Hello from Maine

Yet another detail of sculpture...  I know it's getting old but I don't like posting without something to look at.  I'm on the road, currently in Portland, Maine, recently in the Midwest, soon to be in Vermont and then... Brooklyn, NYC!  Mikel got a rockin'  job (soon to be revealed to you all, but not yet!) so he will move down there next week.  I will be in Vermont until the end of August, setting up my show at Firehouse Gallery, doing Bikram and getting down and dirty here in Blog Land, in Etsy Land and Craft Land.  I also hope to be seeing lots of movies, (including the much anticipated magical one coming out this month) picking blackberries, sewing and reading.

By the way, in case you have noticed, my homepage (www.oknosleeping.com) is down due to various reorganizations of minds, funds, planets and dining room tables.  It is truly a time of post-molting, pre-phoenix-like-resurrection.  I'm not the phoenix, my life is.  I think the phoenix is keeping me as a pet... or maybe I'm keeping him as my keeper?  Anyway, stay tuned for some seriously good fun starting next week.

Oh, a book recommendation to anyone interested in yoga and psychology:

Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Stephen Cope.  Don't be deterred by the New Age-y title.  It's "legit" as the kids say.  I don't know exactly who the kids are, but whoever they are, they say it.

Mini studio tip:

Take a walk.  Pick up various discarded, misunderstood treasures (you'll know when you see them-- plastic bits, metal pieces, sticks...) and bring them home for a little hot glue lovin'.  Glitter, paint, other treasures are totally invited.  This craft extravaganza could come in the form of making a trophy for trash-collecting, a shrine for all the lost souls of treasure, or a gift for your aunt.  If you have never used hot glue, beware of how addicting it is.

Hello Vermont

Hello from Vermont!

I will be a bit slow with blogs this week as I am in the whirlwind of getting ready for my sister's wedding, planning our next big adventure, and enjoying not working a full-time, mostly desk job.This starts a new chapter of my blog. The Japan chapter came to a nice, full close. I will have more reflections soon about my time in Japan and my extremely abundant transition here in the US. Abundance and freedom are the name of the game right now.

For now, check out this interesting website/way of life: freegan.info and have a great Thursday!

Leap for Leisure

"Leap for Leisure"

"Cool as a Cucumber in the Snow with Sunglasses and a Creamcicle"

Studio tip:  Using documentation of your work (or other random photos) play with Photoshop or print them and use paint, glue, your hands, etc. to alter the images.  See if the mood of the image changes, or the subject.  Try using a fragment and just playing with it.  Play is key.  It's especially refreshing for me when I use images from documentation because playing directly contradicts the strict rules and focus it takes to document something correctly.  My least favorite chore is documenting my work so after the stress of it I need play to chill out like a cucumber.

Travel Time

I watched a Taiko (Japanese drum) performance last week at school.  

Here I'm acting like a silly fool in front of the largest drum.  This last week has been a nice bunch of "lasts" before I leave:  The last time to see a Taiko performance in Japan, at least for a while.  The last time I eat pounds of shellfish I watch die on the grill for dinner (hopefully...), The last time I eat AMAZING legitimately artistic sushi in Japan.  The last time I make pie with Logan and Meredith in Japan.  The first and possible last time I prepare baby bamboo from scratch... I'm sure I'm forgetting some lasts.  I never mind "lasts" very much because it leaves space in my life for "firsts" and things I miss from before.  This is a time to be fully alive, appreciate every moment and let them go.

I'm not usually into cute animal pics, but my student sent this picture of her cat to me from her cell phone and I think it's a really pretty picture.

The one week count-down has officially started.  VT here I come!!

Studio Tip-a-roo

Some quirky strange-ness from ETSY: 

1.PinkMercury96 2.Morowood 3.MycyclesArt 4.MarianneMcCann

Happy Friday! 

It's my last Friday working in Japan (I still have a Monday-Thursday next week, though.)  I have been following a blog called "Oh, What a World, What a world..." and recently due to her busy life she decided to take a break from giving studio tips for a while.  I totally think studio tips is a stellar idea so here's one from me for today!

Studio tip-a-roo:

When I was in high school I read the book called The Artist's Way.  It is a book about fostering your own creative process whether you consider yourself an artist or not.  I didn't do all of the exercises in it, but one I did do religiously for about half a year, which I would recommend to any artist (and really any person!) to try, is called "Morning Pages.":

*Choose a nice notebook specifically for this activity.  

