Athena Dreams Design

Out with the 7, In with the 8

In all honesty, I can't say that I am feeling a tremendous amount of fondness for the year that is almost over. 2007, well, I know there were many wonderful and tremendous and joy filled moments, but the overall tone of the year was, in a word: Hard.

A friend of mine told me the other day that 2007 was the Year of the Pig in Chinese Astrology, and that many many people find that the Year of the Pig is not so much a challenge as a stampede... I believe I have survived the stampede, I just need a moment to get up and dust myself off, maybe take a nice long bath and check that all the extremities are still where they are meant to be, and go on my merry way... I am told that the Year of the Rat, is meant to be much better. Here's hoping!

Evolve the finished piece

Here's to a new-er year full of more art, more designing from the soul, more colour talk, more living a life examined, and celebrating that life with all the beautiful ones in my life, oh, and to meeting more of the beautiful souls I have yet to meet, I know you're out there . . .

The Art and the Handmade .:. Sacred Sunday

Today, the last of the presents that will be winging their way to various and sundry places far from here are being wrapped and cushioned and contained and packed in the car to make the last trip of the season to the p.o. or the ups store.

Many of the things that I got this year, have already flown away - I had this idea that I would document all the handmade splendour of the season, but as is often the case, the reality is much different than the dream of the reality. But, in any case, a few things to share and a list of places to view and admire, and even ooo and aahh.

What nephew and niece can do without personalized super hero[ine] capes... I just wish someone had been making these when I was a kid: the diaper pin holding the towel around my neck seemed to pop open at all the most inopportune moments, crushing all my super powers. [Capes from Superfly Kidz]

And just a few of the most wonderful and beautiful pieces of art and photography purchased from around Etsy this year:

Wing Study 17 print from Christine Mason Miller aka Swirly Girl

Tempest in a Teacup by Madelyn Mulvaney from Courage My Love

Grow from Kelly Rae Roberts

On this sunday, just wanted to pay a small homage to the artists and craftpeople who continue to create their wonderful work, who are out their selling and sharing their art and bringing a lot of joy to me (as the purchaser) and I am sure to all the giftees on my holiday list.

Now back to the packaging and labelling and writing and containing: and a very happy sunday to all.

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Some things not photographed:
beautiful bijoux
wise words from Neitzche
seasonal snowflakes
blooms for spring
great geekery
gig-ware (for the musician in your life)

Lime [green] is a Thirsty Colour

It's not just the lime fruit that makes it thirsty either... Green is so richly full of moisture, when I see lots of it together I want:

a walk in a warm caribbean rain shower
my barefeet in the dew filled grass of a summer morning
a handful of peridot stones
a moment to read under a shady green tree
my lime green rain boots from when I was 8
a (very late) summer sunset in Scotland

what are your lime green moments?

Illustration Friday - Superstition

I have always been intrigued with our collective and individual superstitions:

The American Heritage Dictionary's first definition of the word superstition is: An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.

I have often wondered as we hurtle into the future, technology and progress blazing, if at the points of biggest change
.:. Iron to Bronze Age .:. Dark Ages to the Renaissance .:. Agrarian to Industrial .:. Post Modern to ... (and etc)

that those may be the junctures where cultural (and individual) superstitions are born, are created. As things change and evolve, there are always those of us who are fearful of such big shifts, terrified of what might be around the corner, and invested in holding on to things from the past, from when we were children, from a time, when perhaps we felt safer, than we do now.

I know as much as I love my computers and telephones and iPod and all the other whats-its, there are moments where I feel like rushing back to my childhood, when who had ever heard of play dates, you just played; and we would wait all day for 1 car to drive through our neighborhood; and running till you could run no more was one of the funnest things to do, ever; when laying in summer grass and finding the constellations in the sky was an evenings entertainment . .

I go back to things from childhood that I still do now:
Touch a tree for luck .:. Make a wish on the first star at night .:. Count the mailboxes from the top of the street to my house in multiples of 7 .:. Step ina puddle with my left foot .:. Whisper "rabbit rabbit" before saying anything else on the first day of the month .:.

So

Past and Future
Ancient and Modern

these are my superstitions...

