Athena Dreams Design

December Views .:. Day 3

Summing up the day in one photo . . . 

Holiday Special!

 

To celebrate the year end, I am running a special in my etsy shop until 15 December.  

Order a calendar - any of the 4 calendars in my shop - and receive a free 8.5" x 11" print of your choice.
 Please put in your message to me when you purchase a calendar which 8.5" x 11" you would like to receive to receive.

Find the calendars here, and the 8.5" x 11" prints here.

Each calendar month has a full colour illustration and an inspirational quote... I wanted to share with you, one of my favourite images from each of the calendars. Here is the June image from the Flower Silhouettes calendar:

 

Blessed are those who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. -Camille Pisarro
 

and the December image from the Whirls & Swirls calendar

 

Do not follow the ideas of others but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realise the unity of all things. -Dogen

I hope all of your holidays are full of shared warmth and love, and lots of walks in the winter air (if you are in my hemisphere), evenings by a crackling fire, hot tea, talking, laughing, singing, sharing dreams and being with the people you love and treasure! These shorter days are the time of year to count all our blessings, all the light in our lives, and all the joy we can hold in our hands and in our hearts.
 

December Views .:. Day 2

 

December Views .:. Day One, a Day late

 

 
 December Views 

December .:. Monthly Goals

Could November have sped by any faster? Does anyone else feel like you blinked a few times, had a cup of tea and November was gone? So the goals that were November:

1. Paint paint paint - YES!
2. Celebrate some of my finished painting (see #1) and attend the opening of Core: art & design of the torso  - what a fun time... you can see photos of the show here
3. Keep up with freelance deadlines for the month of November, getting behind could cause a major un-done - did pretty well with this one, and am hoping it will make December a joy
4. Post holiday cards to my etsy shop - Done, and they are here
5. Research and make a list of 5 galleries that I'd like to show my work in - made a list of 7 galleries, and now to make contact
6. Just what is that inner voice saying this month - Stretch yourself past your safe comfort zones seemed to be the phrase of the month from that inner voice
7. and Celebrate life as much as is humanly possible. Remember to remember all the moments that point the way, that say "oh look", that smile softly, that beckon me down the path. Indeed!

And here we are already one day into December:

1. Make contact with the 7 galleries and introduce myself and my work - (Regardless of whether it's the best time of year.)
2. Keep up with design deadlines, and make time for some time away from the computer the last 2 weeks of December
3. Focus on some specific projects that take me out of my comfort zone: writing.
4. Feel grateful for all the beauty, all the goodness, all the joy, and also for the difficulties gotten through, the hurdles crossed, and the lessons learned.

And that's it. Short and sweet for the month that will wrap up this year. Now, what will my word for 2010 be? What will your word be?

 

Give and Give . . .

   The Garden

Late green day.
 Here's happiness with its edge of frost.
Winter's in.

The sky thins out.
 The world tightens, like a walnut.
I can count most things.

The plum trees are taut on their hill,
the mornings bitten off, like a twig.
The earth will give and give.

-Nina Bogin

Pictures to Tell a Story

Sometimes pictures tell a story just as it should be told, and just as it should be heard. And so, some pictures to tell a small piece of the story of CORE: art & design of the torso. Words to come later in the week.

 

 

 

(I love this person's reaction to Outi's piece)

Meeting Chloe

"Discovering an unexpected treasure" were not just words from a fortune cookie, but also the complete center of the experience of creating this piece for CORE: art & design of the torso. 

Painting directly on to a female form (and not on a flat canvas), with all it's curves is one adjustment, but because this dress form came from a warehouse somewhere in New Jersey, and looked like she had hung out in some department store a time or 32, and looked like she had lived in some scary warehouses in her life, and was quite anatomically specific, I knew for sure this was going to be a whole new world for me. She was pitted and dinged, and a little sticky with something I tried not to think too hard about, and her left shoulder looked like something had leaned against her and left a mark, and unlike many of the other artists' dress forms, she had very specifically formed breasts, as well as a bum, and an indent of a belly button. When I set her up on her stand, she was (even without arms, legs or a head) well she was a presence, and she was Chloe.

Layers of papier mache, and sanding began. But the layering and the sanding all turned very different when it got to sanding her breasts. The fact that she's made of some artificial-polymer-coated-meshy substance, didn't change the fact that I was sanding breasts, and a bum (a very nice bum too) and laying more paper on, and sanding again. At one point in this layering-sanding process I glanced out my studio window - which looks directly down into our neighbor's garden - and there was one of our neighbors (very new to us neighbors too) looking up at me with both eyebrows raised very high on his forehead. I thought about opening the window to say, well to say what, really?  "This is for a show"? or "I'm an artist"? So I just thought to myself "oh well" and kept working.

