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Summer time and getting in the studio has not been easy for me!  I know- there should be no excuses for not getting in the studio BUT in the summer with a 40 hour a week day job; 18 employees that I supervise, living in a tourist town that gets over 3 million visitors in 3 months and with the thought of an icy cold, wind blasted winter lying ahead & wanting to grab all of the gusto of our short summer that I can, I just haven’t been in the studio the last 3 weeks. Normally I beat myself up for this but I’ve decided to not feel guilty for taking a few mountain hikes, gardening, reading in the sun, going to the opera, sitting out on the porch etc. on my days off instead of heading into the studio! I did, however, go through a major clean up/purge 2 weeks ago so, it is all ready for me when I do get back to it. AND I am feeling the urge- the foliage is just starting to turn & there is a crispness to the air - summer is winding down & so is the stress of my day job. While walking beside a mountain stream last week I was blessed with a visit from my muse and several exciting painting ideas came to me- so next Tuesday I’ll be there!

I did finish my “Seeking Balance” painting a few weeks ago & I am very happy with it!! I feel like it is a “turning point” painting for me. Turning point because I allowed myself to paint more intuitively than I normally do and with the really saturated colors that I love. Plus it expresses what I seek most in the summer time-the tug of war for balance. Do I want to go in the studio or hike? Be with loved ones after an 8 hour day with hundreds of customers or be in solitude? Anyway,  here it is:

I have several rituals that I like to practice to help me become present in the now when working in my sacred space, the studio. The first thing I do is bow to my space, acknowledging that I am grateful to be there.I usually bow toward my studio muse to remind myself that I am there to express my inner process and to allow whatever images, colors, textures, narrative that comes up to unfold even if - I should say especially if- it is not part of my original plan.  I learned this practice of bowing to the studio space from Sue Hammond West  when I took a painting class from her at Naropa.

The next thing I do is tie on one of my aprons. I have 2 aprons that I inherited from my paternal grandmother, Gammer. Gammer and I share the same birth date: October 4th and I feel that her creative genes flow through me.Gammer expressed her creativity through knitting beautiful sweaters, growing beautiful flowers, fixing wonderful food- especially breads and cookies, and keeping a beautiful house. I honor her memory by wearing one of her aprons while creating. When she died I created a Day of the Dead Box for her- I depicted her making bread with her pink apron on.

Gammer’s pink apron is so famous, in fact, that an artist friend of mine , Nancy Mullen, painted an oil pastel of it one year for my birthday.

I also picked up a couple aprons in Oaxaca, Mexico last fall to wear in the studio, when Joe & I were there for a Michael deMeng workshop during the Day of the Dead. (he is doing it again this year- it is a blast- check it out!) As a tangent, my “Day of the Dead Shrine” -made from a cigar box & found objects-honors the death of my childhood, maidenhood & “hands on” motherhood phases of life while celebrating all that is yet to come. I put a skeleton in the bottom of the cigar box shrine with photos of those “dead” phases and a celebatory figure “on top of the world” on the top. I fell in love with the embroidered aprons that are traditional wear for some of the older women & wanted to buy some…so, Joe & I asked a friend the spanish name for aprons & thought we heard “bandelero” (which actually means outlaws or bandits). We didn’t know the word for “to cook” but we knew the word for “to eat”- comer- so we went around asking where the bandelero’s were for sale that we could eat. You can imagine the looks we got! We found out later the name for apron is mandil or mandilero.  (close enough-right?) The locals took pity on us & eventually with much hand gestures & pointing we did find a lovely selection of aprons in the Abasto (supply market).

When I reach a good stopping point, I wash my brushes, put away my paints & sit across from my painting & just look at it. I start to see all the changes I want to make & pretty soon my painting is covered in sticky notes with my ideas for change until the next painting session.