18 Apr Train Sleeping

I’ve been a little scattered lately. The multi-tasking mom/artist zone I inhabit is a little muddy.

Perhaps it is the perpetual rain in Chicago and the fact that Spring is most certainly upon us. As the rain pours down, the grass is getting greener, the air is getting a little less chilly, and a menagerie of animals are taking over the backyard.

Spring always makes me want to open the windows, plant flowers, de-clutter, clean house. So while I am beginning my “spring awakening” process it’s still one step forward, two steps back walking through thick, sludgy mud…Oh, the rain!

This sludge-in-the-mud feeling is carrying over into my art process.

Yet often my most productive times creating art are on a wonderfully rainy day!

Lots of lists are running in my head. House projects, Art projects, to-do lists galore! And instead of being able to navigate these lists in my usual multi tasker fashion…I am finding it hard to do any of them.

This blog is a good example. I am hoping to move towards a place where I can blog more consistently and not have to be in a finished place with any one idea, painting, or project. Afterall, the process is where it’s at. The journey is where the art lives.

So today I will leave you with two incredibly inspiring speeches that spoke to my soul and gave me a renewed sense of strength as a Mother and as an Artist.

First, is Brené Brown’s amazing TEDx speech in Houston. Listening to her speak on the power of vulnerablity and the pitfalls of seeking perfection really resonated with me. Watch her amazing speech here…http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

The key to life is connection she says. And I’m like YES! That’s why we all do what we do. In some form or another, we are trying to connect with something…whether it’s your calling as an artist, or to be a parent, to connect with God, or just to slow down and connect with one another, with your children, with your partner, with nature. “Call deep on your courage.” And connect.

And then a friend posted this link to Patti Smith’s speech, Advice to the Young,  http://channel.louisiana.dk/video/patti-smith-advice-young/and it was yet another reminder. To just CREATE and find the balance in not worrying about what other’s think, and yet also connecting with people through your art.  Her book, Just Kids, was truly life changing for me.

So this post is rather scattered, like me, right now and I’m okay with that;)

 This painting captures the mood too, I think…when you’re plummeting full speed ahead and yet sleeping and dreaming too. Train Sleeping. This one was painted while listening to The National’s High Violet and yes, it was definitely raining.