An Answered Prayer

I'm back from Huntsville.  It was a short trip.  It was also life altering. 

To be honest I am still processing the synchronicity of it all. 

Melanie and I had a FABULOUS time as we drove through some of the most beautiful landscapes of our province.  We stopped by the antique shops along the way and eventually made it to the pretty town of Huntsville.  We talked and talked and lunched and walked and we found ourselves walking through  

these doors.  There, I fell head over heals with an artist.  Her art just spoke to me so much it actually tugged at my heartstrings.  I was so moved.  I was inspired.  My art bubble completely busted OPEN.

The lovely woman working in the Gallery told us that artist was Beverly Hawksley.  She was a local artist.  She had a studio in the woods less then ten minutes away and that it was OPEN.

My heart began to race.  My stomach started churning...

OMG.  I get to meet this woman?  And see her studio?  And see more of her work?

So, off we went, ditching the GPS for Melanie's keener sense of direction.  

(She is WAY more on the ball

and has a kinder tone in her voice that I much appreciate).

Upon pulling up to the Studios

(plural = next door is the studio of the amazing potter Eric Lindgren)

Sadly, Beverly had stepped out for the afternoon... 

My heart sank, but I would not give up.

The next day we ventured forth again to the beautiful spot in the woods. 

As we pulled up to the studio I saw this.  Flutter. Flutter.

Beverly graciously welcomed us into her home and studio and I was transported to that place again that took my breath away.  I was SO moved by her work, her style, her composition...

We then walked into HER studio...OMG...

where she was working on her latest masterpiece

and I have to tell you it was by far my favorite!!!  

She is so kind and OPEN and exudes the artist spirit that I hope to possess one day...

If this was not enough...OMG!!!  

I am heading BACK to receive some 

ONE on ONE instruction from her

to help me take my ART to the NEXT level!!!!!

To say that I am excited is the understatement of the YEAR! 

I barely slept last night. 

  This Northern Canadian girl is finally going to be able to learn and grow and thrive without having to hop on a plane.  Instead, I will hop into my car with my windows down and my music playing, and drive two hours South to sit ONE on ONE with an artist who has completely busted me OPEN.

This is HUGE.  This is a GIFT.  This is LIFE ALTERING for me...

So, I am heading there TOMORROW with my art supplies and my OPEN heart

grateful for this synchronicity and as excited as I used to be for the first day of school.

I'll let you know how it goes and I promise to show you more pictures. 

She has already given me homework so that's what I'll be doing today. 

Don't stop asking for what your heart desires... 

because you might just get it when you LEAST expect it.

Please check out her work here. xoxo

 

Lucky Stars

Photo taken by Anne Boulton

Meet my bff.  Her name is Melanie Hunt.  She is an artist. too.  She is a potter, a photographer and a chef. She is also a Mama to two handsome boys named Ethan and Andrew.  She is the president of the Sudbury Basin Potter's Guild and she sits on the board at Eat Local.  (She endures alot of meetings...she is WAY more patient than I am)  She doesn't have a link to an etsy shop or a blog, but if I could I would link you all to her beautiful heart.  We met almost five years ago, yet it feels like I have known her forever.  Our boys were both taking a tots art class at the Sudbury Art Gallery.  Seven months later we finally had a chance to meet for coffee. (that's a long story)  That day was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, a sisterhood,  kindred spirits.

She is the kind of person who will bake you muffins from scratch, the kind with real fruit in them that make your mouth just burst with life.  She's the kind of person who brings you lunch in a pretty basket filled with homemade goodies like yummy calzones and fruit drinks all made by her hand.  She's the kind of person who listens on the phone while you go on your latest rant, she accepts you for who you are... flaws and all.  She is my calm during the storms and has been by my side as I travelled through the darkest days and nights all the while accepting me, and loving me unconditionally.

