Studio Video made with Animoto

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Stumbled upon this great little online program that creates video using your uploaded pics, video clips and sound or you can use their stuff as well (sound is particularly handy).  30 second clips are free.  Comes as an App for Itunes as well.  Such cool stuff available now...it's crazy; this techie world we live in.  Go on, try it out.  If you do, please comment with a link to what you've done.....I'm curious.

It's All Good

I have been receiving "Blessing Way Challenge" emails from Kate Nowak who is the creator of the Blessings Experiment among many other inspirational works. It's funny how you always get the message you need at just the right moment...
As I actively engage in my own spiritual development, I notice that life has a way of way of bringing to us opportunities to evolve. Not all of them are comfortable. In the past few weeks one of the things that has surfaced is "judgment". I first recognized this theme while participating in a spiritual healers training weekend. What occurred that weekend and in the following few days were numerous events that allowed me to experience the feeling of being judged by others and my subsequent reaction, as well as being in the position of judgment towards others. What was interesting to me was my immediate observation of what I was experiencing in the moment. I was able to be the observer and notice that I moved through a series of thoughts and emotions in a matter of minutes, ultimately getting to a place of acceptance and peace...relatively quickly. In the past I may have held on to the feeling of hurt and resentment for a long time before coming to some kind of resolution and understanding. This, to me, is a sign of personal spiritual growth.....ever closer to living in the moment the Divine self that I am rather than in ego. Hurray!....progress. Right as I was experiencing these events, I received an email from Kate with the subject: Non Judging. Of course - how fitting. I share her some of her words here:

Whenever we judge anything, we tend to place a negative interpretation on it. We judge it as bad or evil or wrong and, in so doing, obscure whatever good might be inherent in it. If you decide, for instance that because your house has burned the ground, the quality of your life has been totally diminished, then you've judged the experience as a bad thing. And in so doing, you've essentially placed a limitation on the amount of good you're willing to let rise out of the situation. What good does come forth will first have to push past the mental barriers your judgment has placed on it. The time it takes for the positive aspects of the experience to be revealed will be totally dependent upon how much negativity you allow to build up around the situation. Essentially, you keep your own good from happening by your refusal to see it.

We do the same thing every time we pick up a newspaper or watch a television newscast and decide that the reports we've read about various people and events are bad. We place a judgment on them and feed into the negative energy already surrounding each situation. And sadly, because we live in a world where what we focus upon increases, our willingness to see only the negative aspects of any situation give it the energy it needs to continue.

That doesn't mean we're supposed to go around pretending that everything is wonderful and our world is trouble-free, however. It just means that we must be willing to refrain from categorizing the experiences and people outside ourselves in only negative terms. It means that we must be willing to look at every challenging experience, person and experience in our lives and tell ourselves, "There is good in here somewhere. And I will find it."

Kate signs her emails appropriately, "It's better to bless....and It's all good." These words and the events of my last few weeks inspired the piece at the top. What do you notice about how judgement impacts your life?...and particularly... how you judge yourself.

"This is the power of blessing: It elevates us beyond the trap of the rightness and wrongness of what has happened."

— Gregg Braden

Trust Yourself

I was fooling around with some metals and new letter stamps today - thought I would do a quick little project. Over 3 hours later, as usual, I had gotten a little carried away and this little trinket grew on it's own as the ideas flowed. At the top is a small print of one of my paintings soldered beneath a glass pebble. The metal piece that started it all is in the middle - patina on brass and textured copper. This was inspired by the book Life is a Verb by Patti Digh. (A moving read by a favorite writer.)
And, at the bottom another angel that manages to creep into many of my pieces. This one is a birthday gift for a good friend and is meant to hang on her wall as an inspiration. Hope she likes it.

Riding the Artfest Wave

What a wonderful, blissful few days of creative fun with friends.  And, let me start by thanking those responsible for making it all happen - Teesha, Tracy and all the others who worked behind the scenes.  What  a huge undertaking to bring together an event of this size and scope.  And also a big thank you to everyone who shared such enthusiasm for my little "kissing fishes".  Thanks to my closest buddies (now dubbed the "Groupers"), I seem to have earned a new moniker as "The Fish Lady" - sheesh!  Anyway, the warm reception was much appreciated.
I didn't manage to get back for the show and tell night on Friday as we were too absorbed in finally exploring the lovely town of Port Townsend and enjoying a fabulous dinner.  So, here's a little show and tell of a couple of items I started in the classes I attended.  On Thursday I was in Sunny Carvalho's Plywood People class.  Really an impressive surprise.  Her paintings are so much more wonderful in person - they have such depth to them.  Mine still needs some finishing touches, but this is where I got her to before I left:

 

On Friday I was in Linda and Opie O'Brien's class, "Set in Stone.  This one was such fun to mess with metals, patinas, cold connections, and concrete.  I managed to get a couple of pendants complete and ready for chains which I will finish at home in my studio.

 

Now....what to start on first now that I'm back home and my head is swimming with ideas and creative energy??!!