Yes My Deers, This One is For You

May I tell you a story of leather and intentions?

What if there is a Totem Cameo Cuff for you at the end?

Well then, let's begin.

* * * * *

I'm fairly certain I began accessorizing while still in the womb and, like many creative types, began making my own jewelry when "recess" was still a part of my daily vocabulary.  I loved it big and bold, I loved it piled high, I loved wearing the pieces that others said "I could never get away with wearing that."

In short, I amassed a great jewelry collection and just kept adding to it.

Then, several years back something clicked.

I opened my jewelry box one day and was struck by the sad lack of soul, the mass marketing, the cheaply fabricated pieces, the void of feeling I experienced when I laid them against my skin.

I tell you true:

I purged that box like wildfire.

Because I suddenly realized how important it was to ME that if I was to place art on my body, well then it better be ART and not some knock-off (no matter how cheaply or expensively it came).  I'm no Tiffany's girl, you can keep your produced-by-the-thousands tennis bracelets and diamond solitaires.  I'm no plastic bangles or stamped-out imports either, I want to follow my pieces back to the two hands that created.  I'm the girl who wants to feel some soul, who wants to wear a story, who wants to walk into her closet each day and decide what truth she will wear and accessorize from there.

Fast forward just a little bit in time.

Something stirred in the farthest reaches of my overactive mind, building speed and mass until the drawings began pouring forth from my fingertips.  What if, just if, I could take the emotion and meaning of my paintings and wear them on my own body?  What if these lessons I learn, these truths and beauties I discover could wrap themselves on my skin in the most intimate understanding, nearly art through osmosis?  The funny thing is that I'm almost more interested in finding ways to physically connect with art than to beautify my body, however if the two can become one, well, now we're onto something.

So I bring you to today, and the first of my offerings in leather.  A Totem Cameo Cuff, Doe Edition, absolutely, positively, one of a kind.  A painting for your wrist.  A reminder for the woman who intrinsically understands what it is to move like wind on delicate feet, to know the power of gentleness in her cellular makeup, to feel the push of love radiating from within her.  A slice of art to wear in the freshness of this new year and for many years to come.

In the painting shop momentarily...

Cheers my does and deers!

A Date for an Update

Dwelling Stone No. 1
(reserved)

Dwelling Stone No. 2
(reserved)

Rudy Russet Feather Sea Stone
(reserved)

Stone Whitetail Antlers
(reserved)

These next two are part of my "The Physicality of Words" Series, taken very directly from one of my best loved phrases, a phrase I continually cling to, a phrase I wear like a mantra, a phrase for which there is no tidy English translation from the original Vietnamese (so please forgive my bumbling explaination). 

Buong Xa Di

"Exhale the negativity within you, which hinders the Spirit, in order to make room for creative growth"

(I love you Ti)

Now honestly, have you ever heard such a beautiful, hopeful phrase in all your years?  One of these days I plan to wear it low along my left arm, to be reminded with every movement of every brush, every flick of the wrist to exhale.

Exhale Stone No. 1
(reserved)

Exhale Stone No. 2

These pieces and a few others will be winding their way into the Shop-a-roo tomorrow morning, Monday December 20th, around 11:00 PST.  Each of these sea stones are available as Reserves, if one belongs to you, just drop me an Etsy convo right here.  

In other news, I had a delicious date with my BC last night, part of our own celebration for the end of chemotherapy.  I swilled a gin martini with a lime twist and got tipsy under the twinkling Christmas lights of 153 year old building with my man.  

Woke up this morning, felt fabulous.

How was your weekend?

On the Subject of Why

Lately I've chatted with a few fine ladies about the love I've developed for painting on the sea stones I gather, and it occurred to me that the reasons really should be shared aloud.

I have long held the belief that we can chose to permeate out lives with art, from what we choose to hang on our walls to what we choose to hang around our necks, from the books we read to the music we hear, from the way we arrange our homes to the people we invite in.  Nearly every element we choose to surround ourselves has the capability to be a source of inspiration, of beauty, of joy, or just pure, simple pleasure.

I create art because not creating has never been an option; it is as vital to me as water and bread.  I have always made things with my hands, always seen images in my mind, always heard the call to translate that which I experience into that which can be seen.  But over the last couple years, it has become increasingly important to me that my art does not hang on a cold and distant wall, roped off, please stay three feet back and hold all photography.  With every passing day it become more vital that my art finds an element of intimacy, a breaking down of the barriers of traditional painting and what is considered "Art" by the gallery system.

There is something primal about creating small work, work that invites the touch and asks to be held.  That through the sense of feel we are able to gather a deeper, fuller understanding than we would ever be able to gather from sight alone.  I am a highly tactile person, a kinesthetic learner, I need to touch in order to unravel the puzzle that is my own life.  I need to feel in order to create a connection, to trigger that place in my soul which opens to the possibility of what learning may come.  It is this contact that grounds my feet and elates my heart, allowing me to focus and dream simultaneously.

Which brings me to the sea stones.

I have stones arranged in trays, stacked on windowsills, tumbled in messenger bags, each awaiting their specific imagery.  When I begin a new stone, I choose it carefully, rubbing it with my thumb and weighing it in my palm, turning it this way and that.  Waiting to see what image it calls forth, or if I have begun with an image I know I must paint, waiting to see what stone was meant to hold it.  When I paint, I hold the stone, rotating it with my forefinger while the brush slides over it's surface.  My mind settles into the rhythm of work and my body sways along to the music playing.  Somedays I choose a stone to hold while I meditate before filling the water jars and squeezing the paint tubes, allowing the weight of the earth to quiet my body in order to clear my head of the jumble of the day (I become particularly attached to those ones).  Sometimes it's as serious as can be, other times lighthearted to the point of silliness, but it is never random.

All that to say, it is my JOY to send these small pieces of art to the four corners of the world.  To send them knowing that you will hold them, run a finger over their smoothed surfaces, feel their heft and the residual cold of the northern Pacific Ocean, that they will sit close as the kind of art one is always allowed to touch.

Joy, I tell you, joy.

It is exactly the direction I wish to travel.

These stones, plus a few others (including one Barn Owl!!) are ready for your consideration, no reservations this time.  I'll be listing them in the shop of wonders tomorrow, Wednesday November 10th at 11:00 am PST.

Additionally, I've been contacted by a slew of wonderful birds about offering custom orders.  After careful consideration, I've decided to follow in the footsteps of some wise friends and will be placing FOUR CUSTOM ORDER LISTINGS in the shop during the update.  The listings will give us a framework to discuss YOUR piece of art, be it your totem animal, flora or fauna.  I'm jazzed like a jumble of honey bees to work on these!  There is a very real sense of magic to give life to an image so specifically intended and I can't wait to hear from you!

WELL!
Steady rain, steamy tea and loads of white gouache to each of you!
mmmmmmuah!

Shop-a-doodle-doo: Sea Stone Edition

Rock on with your Smock on!

(that IS the saying, right?)

Plinking down with the slippery sound of 

ten thousand small stones all sliding through the sandy surf 

into the Painting Shop right now...

(ten times fast, go!)



~ POST SHOP UPDATE ~

HOLY MOLY!   I'm just giddy, gleeful and grateful as anything green and gracious!  (and also apparently in the mood for alliteration)

But really.
Grinning a mile wide.
That's me.

I'll be your Huckleberry