the final groupings.  I can take numerous shots then scroll through them on my phone to see which pleases me!

Dancers close up.  Tissue paper on collaged background.  I used water color pencils and Caran d'Ache water soluble wax pastels for the colors.  Water soluble crayons??  What ELSE do I have to learn!

And then I just decided: They are done. Off to the dances and to Carla for publishing…

Thanks for peeking.  May you dance in today's sunshine (or air conditioning if the humidity calls for such drastic measures.) 

Squam and CREATE!

As the kids head back to school and my remaining 'kid' starts college classes again today, I am looking towards fall, my all time favorite season! (I had a quick conversation with an acquaintance at an art journaling workshop a couple of weeks ago... fall is her least favorite season and reminds her of death.  Honestly, I have never thought of it that way, even though my mom died two years ago in October.) Anyway. Late summer musings... 

Art and travel are lined up in my life again for September and October and this brings me more than a wee bit of joy!  I'm going to Squam for the first time! It looks like my kind of outdoors, campy, New England place and perhaps these will be my kind of people too.... though, I don't know.  I'm showing up alone, as usual, and I suspect I will be way older than most of the artsy, flowing dress, bohemian souls who show up. But, with white hair comes wisdom, yes??  I can at least offer that!  

The season brings an artsy shift with it for me too... less mixed media and more fiber.  Wool and thread and color and stitching and more creating. I am so thankful... 

Master of Fine Arts

It may not be 'official' official, but I am currently engaged in my MFA.  It's self directed, mind you, with online courses chosen BY me, FOR me.  I will, in fact, award myself with the appropriate degree at the end of my studies (whenever I decide that will be.)  If I really were the control freak this sounds like I am, I'd be in heaven!  I am learning a ton from instructors of varying skills from all over the world.  Who knew? 

In the absence of my children and their friends inhabiting our household, my empty nesting self is engaging my deeply embedded creative passions.  My interests are many and varied and quite unstoppable. Currently I'm diving into mixed media with clay "on the side." Soon I will be taking a live course at the fall Squam Lake Art Retreat with upcycling fibers and design as the focus.  I'm all in with that too.  

All that to say, it's time to take a clue from these artsy teachers who use their blogs to post short and sweet comments alongside photos of their current work.  When I figure out all the watermarking copyright details, I'll be back…. 

Rock. Paper. Scissors.

This month has been full of adventure, learning and happiness.  If we could all begin all our blog posts just like that, what a wonderful world this would be, yes??  I spent a month in Colorado in 2013 and ten days of it were in October. A cause for happiness indeed! And the ROCK in my title…

I went to Art Camp for Women. I dreamed of it for several years and took the plunge this fall. They will no longer be leading these awesome retreats so it was a particularly good gift! I was so thankful to get to participate in the last one! We had three great artists come teach sessions too.

Carla Sonheim and her drawing instruction, loosening us up with silly animals and many excellent exercises infused with joy, account for PAPER.  Becky Nunn showed us all sorts of tricks and techniques for jewelry and Sara Rockinger taught us Theromfax silk screening. SCISSORS used here.

For me, it was a slice of the New Earth!  Time for art with like-minded women eating delicious food looking out at fall in the Rockies, with a little snow thrown in. For me and my sensibilities, it does not get any better than that!  No high heels necessary… no excuses allowed… walking in between classes encouraged… photos all around. It was grand!

I would not have been able to fully engage in an event like this in the past.  Having a new cochlear implant made all the difference. How?  Stay tuned….

The Government WHAT??

Politics. I’ve never written about them here before, but today (parts of) our government shut down. I have opinions about this fiasco, but because they are not clearly thought out, I won’t interject them into the fray. I’m going to comment on something that I noticed to today on Facebook from the first 6:30 am comment “How come the social networks aren’t lighting up about this?” through the wordy mish mash appearing all over the place this evening.

I contributed my share, but it was small and cryptic enough that one could assume I was writing about whatever one wanted to assume…  I will say that I believe we need to take care of each other and that we will almost always gravitate towards greed and self interest before looking out for the interests of others. (The theological reasoning behind that, I will not get into.) I believe government, while quite imperfect, is one avenue that God has established to assist us in looking past ourselves to the needs of others. There is a cost to life and a cost to caring for the less fortunate. We collectively bear those costs.  

More stunning were the diverse opinions and comments showing up on Facebook (I am not a #twit yet…) I am going to post a few of the ones that arrived on my feed today. I have very interesting friends and therefore quite an array of opinions appeared!!! The common denominator among the comments I am choosing to post is that all of these friends profess faith in Christ.  Jesus gets bashed around in the world of politics and I dare say, he doesn’t vote Republican or Democrat… nor drink tea or beer. He is, however, living and active in our imperfect world working through the imperfect lives of imperfect citizens. And if one professes to have perfect clarity about ‘what would Jesus do?’ one is sorely mistaken.

Take for instance, this sort of diversity on Government Shut Down Day One from the people of God:

 “Saw this bumper sticker while leaving work, "I love Obamacare" ... Wonder if they will be one of the employees who will loose their job because of the projected 330 million budget deficit that obamacare will soon cause the clinic...”  Ohio

“Reading BONHOEFFER; pastor, martyr, prophet, spy. Where is this faith today?” Colorado

“I'm sorry - but I must say this: We have a legislative process in the United States. WHEN both Houses of Congress pass a bill - in this case The Affordable Health Care - WHEN the Supreme Court - under challenge -after the fact - declares it Constitutional - WHEN a President wins a convincing re-election - after the bill has been passed - and when his opponent made AHCA a key criticism of his failed campaign - you do not destroy the whole economy by shutting down the Government to change a law you don't like! This is exactly what is playing out in Washington today. What the GOP is doing in NOT illegal - but it IS unethical.” Colorado

“I will not patronize any business that alters worker hours to keep from adhering to the Affordable Care Act. If that business is so close to the bone that that is the profit margin, then they are not viable in the first place. I certainly would not invest or hold stock in any such company.” Washington 

“Coffees and lots of it is needed to improve the day.”(--small blog Coffee Break) Washington

“I am ashamed of the government shutdown that resulted from Congress' inaction last night. Congress is so polarized that they cannot reconcile their differences and meet on middle ground. Wake up, Republicans & Democrats! This polarization is unsustainable and will not be tolerated among the American people as you can see by the uproar today. Hundreds of thousands of people are suffering furloughs because of your inability to pass a crucial bill. And might I add, it's absolutely ridiculous that the same Members of Congress that caused the government to shutdown will still receive their paychecks!” Texas

“Perhaps the congressmen (red & blue) should be deemed non-essential.” Ohio

 “This is not easy. We all need to read both sides. We need change, just not sure this change.” California

“Employers are using "obamacare" as an excuse to not do the right thing by their workers. Shameful and greedy.” Ohio

That’s all really.  We are entitled to our opinions, of course... I was just marveling at the diversity among my very small group of friends, all who possess a fundmentally similar worldview.

Lastly, I will give my son credit for posting the best comment to come across my feed today, and leave you with this: “Have we tried turning our government off and back on again?”