To Pay Homage to My Beloved

I'd planned to sit down on Valentine's Day for this post . . . but as you can see, I'm a tad late. HEY, but none the less sincere. One of the songs I love the most is "Wind Beneath My Wings" and this post I hope will send a similar message.

My Beloved, my dear husband Roland, has and is such an intense support behind me being an artist. When we first met he encouraged me to continue following my professional career in Fine Art (I'd graduated with my BS in Illustrative Graphic Design and had illustrated for a brief while). Over the years he has always been there helping me sit up my panels and tents, assisting with my mat cutting and framing and a morale steadfast when I was stuck in a creative logjam.

Now that he is more or less retired and I continue at my continual dedicated, driven pace, he is none the less my anchor. Over the past few months he has begun to exhibit some of his "workings in wood" much to satisfy my frugality and requisites for studio displays and projects.

First, he was the total foundation for my "Birdhouse Project". Together we researched finch birdhouses online and we chose one he would build for me. He did a lovely job although he nearly had to stand on his head to get his band saw to cut the angle necessary for the roof pieces to meet. With his continual drive for animals, he even created an angled hole for the finch entry which creates privacy and protection for the youngsters. To finish off his end of the aviary home, he primed and painted the lil' wood abode. From there ... it was all mine to complete ... and I was really pleased with the outcome of our mutual project.

Again, he came to my rescue when, in an attempt to downsize my print rack for my studio, he designed and built me a beautiful oak print rack. It was more compact and just peeked out from under my tall drafting desk. With a more narrow cradle, I double stacked my smaller prints and it presents nice and airy, while professional. He was, again, a God-send.

And just recently, when I moved into my new Studio Space (I believe we are going to number my studio "Studio 13" which has some historically lucky references: In the Great Seal of the United States there are 13 olive leaves (with 13 olives), 13 arrows, and 13 stars. These form a triangle over the eagle with the number 13 on each point. On the reverse the pyramid has 13 levels. And some equally interesting international references: It is an honored number in many countries throughout the world. There are 13 occurrences of the quantity 13 in the design of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in Egypt, the largest stone edifice ever built. In the Indian Pantheon there are 13 Buddhas. The mystical discs that surmount Indian and Chinese pagodas are 13 in number. Enshrined in the Temple of Atsuta in Japan is a sacred sword with 13 objects of mystery forming its hilt. And 13 was the sacred number of the ancient Mexicans – they had 13 snake gods.) Oh my, sorry about that aside ... but, in my new studio I needed a very shallow, tall display table with two shelves. And who came to my rescue? Once again my sweet hubby. With tape measure in hand, and caring hands at work ... he proceeded to craft a lovely Oak Display Table for me. Without knowing it he had provided a shallow back support perfect for me to attach a clap-on lamp to spotlight my tiles.

How does he know to do these functional details that end up satisfying needs I'm not even aware of? Is he Divinely guided? Are we psychically connected? I could venture to answer those questions ... but what I can declare without any inkling of doubt, is that he is the wind beneath my wings. And I can never totally express how indebted my heart is to how he loves and supports who I am. Amongst so many blessing, my Beloved is one of the greatest. Thank you Universe, thank you, thank you, thank you.

"Jacksonville is for the Birds"

Last year three of us "upstart" local artists created a group entitled "Art Presence", to bring about the awareness of Fine Artists and Professional Crafts persons and enliven business in Jacksonville. We are continually inventing events and the most recent is our upcoming "Jacksonville is for the Birds".

I've just finished my Birdhouse ... using polymer clay (what fun and the colors made me salivate). First, I started out deciding a theme, Victorian houses (perfect for our lil Historic Jacksonville which is full
of Victorians). Then, I researched motifs I liked or thought were applicable for my size and shape of house (a finch birdhouse). Next step was to draw an exact-to-size layout of the pieces and, along with my very generous polymer clay teacher (Sarah Waldron - do check out her lovely oil work at: http://sarahwaldron.com/) endeavor to shape, size and process all the parts. She hasn't heard the story yet of how, when attempting to warm my clay, I placed it under my very warm studio desk lamp and cooked the clay (it usually cooks in a toaster over at 265degrees). Overall, I was pretty pleased with it considering it to be my first clay project - I really got into the detail, as you can see. The last day working on it ~ I had to stop myself from making a ladybug for the roses - ha,ha!

The six birdhouses completed early, as a sampling, are now on display at the local J-ville Library for a month, then, May 15th, will go into various Jacksonville businesses for viewing and a final auction, April 17th, in the park with a professional auctioneer to jazz up the event. This event is in concert with the annual Woodlands Hike-a-thon, and dedication of a new trail. Pieces that sell will donate 10% to the Woodlands, 10% to the Art Presence and the rest goes to the artist.

So we're off to see what the next adventure "Art Presence" takes us on. For now, I'm lovin' the new medium of polymer clay and having day dreams of how to incorporate it into my journals. Creativity never ends . . . savor follow where it leads you.