Hello friends! Wow... it's been a while, huh?
You may have noticed that my little break from posting extended from a "few weeks off" to a few months off. My explanation? In short, life threw me a curve ball in the form of a serious health scare. I'll have to share the details of that experience in a future post. In the end, I think it mostly stemmed from total physical & emotional exhaustion. Go figure. All I have been trying to do for the last year and a half is manage building a creative business, working a part-time day job, being a full-time mama, supportive wife, friend, daughter and sister and roll with life's ups and downs. Somewhere in there I forgot that I have to also take care of myself. Well, my body/mind/spirit gave me that wake up call loud and clear. In my usual overly-driven, workaholic style, it just took me literally falling apart at the seams to stop and reassess.
*Note to other over-achievers out there: Please don't let yourself get to this point. It's not pretty... or fun.
The good news?
Sometimes your lowest points give you the most clarity. This has certainly been true for me. While I have no desire to go through it all again any time soon, I am incredibly grateful and have been deeply humbled by the experience. What I know to be true:
All that really matters is love - for yourself, for others, for the planet. Period.
Which brings me to my *new art*!!! It was totally a labor of love and I'm so excited to finally get to share this collection with you all. It's inspired by water, which seems fitting in a year when water is an especially strong focus of many of our lives - either the lack of it (here in the Pacific Northwest) or waaay too much of it. Although I had other collections that I knew "needed" to be done, this one poured right out instead! It's a little more abstract than a lot of my work and I sort of love that about it. I really didn't have any expectations or agenda when I made these pieces. I just let them take shape as they wanted to.... So many analogies came to mind while working on these - working in the flow, the ebb and flow of the tide, allowing, meandering, taking a new course to the same destination, etc. I'll spare you the metaphors, but you get the idea. I love the general undercurrent of letting go and trusting the flow - all while acknowledging how water connects us all to each other and the planet.
Without further ado...
-Water-
This one is quite possibly my favorite one from the collection. Hand-cutting the tiny river rocks from magazine paper was tedious, but the effect is so fun. I love how this piece translates so well on so many products too. It's available here.
This is a more elaborate version of the piece above, called "Meander". It includes a riparian forest with the quote "Follow the river... slow down and meander". Prints are available here.
The collage features rain drops and ripples in puddles with the quote "Every Drop Connects Us". Available here.
This one is totally Pacific Northwest inspired by the amazing salmon with the quote "Trust your instincts. You are stronger than you think." Prints are
available here.
Inspired by many morning spent watching the river flow. "Flow, allow and accept". Prints are available here.
Another favorite of mine. This one is made of hundreds of tiny strips of magazine paper to create the sunset on the ocean with the quote "I've got love like an ocean in my soul." Available here.
Another multi-layered river collage with the beach and stamped quote "I've got peace like a river in my soul". Prints available here.
So there you have it. I hope these pieces bring some peace and love into your life today - no matter where you find yourself.
And now that I'm finally finding myself returning to a place of better balance, I hope there will be more regular updates to share on my creative endeavors. Thanks for your continued support!
