"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.

oh ellen & lewis (hah!)

do it. find the time to watch this,

you won't be sorry you did.

many many many mistakes!!

#growth mindset, y'all

where

to go?
where to grow?
where do we grow (and go) from here?

to see and seen

margaret meehan

i'm observing

a pattern.  a string.  whatever, it's important.
Chase,
Phil,
and another.

anger = fear, covered up.
acting out = an unmet need, often entirely unrelated to the situation.
hurting others = being hurt, either currently or an unresolved previously.

maybe not always are these things true, but there is a pattern of cases that support them.

the big ask

from an e-mail from 5.7.14 at 6:38pm: (edited, clearly)
"Hello, my name is A and i was wondering if you would be willing to donate about a cup of black glaze to my school. You see, I go to a public charter school known as ___ and due to the flooding we had our school is rather broke. We recently did a clay project in art and everyone else used up the little amount of glaze we had from last year and due to lack of money my teacher can't buy any more. So i was wondering if you would mind lending me a cup of glaze for my tea set I made. It would really mean the world to me. "

"Really! Thank you so much!!! Is it ok if my mom picks it up on her way home work tomorrow? Oh and i will be sure to stop by and show you my tea set when it is finished. :)"

hope she knows i'm looking forward to seeing something like this:

Samita Masami | "Remoteness" 1992. Porcelain with gold and silver pigments over black glaze

or these:

Hedwig Bollhagen via rawearthopensky

via rawearthopensky

I like when people go for the big ask.  many many people in my life are where they are because they weren't afraid to just ask for what they want.  seriously, it doesn't hurt anyone to ask.  it builds your own confidence, reminds you what goal you're reaching for, and builds character.  even when you receive a whole bunch of 'no's' in response to your big ask (which you will)…chances are it's an opportunity to work harder.  an opportunity to refine your shpeal, to ask in a different way, to look for a different kind of place or person to ask.

i think god appreciates the big ask, too.  not every opportunity is going to fall out of the sky into our laps, people.  some opportunities god has fully in the works and in his plan, but he's just waiting for us to figure out that we really want it.  that we'll appreciate it.  that we'll see it as the huge opportunity and blessing that it is and act on it.  it probably takes a little work to orchestrate opportunities and miracles…I wouldn't blame him for waiting until we're in the right mindset to observe the miracle and jump into action because of it.

even jesus went for the big ask.  before being killed he went and asked god 'i'll do what you say because you're the boss man and i trust you, but couldn't we do this any other way?  it would be really really great if there was another option that we could explore here…'
and god said no and the way we understand jesus has forever been enriched by that observation of the big ask and receiving a big fat no.  you've got to remember that sometimes your big ask will result in a big fat no for a big fat good reason, but it doesn't mean you should stop being awesome. or that you should ever stop asking :)

cobalt blue

the cyanometer: a 225 year old tool for measuring the blueness of the sky

via up like toast

sometimes

you think you're headed down one rabbit hole and then life says, nope, here's an entirely different and much deeper rabbit hole. enjoy!

Painting after Right-Hemisphere Stroke –Case Studies of Professional Artists 

A GRANDFATHER who suffered a life-changing stroke has amazed family and friends with his artistic talent.

Art Appreciation Boosts Stroke Recovery, Study Suggests

and the artists are equally intriguing:

"I'm Helping" by Tesi Sanchez-Halpert

"Leo the Lion"

"SueSally Rides Again" 

Tesi Sanchez-Halpert: a stroke survivor's story. Sanchez-Halpert of Moorpark, CA is a stroke survivor who shares her story to help others…(more here)

Pink Lilles and the Mood IV

18x24, limited edition giclee

Gary E. Bachers

Glorious Orchids #8

18x18, limited edition giclee

Gary E. Bachers: silent conversatios

Gary E. Bachers never planned to become a visual artist.  He was a popular family practice physician in northeast Texas, where he lived with his wife and three children after moving from Winnipeg, Canada, in 1977.  In 1987, at the age of 38, he suffered a debilitating stroke that forced him to retire from medicine.  The stroke robbed him of the ability to speak or produce conventional language (a condition called expressive aphasia), and he also lost the use of the right side of his body. (more here)

and it goes on and on longer than I have right now.  

floored.

that was fun but back to work

observe. notate. make something that points it out and explains, visually.

then, make something that causes the viewer to change.
change thoughts, change actions, begin conversations.
go!

again, but this time with feeling...

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which when it bites and blows upon my body
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say
’This is no flattery. These are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 
           (II.i.1–17)

not like gary

this goes over in the "is it ok?" column where this clip below has been living:

Tupac hologram live at Coachella 2012 from Ampm Films on Vimeo.

2:35 and 4:40 are the key problems if you want to save yourself time and skip some language.  it is tupac, guys.

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

just working

similar

(but different, as m would say)

I mostly see these things as cheating, but as an educator it's a legit point to consider.  If we truly believe art can be for everyone, then how easy is too easy?  Putting the money-making aspects of these ideas (products) aside, when we teach the "real" way to do it...are we excluding people simply due to their lack of time or ambition? 

What does "art for everyone" mean?  a) do we truly believe this and b) if it is, how do we then approach products like these?  if it's not, what does it mean to be an educator that doesn't believe in every student?

it's a shot in the dark

William Wegman, Dusted (1988)

after acknowledging the weight, the pressure, the inconvenience...she asked, why not just move over half a foot?  it's just dust,  just shake it off...

yeah, I needed to hear that.

(I'm happy to sacrifice audio quality for that smile,

aren't you?)

nick cave

"what makes people happy?

what makes them step outside of their day to day existence and 

be light...within a moment..."

I'm terribly interested in the unexpected part of art, the unexpected to the artist in which even he or she was not planning on a particular outcome...it is as if the work itself has a plan & an intent & a natural way of being - a skin, a sense of being...in which it feels most comfortable...