Memories From the Past- Where Else Would They Come From?

The question often comes up," if you could do high school or college again would you?"  I have often answered a resounding Hell No!  But in retrospect I guess I would.  I had an awful lot of fun in high school and college. I got in an awful lot of trouble in high school and college as well.  I have just recently reconnected with one of my friends from my first attempt at college.  I guess we were 18 or 19 years old. It's funny how memories from that long ago paint the people in two dimensions.  Intellectually, I know those friends are full, vibrant people living happy lives out there somewhere in the world.  I had a lot of fun with them.  But my knowledge of them is only for this one time period.  Therefore, they are painted in two dimensions in my mind, simply photographs in an album.  They also remain forever 18 or 19 in my brain.  I on the other hand have aged, put on weight and gained an amazing road map on my face made of wrinkles.  I have earned every single one of them. No worries, I could care less.  I am happier now in my life than I have ever been.  I have 2 wonderful daughters, a great husband, and my art career is finally doing something other than decorating my walls. I am 11 months from turning 50 and life is good.
Back to my long lost friend.  Apparently it was I who was long lost. He had looked for me from time to time to see if I had actually survived my twenties. ( there were times that was doubtful)  He also has 2 wonderful daughters, a great wife and is happy.  So now his two dimensional life has filled out and become alive in the present.  It warms my heart that he is well and thriving.  I reached out and said hello to the past and it was all right.  It did not bite me as I probably deserved, it simply had grown up.   I guess we all do despite what we do to ourselves.  Thanks Philip for the hello.

Gnomeo Gnomeo Where for art though Gnomeo

Freedom University of Art and Art Alone

Any one that has ever known me knows that I have always imagined an affordable art university where all the arts are taught and learned.  Even the old ones.  Now granted, ivory carving is definitely a no no unless you acquired the ivory in a completely legal way.  I believe you can infer what I mean here.  I worry that art - ancient art,  is disappearing.  My Great Uncle Jacob was a brass smith and made things out of brass and copper.  I have a very nice coffee mill that he made.  You don't see that very much any more.  Now we all know that unless you have good press and a sponsor you do not make a whole lot of money.  But making art has never been about making money.  Oh it would be nice to make it, but that's not what feuls a true artist.  A true artist has to make their art or they will burst.  I think that is why they are such a unique bunch of individuals.
In my envisioned university we all make art with the help of our mentors and teachers to learn techniques and how to market our art. I would love to go to art school but cannot 1. afford it. 2. do not want unwanted courses.  3. What  I would like to take is an engineering class only for hanging large cumbersome art pieces not to build a water treatment plant.  I would only want to take physics so I can spacially balance my sculpture. You get my drift.  To go to an art school you or your parents will spend $100,000.00 to educate you so you can make $30,000.00 a year if your lucky being a curator or managing a paint store.  What I envision might actually be happening down at 841 Sante Fe Dr..  There is an academy called Denver Entertainment Arts and Design.  From what I can gather Zak Hennessey has a similiar dream.  He is starting from the entertainment side-  Make up artistry,Figure invention for movies,video games and comics etc. Think about it.  Everything in a movie incorporates art.  The costumes, the make up, the set, the landscap, hair, the sound, - everything.  So with a little luck and a lot of fortitude this can happen.  My yearning for a freedom art university might actually happen.  Zak's premise is to teach and to do and to not go broke.  Hmm I wonder if it can happen.  Wouldn't it be wonderful!

Exciting Times Are Just Ahead

I often find that opportunities are often just around the corner.  You go to a party and talk to someone you have never met and find that they are looking for a designer for their new apartment and guess what- you are a designer!  Do not ever be afraid of talking about your passions.  I am passionate about my art though I am very shy about talking about it.  I am always my worst critic. If I do not let other people see it and discuss it for better or worse who will ever know that this is what I do.  Talk to people, go to places where they do similar work, join guilds, participate and teach those who want to learn.  If you want to sell,  find places to sell your work.  Use the passion you feel for your craft and talk the same way. Become part of the larger community.

