Athena Dreams Design

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.