Athena Dreams Design

Squam Bound

Morning Mist on Squam Lake

I am packing up my warm socks, some paint, a few scarves, and my painting apron, and departing for the wilds of New Hampshire. In the midst of some life changes, with my home pretty much all in boxes, and walls being painted and flooring being torn up in our soon to be home, I am doing a runner. Yes indeed. And spending some time with old friends and new friends, with the muse, with some song, and with the lap of water against the underside of the dock is just the thing to settle the nerves and loosen the shoulders.

Back next Monday... Looking forward to seeing many of you by the lake, in the woods!

A Vision of Squam - The Show Goes Live (very soon)

1 September opens the First Annual Squam Art Show - A Vision of Squam - and can I tell you how thrilling it is to see this event almost at it's opening day?  Pretty darn thrilled in so many more ways than I can even begin to say . . . 

I received the above postcard by e-mail from Susan at artstream the other day, and had a little moment, just me and my computer screen, a happy thrilled, excited feeling in my tummy, and a little bit of moisture in the eyes.

And so, an invitation to one and all:  if you are near the Seacoast area of New Hampshire (Rochester specifically), or anywhere in the vicinity of New England between the 1st and 30th of September, make a visit to see some of the work that came from artists, students and teachers that attended the Squam Art Workshops in 2008. The opening celebration for the show is Friday, 11 September.

• Thank you to all the artists who submitted work for this show - I know for some it was the first experience down this path of showing work in a gallery, and there were nerves and worries, but you all stepped up, and I am so proud of all of you! 
• To Elizabeth, gorgeous mistress of the muse, for all the inspiration she provides 
• And to Susan and Mary Jo at artstream for being so very willing and excited to host this show. 

A dream come true . . . and a postcard to remember it by . . . doesn't get much better than that in my world! 

Lovely Mention-ables

A few weeks ago I got a message from Jenny Swanson, telling me about a daily art project called the Retrieval Project. She and her husband and family have taken some wonderfully amazing leaps of faith (all in the name of art and living the life they dream of) and after several moves, find that some of their treasured belongings are being held hostage somewhere in Minnesota, while they are in the Bay Area. 

Read about their journey and the their incredibly creative Retrieval Project. And see how a painting a day can fund the reunion of a family and their treasured belongings. This project started 1 August and will be going until 19 September. 

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Have you been longing/thinking/hoping for a more professional looking blog? Lots of posts this past week about Niya Christine's 5 Elements of Professional Looking Blog Design, but here is one more. The live webinar (broadcast through Typepad's webinar series) was on the 12th of this month, but you can still hear the recording of the live discussion. Niya and Andy Wibbels discuss the best (oh yes, and the worst) of small business blogging, and use lots of great examples from the blogosphere.  

Can I just say that this "webinar" is a wonderful resource if you are feeling some blahs about your blog, and wanting some great design input, theory and/or ideas about how to grow, enhance or change your blog. 

Niya comes from a strong art background, and has an astute sense of design, an amazing way with words, a finely honed sense of marketing, branding and an inate know-how to spotlight a product, a person, a rabbit or an idea. I am just saying if you need a website or blog design or help with how to market your small business or promote yourself, she's your Girl, (oh and she's an amazing and wonderful friend too).

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So, this is something I have wanted to do for a while, start a new weekly "column" called Lovely Mentionables where I talk about the happenings in my world, and let you all know about artists, people, writers, art happenings and anything else that strikes my Mentionable fancy. Please contact me if you have something Lovely and Mentionable that you'd like me to share.

Monday Moments .:. It's Not Done Till it's Done

I have been working like crazy to finish my pieces for the Squam Art Show submission and having some moments. These moments contain most of or many of the following items: 

• Some bumps in the road - india ink that I thought was waterproof, but turns out it was only fadeproof = a mess, oh and lots of cursing (and perhaps a few foot stomps, but I won't say for sure), and washing off and then re-working all the ink on 3 canvases. [Note to Self: read a label, even if in a hurry, it will save time, and limit the stress]  

• Wanting to give up on a canvas [or 3], and then a moment later finding what I had hoped to find in the piece I was just going to give up on, and feeling that pure rush of joy pass through my body. [Note to Self: Re-evaluating is always preferable to giving up] 

• Realising for the 53,679th time, that a sketch can not be relied on once the painting starts, it's going to change a gazillion times from conception to finishing. [Note to Self: change can really be OK] 

• Painting or creating for a deadline is totally different than just creating to create, and each time I am working on a deadline I ask myself to please remember to remember to spend some times creating just to create, but once the current deadline is finished, I have other projects vying for attention and I tell myself I have to get to those other deadlines, and I really just don't have time to mess around in my studio. [Note to Self: look at readjusting that kind of thinking]  

• Knowing and then recognising that moment when the painting is done and allowing it to be done. [Note to Self: Overworking happens when I am not listening to the canvas, and when I am listening to that endless chatter in my head. Turn the volume down on the head chatter, most of it is insecure nonsense anyway.]

• Designing/Painting/Drawing is work that I quite simply and totally adore, and when I am truly in the moment doing any of the above, nothing else matters.  [Note to Self: How lucky am I that I figured that one out early on...]

OK, back to the painting.... 

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And to any and all of you amazing Squamettes that are working on your pieces for the upcoming show submission deadline. Photos of submitted work need to be posted to the e-mail address on your prospectus by Thursday 30 April. And a couple things I want to make sure you know:

• You are eligible to submit up to 4 pieces of work
• There are NO size limitations on your work, so go big if you are so moved! 

If you have questions, if you have worries, if you need a virtual hand to hold, if you want to wax poetic about how excited you are about your work, please, please, contact me.

And for any of you Squammies who are on Facebook, if I have not found you yet, you can go here and join the Squam Art Show group and connect, read about deadlines and other details.
  

Monday Moments - Submitting Your Art

Moment #1

Firstly, a big and heart-felt thank you to all of you who have been spreading the word about the Squam Art Show - A Vision of Squam {please follow some of the above links to read about why you really, really, really should submit your work}.

For any of you who attended Squam in September 2008 and feel a yen to participate in this show:

• you can download a prospectus, here, 
• read a little more about the show here, 
• visit the gallery where the show will be hanging here, 
• and you can register for Squam Art Workshops 2009 here. 
• The deadline to submit your work is 30 April 
• Please feel free to e-mail me with questions and etc 

And for those of you who are going to be attending in 2009: so glad you are going to treat yourself to this wonderful event, AND you will be eligible to submit work to the show in 2010.

Moment #2

The lovely and talented Jess Gonacha is asking for submissions to her blog Pecannoot. This is an amazing site that is devoted to showing work from artists of all kinds, of all genres, from places all around the world, and the theme for the site is abundance, in all its varied and beautiful forms. Share your art with an audience who is there to celebrate the abundance of life, of art, and of humanity. I visit every morning, instead of listening to the doom and gloom on the news, it's a much better way to start the day with some positive thoughts and images about abundance.