It is a New Year!!!
It is the New Year!!
Whew, can you believe it, 2011??? Sounds so futuristic!! We are in a brand new year and have a chance to start anew!! So, in celebration of that opportunity, I am initiating a fresh schedule for my blogging week! I will no longer be posting recipes on Mondays. Why? Because my son, JJ and I are in the midst of compiling our vegetarian cookbook!! We are testing the recipes now and will keep you abreast of the progress.
Peasant Bread
I also will be participating with other bloggers on some activities that I will incorporating in my post schedule.
So here is my current 2011 schedule:
Mondays: Creative Musings, Tips, and Reading suggestions
Tuesdays: A Day in the Life, my progress in the studio
Wednesdays: List fun with other bloggers, this week’s list will be books that made me cry
Thursday: Inspiration Thursday, my continuing series on who and what inspires me in my art
Friday: Week Word post and cool creative finds on the internet and the physical world
I continue to sell my fine art prints here in my Gallery Shoppe, and as usual every month one special print will be on sale!
I also have my Etsy Shop where I sell jewelry, cards, fabric and all kinds of arty goodies!!
I will be having sales and giveaways, so keep checking and reading my posts!
Vuillard
I read Blue Zones by Dan Buettner this weekend and am fired up to keep a healthy life style.
Remember, exercise on a regular basis, eat a mainly plant based diet, have a purpose in life everyday, family is the most important, and create!!
Check in tomorrow for my activities in my studio!
Inspiration Thursday: Quiet
Monet
Driving home today in the ice and snow, I was thinking about how little quiet time we have. All I kept thinking about while driving was how wonderful it would be to be home, in front of a fire with a book or my knitting just thinking. Do we spend much time just thinking in this age of rush rush and technology? Our gadgets allowing us to do everything in a hurry, and we want more even faster!! I mean good contemplation. Sitting by a pond watching the frogs jump, walking for an hour without an iPod, having a cup of tea and just gazing out the window?
Reading
Thinking nourishes us. It allows us to relax and reboot. A good tranquil think helps ideas appear. Memories come into view, imagination becomes vivid, and some good hard thinking can encourage solutions. Did you know that Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity while thinking? Thinking encourages us to work out problems, come up with new innovations instead of depending on electronic hardware to give us answers, tell us what to laugh at, do next and assist us in becoming mesmerized with vapidity.
Matisse
Spend some good quality time thinking, you may get inspired. As Aretha Franklin sang, “You better think (think) think about what you’re trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think), let your mind go, let yourself be free.”
Read more at: Inspiration Thursday: The Sioux.
Inspiration Thursday: Science and Art
I am reading a book this week that is so inspiring to me and describes my ruminations on science, art, and life so perfectly.
Alan Lightman
Listen to his first few sentences: “Ever since I was a little boy, my passions have been divided between science and art. I was fortunate to make a life in both, as a physicist and a novelist, and even to find creative sympathies between the two, but I have had to live with a constant tension in myself and a continuing rumbling in my gut.” Now, I am not a physicist teaching at MIT, but am trained as an audiologist and still have a passion to read about physics and the wonders of science. And, I am not a novelist, but am a painter, fabric artist, and play classical violin when I can. People like us live in 2 worlds, the rational, fact based one, and the creative, individual expressive one swimming in grays, not the black and white. Mix those 2 universes and you get mighty gut rumbling! But I love both!
I love language, reading, and learning to enhance my scientific knowledge and stimulate my creative flow. The problem comes that many scientists pride themselves on being rational and will only believe the proven, fact based explanation. But artists know there is a human spirit of creativity and rugged individualism, non conformity that life is full of the duality of unexpected color and murkiness.
I am a spiritual person and find the mystery of life can be fascinating. We can study it through science, and at the same time, express the unexplained and our beliefs through paint, music, dance, and love!!
Lilacs
Read more at: Finished and Feel Good.
Creative Musings: New Book Recommendations
I have recently read 2 books that I just have to share with you!
A Fierce Radiance
The first novel is “The Fierce Radiance” by Lauren Belfer. This is a compelling read from start to finish, part mystery, romance and historical fiction. Ms. Belfer takes us to the early 1940′s in NYC. Here her main character, a female reporter, serendipitously begins to investigate the advent of penicillin. Romance blooms as does her curiosity about the involvement of the pharmaceutical companies in a murder. Ethics about the pricing of antibiotics and the desperation of the government for a remedy for their suffering soldiers make up the plot of this fascinating read.
The Invisible Bridge
My second book recommendation is “The Invisible Bridge” by Julie Orringer. This is also an historical novel with romance thrown in, set from 1937 – the end of WWII and deals mainly with the Holocaust. A sad book, of course, but told in such a sensitive, tender way. Each character is portrayed in such a compassionate articulate way showing the life of an Hungarian Jew in real human everyday terms.
Read more book recommendations at: Summer Reading.
Musings on Creativity: Fall Book Suggestions
As I am sure you have surmised, I love to read. I always carry a book with me just in case I have a spare minute to read a few more pages.
I just finished a book I love and have a couple of other suggestions for fall reading.
Reading good English romantic mystery novels is to me a perfect way to spend a chilled fall afternoon curled up beneath a blanket with a cuppa tea!! I just finished a book that fits this yearning, The Crimson Rooms, by Katharine McMahon.
The Crimson Rooms
This book captures your attention from the start, has romance and a murder to solve. It is set in England in the 1920′s, the main character is a woman, and you will find yourself sneaking time in to read to find out who dunnit!
Another mystery and romance, though set in the USA is The Book of Illusions, by Paul Auster. This story is also captivating, but much different tone than the romantic English novel. Give it a try, you will see what I mean!
The Book of Illusions
My last suggestion follows the romance thread but in a historical fiction vein, Hotel on the Corner of the Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.
Hotel on the Corner of the Bitter and Sweet
I had heard a lot of buzz about this book from friends. Honestly, I thought it would be a trite romance loved by book clubs, but I found it captivating and fresh! I also learned a lot about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
Happy Reading!
Read more at : Summer Reading Suggestions
Wednesday’s Creative Tip: Bring Along a Creative Activity
As I mentioned yesterday, I am going out of town next week,…. to Hawaii! I will posting as often as I can from this paradise and will be showing you their unbelievable florals through photos. To get ready for this trip, and really any one I take, I plan at least a week ahead of time what creative activities I want to bring to stimulate me. This is an excellent idea for anyone who is interested in pursuing a creative lifestyle. Traveling brings so many new visuals, tastes, music, fashion, colors, you name it, it is different from where you live.
My plan is to bring books, one is:
Book to pack
David Mitchell is such a vibrant and unique author. I can’t wait to hunker down with this book! I read Cloud Atlas and loved it!
I also am going to bring a knitting project for the plane. I have to remember to pack my small scissors, or they will be confiscated by security!
Also, my trusty camera and video camera, which both happen to be in my iPhone!
Small sketch book and pencils to have a sketch journal.
Idea journal for random creative ideas that may pop in my head while absorbing the immense Hawaiian beauty!
Trying to get ready!
Getting ready and wow, am I excited!
Read more at: Travel Journal.
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Hi I'm Joye!!
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