Heart 2 Hand

Originality

Just a short note tonight...

I stumbled across this today and the craftsmanship and originality just screamed to be shared. Thoughts rose in my head about how difficult it is to be original, especially in this digital cyber age.  Words and images travel at the speed of light and ideas fly around the globe via every digital media one can possibly imagine. 

Music, Paper and Light.  Three simple ingredients, stir in imagination and spirit and there you are.

So here...without further ado, I bring you

LIOR

now....go to this muscian's website and check out how this all came about and experience a truly unique glimpse of creative teamwork at it's purest.

Enjoy....

Look at Behind the Scenes, I'll Forget You

renewal....

ever had one of those months that just completely gets away from you?  October got away from me i've been so busy...halloween is friday and i don't even have candy in the house.  not having littles around to make costumes for and bake for school parties for and decorate the house for i have no daily reminders.   sigh....waiting patiently for grandlittles.

the leaves have started to turn and fall and if i don't get into the woods this weekend i will miss the opportunity to collect until spring.  my little brother is making me a 24 x 36 press and has promised to deliver it this weekend.  nothing fancy, some repurposed 3/4" plywood, formica and some threaded rods and wing nuts BUT I will have a press for large paper and/or organic matter.  The organic matter is what I'm happiest about at the moment.  

in our yard we have a mountain magnolia that has leaves as big as tobacco leaves that i i have been waiting patiently for years to be able to plate press and now that i have the giant catering tray gratis my eldest and blondest daughter La, and a press from the amazing redheaded little brother (who bears no small resemblance to Ron Howard)and who isn't so little at 6'2" to work with.  LUCKY ME

so as is my habit in the fall as the landscape around me packs away it's green summer finery and dons the yellows, oranges and reds of autumn i ran away to the salon and renewed myself and prepared for the oncoming season of busy busy...i got a hair cut.

  

being worthy.....

This weekend I've had a lot of time to reflect while working in my studio.  It's funny how the mind multitasks without our help but when you slow down and focus on just one thing the program running in the background is heard none the less. I was reflecting on people I had met and what they mean to me now, today verses what they meant to me a year or two ago or even ten years ago.  

A good friend of mine, Steph posted on her blog recently a video of my favorite artistic inspirations, Andy Goldsworthy. Suddenly, all my thoughts of the day became clarified.  The first time I met her, we were two total strangers in a large crowd eating a hurried lunch.  By the end of lunch I knew that in time, we would be friends. There was just something about her that connected immediately, nothing I can put my finger on, more of a feeling than anything else.

It's that way sometimes, and like nature, if you let a relationship takes it course rather than to force something, it will arrive where it should at its own pace. It will be affected by ebbs and flows in your lives and at times will be stronger and more cohesive than others...but it will be constant in the heart once forged.  Letting life shape it and accepting the outcome is healthy and loving.  

Several years down the road, this small acquaintance is blooming and I was never so sure about direction as when I happened on her blog entry about Andy.  It was like the shoe was laced, the knot was tied and there is only forward to move.

It just goes to show that you never know what a day will bring. Today I am filled with gratitude for all the loving relationships in my life and the shape of things as they are and what they will become.  With that thought I leave you to this.....enjoy.

thought for the day.....

Today my heart is filled with gratitude for the love of friends and family that fill my world.  Thank you all.

To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never, in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common, this is to be my symphony.

 

William Henry Channing

Time Flies...Nature Printing Society's Annual Conference 2008

It's been a whirlwind autumn and I can hardly believe all the wonderful things I've seen and done.  I spent 3 weeks on the West Coast traveling, teaching, visiting and basically just having an amazing time.

First stop was Santa Barbara CA and the NPS (Nature Printing Society's Annual Conference.

What an amazing week spent with some of the most interesting people on this planet.  Sharon...I'm going to steal your words here...."It was so nice to spend a week with people who actually get me!"  The picture above is from Fred Mullet's class where he took us on the magical mystery tour through thermographic powders and their many applications.

 

I've used many a rubber stamp and emobossing powders but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think to use them on REAL leaves and other botanical matter but above is the proof that His Royal Fishness knows his stuff.  He is also teaching this class at ARTFEST 2009 so check it out and sign up!!!  AND if you haven't checked out THE NATURE PRINTING SOCIETY and all it has to offer you really need to do that.  They are a sharing and caring group of people who know their stuff and happy to teach you.  

Charles Morgan taught a FOILOGRAPHY class that was eye opening to say the least and I have to say I enjoyed every second of it and would kill to own my own etching press.....in the meantime it will have to suffice to find one to use as often as possible to continue making plates.  We spent the day making plates and printing.  I brought a bird wing to print with and had little success but I am determined to make it work.People brought some of the most interesting botanical matter from all over the US that I have ever seen and I have to thank all of my classmates for their generosity of spirit in sharing all that they brought for us all to play with!  If this was not enough to send one over the creative and artistic edge I also had the opportunity to take a seaweed printing class with the fabulous HEATHER FORTNER who also happened to be one of my two roomates who kept me in stitches when ever we were together...which was not enough! Thanks to Glenny and Shane Anderson who helped Heather collect and prepare the plethera of material for all of us to play with.  DID YOU KNOW that the plant life BELOW the water is more diverse than ALL THE LAND PLANTS, TREES AND SHRUBS put together?  When you think about it, it really makes sense but one just has such a hard time imagining something we can't easily see.  Below are some of my seaweed prints drying on the wall as I kept on printing.  It was an amazing class and I'm looking forward to going to Florida in the spring for more fish printing with Heather.

Last but not least....my class NATURE PRINTING FOR JOURNALING.  Guess what happens when you take a room full of experienced nature printers and let them loose with brayers and ink and 600 sheets of paper?  LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN...and it sure did.  Brayers were slow moving with a deliberate hand at first but it wasn't long when they were letting loose and worrying less and less about "the product" and just having fun...which ironically results in some of the most amazing prints!!! 

 

 

 

At the end of the day...we took those 600+ prints and everyone made themselves a journal...If memory serves me correctly, no one of these wonderful people had ever made a book before....and look what they did!!  More pics soon in the photo albums....check back soon!!