WHAT TO DO WHEN...

 For months now I have had a sign on my desk that reads "What can I get rid of today?" This has created a regular routine of finding things both small and large that really no longer seem to serve.

The other day I came upon a package of 5x7 mats that had come into my possession at some time in the past and not been used. Were they to be part of the clean out? Then I noticed the scraps and other set aside bits of alcohol ink play. Why not?

And so, while not exactly lemons and lemonade, the bits and scraps and the small mats have become small salable pieces for my summer Sawdust Art Festival booth. I have more of them and more scraps so I see lots of playtime ahead.

Come see me in Booth #205 just off the main aisle. 

JOYFUL EXHAUSTION

Pretty desperately needing this third mug of coffee this morning. Pretty late night after the Sawdust Art Festival Preview Night Party. A long day of prep was followed by a joyful night of re-entry into the social world of festival time. Lots of old and new faces and great conversations over wonderful music in an engaging and fantastical setting. The artists this year have outdone themselves. When you come you should definitely "Expect the Unexpected," as this year's theme states.

There are just two days remaining to finish off the unfinished, like pricing, replacing what already sold, and more. Guess I'd better drag this tired self back to work. 

See you at the Sawdust Art Festival--June 28 thru September 1, 10 am to 10 pm daily!!

CAN I CALL THIS READY?

Laurel's booth

Well, I had the best intentions. Daughter Jenna and I got almost all the art hung in my booth today. My intention was to take a picture on completion. However...exhausted, we simply packed up and left. 

There are still some things to be done before I can call "ready," but it's real close. We pushed to complete today in order to go see my mother before the show previews on Tuesday night. (Sometimes life just throws you curves.)

Looking forward to this fabulous final summer. Hope to see all of you there.

(I will try to get a picture of MY booth for the next post :))

COUNTDOWN...9...8...7...

Labels and more labels...

It's the final countdown....Yeah! Can you hear the musical accompaniment to that one?

There are mere days remaining until Preview Night at the Sawdust Art Festival. Everyone is busy putting finishing touches on booths and work and more. 

I'm down to the labeling of everything. This makes it possible to not be there ALL the time as sales can go to the Sales Booth.

It is going to be quite the celebratory year and everyone should "Expect the Unexpected."

Open June 28-September 1 10 am to 10 pm daily.

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS....

Working on signage details

To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail. (Georgio Armani)

I look to create something exceptional in this, my 20th, Sawdust Art Festival. This means, as Mr. Armani says, that I must be relentless in my focus. In these last days, it now comes down to all of the details. The art work is complete and will have to stand on merit. The details will have to be on me.

Booth color. Check. Shelves. Check. Pricing....well, soon. Work station. Check. Signage. Halfway there. Business cards. Check. Educational Display. Check. Bio and Photo. Not complete.

There are myriad details still...labeling, price list to Sales Booth, bags and wrapping, and on and on. I must be relentlessly focused because this is to be a celebration of the twenty years. Focus! Focus! Focus!

GATHERING...

High mountain wilderness

Like nature herself, creativity is something continually reborn. In nature it seems there is much gathering of precious moments to cherish. Often, creativity is the same.

I'd like to share a time when, high in the mountains, I went a-gathering.

The lavish onslaught begins in the early dawn inside a sleeping bag covered with icy rime.A chorus of unfamiliar birdsong echoes around to waken me in the chill morning air. I want to remember the sounds. I listen hard, gathering.

On through the day I am the willing receptacle of sight and sound, taste, texture, and smell: hot coffee as I bring it to my lips fills my nostrils with familiar aroma; the crunch of pumpkin seeds and tart dried cranberries in  my mouth on the trail; the rhythm of footsteps marches along to the clang of metal on my pack; the distinctive sweet, pungent smell of sage...These and so many more sense-filling moments are gathered here in the heights.

At the end of the day, with the the dwindling fire's smoke in my hair, I am again tucked into the same sleeping bag for the night. The wind plays a song through the trees, a bat swoops, the final call of a raven is accompanied by the rush and shore lap of the nearby river. I look one last time up at the night sky where myriad stars cast their light on the darkness. I close my eyes, then pop them open one last time to record all this magnificence. Gathering, even as I drift off.

Months, even these years later, I can still pull up these glorious mountain memories. They remind me again and again of the value of simply being--of listening and seeing and hearing and tasting and touching without doing another thing. The gathering nourishes long after the moments themselves. 

MUSING ON THE CHASE

Everything is gestation and then bringing forth. To let each germ of feeling come to completion wholly in itself, in the dark, in the inexpressible, the unconscious beyond the reach of one's own intelligence, and await with deep humility and patience the birth hour of new clarity: that alone is living the artist's life--in understanding as in creating. Rainer Marie Rilke

Section of tile

Rilke's words seem to resonate on this day in the midst of readying for the upcoming summer Sawdust Art Festival. In the midst of packing already completed artworks, that "germ" still calls to me and I turn to the paints, to the inks, to the papers once again...has to be!

WHAT THE SPIRIT REACHES FOR...

Journal entry for May

For quite some time now I have been involved in several round robin journaling groups. While I thought at first that I would not like the format, I have found it is usually a push and a good one, a place for trying on new techniques and/or ideas.

In the midst of the busy time getting ready for the summer festival I found myself searching for just what I wanted to do for the month's journal entry. While cleaning some shelves, it appeared in the form of a print I had done previously on Gampi paper tucked away in a book. Some paint for background, adhere the print, a tree quickly sketched in, just the right words....voila!

The uninhabited cabin in Montana had appealed to me to photograph several years ago. The isolation and yet the peace of the place somehow resonated. Now, as I ready for the two plus months of what summer in Laguna is--crowded streets, traffic snarls, busy crowds of folks at the three festivals, and so much more--I feel the pull of a place like this one.

Mary Oliver wrote: "I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence. It's said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt, if not exactly understood."

Is this the pull? Is this what my own spirit reaches for? Perhaps. Guess it will wait until the summer season ends though.