30 March 2009

Farm Chicks Mention My Work!

The Farm Chicks had a meeting with Celeste at Chaps and complimented the new foyer!
This is a very strange aspect of the internet...I'm blogging about a blog that links to my blog.  It's not as incestuous and self referencing as it sounds, I haven't met the Farm Chicks yet...but soon I will.  I'm going to their book signing at Chaps this Friday, giving support back to local women entrepreneurs, my favorite kind of people.  I love it when women have influence in the world and use it to help other women.  Here's the book:  http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?r=1&ean=9781588167293
Wow! Rewind.   If you've read the last post you know that I got to do the walls of the foyer of a wonderful local restaurant called Chaps, owned by Celeste Shaw.  It's been a fulfilling experience on a number of levels...I, like most artists, have a materials fetish that is long, dark, and deep.  Celeste's collections of stuff is endless and getting to wallow and commune and create in such a warm and welcoming environment, with such beautiful raw materials at my fingertips was what I imagine it's like to go to a day spa for someone who isn't me.  Both days of working at Chaps I would return home satisfied, spent, mind brimming with images and ideas for work, body encrusted with adhesive products.  Better than all of that has been getting to know Celeste.  She is warm, connected, authentic, thoughtful, present and compassionate.  Half of that would have been enough.  She has put on her thinking cap on my behalf, trying to figure out where and how I need to get plugged in to the Spokane community as an artist.  I've really been laying low since we moved here, focusing on my health, working on our place, nursing my old dogs and rehabbing my dressage ponies.  This spring just feels like the right time to start to spread out a little, meet people, see things.  I didn't really know where to start on a conscious level, but luckily my sub-conscious knew because it offered to do Celeste's foyer before I even had the chance to think about it.  In return, Celeste is having me share her booth at the Farm Chicks Show June 6 & 7 at the Spokane County Fairgrounds.  (yes, one more FC link:  http://thefarmchicks.com/show.html)
This is exactly the experience I needed, such a boost.  Having an event scheduled, especially one that is so well received, really motivates me and pushes me into that creative zone from morning until night.  This is my favorite phase of the process.   I've been bumping into walls, following my inner movies, watching stories unfold, that eventually turn into tangible things, like little paintings and pieces of art.  The horses treat me gently, as if I'm touched; I think I must be covered in wisps from the dream world, like a tree that was toilet papered on halloween, I sort of flicker in and out, pretty heavily soaked in imagination, Not All Here. Wandering around staring into space is what a work day looks like with an artist.  The escapist in me wants to stay in this phase forever.  I've often wondered if people become artists so they can be in this phase as a form of self medicating.  I've definitely seen lots of souls who stray from the path and get stuck in cul de sacs or potholes that mimic the art life; soothing their disturbed selves with compulsive, repetitive busy work crafts.  I'm pretty sure that our culture moving away from the home making crafts necessitated a market for prozac.  Anyway the dream state phase, where I get to drink from the well, doesn't last, it's not meant to.   The practical side will snap back into control and start performing the tasks that serve the creative side.  Things must be ordered, materials assembled, schedules organized.  Then the invigorating sights, smells and sounds of art industry:  melting wax, heat guns, hammer and nails, books on tape.  New brushes, melting snow, and Kate coming to tell me it's time to take our morning remedies.  If not for my vigilant stalker watch dog, our routine would be in tatters at my feet.

2 comments:

tangled sky studio said...

what a beautiful and honest post ursula....i love and am frustrated by the wandering around staring into space phase but it truly is where the magic happens.

ursula dodge said...

it's hard to allow that time when you have people you have to be accountable to or anyone who depends on you. sometimes it's like a vision quest, not to sound corny, but you have to be able to let it take you where it needs to go, and have it take as long as it takes; not something that fits into human society very well, or submits to timetables and appointments. it often appears selfish to outsiders, especially when it's done by women. it's always been easier for a man to be the creative genius and his wife to set the stage and ease the way to just let him be himself so his flow and rhythm aren't disrupted. the reverse is rarely true, even in this day and age. i don't have little people who need me but i have furry creatures who have something they need or want every other minute. i wouldn't trade my little family pod for anything, but the sexy luxury of solitude and the ability to indulge in the stillness of creativity always has such an allure.