I wanted to share her with you to let you know that nobody gets anywhere alone.  Melanie has helped me through the opening and closing of mimi and lulu and all of its lessons.  She is the one who came up with the name for this business:  her painted word, all the while making dinner and mothering her two boys.  I called her in a panic with all of my drama...  : "I need a better name for my etsy shop.  Le petit studio just doesn't feel right.  Any ideas"?  Within two minutes as she was stirring something on the stove she had uttered the three most perfect words:  "her painted word".  I LOVE IT! I responded.  It's pretty, feminine AND poetic.  It encompasses my love of colour and words.  It's PERFECT!!!  How do you do that?  I asked.  And just like that Melanie saved the day.  She does that. often.

She is my lighthouse and I adore her.  SO, today I want to honour my friend Melanie Hunt who has been by my side as I've navigated through my identities as a business owner, professor, wife, mother and artist.

Thank-you for putting up with me.  Thank-you for entertaining my wild ideas, my long list of goals and my mania and drama.  Thank-you for always supporting me and for putting it all into perspective.  If you haven't guessed by now I am crazy about you and I know I am not the only one.

I know it's a bittersweet time for you as you get your youngest lad ready to start school.  But I just know that SO MANY AMAZING things await you as you step into a new day.  All the light and love you have shone onto others will light your path along your journey.  And I will be right by your side cheering you on.

I love you dear girl.  always and forever. and then some.

We are heading to Huntsville for a girls day of antiquing and art shop(ping) tomorrow. 

Just the two of us.  No kids, no husbands, nobody.  

We are due for some alone time without interruption.

I feel so blessed.  

Everybody should be so lucky to have a Melanie Hunt in their lives. 

I'm counting my lucky stars.  

I really am.

Spring Bling Now in the Shop!

I'm SO excited about these you guys!  Pretty little brooches in a spring palette.

 

 

Here are some more little brooches with fiber goodness and little faces to keep you company!

A lovely little necklace with a vintage ribbon to tie around your neck...

Here are some more...  Do you have a favorite?

This is probably my favorite newest edition...  These rings have such a nice weight to them... 

 (I made a double just for me...can you guess which one?  It's Boho Girl.)

My little gypsy girl...  I heart her too...

Here is some locket love... 

Put pictures of your favorite people or pets inside...

Some of these beauties are already in the shop!  

The rest will be there by the end of the day tomorrow!  

Thanks for your kind words in my last post. 

The dark cloud is starting to lift and you totally have something to do with that! xo

A special thank-you to my friends Mel and Dave

from Art From Life 

who gave me a photography tutorial today... I have SO much to learn...

 

 

Well Isn't That Nice...

It's a holiday Monday here in Canada...Victoria Day. 

Everything is closed and I couldn't be more content about not having to look at the clock.

We spent a couple of days on Manitoulin Island, 

visiting my Mom and other family peeps. 

It was so nice to fill up on food, drinks, conversation and laughs...

I also managed to sneak in some time to art journal... 

This is something I have been wanting to do in a more consistent and disciplined way. 

I am always filling up notebooks, but I've been wanting to take it up a notch...

The following are some snapshots inside my journal...

  

This last one is my favorite...

She will eventually become a painting, but for now she will sit inside my journal.

I've been trying to find my footing again.  I have been melancholy as of late...missing my ART peeps, craving closer geographical connections with my tribe.  It's not easy being green...  I feel myself retreating into my cocoon...  Sometimes I wish I could pack up the whole family and move to a community that celebrates ART, one that is FULL of "green" people like me...  But, I know that is not possible (right now...)  So, I sit here with a sore heart wishing I could live among my people and not only communicate through these keys that I am tapping down on.  What I can't seem to articulate to the "non-green people" is that ART is not JUST a hobby.  It's not something I do for fun in the basement.  I'm not just an artsy fartsy kind of person.  

What I wish I could express is this:

I AM and ARTist.

It is the WAY I live my life.

It is the way I see the world.

It is what helps me to breathe.

It continues to heal my heart.

It is my absolute.

I doesn't just fit into my day.

I need to fit into it everyday.

Surrounding myself with my ART peeps is like a duck needing to swim in water.

Most of the day I feel alone and isolated.