Scenes from a Late Autumn Birthday

There is something so much better about a Monday when it's a birthday and you have pushed all your work aside (deadlines or not) and your best and most favouritest guy has pushed all his deadlines aside, and it isn't raining, and there isn't one reason in the whole universe that you shouldn't step out into the hills, walk a bit and breathe the air, listen to the birds, and the grasses move in the wind, and feel so very happy to be alive.

I was thinking about this old song by a band called Talk Talk that I listened to at college. Some line about Life is what you make it, with a thumping bass line, and I remember singing it all the time with my housemates, but can't recall the whole song now. Made me want to dig through the garage and find my old box of cassette tapes that I couldn't bare to part with...

And I was thinking about how things come and go, ebb and flow, move and stay still, and where I fit into that pattern, right this second. Not tomorrow or yesterday, because our place in the scheme of things changes with every second, with every new breathe, but right now. Right now.

Life keeps unfolding, and it's a miraculous thing, even when you're not sure what the next un-fold will bring.

Paying it Forward

Ganesha - Lord of Beginnings and Remover of Obstacles

I first came across the Pay it Forward of art and creative blogs at Deanna's Artist Emerging. I was #4, but she said she was feeling generous and would send me something... I came across it again on Kirsty's blog, and so, I am following the rules (with my own small twist) and Paying it Forward to the first FOUR* commenters on this blog. The rules below say 3, and I dont want to go and change the original theme, but feel I have to up it to 4 because of Deanna's generosity.

I spent WAY too much time being a forensic detective (no blood, just words and links) trying to go back in time to where this started, and after a bit more than an hour, decided perhaps I had better things to do with my overscheduled day. It sure would be great to know where this originated though...

Pay It Forward (via Deanna, via Kirsty, via Mrs Eliot and onwards ...

Here are the rules:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Pretty cool, I agree to make and send something to the first three (*four in my case) people to comment, who then make things for their first three commenters and so on.

There is something SO totally pleasing about artwork and ideas and creative projects winging their way around the world for no other reason than, just because.

Pink .:. Brown

Pink and brown has quite the following. The two colours are almost as ubiquitous as the slightly less famous turquoise and brown. Pink and Brown are a warm on warm combination. It's a chocolate and cherry blossoms combination. It's a brown leather boot and salmon coloured skirt combination. It's a camelia still blooming in March combination... It's an earthy and frothy partnership. That old favourite, things that don't at first look like they would go together, and then you lay them side by side and feel warm and smiling inside . . .

Some beautiful stationery
Rock out with a very loud punk Band
fabrics and patterns by the fair Amy
Art and more art that makes me feel Happy

Wallow in the beauties of the Pink .:. Brown

Decor8 .:. 2008 Calendar Round Up

I arrived home tonight to discover that the 2008 calendar I created and designed - Flower Silhouettes - made it into "Part One" of Holly's 2008 Calendar round up over on Decor8. It just made me so happy to be there at all, never mind in between Cecily Ink and JHill Designs, 2 of my favourites!

Thanks so much Holly!

If you are still looking for a 2008 calendar to adorn your wall or sit on your desk, please go on over and have a look, there are some truly beautiful pieces of "utilitarian" art.

Nearing the end of a semi-crappy week, and there is a big pot of joy at the end of the road . . .

Evolv-ing

I have always had this theory that the fall weather brings us back to our thoughts, back to the analytical, the feeling and the philosphical. The summer is so much about the dance and the play and the physical, it's all about the motion and the participation and the active, present tense verb.

The fall is more about the subjunctive, or is it the conditional, maybe the passive tense, my grammar identification is rusty, but the idea is there: The idea that as the planet cools, and we are slowing down - the mornings are arriving a little later, and the evenings disappearing a bit sooner - we are more tuned inward, tuned into our thoughts, and plans, our feelings.

I turned over some of the earth in my garden this weekend. Trimmed some of the plants back that have gone a bit dormant, cleaned up the brittle leaves, pruned back some flowering shrubs, you know, getting the garden ready for the winter rains. My grandmother used to call it, 'closing up the garden' and it brought me to thoughts about 'opening' up to working more in my studio: painting, drawing, creating, with my hands, and not as much with my computer.

My thoughts these days have drifted towards thinking about the difference and the same-ness of working for money, and working for ones growth as an artist, when one (in my case me) makes their living from their creative side/self. My work the last few years has been weighted more towards making the money than toward the growth or expansion of my experience as an artist/designer. Re-thinking is where my mind is these autumn days.

