Dissolving the Blocks

Breathing The Night

I've been struggling with another round of creative block and finally realized it earlier this year. It's funny how it can sneak up on you! You go through daily life and weeks or months go by before you realize that it's been ages since you came to the page (digital or otherwise) to create and play and dream. BAM! You're blocked! How did that happen?

The last time it was this bad, I went through Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" and found it effective in pushing the walls down for a while. Eventually they grew back. I'm probably always going to have to fight this – always have to keep an eye out for blocks and walls creeping up on me.

So, I'm going through The Artist's Way again, writing morning pages, doing exercise, repeating creative affirmations, mocking their mystic woo-woo-ness, even as I marvel at how impactful they can be. These two collages are the first full-blown digital art I've made in months. And I just now, putting them together on the same page, realized how night and day they are!

The hard work of being an artist continues. It's not all in the making of the art, either, but in the making of the person who makes the art. Stay tuned...

Balancing The Sun And Moon

Before June Ends

Our display at the Purple Cow Winery

Where on earth is this month going? June is one of my favorite months and it's already more than half gone. Among the nifty things I've been meaning to blog about, my friend Vandy and I are the featured artists this month at the Purple Cow Winery in Newberg, Oregon.

Vandy's glorious mixed-media

Vandy is so multi-talented, I can't even begin to tell you all the wonderful things she does. Glasswork and mixed media are way up there, though. I should have gotten a closer shot of the two Mongolian eagle hunter pieces on the upper right – they are encaustics and pictures just don't do them justice. 

My mixed-media and digital collages

For this show, I wanted to mix my digital collages with my paper collages, something I haven't done before. I was really pleased with how well they go together – how clearly my creative voice comes through whether I'm working with ephemera, original artwork and paint, or on a digital canvas.

If you happen to be in Newberg before their next First Friday event in July, drop by and enjoy the art with a glass of wine. I particularly enjoyed the muscat.

The Secret Architecture of Hearts

The Secret Architecture Of Her Heart
Original mixed media collage by Crowgirl.

It's been a busy spring! I've been making art, working on decluttering, beginning the spring cleaning, riding my bike, making various things, sewing, and more. Lately I've found the acts and arts of various handcrafts to be particularly satisfying. Nalbinding a pair of socks, hand-stitching a leather journal, making wee felt pincushions – all are wonderfully fun.

Hand-stitched journal made with scrap leather from Oregon Leather,
linen thread, Strathmore drawing paper from Oregon Art Supply.

Both Barret and I are working on various projects, and so our living room is something of a glorious mess at the moment. A variety of yarns, wool felt, wool fleece, leather scraps and related tools, stacks of paper, jars of pens, my sewing box, my knitting basket, cookbooks stacked everywhere promiscuously! It's not the serene space I aspire to, but so much making-in-progress is satisfying in its own way.

My sense of domesticity comes and goes. For me, there's all kinds of gender baggage around the various domestic arts. But there is something about a mindfully organized home, well-cared for, filled with thoughtfully chosen things, stocked with books and tea, that creates a sense of refuge – a haven from the outside world, a world we create from the secret architecture of our hearts. We live in a busy world where a lot of us struggle with making a living though, and there isn't always time to cook from scratch or do a perfect job of tidying.

In my most recent struggles with decluttering and spring cleaning, this bit from "Always Coming Home" by Ursula K. LeGuin has been inspiring me:

"A bright imagination, a clear intellect, warmth, readiness, magnanimity, grace, and ease are wanted in the practices of gardening, farming, sharing food, caring for animals, cure, care, healing, and comforting, the arts of making order and cleanliness where people live and work, all dancing and delightful exercises, and all the arts and practices of making music, of speaking, of writing, and of reading aloud or socially."

Aww yeah. That certainly seems like part of the blueprint for being a wise and purposeful adult to me.

Contemplating the Stars

Sarah Contemplates The Stars

I love starry skies. I love those rare times when we're in so dark a landscape, the milky way appears arching across a sky scattered with more stars than we can count. It's one of those things we tend to miss as modern humans. We talk about the stars "appearing" at night as if they were absent during the day, but they're always with us; it's just that the daylight draws a veil over them. I love that.

I think that's why I put stars in so many of my collages, that and nature is the best artist, which is why I borrow from her so often. Sarah Contemplates The Stars involved Hubble photography (altered quite a bit), multiple hand-painted grunge layers, a vintage photo of the great Sarah Bernhardt, flower photography, and one of my own landscape photographs.

When we gaze into the night sky or across a landscape in quiet contemplation, I think we become more a part of them and they become a part of us. That's what I wanted to convey in this piece.

When We First Think Of Spring

When We First Think Of Spring

January flew by. Seriously, I have no idea where the month went. Probably to bike rides and cups of tea; to knitting and cuddles with the kitties, to walks to the coffee shop with my Bear. A good way to pass a cold, dark month.

When I created this collage, I was thinking about the first signs of spring that we find in the depths of winter. I pictured a woman standing in the snow with the coming season growing from her footsteps. I wanted to include a sheep because very often the first indicator that spring is on the way are the baby lambs. It's still winter –and we have a ways to go still– but the light and warmth are coming back.

And now this is when we start thinking of spring. The first snowdrops and crocuses (croci?) are bursting out of the ground, the days are definitely longer, the birds are busy with the seeds we've put out for them. The cats are busy staring through the glass at the birds (and one very fat and sassy squirrel who apparently likes to taunt them), with murder in their little furry hearts.

Calling Out Winter

Calling Out Winter

Sometimes I have to remember to make art just for the joy of it. This one will never be a commercial piece. It's an illustration for one of my favorite songs lately, Joshua Radin's Winter.

Sometimes, when I get so bogged down in other things that I can't make myself create, it helps to do it just for the sake of creation, without any other agenda besides the doing of it.

Other stuff I'm doing lately? Decluttering. Riding my bike. Learning Swedish. Learning linen stitch. Good general winter things.

PS. Look for the ghosts.

The Flowers In Her Stars

Her Journey - Happy 2015!

Her Journey

First collage of the year! Oh, so many things I love about this piece.

I love the starry background and the rich texture. I love the bird and egg and nests for their beautiful symbolism – hope and rebirth and new beginnings and flight and home all at once. I love the sweet pops of color in the flowers against the serene background.

One of the things I thought about as I made this collage is our journey through conscious life. First, we are eggs, precious, fragile, unformed – waiting to be born into our real lives. Then, we are people, with all our hopes and fears and uncertainties. Finally, we are spirit, ready to launch into the unknown, to reach for the stars. From egg to wing, in one lifetime – we are all on a journey.

Visible Light

Visible Light

In my imaginary worlds, pretty much everyone and everything can fly, in one way or another.

Available as a print in my InPrnt store.

Reading Love Letters Written On The Wind

The Painter Dreams of Spring

My riff on August Sander's "The Painter".

Alone With Her Egrets