It's Edgy

For about a week I released my edgy muse. It was messy, layered, sprayed, and a little wild. It did not turn out to be a new direction. It was more like a release I think. Because I moved right into a new piece that I love and feel very at home with. But I did have fun with my edgy muse, I worked on a clipboard, a leather bag, and what ever I could find even and apron. Sometimes you just gotta let it out!!!

No Burden

I really wanted to post tonight. Sometimes you need someone to talk to. I think that it's easy to overburden your family and friends. No gory details or anything like that. But I am finding that so many people are having a hard time right now. Every story is different, financial, health, depression, loneliness, loss, fear, etc. But everyone that I talk to seems so burdened and stressed out right now. Somewhere we learned that if we tell someone our story we become less burdened. It's as if we are letting it go as we tell our story. I think venting is healthy to a degree, I certainly do it. But as we are all putting our dramas out there I think somehow we are adding to the overall sadness. So I have decided to try something new. I am going to compliment people more, smile more, and respond to them with loving kindness instead of telling them my sad story. When I am kind, giving, and compassionate to others it lightens every one's heart.
Maybe it will transform some of my stress too. Really ...how hard is it to show kindness, send some mail art to a friend. I guess it comes down to just letting go of my own ego issues long enough to remember to be a better friend. Thanks for listening!

Phase ?

When we talk about teens going through changes we often say that they are going through a "phase". When you talk about electricity some thing not working is "out of phase" It's the new question are you working from "out of the box" or in? I think we are trying to find our "spot". It's a way of identifying our selves. I feel like this really happens with art. I don't want to put myself in a category that limits me.
For a while now I have felt a quiet call in the background of my mind. Its like something a little out of focus. I have decided to explore it and allow myself to experience it. We're talking art of course. I am calling it my Edgy Muse. It's a bit wild and if I had to put it in to a catagory I would say Street art. I will put some pictures up as soon as I can. It might be a phase, part of the transformations of my path. But I think we shouldn't be afraid to explore art.
Namaste
Gretchen

Paris

Do it on paper

Starving artist mentality is highly overrated.

I think that working creatively is really working from the inside out. Some of us do that much easier when we have a "cause". I thought that I was a poet many years ago. Poetry just flowed out of me page after page fueled by lost love, lost job, yearnings, and a desire to put emotions down on paper.It was really more akin to journaling all I needed to do was add visual elements and I would have had it! Wild Abandon visual journaling! I needed a few more years of "becoming" before I could pull it altogether {and with the help of Juliana Coles}. Not that I'm done or anything. "I think the journey is the destination" If you have not tried visual journaling try it. Like dance like no one is looking...just do it on paper.

A page from one of my journals. I was out taking pictures of graffiti. Tricky to do from the freeway.