Rekindle your creative fire by making time to play. -Mari Messer

Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise. -Maya Angelou

Love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it. -Maya Angelou

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. -Albert Schweitzer

Holding on to Paradise

I riffling through a stack on my desk and came across a photo of littlest kitten. I thought about her. I thought about how perfectly perfect and lovely she is, and how I want to hold onto this part of her life, where everything is beautiful and exciting and innocent. 

I wanted to paint that innocence on the verge of growing up. She's holding a peach. A peach can be a symbol for immortality, or maybe the forbidden fruit or maybe just something sweet and precious.  I painted her at dusk, my favorite time where one day is about to turn into another. 

I'm getting excited for my show in Cannon Beach. This painting and all but two little paintings are on their way.  I hope to see people I've met there again. That's the best part!

Holding on to Paradise

These past few months I have been working for several shows. In my mind (and sketchbook) I organized the paintings I wanted to paint under three different ideas. My show coming up Sept. 11 in Cannon Beach at Heritage Gallery is titled, Holding on to Paradise. My show coming up Sept. 18 at Art Access is called, Walled Gardens. The third show at the Greenwich Workshop Gallery Oct. 17 is titled Works on Paper. 

For the Works on Paper show I've been painting on antique wallpaper. I've been working with ideas about good luck and being present. This show will be a little different than the other two, although the themes overlap.

As I was doing my homework about Holding on to Paradise and Walled Gardens, I discovered that I was approaching the same subject matter in two different ways. 

 

The word "paradise" entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, from Greek parádeisos (παράδεισος), and ultimately from an Old Iranian root, attested in Avestan as pairi.daêza-.^[1] The literal meaning of this Eastern Old Iranian language word is "walled (enclosure)." The term eventually appeared in Greek as ho parádeisos "park for animals." Hebrew pardes appears thrice in the Tanakh; in the Song of Solomon 4:13, Ecclesiastes 2:5 and Nehemiah 2:8. In those contexts it could be interpreted as a park, a garden or an orchard.  -Wikipedia

So, paradise is a walled garden. I have approached the shows differently. Holding on to Paradise questions what the idea of paradise is. I explored delusional ideas about surrounding myself with perfection. Is it a blissful garden where nothing ever happens? Does it smell like coconut oil and sound like trickling water and birds singing? Or is it something totally different. Maybe paradise is where I am; a place where the only thing at rest is my heart. It's a place where a lot is happening, it smells like the dinner we just had as I'm washing the dishes, and it sounds like raucous music, little kittens discussing homework. I can choose if I am living in paradise, it's perception.

The mind is it's own place, and in itself

can make Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven  -Milton, Paradise Lost

Paradise is where I am if I choose to be aware of it, be present in it. That idea ties a painting I did for the Works on Paper show to my idea of paradise. It's called Be Where Your Feet Are. 

My approach to Walled Gardens is more about protecting my paradise and creating my paradise. 

The walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls which are decorative and secure. My paintings for that show are about my home being my walled garden. I want my home to be safe. I want my home to be a place of celebration, with music and dancing. I want my home of be a place of learning and beauty. 

So though I thought I was doing painting three topics, it is all connected. 

I'll post more images later. My computer is still in the shop getting fixed. 

Sun

It's the same sensation as throwing an entire handful of Red Hots into my mouth all at once. It's so sweet and so hot that I almost can't stand it. It's overwhelming and delightful. I love the sun. It fills me up with energy all day long then drops me, exhausted at night.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed flowers more that I have this year. Maybe it's because I've been painting them. It's actually distracting. I feel this desire to stop and look at every single one. It's takes me so long to walk anywhere. I keep buying them too.
I told Dan Barney tonight, as we were hanging up our trowels on the back porch, that everyone should have lots of flowers and a sparkly chandelier on their patio. It's so dreamy...

Raquel's home, garden and tree house were delightful but most exciting experience of the day was CHICKENS!

No they did not peck at my eyes or pierce my flesh with their razor sharp talons as I had imagined.

I held this pretty little hen named Honey in my arms like a baby. She was so sweet. It was much more gentle and calm than I had imagined. I think I even made cooing noises at her.
Thanks for sharing Raquel!

Teen Kitten and I got a special treat today. We got to climb into Raquel and Oliver's dreamy tree house. It's for sure the highest multi-leveled tree house I've ever had the chance to see. It's like an ancient dream tower or someplace magical.

Teen Kitten is working on a short film for a school project. She interviewed Raquel who blew her away with her passionate ideas about sustainability and gardening. She inspired me as well. I thought about where and what we were using as we ate and traveled today. She is amazing. Raquel, among her other endeavours is currently running the Provo Farmer's Market.

