Athena Dreams Design

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.

Give-Aways and a Show .:. Lovely Mentionables

Next Saturday night • November 7th • CORE: art & design of the torso 
Curated by Anne Carmack of Folk & Fable

It's going to be an amazing collection of work (just look at the list of artists up there) all centered around a mannequin (or a dress form, if we're being proper). 
If you are in the L.A. area next saturday night, please come on down to the opening!

•••••••

Visit Paper Mango next week and you'll be in the midst of a week of give-aways. Melanie is planning 5 days of great things that could be yours, all to celebrate the "Grand Opening" of her blog. There will be jewelery, and mineral based make-up, and art from several artists (including me!) 
So drop by and put yourself in the running to win some great things.

Happy Weekend everyone!

 

 

Are Our Joys More about Our Disappointments?

Just start.
Just start something.
Start something you have been dreaming about for longer than you can remember . . .
You know there's something, because we all have something that calls to us . . .

And what is it that stops us before we've even started? Worry about a potential face plant .:. whispers and criticism for our peers .:. totally messing up right in front of everyone .:. being told you failed .:. or feeling that you failed .:. and on and on the reasons go.

Watching this video actually made me re-think some of my mess ups, my ego-smashing experiences, my failures, and my disappointments. It made me think that perhaps any and all of my unsuccessful endeavors were all a means of getting me where I am right now. I am further along, with a ton of experiences and even better, a gazillion ideas of how I could do things differently, better, more positively. It made me feel almost, well excited, to fail at something. Crazy, but yes, excited.

If we can pick ourselves up (because getting up after a face plant implies there is some renewed sense of self), learn from what may not have worked and try again: Try something new, try something different, or try what didn't succeed the first time with new understandings, then we are further along.

I think the challenge is to believe in ourselves no matter what the success or failure of any one situation is.

I think the goal is to stay true to our dreams, and to also go with the dream if it changes, or if your path takes a new direction, no matter what the opinions of others.

I think the gift is in getting up and doing. Showing up totally and completely and immensely and honestly for ourselves. Showing up in our very own lives and living in as complete and as full a way as is possible.

I think these things have been said over and over and over again, and yet, they still need to be said, we still need to be reminded, we still need to be told it's ok, because most of us still have moments of feeling frozen, worrying about mistakes and wanting to succeed, and we're afraid.

Just think about it: if Michael Jordan can get cut from his high school basketball team, and go on to become (as my husband likes to tell me over and over and over again) the best to ever play the game, doesn't that make you feel a little differently about where disappointments and failures can take us?

So, just start something. Open up your book of dreams and choose something (because I'd sure like some company), and know that the road won't necessarily be smooth, but it will be interesting, and then:

Tell me, what it is you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver

Vignettes of a Move .:. Ode No. 4

Just when the energy is flagging,
and the desire to unpack yet another box has completely disappeared...

all it takes is finding your magic wand, 
the good pliers and some push pins,
a smoke alarm for those impromptu oven moments, 
the favourite lip balm, a shell from Stinson Beach
those thank you notes that were alluding you
(because far too many thank yous have not been written lately)
some colours to inspirate...

OH, and the favourite highlighter pen,
an extra iPod cable (just in case and because you never know)

and, sigh...
life just feels like it will carry on
just as it should,
and those dreaded boxes begin
to look like Christmas again. 

Vignettes of a Move .:. Ode No 3

So much to do, so little time...
or so many boxes of stuff that I can't find homes for...
or should I wait to open that box UNTIL I know exactly where I will put the things from inside the box? 

All the typical dilemmas of a move,
nothing horrendous, just wanting all the boxes to be gone and life to go on as it has done,
but in a different house.

Oh, and could I please find that magical box
in which I deposited all the screws
that will put my desk back together again? 
That would be so very very wonderful!

But in the meantime . . . 

the sun is back out
my studio floor is red
and I am finding more treasures
as I open each box.

Mauve & Turquoise = A Beautiful Place

Two colours that together make me feel the most: happy, giddy, hungry, satisfied, dreamy and alive. 

I go back to these two, over and over again. 

Isn't it a wonderful and amazing thing that two colours, side by side, can make the world feel like a wonderful serene place, no matter how much chaos is going on around us.

Visit the photographers of these two lovely colours here: . Untitled, 2. Even Turquoise Gets the Blues, 3. Cool caribbean colors, 4. Purple Dream, 5.trollbeads, 6. 822 - Turquoise and lavender, 7. Turquoise, 8. Kitty toy, 9. P5120541 Erinus 'Dr. Hahnle'-Fairy foxgloves on turquoise.

October .:. Monthly Goals

Holy Crap is September really gone already? Can it really be that we have only 3 more months left of this year, and please don't even tell me how many shopping days till, you know...

So September, I kept the goals a little simpler, here's a recap:

1. PAINT. Paint with no quota of time. Paint because it feeds you. Paint because you need to.  And that was the best goal I think that I have ever put on my list, it's going back on for October, for sure.
2. Design more patterns for cards and for licensing 
3. Attend Squam Art Workshops and have an Awesome time Big Check!
4. Pack and move into a new (to us) house We have packed, we have moved, and now for the unpacking
5. Listen to that inner voice and let it guide me more, listen and really hear what it is saying to me. Oh, and this goes back on the list for October too
6. Evaluate my Goals: Review last few months of goals and come up with a personal recap to evaluate my progress. Are there goals that have been on the list that are no longer appropriate, are there goals not on the list that really should be, and truthfully look at the goals that I have consistently avoided.

  

And so for October:

1. Paint, Paint, Paint 
2. Design patterns for licensing 
3. Unpack and settle into the new studio space, and new house 
4. LISTEN to that inner voice 
5. Keep evaluating my goals for work for art and for life. 
6. Remember always that having confidence in my dreams and in my progress is the very most important piece of all of this. 

I woke up this morning thinking about this last goal, and really felt, way down deep, that without feeling truly confident in myself all the goals in the world are not going to make a difference one way or the other. And when I say Confidence, I mean it in these ways: Feeling truly happy and in love with what I create, feeling that I am working from my most honest and authentic self, feeling a need to share my work for the joy of it. So that's the first part... now how to keep that balanced and keep the Ego and the fears at a minimum. Let me know if you've gotten this one yet! Really!

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.