*Set it by your bed with a good writing tool.  

*Wake up earlier than usual each morning (I think I woke up about 30 minutes earlier even when I was exhausted.  I would sometimes write with one eye closed.  haha.  Seriously!). *Before you do anything else (even sit up, speak or use the bathroom!) start writing.  Don't think about it.  It usually doesn't make sense and my own mind is so busy and stuck of things that I usually repeat things like "this sucks, why do I have to go to school/work.  High school sucks.  I'm so depressed..." or "I had the weirdest dream..." Whatever angsty, weird, annoying, grating, manic, happy, reactionary, etc. noise that's going on in your head.  The point is that you are awake before your inner critic can block you up.  You are able to listen to all of you mental noise and therefore let it go.  When you don't listen, your brain keeps being noisy.  It wants to be listened to.  It won't stop until you do.

*Keep writing non-stop for three pages at least (if you aren't empty yet you can keep going until you are, but three pages is a good number).  Then close it, get up and go along with your day.

Try to do this every day for a month and see how much more clear your mind is.  Also you may realize that there are important things you needed to deal with that you weren't able to because of your mental noise.  Watch how your studio time changes!

Happy making!!

Freedom Flying

(sculpture detail: "Landscape of Enough")  

As soon as I get the OK that my documentation is fine, I will pack this baby up and ship it out of here!  It's my last frontier in Japan.  Woohoo!  Happy Wednesday.  Time to eat lunch with the 9th graders, take the early bus and get to some packing.  

Despite all the amazing things that seem to happen in my life I can't keep from dreaming of more.  It's not that I feel like I don't have enough, it's like the good things now fuel my dreams and make me feel like they can totally come true.  For example, I have been daydreaming of making tons of small paintings on paper while on our cross country bike trip and seeing how the changing landscape is translated in my daily paintings.  What a life it could be (will be)!  I feel like I'm flying off a cliff (flying, NOT jumping).  Freedom!

Speaking of freedom, Mikel and I have been listening to Studio 360 podcasts.  It's an NPR show all about the arts and creativity.  In February Kurt Anderson came to Japan and did a Studio 360 in Japan.  Check it out!  It's especially interesting for us to hear because most of the exotic things about Japan are totally within our experience now.  It also confirms my initial intuition that Japan has a really spooky side underneath the beauty, the cute and the technologically advanced.  The reason I started this paragraph with "speaking of freedom" there is an interview in the Japan podcast with a woman who owns her own business in Tokyo.  She talks about how women and people in general in Japan don't have much freedom.  Not only is Japan small and community based (therefore hard to re-locate and make a new life for yourself) the culture has not had a women's movement and therefore women and men have very strictly prescribed roles and expectations in society.  Listen to the podcast if you want to learn more!  (or have coffee with me in Vermont in a few weeks and I'll explain ;-)

Happy Wednesday!

Blowing out Candles

I took this yesterday while we were driving around with friends in our town. 

 Mikel got out of the car to move a huge tree out of the road.  

I'm sure there were quite a few elderly folks who appreciated the tree moved.

What a beautiful town!  I'll miss the landscape.

It's my Birthday today!!  yay!  I'm 26 now and I made some big wishes before I blew out the candles on the vegan dark chocolate orange cake Mikel made for me (yea, he's pretty much the best husband ever-- he also made vegan quiche, crepes and smoothies.  magic!)  I can't tell you what my wishes were (that would jinx them!) but I will say that they have to do with the big new adventure we are about to embark on starting in June.  More specifically, about our move to Vermont and the possibilities that may grow from that.  We have a new idea that we want to bike across the USA and in the process, stopping to volunteer at organic farms so we can learn skills we want to be able to build our house using alternative energy, and grow our own food and take care of some animals).  The organization we will do this through is WWOOF. Check it out! We hope to learn a ton, meet up with a ton of old friends and meet many new friends. Maybe some peeps will want to join us for part of the adventure!

I've said goodbye to one of the schools I teach at and only have a few days left at the other before I leave on June 1st.  Yay!  Time to tie up a few loose ends and enjoy my last two weeks in Japan-Land!