February, 2022
I get great creative insights when I meditate. That sounds like a good thing, and for the most part it is, but the challenge is what to do with them when they come around. Meditation wisdom says don’t hang on to your thoughts, let them pass by like a feather floating down a stream. But what if they are really amazing ideas? Do you keep a notepad nearby and just really, really quickly jot down a few key words so you don’t lose the thread forever? That feels like breaking the rules, somehow, but what if that burst of inspiration is really important, and what if the rest of my sit is lost anyway to worrying about whether or not I’ll remember it?
If I find myself caught in the idea that silently, constantly repeating the idea to myself to lock it in and can’t break out of it, once in a great while I’ll hit the record button on whatever device is nearby and just record a fragment or two. That seems a little less disruptive than stopping to write something down.
For the most part, I’ve decided to trust. After all, meditation is kind of an exercise in trust anyway. I try to trust that the really important stuff will resurface, maybe in an even better, refined version of itself. And like many of my meditation experiences, I am often frustrated in the moment but gratified in the end.
January, 2022
Well, there weren’t any acual journeys this January, not of the road trip variety anyway, but there were lots of artistic journeys.
This picture is from a weekly assignment with the ongoing Paper Pals Collage Club with Lucie Duclos and the Winslow Art Center, a great way to practice composition every week and meet with like-minded people once a month. They have so many other great course to choose from, I’m really impressed. Earlier in the month I made a quick video flipping through my sketchbook of weekly 2021 assignments. This is a link to watch it on Vimeo
Then, there were workshops with Valerie Goodwin (Haiku Maps) and Erin Fletcher (The Shrigley bookbinding structure), as well as my Handmade Book Club and Coloricombo 2022 challenges, and a bunch of other little projects that moved forward as well.
I feel like I put in a lot of miles without leaving home at all.
January, 2022
Love this book structure – the Shrigley, designed by Benjamin Elbel @bookbindingoutofthebox , taught to me by Erin Fletcher of @herringbonebindery in an on-line workshop organized by @sanfranciscocenterforthebook . This version has a concertina binding and is now the home for some vintage New York City postcards. It’s really versatile, doesn’t damage your inserts. There’s an accordian version too – that’s the one that Erin teaches in the workshop, and here’s a picture of that:
I need more practice to tidy up my execution, but I’m hooked.
January, 2022
Since we moved full time to our downtown Chicago condo, about 5 Christmases ago now, we have changed up our holiday decorating game. No more 6 foot tree. We still get a real one, but we usually get it from in front of the liquor store a few blocks away, carry it home it a grocery bag, and set it up on top of our media cabinet. I’ve adapted the scale of the ornaments, though the color scheme is still a little random, but the tree skirt just hasn’t been right all this time. It’s a quilted version from several years ago, but every year the colors just don’t look quite right.
Well, I didn’t get around to it BEFORE we set up the tree, or even WHILE the tree was set up, but for some reason as soon as we took the tree down, it became a real priority for me, so here it finally is. It will be a real treat next year.
Holiday sewing has been a pre-occupation for years. I guess it started when my aunt hand-crocheted Christmas Stockings for my brothers and I. Later, when they married and had children, someone had to carry on, so I started to make ribbon-woven stockings.
Then, some years later, a hairdresser I went to in Atlanta took on sponsoring a holiday party for a kid’s residential treatment center, and for several years I sewed 50 Christmas stockings every year. That has led to a huge stash of scraps, which I’m now working my way through to using as table runners and assorted other items that will likely get into my Etsy shop this year. Here’s hoping!
January, 2022
When sitting doesn’t work, and lying down seems too much like a nap, there is always walking meditation. Here’s the idea – you walk, usually back and forth, not trying to get anywhere, taking each step deliberately. If there is a labyrinth near you – lots of churches are adding them now – that’s one way to give your practice a framework. Just for inspiration, here is a website that helps you find labyrinth’s around the world. OK, so if there isn’t a labyrinth, you can use a hallway, or just walk around the same block over and over. At one point I enrolled in a self-study mindfulness meditation training program – sort of a pre-requisite to teacher training – and the final day long retreat included a few rounds of walking meditation. Due to the weather and other stuff, I wound up doing mine walking back and forth, up and down a hallway in a rental condo, and it worked just fine.
It’s pretty tempting to pass off just any old walk as a walking meditation, but there is something about walking TO somewhere that changes the dynamic. On the other hand, as nice as it is to do this kind of thing in the quiet woods or along a waterfront, it works in a busy city too – a nice walk around the block, and around, and around, and around. . . . . . .