So now I had two levels of thought going on as I worked: 1) All the things I think and feel and struggle with about my body, about who I am in this body, about how I carry this body, about what other people think of me and this body, all those body things; and 2) now I am thinking about what my neighbor must be thinking about who I am and what I am doing and if there is a neighborhood get-together in the future, will he look at me again the same way he was just looking at me? 

So, in the end, I kept the sanding to a minimum. I thought some more about some of the reasons I am uncomfortable with my own body as I smoothed out some of the worst pits on Chloe's shoulder and crotch (yes, crotch). I thought about how much easier it would be to leave the negative feelings about myself on the floor along with the dust from the sanding, and I applied another layer of matte medium. I thought about practicing looking in the mirror and not letting the negative voice loose, and then I applied a gold patina to Chloe's whole body. 

She still has some dents and many imperfections, and yet, I find her irresistibly beautiful. So I'm going to think about that for a little while longer. And in the meanwhile:

* * * * * * *

CORE: art & design of the torso
a folk & fable open studio event

Saturday November 7 
6 - 10 PM

822 Wall Street, 2nd Floor
Downtown Los Angeles 90015
Music by KCRW's Anne Litt

Christine Mason Miller, Marisa Haedike, Kelly Barton, Jessica Seaton, Pixie Campbell, Sarah Ahearn, Karin Collins, Mati Rose McDonough, Carla Terwilliger, Nicol Ragland, Outi Harma, Linda Esterly, Anne Carmack, and Me.

Paper Mango Gives it Away

Visit Paper Mango and win!
(Do I sound like a car salesman? hopefully not...)

BUT seriously: yesterday Orglamix, mineral based eye shadow, I don't wear eye shadow, and yet, I want some, it looks so yummy. And today, your choice of a 8.5 x 11 print from moi.

So go celebrate the season of falling leaves and warm fires and blue blue skies with Melanie at Paper Mango.

November .:. Monthly Goals

At our CORE, buried deep within the foundation of who we have come to know ourselves to be, we find our truth, our spirit and our art. Our intuition hangs honest & heavy, resting in the bellies of the bodies we were blessed with. Our spine holds our heads up high, keeps our courage close and allows us to stand up tall for all the good things we believe in. Our spirit & our light - the very force of our life - sparks somewhere softly in the middle of who we are, reaching out toward one another with longing, forever hoping to be heard. - CORE show statement by Anne Carmack

• • • • • • •

October goals were pretty straight forward, and yet they were less like items that can be put on a to-do list and checked off with a nice pen, and more about ruminating and moving forward and thinking and feeling, and re-feeling. And so in keeping with that, there are less cross-offs and more commenting to myself.

1. Paint, Paint, Paint - I have decided that this will be my perpetual #1 item, so it won't get crossed off 
2. Design patterns for licensing - didn't get one thing done towards this item
3. Unpack and settle into the new studio space, and new house still in process, but have made much progress in a month
4. LISTEN to that inner voice - I heard her a little more this month, this will also be a perpetual item
5. Keep evaluating my goals for work for art and for life. - uh-huh!
6. Remember always that having confidence in my dreams and in my progress is the very most important piece of all of this. - yes, yes, yes 

And so: November goals:

1. Paint paint paint
2. Celebrate some of my finished painting (see #1) and attend the opening of Core: art & design of the torso  
3. Keep up with freelance deadlines for the month of November, getting behind could cause a major un-done
4. Post holiday cards to my etsy shop
5. Research and make a list of 5 galleries that I'd like to show my work in
6. Just what is that inner voice saying this month
7. and Celebrate life as much as is humanly possible. Remember to remember all the moments that point the way, that say "oh look", that smile softly, that beckon me down the path.

Lately, (and truly, always at this time of year) I have found myself getting caught up in a cycle of making a to-do list, and hyperventilating just a bit as it gets longer and longer, and nothing is being crossed off, nothing feels like it is being wrapped up, and I feel like there are these little threads curling around me, fastening me more and more tightly to the chair in front of my computer. And so, to ease the tension of those threads just a bit, I am breathing a little more deeply, getting up and stretching a little bit more, and taking a few moments out of every day to do nothing: stare at the sky, stand in the sun, watch the leaves flutter to the ground, you know, re-group. I highly recommend it!

If you want to join the Monthly Goal Meet Up with Jena from Modish Biz Tips and Modish blog, it's a wonderful support network, and you can join up anytime here.