A State of Grace...

I am thrilled to announce that my photography is now for sale at a lovely little shop in Sonoma!

Estate of Grace Interiors is a delicious shop located on the main square in Sonoma. The owner, Robin, offers an eclectic array of items with which to decorate your home, and this collection now includes my giclees, framed and matted prints, and note cards!

You can visit Robin's store and my photographs at 450 First Street East, Suite G, in Sonoma. Yay!

Grateful

I am feeling quite grateful for many things in my life right now. Friends. Family. The rain. My cozy house. The super-fuzzy and warm pj pants I bought this week. Being an artist. Being a student. Being surrounded by amazing nature. Having access to talented healers. I am truly blessed.

I've been so busy this week I forgot to update about the Sonoma show! It was an incredible gathering of talent. It's a miracle I didn't spend my earnings from the last two months buying something from each person's table. I hope Tara organizes it again next year.

I did pick up a kick-ass journal made from the cover of Madonna's first album. It was made by Vinyl Frontier, a fabulous shop that takes old record covers and turns them into journals made with 100% recycled paper. I can't wait to use it.

I also got a cute little four-pack of pins from Caitlin Kuhwald who creates some of my favorite art on Etsy. The pins I bought were illustrations of an owl, a rabbit, and two deer. She does portraits of people like Ira Glass and Audrey Tautou. There is something magical about her illustration style, and I'm so glad to have met her.

Now I have a little more than a week to prepare for my biggest show yet, the Berkeley Farmers' Market Holiday Crafts Fair. See that image of a tree in the lower left-hand corner of the postcard? Recognize it? It's my oak tree picture! I'm so thrilled that I am featured on the postcard advertising the show.

At this event I'll have a tent! I feel so official. It's definitely going to be a whole other world. I'm bringing out the big guns, kids. And I have a really good feeling about it.

Sonoma Show

It's almost here! The fabulous Sonoma Valley Holiday Artisan Faire is only six days away! This is a group of eclectic and talented artists, most of them from Etsy and all of them from the Bay Area. I am thrilled to be taking part.

I will be selling original collages, 8x10 prints, 8.5 x 11 prints of my collages, 5x7 note cards, and note card packs! My note cards are made with 100% recycled paper, and all my prints are packaged in biodegradable bags.

I am also doing a raffle to give away a framed and matted print of Big Sur...so make sure to stop by my table!

Honoring the Snowy Owl

I have had an amazing month. For the last three weeks, I have been in my first art class since junior high. Signing up for this class meant taking a huge leap into something scary for me...sitting in a room full of artists and trying to feel like I belonged amongst them. Now that I have declared that I am an artist, I knew I needed to try it and see what happened.

This was the perfect class for my rebirth.

The class is called Sacred Art: Ancestors and Spirit Guides. I have been working with both ancestors and spirit guides for about a year now as part of my master's program at JFK, but I have not experienced anything quite as amazing as this. Part of it has to do with the teachers, Kaleo and Elise, who hold the space incredibly well and bring a wealth of knowledge and materials to the class. Part of it has to do with the journeying and qigong we do as part of the class in order to get in touch with our ancestors and spirit guides.

During this class, I became well acquainted with a new totem animal, the snowy owl. The owl came to me in a dream a few weeks before the class. Now she sits on my right shoulder, guiding me and encouraging me.

As part of honoring the spirit guide or ancestor who comes to us in this class, we create art pieces. In one journey, the owl gave me a cape and a nest, and I decided to make them to give them form in this world.

I started with the nest. I gathered sticks and twigs from the parking lot at school and brought a bag full of them to the second day of class. It took me four hours to twist and bend those twigs and sticks into a nest. I tied the twigs together with raffia and stuffed the inside with moss and lichen. In the journey, the owl had also shown me specific items to go in the nest: a piece of amethyst, a piece of jade, a piece of carnelian, and a blue egg.

These are all meaningful for me. Amethyst is a protector stone and it is also my birthstone (and favorite stone!). Jade connects one with the heart. Carnelian's energy works with the first three chakras and helps one manifest their creativity in the world. Connecting the energy of these three stones meant that I was connecting all of my chakras, and also connecting my spirit with my heart and my creativity. This is exactly what I am trying to do with my photography and art, and so this nest is a representation of where I am going with my creativity.

