Athena Dreams Design

Places I Once Was .:. Sacred Life

I have been revisiting memories of some of the places I have lived, and Greece has been speaking to me loud and clear these past weeks. Maybe it is the changing of the seasons .:. spring into summer .:. maybe it is the blooming flowers and trees, or the clear blue skies, but I have often found myself these days, back in Greece.

I lived in Athens for a bit more than a year. Most people make a face as if to say "ick", and ask why I didn't live on an island. I did do that too, but Athens, I loved Athens. Each neighborhood a village unto itself, unique, individual and identifiable. I loved the white wash buildings, the noise of this particular city, and the sun, and the most of all the people.

I loved moving to a place where for a while I didn't understand the language at all. I could sit outside at a taverna, and hear voices but was not able to take in most anything that was being said. There was something freeing in it, something unnameable about it that I loved. I was there taking it all in, and yet, I was somehow just slightly removed, just slightly beside myself, not understanding, and allowing myself to revel in the non-understanding.

We take words in: bits of conversations overheard, the radio or television on in the background, conversations with all sorts of different people, all day long. My mind is constantly working on the words, the ideas, the thoughts. My mind never seemed to take a full rest from all these words until I moved to a place where the words I took in were only sounds. Melodic and beautiful sounds that formed a soundtrack for my first few months in Athens.

For more Sacred Sundays, visit here. And visit some photographs of Athens here.

Be Ready for an Invitation to Travel . . .

I was lucky enough to be able to work in my studio All the weekend long. Sure, the kitchen floor still needs mopping, and the garden is looking very neglected, and the weather was beautiful, but I stepped outside to stand in the sun, and let the garden know I would get to the weeding and clean up soon.

This is the second painting in a short series of paintings that I am working on that are all loosely woven around the topic of Greece. I lived there for a few years in my early 20s, and have a wonderful and deep connection to the land, and the culture, the language, and the art, and have wanted for a long long time to express some of that love on canvas, so I am on my way.

In this instance, I am combining the Greek theme with another . . . Fortunes from Chinese Fortune cookies. I have a very very large collection of fortunes that are wonderful, whimsical and heart-ful (amassed over years of friends collecting their best fortunes for me), and I always thought doing a series of paintings around the fortunes would be cool. Somehow, the 2 cultures have meshed for now . . . I'll just have to see where it takes me.

I also very very quietly put 2 prints in the Etsy shop that I opened nearly 8 months ago, and then just left alone. I also, very quietly, but a little pink button on the left over there, that merely says buy things at Etsy, but links to my "shop". I feel so very self conscious - kind of like being 13 again, and I have pimple, and am trying to hide it with my hair hanging in my face - saying, yeah, I've got this little shop, and it will eventually have more prints and cards as well... but there it is.

For any of you who are Etsy experienced (unlike me), how do you make those lovely icons showing a few things in your etsy shop that I see on so many of your blogs?

Macro in May

I have been feeling like I wanted a chance to get back some of my photography skills, and found just the chance with Macro May happening on Flickr.

Aaahhh, a reason to get my camera out everyday
a reason to remember to carry my camera with me wherever I go
and the opportunity to share my images with a large and growing group of people, many with skills much above mine, which I Love, as there, right there before me, is the opportunity granted to learn from those who do something better than I can at the moment. Win/Win all the way around.

I discovered last week that I was so excited everyday, to take photos for Leya's colour week, and am just over the moon happy to find an impetus to continue on with the photographs.

I have found that in these days of our overly busy lives, that I can have the very best intentions to "do" something, "create" something, "try" something new, and it often goes by the way side, in the stream of all the things that I have already committed to doing.

Motivation.
Joy.
Learning.

The 3 things I need to propel me forward . . .

Oh, yes,
and one more,
Commitment . . .

The 4 things . . .

Colour Week .:. Blue Friday

What a great week of colour it has been. So many colours around my studio, it was great to notice them thru the lens, which always puts a different dimension to things. And now some blue . . .

Slowly,
and joyfully,
exhale
the
Blue . . .

You can see more blue .:. A huge thanks to Leya for bringing us back to the fundamentals, the beautiful colours we work with and are surrounded by all day long. Thanks Leya!

Colour Week .:. Red/Pink Thursday

Stop
and go.
Move
the Red
(and Pink)!

You can check out more red and pink .:. link back to Leya!

Colour Week .:. Orange Wednesday

Dance
the
Orange.

-Rilke

You can check out more orange .:. link back to Leya!

Colour Week .:. Yellow Tuesday

Breathe
deep
the
Yellow.

You can check out more yellow .:. link back to Leya!

Colour Week .:. Green Monday

Leya at Curious Bird called a colour week, starting with green. I decided to try to stay in my studio with the camera for the whole week . . .

So, here comes a little green:

So many different greens - from yellow greens to blue greens . . .

drink
in
the
greens.

Turquoise .:. Yellow

I noticed today that the last few paintings I have worked on contain lots of turquoise and yellow, and since I haven't done a color mosaic in a while: some Turquoise .:. Yellow in honour of the spring and the first feel of summer.

Visit these lovelies directly in Flickr.

New Eyes .:. New Perspectives

Sometimes it just takes sitting in a different chair at the kitchen table and drinking my morning cup of tea (or coffee). Sometimes it is just standing in a different spot to look at the hills just west of our house, to see the colours that have been there all week. Sometimes just being able to see the same things in a new way only takes stepping around and over the old perspective, tilting the head, maybe a little squint to create a nice blur, and suddenly, I have new eyes.

That, and painting, reading, listening - all day in my studio. No breaks to do the things I really "should". No distracting myself with other "stuff". I feel more complete, I feel more at peace inside, I feel more positive and I feel like I have more energy. Now, the real test is: how do I get myself to remember that the act of creating is what renews and energizes me, pulls me out of the doldrums, cleans the cobwebs out of my head. That is the hard part for me, I let myself forget what I really need.

I had several beautiful reminders this week, and want to pass them along to anyone who is interested:

This wonderful podcast from Marisa at Creative Thursday. A wonderfully candid and generous talk about making money as an artist, the risks, the perils and the joys and how it all came together for this artist.

This beautiful post about giving ourselves the gift of time to create.

This moment with an artist and her cello.

New artwork and exciting news about a forthcoming book from this artist.

This honest and heartfelt series of posts from one artist's perspective of the Artfest experience.

Spending more time reading instead of watching movies: I am really loving all of these reads just now...

And the painting, and working on a canvas instead of a monitor...

is pure joy. After days, and truth be told, weeks of feeling stuck and tired and completely uninterested in my own artwork, my own creativity, and then, just a small shift in perspective (very much helped by the list above) and the metaphorical faucet is opened.

The central piece on this canvas board is a photo I took of my sister (standing) when she was about 10 or 11, and I was 15 or 16, on a beautiful summers day at Cranes Beach, looking for shells and the ever elusive blue sea glass, and I remember the thrill of learning and mastering my grandfather's old Leica SLR, printing this photo in the darkroom and feeling so completely happy and compelled to keep creating more, every free moment I had. That is the perspective from which I want to live, from which I want to experience this life, this moment.