Because the world I walk among does not understand.

"Aren't you lucky to just be painting all day..."

Where are my green people?

Luck has nothing to do with it.

It is the way I survive.

It is the way I exist.

It is the only way I am able to shine...

(And what do you do?   I'm an artist. period.   Well isn't that nice... )

Handwritten Truths

If you are wondering where I have been this week....  

I've been here...

 
We have been clearing out our basement in the biggest way...going through each and every single box including the ones that have not been opened since 2005.  It has been a draining week, coupled with my writing and my painful kickboxing regime...I am wiped out.

 
I found these...  I had looked for them before.  They were hiding, waiting perhaps for the right time to show themselves...  These are the letters Steve wrote to me while he was away, spanning two tours overseas.  There are more believe it or not.  There is another box with the letters and cards I sent him.  Two wild kids so in love...  one in love with a man who happened to be in the military, the other a military man who happened to be married...


I hold my breath as I open each one...  It brings me back to places I do not want to be.  It also reminds me of the fierce LOVE I have always had for him.  Some of them are deeply embarrassing...  showcasing our immaturity and youth...  Others shine the light on our truth and character, displaying our brave honesty and naive love.  

Oh, email and facebook...I am so happy you weren't around then...  (I almost regret you being around for the last two tours).  I wouldn't have these breathing words in my hands that bring me back to such a vulnerable, painful and loving place.  I wouldn't be able to see just how much the years have created a cage around my heart.

I am so grateful for these pieces of paper with our handwritten words.  Proof of our commitment, our fears, our longings,  and most of all our love.  Reading these letters reminds me just how much we both have grown.  Yet, how underneath the layers of loss and heartbreak lies pure and innocent flawless LOVE.

"Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them."

  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It's Time.

 

Thank-you all so much for helping us to celebrate our news. 

We are still grinning from ear to ear.

  It's nice to see that others can share in our JOY

and not only our pain... THANK-YOU! ♥

There has been alot of stuff going on, besides this wonderful news.  I feel another shift on the horizon and it has me pretty excited over here. 

For one thing, I am finally ready to dive into my writing again...  I have carved out a writing nook, separate from my art studio, a place devoted to finishing my stories. 

I had the amazing opportunity to meet a very respected author last week.  Joseph Boyden was the keynote speaker at a Healthy Schools Conference where Steve was also presenting.  He has now published three books and is a Giller prize winner, which is the most prestigious Canadian prize. To say that I was star struck is an understatement.  He shared personal stories with us.  Stories of life and death, of lessons and purpose.  

I was so moved by the way he peeled back his layers.  The ones called author, man, Metis... and showed us his heart, his pain and his vulnerabilities.  I was truly amazed by the way he shared his truth and exposed himself.  I could taste the honesty as I wore his pain as he spoke his words and shared his jagged broken bits.

Being at this gala has given me the kick in the pants I didn't think I needed...  So, dear friends, as of tomorrow, I will be going under for a while...  I will still be painting and blogging...but I will be in another dimension...

another place inside my heart. 

I know I will not be alone. 

I feel supported.  I feel strong.

  I feel ready.

Here is a painting I finished last week.  She will be in the shop later today.  Her name is Aster.  After looking up the meaning of her name, I learned that it means Star.  How fitting.  A Star to light my path as I head into the darkness...  LOVE to you my dear friends. xoxo 

 

SHOUTING from the Mountain Tops!

I've been trying to figure out how to share our GREAT news...  While I have already outed it on facebook, I am just now starting to process this news.  Not since hearing:  "It's a boy" has my heart been so full of pride.  It has been a long road.  My family and I have been through so much....  too many dark days to count.  But TODAY, I can honestly say, it feels like it has all come FULL circle.  I feel like shouting from the mountain tops!  So, please accept this blogpost in my efforts to SHOUT out my JOY!

Steve Daniel.  
We met at only 19...
Sixteen years ago...

 

This was the first picture I had of him...way before the iphone and facebook days.  

I know...What can I say, I always liked a Bad Boy. 