The blue egg ties it all together. Blue is the color of the fifth chakra, the only chakra not represented by the stones. The fifth chakra is about communicating and using one's voice. This is so meaningful for me, for I believe I am in the process of developing my true voice, and an egg in a nest could not be a more appropriate metaphor for this process.

After the nest was done, I tackled the cape. This was considerably more difficult for me, because I don't sew. I have dabbled and had a few lessons, and I have a sewing machine passed down from my mother-in-law, but I have had fear around making an entire piece.

I overcame this fear through this process. I Googled a hooded cape pattern. I went to the craft store and got fabric, buttons, and beads. I came home, cut out the pattern, and headed upstairs to learn, once and for all, how to thread my machine (it's a 1969 model!).

After 45 minutes or so of messing with the bobbin and the complicated threading process, I was ready to sew. I put together the hood, sewed it to the cape, and viola! I had my cape. I added a button and a loop to close the cape, and it was ready for beading.

I spent the rest of the time in art class beading that cape. It was an exercise in patience. Bead after bead, I created what came to look a lot like the spotted pattern on the back of a snowy owl. I am thrilled with the results.

And so, here I am. I've taken my first art class in a long time and overcome the fear of creating among other artists. I've tackled my fear of sewing. And I truly know now that I am an artist, and I am ready to own that in a much more profound way.

POE

I have really enjoyed joining teams on Etsy. It has created community for me on a site that can be fairly overwhelming as a seller.

One of the teams I'm part of, Photographers of Etsy, began creating a You Tube treasury each month to showcase members' photos. Here is the latest. There are some truly stunning photos included. I am constantly inspired by the work of my fellow teammates. And I'm thrilled that my photo was chosen as the still image at the beginning of the show. (Thanks, Bill.) Enjoy!

Lesson Learned?

For most of this week I've been sick in bed. After my whirlwind weekend that included a Halloween party on Friday, my first show ever on Saturday, and an all-day art class in Berkeley on Sunday, I totally fell apart. And I knew it was coming.

For weeks before the event, I got messages to slow down. When asked to choose an image of my ideal self in a class a couple weeks ago, I chose the image of a peaceful river, much like the one above. I want to flow easily and calmly, but my life feels like a class-five whitewater adventure.

I was also drawn to read The Tao of Pooh, a book all about just being and not making too much effort. The message sank in, but only into the surface layers of my psyche. It didn't seem to get to my inner overachiever.

In meditation I heard messages to slow down. I even saw animals in real life, like the night heron, who live slowly and quietly, and while seeing them made a huge impression, apparently their message did not sink in enough to get me to really slow down.

And so, I burned the candle at both ends until I burned out. At least I have learned enough to give myself rest when I need it. I have done almost nothing to prepare for my show this weekend and homework was ignored. I only went to work one day. And that was difficult for me. But now I see if I don't slow down for good, I might not make it to December with a healthy mind and body.

Why is it so hard for me to slow down? I have an inner drive that is insatiable. It runs at such high velocity out of fear. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of making mistakes. Fear of not living up to expectations (and the expectations in my head are far more grandiose than the expectations anyone else could come up with for me). Fear of not doing everything exactly right. And while I can say the show on Saturday was a success, the aftermath was not worth it.

I also know this drive comes from a need to control everything in my life. I tend to be the person who holds on tightly to everything rather than letting life flow gently through my fingers. I am declaring here and now that I'm going to make a conscious effort to focus on serenity and flow from now on.

I've recently discovered that the snowy owl is my new animal guide (during the fabulous art class in Berkeley this weekend). The snowy owl does a lot of sitting and waiting, preparing for just the right moment to act. It does not do anything that isn't necessary and it takes its time. In one book I read, the author said this leads some scientists to label the bird "lazy." But I can see now that this owl knows about conserving its energy for when it's really needed. And I can definitely use that knowledge to make my life a bit more sane.

Let It Rain

If this rain keeps up, our lovely rolling hills will soon be this green again!

I am appearing here quickly to say that my first event this weekend was a success. I was pretty nervous about it, and I am happy to say I survived. People came despite the big rainstorm and enjoyed the hot cider and fabulous offerings.

I sold a framed and matted print of the photo above to a woman who is giving it to her husband as a surprise 35th wedding anniversary gift. That just warms my heart...I am so happy to be able to share my work with someone who loves Mount Diablo as much as I do!