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| illustration by: Jesse Reklaw |
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Shiny Baubles for a Dreary Day
Forecast for San Francisco is rain this entire week. On Monday, we were gifted with some sunshine and I snuck out for a walk along Ocean Beach - soaking up some sun and cold winds. The prelude to the deluge has brought us some light rain - for now.
Since I'm in the studio making some shiny things - I thought I'd share some images of other pretty, shiny things that are catching my eye right now.
Since I'm in the studio making some shiny things - I thought I'd share some images of other pretty, shiny things that are catching my eye right now.
Monday, March 21, 2011
248 Days & Counting...
It's been a hard week around the world, hasn't it? The earthquake/tsunami/radiation state of emergency in Japan, the fighting/bombing/war-ing in Libya and in so many other places... There is so much tragedy and turmoil around the world.
Thoughts and ideas flutter around my head energetically. The predictable questions of life - its purpose and meaning often come up. And for me, the questions comes in the form of: "What the heck am I doing, being an ARTIST?" Shouldn't I be out there saving the world, somehow? Makes oodles of money to donate to charities? Save lives? Clean up the planet? What contributions am I making, to make someone's life better? Is the business of making "pretty things" a frivolous pursuit? Is it selfish? Self-serving and self-satifying?
Often, when my thoughts finally spill into audible words of frustration, my husband will tell me that being artist, doing what I do specifically as a jewelry artist, IS a good thing in this world. Delivering someone a piece of joy, happiness and excitement in a piece of jewelry, counts.
Despite him being a wise and brilliant man of integrity, it still took me a while to fully understand and accept this idea. To complement that, I stumbled upon an essay by Edwidge Danticat, called "A Place of Refuge" in the March issue of Allure. In it, she described how some of the women in her homeland of Haiti (even after the devastating earthquake in 2010), manage to beautify themselves, despite living in poverty and chaos. Beauty in the midst of ruins...
Here are some of their sentiments:
Your face is your passport. You should always look as beautiful as you can.
I don't want to look like the chaos around me.
Looking beautiful might be one way of exclaiming to the world that you are doing more than breathing, that you matter.
If those women, who have so little, can live by those words...
It has been 248 days and counting, since I've become a full-time jewelry artist, doing "good" in my own way. In my business, my life, I will continue to do good. I have so much more than what is needed to survive in life, to breathe. So with all that abundance, I will share beauty through a piece of jewelry or art, through sharing time with people I love, through a lovingly prepared meal or words of cheer and kindness. And I will be proud of this, of what I do and of what I can contribute to this world.
Thoughts and ideas flutter around my head energetically. The predictable questions of life - its purpose and meaning often come up. And for me, the questions comes in the form of: "What the heck am I doing, being an ARTIST?" Shouldn't I be out there saving the world, somehow? Makes oodles of money to donate to charities? Save lives? Clean up the planet? What contributions am I making, to make someone's life better? Is the business of making "pretty things" a frivolous pursuit? Is it selfish? Self-serving and self-satifying?
Often, when my thoughts finally spill into audible words of frustration, my husband will tell me that being artist, doing what I do specifically as a jewelry artist, IS a good thing in this world. Delivering someone a piece of joy, happiness and excitement in a piece of jewelry, counts.
Despite him being a wise and brilliant man of integrity, it still took me a while to fully understand and accept this idea. To complement that, I stumbled upon an essay by Edwidge Danticat, called "A Place of Refuge" in the March issue of Allure. In it, she described how some of the women in her homeland of Haiti (even after the devastating earthquake in 2010), manage to beautify themselves, despite living in poverty and chaos. Beauty in the midst of ruins...
Here are some of their sentiments:
Your face is your passport. You should always look as beautiful as you can.
I don't want to look like the chaos around me.
Looking beautiful might be one way of exclaiming to the world that you are doing more than breathing, that you matter.
If those women, who have so little, can live by those words...
It has been 248 days and counting, since I've become a full-time jewelry artist, doing "good" in my own way. In my business, my life, I will continue to do good. I have so much more than what is needed to survive in life, to breathe. So with all that abundance, I will share beauty through a piece of jewelry or art, through sharing time with people I love, through a lovingly prepared meal or words of cheer and kindness. And I will be proud of this, of what I do and of what I can contribute to this world.
Friday, March 11, 2011
In Our Hearts and Minds...
... my heart aches for the people in Japan.
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| Yasushi Kanno |
Monday, March 7, 2011
Monday's Meow-Mix
Cleaning up around the studio/office. Office portion tackled. Sort of. Now onto the studio half of the space...
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Studio Make-Over
I am in desperate need of one...
This is a quickie, iPhone snapshot of the current mess. While my priority right now is to deal with all the tax-prep stuff, I can't help but feel a little depressed over the current state of this room. I get this entire, lovely space for my studio and office and looking at it right now, it screams utter chaos. Not good. This is a state of emergency. I feel bummed. I need to get my tax stuff done and get working on making this room a good place for creativity again.
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