Creatively Thinking

  Featured image:  Rainbow Windows Have we in the digital age forfeited patience and attention to beauty, creative emergence and delight of discovery? I know that when I paint and something emerges from the color, there is a sense of wonder and delight that I experience that is glorious.  I am not sure this can happen with digital art. I'm just not sure.  Why,? There is the tactical sense of creating that is lost. There is the space of the image maker or craftsman/artist and the space of the app writer.  I'm just not sure it can happen.

  Featured image:  Birthday Cake 2023 Life is the unfolding of identity and creativity.  Our life’s journey is growth and discovery of who we are and just how creative we can become.  There needs to be a grace-such-ness in this journey, a simple elegance of movement, and the ability to do honor to ourselves and our lives.   My wish for you all in 2023 is for you to find this grace-such-ness and the unfolding and creativity in your life.

  Featured image:  Visions Are Like Maps If you can identify your visions, then you can identify yourself.  How you visualize yourself is correlated with how you  think. Thinking for yourself’ is the key here. This includes your morals, your knowledge, what kind of power you think you have and that others have, your freedom and whether you think you have it and how you work for it. There are excellent examples of those who know themselves that you may have heard of.  I have talked about them many times in my musings. Mother Teresa, Elvis, Elan Musk, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, to list a few.  They all are as different as can be – but they followed their spirit and lived accordingly.

  Featured image:  At Peace The vision of freedom is complicated. There is a freedom that is a tad constrained in order to allow for the freedom of everyone. They are accomplished without force. Unconstrained freedom is not unlimited freedom. Unconstrained freedom can cause chaos. I have found in my working towards freedom that the arts allow me the unconstrained freedom and chaos that some would find annoying. This makes them attempt to make me follow the rules of art. I hear comments like, “But that isn’t the way it is done. That doesn’t really look like a tree. That is a mess.” What happens when they try and constrain my freedom in art is that they shut down my voice. They don’t let me speak, and they don’t allow themselves to possibly think differently without force. I have had those statements spoken to me many times since I have become a bonafide artist. But, let me relate to you an example that might be easier to understand about thinking differently. In 3rd or 4th grad...

  Featured image:  Colors in the Middle Folks in the middle respect the confirmed habits and prejudices of others in the middle. They don’t try and change them unless they upset the goals of the middle. Upsetting the goals in the middle would be, “do unto others as you would have them to unto you.” The goal of those in the middle is to “create” the best ideology and moral code that all in the middle can work with while not being constrained. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Featured image: Merry Christmas Chickadee Have you ever been given a plate of beautiful, wonderful Christmas cookies, created with lovingness by a family member or friend? Which one do you go for first? Do you choose the one with all of the sparkles and glitter or the not so glittery one tucked under some of the sparkly ones? Do you prefer the ones whose recipes have been handed down through the ages before sparkles were an option? They are the ones that take just a little extra time to create and a few more ingredients than the others. I have a favorite one that has been handed down by my grandmother, the woman I was named after, to my mother and then to me. I call it “Mom’s Snowballs.” There have more walnuts and butter in the recipe than one can imagine – but someone did and I am grateful. They are beautiful in their own way just like the sparkles. Life is like a plate of Christmas cookies, all are just a plate full of difference and history and beauty. Merry Christmas! Click he...

  Featured image:   Sacred Earth I have always been fortunate in my life, I mean really always, known that art would become a centerpiece in my life’s journey and that art would give me a very happy life here on earth. For this reason, it has always been hard for me to watch those who struggle with their lives. It’s hard for me to see those who find it hard to find what they want to do with their lives or find something that will make them as happy as art has for me. This is why I write these musings. These musings are for folks who want to make art, or something, the center of their lives, so they can live a happy fulfilled life here on earth. Hopefully, my musings help those who are searching. The key is to know or to feel that something is missing in your life and the urge to want to figure out what it is. It is my beliefs that comfort me when I am troubled and concerned. The comfort I seek is not an atonement, or a comfort through my artwork for “it is by grace you have be...