So where is the line, where do I step over and cross back, and weave my way through this life? How much of my work needs to be about paying my bills and how much about satisfying my own personal longings to create? Are the two paths mutually exclusive, or is there a fine and delicate balance? A balance that I have perhaps not been paying enough attention to? Sure, the bills need to be paid, but can I live my life with more space to work as an artist, and perhaps devote less time to working to pay the bills?

These are the questions that run through my head these days. They run through my head when washing the dishes, or working on a collection of small paintings, or walking in the early morning fog, drifting off to sleep listening to the first few rains of the season. I started out feeling that these questions needed to be resolved. Answered. Clarified. Soon. And as the weeks have passed deeper into this autumn I realise that these are questions I must remember to ask myself more often than when the weather turns chillly, and the leaves begin to fall and the fog is thick and damp on a wednesday morning.

These are some of the many questions of our lives, of my life, that are asked and answered again and again, with new and different answers, at the different crossroads of our lives, in various voices, and for a myriad of reasons and situations.

For now, I paint and ponder. For now, I open photoshop and design. Perhaps pull out some stones and glassbeads and make some earrings. I will manage my deadlines the best I can, and continue to sift through all the answers calling back and forth to me - kind of like voices echoing across a canyon, that's the way it sounds inside my head.

It's also kind of like the feeling of sticking my hand into the bowl of fortunes that sits on a pedestal inside the entryway at a friend's house, and wanting to pull out the best and most wonderful fortune that will make me feel all warm and happy. Any of the following would do:
You are always welcome at any gathering.
Your home is a pleasant place from which you draw happiness.
Sing and rejoice, fortune is smiling on you.

And instead I pull out a fortune that speaks to me in a way that is at once deeply comforting and terribly frightening, and makes me feel that anything is possible in this world and that hopefully I will have the courage to step forward, again, one more time, and once more, and so on, into my own life:
And just what would that fortune say? I don't quite know yet, but I am getting closer to hearing the words that go with some of the answers.

Colour Symbolism .:. Violet

violet n 1 a : any of a genus (Viola of the family Violaceae, the violet family of herbs or subshrubs with alternate stipulate leaves and bot aeria and cleistogamous* flowers; esp : one with smaller usu. solid-coloured flowers as distinguished from the usu. larger flowered violas and pansies b : any of several plants of gnera other than that of the violet compare DOGTOOTH VIOLET 2 : any of a group of colours of reddish blue hue, low lightness and medium saturation -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

And since, in many people's minds, purple and violet are interchangeable:

purple n 1 a : (1) TYRIAN PURPLE (2) any of vaarious colours that fall about midway between red and blue in hue b : (1) cloth dyed purple (2) a garment of such colour; esp: a purple robe worn as an emblem of rank or authority c : (1) a mollusk (as of the genus Purpura) yielding a purple dye and esp. the Tyrian purple of ancinet times (2) a pigment or dye that colours purple 2 a : imperial or regal rank or power b : high rank or station -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Purple is a glorious yet complex color, preferred by very creative and eccentric types. It is something of an enigma; both sensual and spiritual "a blend of the excitement and sexuality of red and the tranquility of blue" often conflicting forces which have to be handled with care and a certain sense of daring. -Communicating with Colour

Composed of equal proportions of red and blue, violet is the colour of temperance, clarity of mind, deliberate action, of balance between Heaven and Earth, senses and spirit, passion and reason, love and wisdom. -Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Tyrian purple, educated Victorians knew, was made from shellfish found in the eastern Mediterranean. But which ones, and how they were processed, was not known in the mauve days of the 1850s. The old time dyers had disappeared with the storming of Constantinople in 1453 and they had not left any records of their secrets. Nor was anyone quite sure what their finished product looked like either. - Colour: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finley

A colour associated symbolically with red or violet, genuine purple, derived from porphura, a shellfish yielding purple dye, was reserved for the clothing of kings and priests due to its costliness; hence it was a symbol of power and honour, Later it was generally regarded – especially among Romans – as a sign of muxury and prosperity. -Herder Dictionary of Symbols

*cleistogamous: small closed self-polinating flower

All artwork and photography by Liz Kalloch