Oooooh Janis!

I ran into Janis the other night when we were accepting our awards. I said something to her like..."I'm proud of you Janis for getting out there and Rock'n the art world." She said something like, "same to you, Cass," and then we high-fived.
It made me all warm inside, like we were on the same team or had done something good. We did our undergraduate work at the same time. She has that fire inside and does amazing work. Janis Mars Wunderlich inspired a lot of students who came into the program after her. That's about the best compliment I think a girl could get.

Janis was one of a few female artists who were chosen to be in a film called, WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? It's a "Terrific, engaging and moving documentary about the ongoing conundrum of women in the arts today."

Last spring, Kate Horowitz and I collaborated on a show called, She Dreamed in Verse and Rhyme. We jumped at the chance to do it again, the first weekend in May of 2009 in Cannon Beach at Ernst and Ernst Collector's Gallery. So Kate came out to spend the best week ever with us to get started on our collaboration and play a little too.

Kate was only a little familiar with our Utah family culture and I'd venture to say that she got enough to last her a while. I'm happy to say that we got some work done, ideas are simmering. I think we are both excited to dive it and get to work.

Speaking of work...

After visiting the BF Larsen Gallery, we went to see, well...not Minerva. I skipped that show for now. We really wanted to see "Masterworks of Victorian Art from the Collection of John H. Schaeffer," on display at Brigham Young University Museum of Art. It was soooo good. There were so many good paintings in the show that I can't wait to go back and sit and soak it all in. Two of my favorites were....

The Sempstress, by Richard Redgrave. It was perfect for me for several reasons. It was beautiful and emotive AND with it was these lines from Thomas Hood's 1843 poem titled, Songs of the Shirt.

"Oh, Men, with Sisters dear!

Oh, men, with Mothers and Wives!

It is not linen you're wearing out,

But human creatures' lives!

I was dieing over this painting as well by Anthony Frederick August Sandys' "Love's Shadow." The figure is mindlessly chewing on forget-me-nots, stewing over a lost love. I read that the symbolism of that flower is a sign for human longing and lastingness.

Ora

I attended a funeral today for a neighborhood icon, Ora Baum Farley. Ora was a spitfire lady. She had plastic swans in her beautiful flower garden and occasionally was known to use spicy language. (I call it ‘spicy language’ because as a kid, my mom used to put Tabasco sauce my tongue if I said a bad word…making those words pretty spicy. The thing is, I really like Tabasco sauce now, by the spoonful.)
It seems like everybody around here has a story about Ora. It got me to thinking about how glad I am have roots in this place. I have always thought that one of the best things about my religion is that it facilitates the relationships with people around me that I might otherwise never know. I have grown over the years to truly love the people on my street and on my block. I also thought that it was interesting thinking about how much we all love our families, but it’s the people that we share our lives with, sometimes our neighbors, who might really the closest to us.
I was touched by the stories of how much Ora loved her husband, Stan. During an excerpt read from Ora’s journal about saying goodbye to young Stan at the Provo Train Depot, as he went off to war, thinking she would never see him again, I cried. I could hear the trains and feel her there with her aching heart. We all have stories. It’s good to share those stories.
I was lucky that as part of my job at church, I’m in charge of funeral luncheons for the families. The family was over 100 people so the task could have been daunting, but because she was so loved, more people brought food than I had asked for. In the kitchen, the ladies helping shared more Ora stories that made everybody happy. I even embellished the décor with Ora’s favorite colors, red and purple.
Usually during funerals I plan my own. I plan what I want to be buried in, the music and who should be there. I didn’t do that today. Instead, I thought about the what I would like people to be able to say about me. I didn’t even draw during the program. Whaaaat? Maybe I’m coming down with something.

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou

Her Heart on Her Sleeve, 1999

(The above photo was taken in a graveyard in Kirkland, Ohio)

"I like gettin' old." Patti Smith

Patti Smith, by my definition, is very beautiful. That beauty is in her eyes, it's written on her face and I hear it in her voice. From what I've read/heard, she's lived her life hard and with meaning.

I read that Patti devoted herself to her family for 17 years, only making one album during that time. She chose that. That's pretty cool.

Few people could leave the public eye for as long as she did and return to it so seamlessly, but her road back has not been easy, as she's gained her wisdom over hardships that would destroy many people. RollingStone

Patti Smith is on my list of heroes. She's an artist who has inspired many.


An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn't know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch. Patti Smith