Ispirato

I designed these earring trees for the February newsletter that goes out to the Go-Make-Art email list.

 Each month the ‘mid-month-make-it’ features a different project. I try to alternate paper, textiles and polymer clay or wire projects, to mix it up.

 If you aren’t on the Go-Make-Art email list, what’s stopping you?!

 And here’s a treat if you like: Click to download the free pdf instruction sheet for these earring trees.

I’ve had a busy few weeks and am spreading myself very thinly. I’m sure it happens to you, too, when you have to turn your attention to a mountain of urgent tasks and there goes your leisure time.
Some nights after switching off the computer I  have only enough energy to crawl into bed with some craft books or magazines.

Looking at art and reading about techniques should be rewarding and refreshing in its own right.  Right? Yet lately it just seems that I’m overloading the brain with more THINKING. Inspiration can be tiring! One can have too much inspiration.

I learned from my friend Felicity that a basket of markers and a doodle pad on the bedside table can be preferable to the books and magazines. Doodling is creative time without the pressure of creating something valuable or important. And you switch off when you doodle. My thoughts seem to go away. So there is no overload.

Strangely, it seems to take less energy to doodle, than it does to flip through a craft book.

As artists we talk about seeking inspiration. Yet isn’t it true that sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad for you? Sometimes books and other sources of inspiration ultimately become a matter of over-stimulation.

Most weekday mornings I drop my son at high school then drive past a primary school on my way back home to start my work day. There’s a crossing guard - a woman about my age - posted on a corner near the school. If she’s not busy herding kids across the road, she does this: She waves or smiles and nods at every car that  goes by.

Many drivers, me included, respond with a wave in return. It always makes me smile. It is a simple little exchange but so powerful. I love it.
Often my  thoughts are on the busy day ahead, then suddenly I spy my friend the crossing guard and we wave and smile. My mood lifts. I have never spoken to this woman nor do I know her name. Yet she influences my day.

This morning after engaging in our ritual exchange of silent greetings, it occurred to me that it is actually a creative act. This woman creates a relationship through a simple gesture which evokes a positive feeling inside of me. The gesture is like dance, which is an artform, of course.

This crossing guard is a performance artist. Wonderful.

Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality.
If you can dream it, you can make it so.   - Belva Davis

We just published Issue 5, “Dreaming” of Astarte’s Mega-Zine.

I’ve had fantastic feedback from readers already. This issue is packed with great articles. Again. Lee Silber writes on goal setting - the article includes practical exercises that are fun and easy to do. Lucia Capacchione writes eloquently on vision boards - a practice always worth re-visiting. Ann Markle, Hanna Anderson and Aisling D’Art give suggestions on keeping dream journals. There’s a very interesting article about native Australian art and the Dreamtime by gallery owner Mike Sill. Then we have the first of several articles looking at SoulCollage, and at mandalas - two great transformative art pursuits from top experts Seena Frost and Clare Goodwin. Essays by Laurie Mika, Jude Spacks, Mary Sullivan Holdgrafer and Jennifer Louden inspire. And there are art and craft projects and tips from Jacqueline Sullivan, Rachel Greig, Doris Arndt, Cynthia Tinapple and Felicity Smart. Oh, and me, too - the Catch-a-Dream art doll shown here is my project in this issue. There are 20 articles in total.

 1 February was the one-year anniversary of Astarte’s Mega-Zine. Go-Make-Art started as a dream. I still pinch myself and marvel at my good fortune in attacting such a great Panel of Experts and other fine contributors to help me make the dream real. And I have a wonderful associate editor in Catherine McArdle, too, who also writes for the zine. I’d be nowhere without the help of these great people.

Dreams are necessary to life.   - Anias Nin

I can’t imagine life without dreaming, can you? Every creative project is born from a dream. Life would be simpler, perhaps, if we never took action to convert dreams into real projects. But how dull; how barren! If no one ever took action to make their dreams real, we’d be living like animals. 

So here’s to dreaming. And here’s to living our dreams.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.    - Henry David Thoreau