I kept the heart on it.

Owen said it was cute.  I told him that's what girls do sometimes...he smiled.

We were so young and had no idea what the future held for us.
The great pain, the great joy and all the many lessons in between.

We served as a military family...we sacrificed...we survived... despite everything.

Steve was being groomed to go all the way.
  He was promoted before his peers and respected by them too.
He was at the top of his game when he fell from the sky
almost six years ago...  And, then, the darkness fell upon us.

But of course, with his amazing attitude he persevered and literally became the poster boy for Soldier On.

.

  

He tried it all.
  He didn't stay flat on his back. 
He showed the world what he was really made of...

More than anything, he showed our son
that paralysis doesn't mean life is over...

On the other hand, it means
NEW BEGINNINGS...

Paralympic Dreams...(Beijing 2008)
Representing Canada as an athlete as well as a Veteran

Education and Advocacy
Opportunity and Example
(Yes, that is Justin Trudeau... just sayin...)

And finally, that sometimes the only way you could truly
see what you are made of, 
what potential lies within you...
is by being pushed into the skies, with God blowing
her strong winds...  Because she was the only one 
who really knew the plan for you.  
She knew you would forge ahead
and show the world 
your light. 
She knew you would inspire others
by not only getting through the day
with your head up high but you would WOW them 
with your sheer determination and fortitude.  
You would break barriers
and show the world what kind of grace is 
possible when you believe, 
when you work hard and when 
you want to teach our son by example that 
life can still be beautiful 
despite great pain and disappointment. 

You teach me everyday what it`s like
to be a GREAT human being.  
YOU make me believe in the impossible.  
You make me dig deep within when I don`t think I can go on. 
So here I am, shouting it from the mountain tops: 

I am SO PROUD of you Steve Daniel!!! 

For the man you have become, 
for the way you teach and LOVE our son, 
and for the way you have finally learned to love me. 
Medical School awaits you now.  
You have beaten so many odds. 
You will soon add Dr. Daniel 
to your list of accomplishments. 
Shine on Babe...
Shine on...
xox

 

ART & SOUL (Part 2 of 2)

Misty Mawn Collage

 

Painting by Misty Mawn 

Here is the collage painting I watched Misty Mawn paint before my very eyes.  Isn`t it AMAZING!!!! There were so many collage elements, yet it all looks so seamless. The way she moved the paint on the page using her special tool (I think it's called a pottery rib), was like watching music notes dance through the air on a summer's day.  I was so moved by what I saw unfold, I just had to have it.  While more than one of us wanted to purchase this piece, the chosen name was mine and I am still feeling the JOY.  I can't wait to hang it up!

♥ ♥ ♥

I also met the lovely Pam Carriker, whose work I have been following for years now through Somerset Studio.  On the very last day I had the opportunity to introduce myself to her and I am so happy that I didn't chicken out.  She is one of the most kind humans you can ever meet.  She was so supportive of my creative journey and I hope to sign up for one of her workshops someday soon.  What stood out for me about Pam is that you can FEEL the bliss around her.  The happiness that her ART, her family and the ART's community brings to her.  It was real.  It was beautiful.  It was all so inspiring.

♥ ♥ ♥

I also hung out a little with the creative genius Jesse Reno.  (There were free drinks from 5:30-7:30 at this hotel).  You might remember that I took the three day workshop with him in San Jose California.  I mentioned how that class was very difficult for me and that I struggled.  It was so nice to chat with him and my girl Mindy about ART and life.  He is a master storyteller and I truly believe he has so much to share.  What I learned from him this time is that to hell if you have dozens or even hundreds of paintings that haven't sold.  STACK THEM UP!  It's the process you have to fall in love with.  It doesn't matter if people like the old stuff or the new stuff better.  It doesn't matter how many SALES you have.  JUST PAINT!  JUST PAINT! JUST PAINT!  Coming form Jesse Reno and all that he has already accomplished was a HUGE gift.  I was inspired once again by his philosophies, his art musings and his artistry.  You MUST meet this dude someday!

