The Mellower Season

Snow Queen

Around here, fall has finally come and is firmly ensconced in the changing of the leaves, the falling of acorns, the scent of woodsmoke in the air, and oh yes, the rain. Goodbye, sun, see you in May...if we're lucky.

As someone who likes to take each season as it comes, it makes me a little crazy to have to be thinking about winter when we're one month into autumn, but there it is – the life of an artist.

Although, I am told by highly reliable sources that some people are already looking forward to sending Christmas cards and going crazy with decoration and all that festive stuff. I must confess, I am as well, maybe just a little.

Anyway, I have some winter and Christmas themed cards in the Crowgirl Studio Etsy store right now. Here's to looking forward to the festive stuff!

“Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.”

― Samuel Butler

Calendar Girl

This thing? Changed everything.

Like most of the artists that I know personally, I'm more than a bit of a packrat. Especially when it comes to books. I have, um, a lot of books.

This? Totally me.

In my own defense, I have to say that it runs in the family. My mom once had so many books in her room, it was bowing her floor down. The solution was not to pare down books, as some sensible (and perhaps book-hating – yeah, I said it) people might have suggested, but to install a sturdy post under her floor. Problem (temporarily) solved. She didn't have to let one book go.

Now I, on the other hand, occasionally try to recognize that I have a problem (not enough shelf space for my books) and weed out a few. Books with little sentimental value, books I haven't read in years and feel no desire to read again, books that belong to a part of my life that is done...while I won't say that it is easy to pass these on to their next owners, it is easier to let them go.

That's what I was doing in August when I started my collage project. I was looking at a shelf full of books on collage and mixed media and thinking "you're not doing collage right now. You haven't done collage for months. You should pass these on to someone who will actually get some use out of them if you're not going to."

"Oh yeah?" I told that inner voice, sticking out my tongue for unquestionably mature good measure. "We'll just see about that." 

And what began as a ploy to avoid paring down my library turned into something amazing.