How does Your Conversation Go?

Yesterday I pulled out a big canvas I'd prepped the other day and started to paint. I have a big spot at the top of my stairs and I've been envisioning a landscape there for some time. I wanted it fairly abstract, I wanted to feel renewed and connected with God when I saw it, and I wanted it fairly large. So glopping the paint straight on to the canvas, and with my 3" wide flat I started to mix the paint and spread the paint.

I love these moments. It's all about feeling the medium and there's an interaction that takes place, almost like a private conversation between the painting and me. I'll smear some blue and it'll say "oooh ooh- and I need green over here" or "now you need a streak of orange over there". It goes on like that for a while. Sometimes I'll try something and immediately see it doesn't work, or that it might work but only if I do.... The painting or collage is done when the conversation ends. Every once in a while I'll get an insight or inspiration that amazes me and that's when I feel like the Holy Spirit has swooped in and entered the conversation. I feel as if the time creating, and the work I'm creating are both blessed then.

I wonder if this makes sense to any of you. I wonder how your creative experiences go. What does your inner voice tell you as you're working? Mine goes through elation, frustration, (horror sometimes when I do something REALLY off), and eventually I reach a state of satisfaction and peace. Not always, but usually I can get there.

What is your process like? Is it less of a conversation and more of a dance? Or is your experience more prosaic, do you hear a "here-here-here- and here". Never a "oops-NOT THERE!" That wouldn't be wrong, just different than I experience and so I'm curious. What is it like for other artists? Is there a conversation at all?

Just some thoughts I had this morning, that I thought I'd throw your way. Hope you have a fabulous day and Happy Creating!

Soul Homes

I call them soul homes because I don't know how else to describe that connection that we feel to some places. They aren't home but we feel each time we return that we've come home. I feel this way about Glacier, the North Shore in Minnesota, and Yosemite. Italy came close and I think were I ever to visit again I'd have that same feeling. If I believed in reincarnation it would make sense- this home-coming feel but I don't and so I'm at a loss. It's as if we were formed of the soil there and the place itself has knit itself to our being. Do you ever feel it? My husband grew up in North Dakota and I know he feels it whenever he's in the prairies which makes sense, but he feels it standing on the shoreline of Lake Superior as well.

Glacier I love because it has everything beautiful in nature but ocean. It's as if God went crazy with the glory in this one spot on earth. Waterfalls, glaciers, wildflowers, mountains, it's all here. Years ago I went to Rome and remember walking through the Vatican museum at first loving it but after awhile you become almost numb as if you've completely saturated your system and can't possibly absorb anything more. Glacier gives me the same acute feeling. Driving the Going to the Sun Road is one pinnacle experience after another. It's like a crescendo or the finale of a fireworks display. You keep thinking it can't possibly continue and yet it does. Waterfall, glacier, crescent, glory after glory. The views are lovely but the smell of the cedars is itself an experience to treasure. When I create art I wish I could capture the senses like nature can. I love it.

We were only there for two days. One day on the east side of the park, and one day on the west. But it was an amazing experience. We stayed at the Hidden Moose Lodge in Whitefish and ate Grand Marnier French toast with fresh berries for breakfast and sipped wine in a huge great room at night. So just a brief sojourn but I really couldn't recommend it too highly for any who in their heart need to go home.

Weekend Beauty

My parents built a retirement home some time ago in hopes of retiring there some day. In the meantime they go up summers when they're not teaching and most weekends.

This weekend was the big putting in the dock weekend. While my dad and Jeremy were waist deep in freezing water I was out front with Jasper snapping some pics. Across the road from the house is a pond that feeds into the lake behind the house. My mom's iris were blooming and I just loved the combination of blues and greens and purples. Then there's that gravel road running right through that's a nice balance to the cool colors. I also love the juxtaposition of the wild and natural pond area to her more cultivated front garden. Just loveley!!!!