Fall

Fall I miss fall…real fall…the one that gets us ready for a real winter with ice and snow. I need to be clear here…I do not miss the ice and snow except for, maybe, two days a year. But oh how I miss the beautiful fall colors on the very large trees that populate the forests of the east coast! I also miss the crispness in the air and the lovely smell of wood-burning fires. Pumpkins and Halloween are so much better when it’s cold! I feel energized in the fall! The kids, when I had kids at home, went back to school, thank God! And I could start and maybe finish a lot of projects that had been cooking in my mind over the summer. I always lose weight in the fall. I like soup and fall is the perfect time for soup, a filling, nutritious, warm and yummy treat! Hot apple cider is much better when it is 40 or 50 degrees outside and you are cuddled up by the fire! The cider mills in New York, both on Long Island and in the Adirondacks, always had an abundance of delicious fresh cider, cider donuts and crisp apples! YUM!!! Pumpkins last longer in the cooler temperature! I like seeing the red noses on the bundled up Trick or Treaters on Halloween. I also think it is not so interesting for them to ‘trick’ when it’s 40 degrees out! The one time my kids got in trouble at Halloween was due to extraordinarily warm weather. Every year after that, parents prayed for cold or rain on Halloween. When I lived in Wenham, Massachusetts, we always went to the Halloween party at the Community Center with our best friends Peter & Sheila Rix and their 3 kids. There was a costume parade, always a trauma, because I was not a costume maker and was a great disappointment to my kids because of it! Then back to the Rixes and we’d all T or T the circle where we lived. Peter had lived there all his life so he knew everyone and told wonderful stories of Halloweens past while we watched the little monsters collect hoards of candy! The final house was always this big old house whose elderly owners had been serving ice cream cones to the great joy of Wenham trick or treaters since Peter was a child! One year my son in desperation to come up with a costume said he wanted to be an apple tree. I said ok, what did that look like to him. He said he wanted to use one of the moving boxes for paintings that we had in the garage and would I paint an apple tree on both sides of it. I heaved a sigh of relief. I could do that. He looked adorable and certainly no one else had anything like it. All went well until, on the small stoop of the fifth house, he turned around after he got his candy and knocked Philip Rix right off the stoop. Oops! Yesterday I went to my first Halloween event with my 9 month old granddaughter,Abby, her mother and my daughter. It was in Glendale and it was hot. Abby was supposed to be a bumblebee but her costume was quilted against the cold; it just didn't work for a hot afternoon in sunny southern California. The rest of the party was great. It is a new generation and I have become crone, who watches over the little ones, with love and joy.... and appreciation for still being invited!

tThe First Day of the Rest of My Life

That lofty title is what yesterday was. I was let go from my latest retail job; I was parttime and they needed someone fulltime. This was a sweet job in a new store with lovely people and beautiful clothes, but I never really fit in. Standing on your feet for 6-8 hours a day is a young person's job and I am not so young anymore. People would come in and ask me if I owned the store. I've had to look at what is important to me and who I am at this stage of my life.

It always comes back to - I am an artist. I have been given this amazing place to live, in a community of artists. I have started receiving Social Security. I am blessed by my family and friends. I have woken up and want to not only smell but enjoy all those roses in my life! I want to paint new paintings, write new scripts, teach new students art, acting & writing! I want to allow myself to feel how good all that feels. I want to settle happily into my very good life.

Growing up was a pretty lonely experience for me. After my Mother died, when I was
24, and my family blew apart, I became a runner. Most of my adult life has been spent looking; for a mentor, for the next person, place or thing that will make my life work. Well, amazingly, my life is working right now! It's been hard work and a lot of grace...and goodness gracious I mean to enjoy it!

So I am taking this opportunity of a lost job to embrace the artist I am and give back to the communities I love, hopefully in ways I haven't even thought of yet!

LifeArt: The Art of Creative Living

Synchronicity & Time

There is a perverse corner of my being that functions only when pressed for time. I seem to be visiting that corner now. My work schedule has doubled, my finances are pinched....and I am writing and painting like a madwoman! Looking at myself from outside myself, I laugh.

