"no matter...

...what it is there's something to learn...
that feeling that there's always something under it...
there's always something meaningful laying underneath..."

Clay from Zane Clampett on Vimeo.

sim but different

pure feeling

2:00 to 2:12 is what i'm alive for.  seriously.  honestly.
it's why i'm still here to write words into the darkness of the internet.
that absolute raw emotion that knows no words, no images,
it is just feeling.
it is raw and real and it can be painful or joyful or more often
it can be beyond emotional categorization.
that
is
being
alive.

that is being human.
that is what we're here to experience.
that
right
there.

intentional gratitude

this morning, after drinking the first cup of coffee and feeding the pup pup and helping my husband get ready & out the door for his day, i start in on the task of writing 20ish personal thank you's to each of my students.

next week is our last week of art class, and although we only spent 6 weeks together (for a very short hour and 15 minutes each class)...i'm attached and sad to see them go.  they taught me so much, and although i am exhausted at the thought of what i have poured into them (energy, time, thought, care, art lessons, adorable projects...) they always give it right back ten-fold...

sometimes it's a tight hug given freely and without prompting the moment they see me (and probably when they see the look of tired on my face)...

sometimes it's an ah-HA moment when a little concept of some kind suddenly clicks in their brain and they rejoice at the knowledge that it happened...

sometimes it's them repeating my teaching right back to me when I forget it myself.  "oh, Miss Renai, you're not happy with such and such YET!"  oh yeah, sure enough.  good job sweet baby loves.

and in an intentional effort to be more thankful and aware of all the many blessings in my life, I have been working hard to say and write and deliver more "thank you's" to the people in my life that make it the wonderful thing that it is.  and it's not just the big things...it's also the ladies at the WFM clinic that always answer the phone and are so professional and kind and helpful every time I call.  Yep, they get a thank you card, too.

so as i begin the long task of coming up with a unique sentence or two to describe and thank each of these students for sharing space and time and their bright lights with me...i wonder what you are thankful for today?  it's like cleaning out your closet.  when you open your eyes to everything that's good and wonderful in your life and take the time to develop gratitude for it all, you discover all these other amazing things that you hardly even noticed before.

thank you.

love!

please read & share her article if you love it...i think it's pretty fantastic 

http://www.glassheel.com/single-post/2016/08/31/Buried-Treasure---The-Admiration-Of-Inspiration

I met Janna working as a summer intern...to me then, at 16ish years old, she was this fantastic, creative, professional, caring, giving lady who I thought man, if I could be like her, maybe even have a gig like hers, and get some of those sweet colored markers she has up in her office,
I think life might be pretty good.  she laughed a lot, mentored me in the sweetest way, and now she's off doing something new and amazing :)





<3

dammit Kara!

just when I think everything is good and fine and you're done teaching me, I teach something and find myself remembering you with such love and then (inevitably) missing you.  thanks for making this video so I can hear your voice when I'm missing you...

do it. find the time to watch this,

you won't be sorry you did.

love & progress

life sounds like!

sweetness

obviously,

it was a happy time.

so is now, but different.

love you 

strings and flight

Jamie did you photoshop this or was that light really happening?!

artist book/performance piece from 2012

roots

are we born with deep rooted desires, or were they given to us through repeated exposure?  it's so hard to watch the people you love, share with you something that they truly love, and keep from falling in love with it yourself.  either way, I've been missing it.  

and coming up with a way to make it work.

three women...

"Three women who have made an incredibly huge impact on where I am today! Thank you for all of your support and for preparing me to teach with both my mind and my heart."  

i couldn't have said it better myself. 

maybe this

is why my hands and brain work better in 3d.  because i've been admiring this aircraft from childhood...

love!



the time has come...

to stop doing what i'm supposed to do, and start doing what i'm meant to do.

made to do, built for, excited about...what i love to do.

(Pollock was supposed to paint like everyone else,

but he did what he was meant to do instead,

got hell for it..still gets hell today for it...

but he had to do it because he loved it)

got this print at a craft show...beautiful design and i took a horrible picture.

see her work at LittleThingsStudio.com

such is the life

of a teaching artist.

messy and busy, but totally loving every minute of it.

kiki smith, tattoos, and someone named tift

"somehow the combination of the beauty marks and the ink on her body, I thought I could tattoo her beauty marks onto me.  And then I was at another artist’s house and they had a little bit of paint on their fingers.  And I thought, I could take a mark from somebody else’s body and put it on my body and then I would remember. That way you would have this weird little reminder to them..." 

(go here to hear the beautiful little snippet of a conversation)

click 'listen' in red above photo on website

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

 "Passage"

 

 "Burn Season"

"Windmaker"

"These works feature an ambiguous narrative that offers insight into the dilemma posed by science and technology's failed promise to fix our problems, provide explanations, and furnish certainty pertaining to the human condition..." (to read and see more, go here)