Learning (trying) to Take it Easy

Collage

Learning to allow myself to Take It Easy, along with continuing the joy of creation...
sometimes just a collage
Some self pressure is knowing my delight in discovery
Remnants of the childhood guilt of no looking busy enough for Mom not to assign me a task

Making collages helps me to see what I think

When there are so many pressures in the world, why make things....Why not?

Collage, telling stories, many eyes looking on

Small plants emerging between stones,
Fat bees rumbling in pink flowers, then purple, then yellow...
A flower for every season, a bee for every flower

Collages of my life, an ancestor, my great grandfather from Scottland

Rock upon rock...all different
We are made from tiny particles
of all that came before us.

What do we leave?

Clouds

See my http://www.hotflashwomen.blogspot.com for last week's blog and my determination to forgive myself for being less than perfect in meeting my own (My Mother's?) overly high Calvinist standards for Productivity. There is so much room for so much talent and creativity! Be a part of it...don't let ideas or fears  intimidate you.

Cloud Collecting

From the window over my computer

If I get distracted by the clouds over my computer desk, it's OK, and a way of celebrating my eleven years on the Olympic Peninsula. I arrived here eleven years ago today in my Honda Civic, the first New car I bought myself, with my mother and all the Most Important stuff I drove here from Saugerties, NY. Leaving my Last Partner--as opposed to my Last Dutchess--finding a new place and way(s) of being.

I'm back taking college courses, this time in computer graphics and publishing to help me be able to do things I want to do...maybe encourage others to do the same.

I love the open and dramatic skies here

If they distract me from work now, it's OK

I visit a beach at least once a week

and see the mountains daily

Bit by bit, I finish paintings

and collages, and fabric journals...

Thank you, Doug, Hugh, David for wanting the ancestor fabric journals

and I start...and finish...new dolls,

though no one seems to want them these days.

I was born a Maker, so that's what I continue to do

Enjoying Where I Am!

People from all over the world come to my neighborhood for vacations. I am so very lucky to be living close to mountains and beaches in a place where I can afford to maintain a 1700 square foot home with a view of Canada (when the leaves are off the trees). Three of my brothers and their families live in Seattle, so I have the benefit of places to stay in the city. They also enjoy country get aways with me.

Rocks at Murdoch beach

Low tide at Murdoch Beach

When Hugh's wife had a singing in Oklahoma (the state) this weekend, he came over for a visit, and we fit in a whole group of local sights. Katie, Jan, and Diane had already planned to go to Murdoch or Round Rock beach on Saturday, so Hugh drove us to search for the perfectly round (like a hardball) and hot dog-shaped rocks mostly found in this one place. We each found some, Jan took photos, and we went on to the beach at the mouth of the Elwah, where sediment from the dam removal is creating a constantly-changing landscape.

Beside the trail, I discovered one of the famous PA painted rocks, like a watermelon

 Beside the path I saw an unusual bit of color and discovered it was one of the famous painted Port Angeles Rocks. I understand that there's a Facebook for them: Paint, place, document. Our many flat smooth rocks make great canvases.

Tree stump well-smoothed by years of water and sand

In spite of the mixed clouds and sun, Hugh and I went to Hurricane Ridge the next day, the other end of the height spectrum, from sea level to a mile high. unlike another June when we visited, there were only scattered patches of snow...I worry about drinking water for the coming summer.

Me above the clouds, many wildflowers, lupins, paintbrush beside the trail

A patch of snow remaining in a north-facing hollow. the strip of light blue is the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Hugh looking out over the peaks...some snow there, but not as much as usual

Being above the clouds is pretty amazing

Check out your own neighborhood...what wonders can you discover?

Charting my Path for 2016

A new, less realistic direction in painting, Kathie

I've been busy at this end of 2015, therefore no posts here since October.  A new, less realistic, direction in painting. The 100 Hot Flash Women series that kept me going in my last years of working in Healthcare is completed and will be displayed January-March 2016 at the Port Angeles Library. Be sure to come by for the opening on Friday, January 8th 6-9pm at the library--or visit our fabulous library while the show is up.

I'm moving into a slightly different approach to painting, adding collage and mixed media. I may even bring myself to use the larger canvases I've been hoarding. I seem to do better with people I don't know as well. I just started one of a group of people at Ediz...reminds me of a scene from a Bergman movie.

Hugh and Connie...I'm happier with the earlier portrait of Kathie

Another thrust has been working with some of the treasure trove of photos Mom had under her bed in the old apartment. How do we pass along our stories? What will be important to future generations? Shouldn't everyday history (as in my portraits of non-famous women) matter to subsequent humans? I've been doing a series of fiber/mixed wall hangings to celebrate my own and my ancestors' histories, as well as a round-robin fabric journal project...I'm making a duplicate set for myself or any of the nieces and nephew who show interest.

Kathy--a new direction in my portraits

I apologize for neglecting this blog for two months. I've been excitedly pursuing digital classes at Peninsula College, beginning with Data Visualization, Infographics, and Digital Story Telling. I've been using the holiday break to get used to my new/reconditioned bigger and faster iMac, finally getting hooked up with all the Adobe programs, doing some tutorials to get prepared for the Adobe Illustrator class that starts next week.

The Habit of Work...Taking it Easy

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Small beaded pins give me something to do while I watch movies. 

Work is a habit, especially when it’s not a necessity for physical survival. I did learn good writing habits in my years of working in health care. There everything has to be documented, so one just sits down and does it…revising later as necessary. It's easier to revise something one can see than to make it all up from scratch.

Fabric journal to use up the extra pages I made. Doug likes it and Hugh and David want one, too.

I have gotten away from blogging this spring…what is the purpose, after all, and  to whom am I addressing my rambles…is it to generate customers, and if so, for what? I lost track of what my product might be. When I do Branding, what is the purpose? Doesn’t the world already have way too much Stuff! What is my brand…maybe life-long artist who can’t stop making things, who wants to disassociate brand from money…a true Outsider Artist.

Binding pages with heavy thread and beads

As I’ve discovered previously, my product is me, the ephemeral ideas, images, and books…since I can’t seem to stop producing. Creating books out of electrical impulses…my mind to yours. If I have a legacy, it has to be this: sparking ideas in others, mostly women, to have courage, go ahead and try the Thing that you want to do…small steps to bigger ones.

Yet another Icon...see my book Icons and Angels on Amazon Kindle...the ideas keep coming

I still do love stitching pieces of fabric together, so I’ll try to have some of that to show you every week or from time to time. I’m working on a series of tiny beaded pins…to use up my beads, to have something to do with my hands as I watch movies, just purely to continue to make things. I’m also working on a doll that was a drawing in one of my many notebooks, and drawing and writing in my notebooks…Writing as therapy.

Potato Rolls for Doug's Birthday Party...Each one looks different from all the others...the Art of Baking!