I just started several new paintings that are very exciting. I have 2 writing projects that are on the move. And a new project I am not ready to talk about yet. YIPPEE!!!! I am a really happy artist!

This past week was a cranky one. It is doubly nice to finally have a day off and have all these wonderful, creative projects flowing. Also to touch base with my place (water the plants, do some cleaning, restock the larder) and get together with friends.

Life is such a gift...not at all what I expected, but such a gift!

There is an article on me online at www.society805.com click on arts & culture and WAV artists...not perfect but nice to have press! and I like the pictures!

Another New Beginning

I am on another new adventure! Trying to make inroads into LA, the art, the theater etc, etc...so close but so far away! I like to isolate, it is what comes naturally to me. These days there are people all over my life! It is both exhilerating and exhausting.

I am driving longer distances on a more regular basis...unnerving...so odd for someone who used to drive all over the country at the drop of a hat!

I have anxiety. Lots of it. The last year has been filled with it. I thought there was something really wrong with me and that perhaps medication, which I never take, might be in my future. Several people suggested magnesium and meditation. The result is a calmer, happier woman (with fewer leg cramps thanks to the magnesium)!

Back to the topic...I am facing my anxieties, my new adventures with a calmness and a knowing that if I just take one step at a time, one person at a time, all is doable.

And I might even enjoy it!

Speaking of new beginnings, I have added a Gallery page...not perfect but not bad! A new beginning......

What a Difference A Week Makes!

Last week I was stuck, mired in almost ready, getting there, not quite or absolutely not. This week everything seems to be moving forward in a rush.

My show at Gallery 255 is hung and looks really great! The newly configures space is perfect. I have audaciously hung only 1 painting per wall. Scary for me but these paintings are large and are worth it! The opening is Saturday night. There are a lot of other events going on and I am holding the space for people to come to mine. The perfect people.

My day job ends on Sunday. It is an end and it is a new beginning with all the attendant emotions.

I am rehearsing with a new director for my show 'Skydiver'. I am so excited. He is going to help me find the humor in my life story! Honestly I can't wait to laugh at it & me!

It is all good. It is all for my good.

It is better when it's moving forward!

Busy Busy

Where did the last week go? I feel as if I am marching, mostly forward, at a slow but steady pace, and now all of a sudden things are picking up speed!

I am hanging an exhibit of my paintings at Gallery 255 in Ventura on Wednesday. I finally figured out what paintings I am going to hang and so have a huge sense of relief. It is going to be an impressive show! She says modestly. My job is finishing up this week. I have rehearsal for the ballet and have started talking with a new director for my 1-woman show Skydiver which will be performed on June 12 at the WAV. I am teaching an art class, doing a couple of closet organising gigs, thinking about teaching a beginning acting class, taking a writing class....the list goes on. I am grateful that my time is being used creatively.

The problem is my mind has gotten lazy habits. Life has been frustratingly simple these past few months and I stopped using my organizer/day planner. I have started writing things in it. Now I have to retrain myself to actually look at the things I have written.

I love being creative! I feel alive! I feel like I am fulfillin my purpose here on earth! Gratitude is overflowing!

Bon Chance

I am going to be the Queen in the Ventura Ballet Company's Sleeping Beauty! I have never danced ballet in my life. I do not have to in this, but...I do have to be graceful, stand up straight, glide regally, and use hand & arm gestures that are totally unfamiliar in their grace. I will be spending the next two weeks doing lots of yoga, Pilates and more pilates, and practicing making my old hands and arms graceful!

Be careful what you wish for! I have been wanting to get fit, I tend to need a goal...and bingo! I manifested this amazing opportunity! Scares me to death and makes me grateful!

So today I am going to finish some paintings while standing regally, moving my brushes in graceful strokes watching the Sleeping Beauty dvd so I can manifest myself into someone who knows what they're doing onstage in a ballet!

Bon Chance