Here are three paintings I completed yesterday.  It was so nice to finally get back into the studio.  You will notice Misty's influence through my more sophisticated colour palette.  I am still processing the wonderful experience I had in Hampton Virginia.  These paintings will be in the shop tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day to all those who mother their babies, young and old, furry and not.  I can personally say being a Mama to Owen makes me a better human.  He teaches me so much and I thank God for allowing me to be his mama everyday.  I am off to go ATVing today in the woods to sit by the water and be amongst my trees and my birds.  LOVE to you all as you spend the day with the ones you love.

PS.  Stay tuned for my next post as I share a very heartfelt post about Steve (my hubby)...then and now and everything in between.  HUGS to you!

The Misty Mawn Experience

I'm back from ART & SOUL. Three days of instruction with the ultra talented Misty Mawn. I was in total awe as I watched her draw and paint so effortlessly. She made it look so easy. It was like watching magic as she put marks and colour onto the page. She worked quickly and intuitively. Watching her you can't help but want to be better. It makes you want to reach deep within yourself and work towards being the best artist you can possibly be. She totally inspired me. She totally rocks!

Drawing by Misty Mawn

We did alot of drawing on Day 2. She believes that developing your drawing skills can help you become a better painter. I have never been any good at drawing, nor have I ever liked it. It's a little like stretching before a race, I never liked that either. I just wanted to jump into the starting blocks and go full throttle. No pain no gain... I was an obedient student for once.

Here is the first drawing I completed in class. I named her Heidi. I had SO MUCH trouble with her nose. The nose you see at the top of the page is Misty's. It's quite obvious I have alot of practicing to do.

This second drawing was inpsired by a picture I had. Misty encouraged us to seek out pictures and poses that inspired us and that act as our muse. I chose a girl on the swing. In the end, I realized that I drew my mother as a young girl. It totally looks like her. I plan to give it to her for mother's day (shh...don't tell her). It's called "La petite Lehoux" (Lehoux is her maiden name).

Painting by Misty Mawn

Next came the painting and I have to tell you that I could of watched her paint all day long (all week long). She shared her tricks and her tips. I didn't complete mine yet, but I plan to finish it soon.

Painting by Mist Mawn

She also taught us to paint a face using one colour. This really helps you pay attention to the value of your tones. I found it extremely useful. I had to discipline myself to achieve results. This was not easy and it took quite some time. This was Misty's lovely painting.

Painting by Misty Mawn

Misty also taught us how to deconstruct a painting we like by breaking it into shapes. This was amazing once I wrapped my head around it. I am so excited to practice this technique again. I started painting my little girl on the swing. Again, it's not finished. I just didn't have enough time to complete everything.

Here is Misty's interpretation of the violinist. It was fabulous to watch this piece evolve. She told us that we could keep refining it until it looked more polished or we could leave it as is in this painterly finish. I love it this way. This exercise inspired me so very much.

Last but not least, I spent four glorious days with my absolute Bestie Mindy Lacefield from Timssally. Time with her is always so precious. It was perfect. We painted side by side for three days. Her work continues to make me want to shoot for the stars. I also had the opportunity to meet the sweetest woman on the planet. She totally stole my heart. Donna Wynn is the kind of person that makes you feel like the world is still a beautiful place. She radiates sunshine and I totally adore her.

I have more to show you. I was lucky enough to purchase a painting that Misty created on our last day before our very eyes. I was BLOWN AWAY by this piece and I can't wait to show you. I still have to find the perfect frame for it.

If any of you have the opportunity to learn form this beautiful and generous teacher, please do. Misty Mawn makes you want to dig deep and reach for the good stuff. She is a true artist and a kind and generous human being. I have been deeply touched by her teachings and I will treasure everything she has shared. She is a humble and kind soul. She makes you feel so calm which is good for me because I am so hyper...usually. However, I was so nervous around her I kept tripping over my words... I was a total goofball. More in the next post about other great people I met and other lessons I learned. Ciao for now sweet peeps. xox