"All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life."Mary Caroline Richards from her book "Centering in Pottery, Poetry and the Person"
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Name: Mrs. E


Occupation: Artist
Industry: Nonprofit


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Member Since: 8/28/2004

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Sunday, January 18, 2009

wow

"overcome us that, so overcome, we may be ourselves..."
from The Great Divorce - CS Lewis

A wise person said to me that to be our true selves - our truest selves - is the purest way to glorify God.

I am deeply committed to believing that is true. 

Does anybody write better than Lewis?  I am newly resolved to read the things of his I have not yet read. 

Currently
The Great Divorce
By C. S. Lewis
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Saturday, January 10, 2009

memory storage

I remember watching a kindergarten teacher tell a circle of seated little ones that it was good to say things that you were trying to learn out loud because then it went into your brain in more "gates" - your mouth made the words and your ears heard them and if you were reading aloud, your eyes saw them, too.  It made sense.  But if I just write and my fingers touch the keys and my eyes see them, are the words stored away a little deeper?  My brain knows I can retrieve them with a click.  Do you think if it gets written down it is moved to a different place in the brain? One less close to the front of the file cabinet? 

I did something different to the email settings accidentally and a HUGE list of sent email became visible at once.  I spent a couple of hours reliving two years.  It was so interesting - things I would not have clearly remembered were right there and it all rushed back with just a few sentences.  Had I not written those letters, I would perhaps not have those clear memories.  Maybe not have them at all.  It makes a point for journaling.  Diary, perhaps. Little padded book with an impenetrable little-brother-proof lock on the clasp. 

A journal would be entirely different than a collection of email letters though.  Communication is far different than memory capture.  I have a few diaries of relatives.... weather reports, event listing, sometimes a thought, primarily documentation.  Interesting for what was left out compared to what was preserved. 

I recently bought a stack of old tintypes and photos from an estate sale - they are lifetimes conveyed with an expression, a posture, the distance set between the subjects, a slight turn of the body toward or away.  Endlessly fascinating to me.  Even the portraits - what clothing was chosen, what position was assumed, what props were gathered, what facial expression set.

No wonder I was a sociology major. 


Saturday, December 27, 2008

new motivation

motivation to post more often - ah, yes, they return to the place where relationships were maintained (and made, sometimes!) with thoughts and words instead of pictures. 

welcome back, gentlemen and ladies.

very happy to "see" you.


Saturday, November 29, 2008

Really trying this year

** parts for Tia**
I have this deep conviction that I do not know what to do on these holidays, and I tend to avoid them somewhat... just do other people's stuff, you know?  But I came up with a small start of traditions: I am asking all of my "children" to make me an ornament for my tree.  It can be absolutely anything.  The more mis-matched the better, I think.  I have some old ones from the childhood of my children I gave birth to so I will have a few to begin the decoration.  And I will use those big bulbs from my own childhood.  And tinsel, of course.  As the queen of art supplies, this seems fitting for me.  It is a start.  And this means I will have to have a tree - something I have not done since my mother died in 2004, so 2003 was the last one.  Time to do that again.

I like Christmas, but this is a fruit of my lingering grief - this dismissal of celebration.  I am going to try.  Really. Watch. 

You, too, Megan. Bring it with you. 


Saturday, November 15, 2008

almost a month between entries?  My life has been very busy. I will write again soon.



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