The World Is Full of Good Intentions

My mom used to say that and for good reason.  I am a dreamer and sometimes I go crazy wild with those dreams and suddenly get tired of them.  Sometimes I start and never get beyond that.  This blog seems to fall into the later.  My entries seem to indicate a lack of interest, but I think it is a lack of focus for what this should be.  So I have decided it doesn't need a focus other than to allow me to babble about what is catching my attention at the moment.

I am between big dreams and ideas.  Earlier this year I spent two weeks in Mexico and a month later I spent two weeks in Greece.  Mexico is for my husband and I to relax and get away from snow and the cold of Northern Wisconsin.  Now Greece, that was just for me.

But I can't talk about Greece without mentioning my 2014 trip to Italy with the fabulous Carlo Roberts and Jane LaFazio again.

This trip was delayed by a year because I shattered my heel in a fall off a ladder and had to cancel my trip to Italy and Greece. So when 2014 came along the two trips did not line up so it became two weeks in Italy!  

I traveled by myself this trip...that is until I met up with Carlos and fellow walkers for a week of "Blue Walks" on the western coast of Italy with our base in Rapallo.

Well, that was a short lived journey!  LOL!  It is not that the journey never happened, it is just that I failed to record it as I followed my path.

A year has gone by and my creative journey has ambled down many a path.... jewelry, watercolor, fiber, mixed media.  I am enjoying them all and mastering none.  Why not master one?  I enjoy the journey, the experimentation, the dream of what might happen, and then something else grabs my attention and off I go.  It is great fun if not full of successful creations.

I'll try to recall where my artistic self has been since I started.  To begin with, a couple pieces of my jewelry.

This lampwork bead called out to me.  I love the ocean and this bead seemed to capture it so well.  I completed the necklace with shell heshi, pearls, peridot, turquoise, jade, pearl heshi... the colors of the sea!

This heart and the "washers" were made by me of PMC.  I must have been going through a heart phase.  LOL.  This one was made for my son's wedding.  The stones are peridot, emerald, green apatite and something else.  The heart is hollow and I loved the textured look and feel I gave it.  I made it to wear to my daughter's wedding.

I also started watercolor painting again.  And a wonderful trip to Nice, France that was a watercolor and walking journey.

This was my first trip with traveler and gypsy Carlos Roberts and water color guru Jane La Fazio. 

Jane LaFazio and Carlo Roberts

I traveled with a friend and we joined Carlos and Jane for a week in Nice, France and the beautiful cities of the eastern French Mediterranean coast.  We walked and had watercolor lessons along the way.

Cap Ferrat

Our Group in Villefranche-sur-Mer

Painting the view at The Villa Rothschild

Bellieau-sur-Mer

I discovered a thirst for seeing the beautiful old cities of Europe.  Everything touched my senses- the language, the sea, the winding old stone steps, the shutters on window, French pastries, Picasso, farmers markets with food and flowers that look like they were designed for a movie set not daily shopping.

Picasso work from his days in Antibes

Tomatoes from the Antibes Farmer's Market

I knew that it would not be my last trip with these fun ladies or the beautiful old cities of Europe.

All Journeys Begin Somewhere

I have always lived on the edge of creativity.  I wanted it but was terrified of it.  Terrified of failure, ridicule, of not creating something perfect.  So I would follow patterns, copy other people's ideas and play it safe.  Sometimes my will to create disappeared altogether.

I have been making jewelry for a number of years now.  I started just for me but with my sister soon started doing a few art shows a year.  As a learner it was easy to follow patterns and copy other people's work.  It was how I learned.  But as the years went by I started to critique myself into submission.  Where was my originality?  Why wasn't this perfect? And my work began to slow until it stopped.

Somehow, someway I found an online watercolor class.  I love watercolors and used to think I wanted to learn it.  This class was different than any of the landscape classes I had seen.  It was simpler? sort of.  It was more design, capturing an essence or a piece of time.  The sample was graphic, appealing and I wanted to be able to do that so much I signed up for the class even though it was several weeks underway.  I never did catch up but the lessons and the instructor motivated me to want to create again. 

So how does this old photo of my Mom and Dad fit in?  Maybe it doesn't but when looking for a photo to include, this was the first that grabbed me.  My Dad was always telling us that we needed to be independent thinkers and not to let someone else determine who we were going to be.  (Mind you he really meant was to be what he thought we should be.  LOL  But that person was strong, independent and creative.  He was sort of stunned when his children would stand up to him as they got older and we always wondered why it would surprise him.  Anyway, my Dad died a year ago and I often think of his words and I guess in more than one way my journey began with him....and my Mom of course who has loved me and mine without question.

I don't know if or how this blog will help my creative life, maybe it won't but I still feel as if I am embarking on something new.  A journey that will loosen up my self critical approach to art and allow me to relax and enjoy the simple joy of capturing an idea, an image, a feeling on paper or metal or fabric.  Hopefully I can use that in all aspects of my creative and daily life.  I need to be free......