Athena Dreams Design

A Few Notes to Self .:. sacred life

"In the end there is no one ideal condition for creativity . . . The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself . . . To get the creative habit, you need a working environment that's habit formng." - Twyla Tharp from The Creative Habit

Note to Self #1: "All preferred working states, no matter how eccentric, have one thing in common: When you enter into them, they impel you to get started." -Twyla Tharp

This weekend I took the advice of a very wise and experienced creative woman, and re-configured my work top spaces to make my studio more functional, more inspiring and more the place I want to be all the time.

Part of my on-going work towards this, is to clean up more, pick up and put away more, find more workable storage containers for those tools I use all the time, but in the meanwhile, I have a more usable space, with more of the work surfaces I need to get me motivated and jazzed about creating.

Note to Self #2: Just Do

So much of our every day work-a-day, live-a-day lives are about deadlines, about choosing harmony over what we really want; our time is more often about checking things off that never ending to-do list, and less about creating a time and space to just create. So to choose a moment - whether it is 20 minutes or 3 days or a month and a half - to just be our most true self, to just do those things that make our souls vibrate with joy, to remember who we truly are, deep down, underneath all the things we do for the work-a-day, live-a-day to do lists.

This weekend I chose my moment, and the re-energized soul, she is singing, with joy and peace, and gratitude for giving her the one true thing she wants: a space to create and the time to do it.

Hope all your sundays are full of sacred creating, in whatever form that may be.

Celebrating Spring

Spring arrives: open windows, fresh breezes blowing through the house, and the age old urge to clean the dust and detritus that has accumulated all winter long. I always turn first to the windowsills. Take everything off, wash down the sill, wash the windows and replace with new treasures to gaze at while washing dishes (kitchen windowsill), painting (studio windowsill), reading (bedroom and living room and other kitchen windowsill).

And so I had to collect a few favourite windowsills from Flickr, to celebrate the windowsill moment of the year. Oh welcome, welcome, beautiful spring!

Paste Up 2008

I finished a new piece (At Home in the Sky) and got my submission together for Paste Up this week - just in the nick of time. It felt so wonderfully, how shall I say, pro-active, to finish some things and send off a package for the possibility of being included in a show.

I haven't submitted any work in a while. The act of creating .:. in my little room, with my music and my thoughts and my sketches and my dreams .:. is so very intimate, such a huge part of my life on this earth, and then to share these pieces with a larger world - sometimes it's terrifying, sometimes liberating, always a lesson to be learned in the experience.

So, here's to the first submission of work in this new Year of Great, and new, and to this Joyful Experience of life.

Art Studio Dreams

If you had unlimited time, money and space... what kind of studio would you set up for yourself?

This is the question that rolls around inside my head as I have been cleaning and purging my studio space.

I have been gazing at the lovely and inspiring studios of some artists around on Flickr. Dreaming, rearranging, and purging the space I'm in.

My studio is small. I sometimes lament that. I'd like a comfy chair, and a bigger work space, and a better view from my window. I always seem to want more, or different than I have at any given time. SO, to the end of living in the present moment (one of my greatest life lessons) my new mantra is "I have a space to create art. I love that I have the space to do that. I will create art in this glorious space, no matter what the limitations. I will remember to be grateful for what I have"

Spring has a Way About Her .:. sacred sunday

Spring has a way of tip-toeing in
and spreading the contents
of its travelling trunk
full of surprises and wonders.

Three friends
on a sunny spring afternoon
having a talk
drinking some tea
feeling the warm breezes
on their uplifted and open faces.

Long flowing skirts
wide brimmed hats
and parasols
all set to go out
for a spring afternoon picnic.

Spreading a blanket in the warm sun
having a sip of lemonade
a sun warmed fig or two
and all the time in the world
to talk of all the thoughts

they have been saving up all winter long.

To live so completely at home
on the earth and in the sky
would that we all
could adopt the habits
and the mysterious ways
of the Magnolia
on an afternoon in spring.

Read more Sacred Sunday posts here.

All Things Girl!

One of my shadow box pieces is making an appearance on All Things Girl this month. It's the Earth and Sky issue, and my piece called "Earth" (what are the odds :) made it in.

If you are not familiar with this online publication, check it out: Great writing, art and interviews. I never miss reading it, and am so pleased to have a piece of art in this issue. There is some amazing artwork in this issue, so have a visit and enjoy!