reflections

i read a lot. my favorite t-shirt right now is from my friend anne, it's black (best) and says "reading is sexy".

i'm reading another book by Elizabeth Strout called "Abide by Me", i got hooked on her after I read, Olive Kitteridge, her Pulitzer Prize winning novel (check it out)

this is the sentence of the morning: "the intimacy of marriage can be endlessly tranfigured by grace"
it fits

what do i keep close to me?

on my wall right now, as i work on my computer:
- a red tail hawk feather
- my big project list for the next two months
- words i need to be reminded of
- ideas when i wanted to be just like maggie taylor
- a drawing of a turkey that my dad did for me in 2005, he would make one every thanksgiving
- art4all decal
- dentist reminder
- postcards that i cut from an old calendar by nick bantock (griffin & sabine guy)
- winter photographs that i still like
- three prints from digital files that i have lost
- misfit industries postcard
- application for an artist residency
- two wire bird shapes i made
- two "zine" books i made for class last year
- a note from my life coach "you are right on schedule" with a tree and a shining sun
- a card from my step daughter "life is about who you love"
- athena's christmas card
- eileen with a suitcase and paint can
- a note from marcy
- a photo from almost home, animal adoption center
- a list of books i want to make and why

i am grateful for all the gifts on my board

no staying power

It has been well over a month since my last post in May. There were times when I felt excited about creating a new post and times when I got cranky, like a tired three year old, and I just didn't want to do it.

I've been on the road since June 13th and really, just got home yesterday. It was work and family and friends and kick ass fireworks at this amazing artist in residence center in U Cross Wyoming.

I'm ready to work now. But I went a-looking at my photographs tonight and I realized, I just don't have good staying power. The first day of the family reunion in upstate New York on Lake George was a constant high - every thing was new and totally, yeah, totally, amazing. Photographing my nieces and nephews wrapped in towels and wet and cold was thrilling. My sister gave me the finger as I continued to photograph her beautiful skin and wet clingy hair. It felt like coming home, to blood family and to my camera. The next few days sucked, it was all forced and dull. I get so tired of these roller coaster times of filling the square with beauty and then in response it seems, boring, labored compositions. I know I'm in it for the long ride, but some days I just get tired.

Back on the horse and just do the work - good things to live by.

A few of the fam.. and others