Resolution #3 The Church Bells Are Ringing

There seems to be an open and heated debate between those who believe in God and those who do not.  I just recently saw a sign that said God is  your invisible friend.  Our country was founded on the most basic freedom.  Freedom of religion.  Now that very freedom is coming under attack.  We cannot pray in schools,  We cannot celebrate Christmas.  Easter is a joke.  Yet our country will bend over backwards to accommodate atheists, Muslims, and other religions.  Why is Christianity being so abused and so secondary.  IN GOD WE TRUST. is on our money but for how long?  I know that some people in the Christian faith have been publicly ridiculed because of their failings.  To be a  Christian does not mean to be perfect-  we are all struggling to be the best we can be.  I Follow God's laws to the best of my ability.  I too fail.  That is the whole reason of the belief That God has our backs.  He knows we will sin yet through Jesus he has saved us. Faith is a rare yet valuable thing.  To have faith in God absolutely,  you have inner peace.  To know that I am not alone and that there is a heaven after everything in this life is done gives me inner peace. I have faith and I believe.  What I do not have is a church community  So this year I have challenged myself to go and find a church home.
To be  Christian does not mean to be stupid or lazy.  To be Christian means we believe that the only way to salvation is through Christ.  This does not make us weak. Quite the contrary.  By following our faith we take pause in every decision by praying.  You laugh, but if I said meditating you would be oh yeah, cool. Do not let semantics prejudice you against Christianity.  Consider this: What truly makes us different from the other animals on the planet?  Is it because we think?  No chimps and gorillas think.  Is it because we have technology?  No we have basically destroyed our planet without any regard searching for the next bigger and better not unlike a horde of locusts eating through a field.  Is it our capacity to love, nurture and socialize-  No, animals through out the world care for their young, stay with their partners and socialize.  So what makes us truly different?  Our belief in a higher power is what seperates us. After all without God we are just another ant colony with bigger nests.

I Have A Dream

We go to work everyday.  We clean our houses, work in the yard and exist one day after another.  What do we do it all for?  Are we working towards anything?  Or are we just existing from day to day. What do we dream of in our every day lives.  If you could make it happen-  what would you really be doing?  What is your dream job?  What is your dream life?
My dream life/job is owning some parcel of land by a national forest and living in a big farm house converted into a bed and breakfast.  We would grow most of the food and have farm animals that supply us with our fare.  We would have retreats for groups of people looking for some serious relaxation.  We would have a pool, hot tubs, art studios and a huge front porch with lots of rockers to relax and watch the sun set.  We would have a huge family room where our guests could play games and warm up by the fire.  We would have a technology center,  home theater, a huge library, a big dining room where we all eat family style.    We would have a nice size pond stocked with fish for fishing.  In my dream bed and breakfast we would meet all types of people and learn about the outside world.  My hubby would be right there beside me as would our girls.  We would work it as a family.  My secret desire. My dream life.  Is it silly?  Will it ever come true?  I do not know-  But I can dream it.  Perhaps one day I can live it.

New Years Resolution #2- Get up and experience life

I am still working hard on New Year's Resolution #1.  I will work hard on it the rest of my life.  I will not win any contests because there are too many variables such as: I love to eat and I do not enjoy excercise.  I just celebrated a fantastic weekend with my  family.  We did the Stock Show on Friday  celebrating  American heritage and history.  Brought home a sick child who fully recovered by Saturday to celebrate Chinese New Year. We made lots of Chinese dishes and decorated the whole house in red banners and lanterns. We went to church which is New Years Resolution # 3 and brought the girls to Awana's.  I need another day to  recover.  My second resolution is to participate in life and to enjoy it.  Not to just sit on the couch and watch other people live pretend lives on the idiot box.  We are going to do activities as a family and experience what life has to offer.  This week was expensive.  Next week I think we will do a freebie park hop and see what kind of play parks are available on this side of the world.   I guess what I am saying is that we are getting up off our duffs and seizing life and living it.
Won't you join us in turning off the TV and turning on life.

2012 New year's Resolution #1

One of my loathsome New Year's resolutions is a common one.  Exercise more, eat less, get healthy.  Now I am not doing this to get "skinny"  I am doing this to get healthy.  My mom called the other day and said that her doctor told her she had plaque in her carotid artery.  Her cholesterol is 179.  I am only 19 years younger than she and my cholesterol is 243.  I have a 6 year old and an 8 year old that I would dearly love to  kiss and hug until they are mothers themselves.  Mostly I want to do this for myself so that I may live and not merely survive. We are a society that is growing fatter, wider and unhealthier by the minute.  We eat more processed food, more sugar and more of everything than any other nation.  One magazine article I read, stated that if the rest of the world ate as much as Americans, we would need 2 more planets to sustain us.  Think about that next time you reach for something you truly don't need.  Remember the idiom, just because you can does not mean you should.  So I have cut down the size of my helpings and the number of them.  I am eliminating processed foods as much as possible from my diet.  I am walking every day.  Sometimes I even run. Now I make this resolution every year, but this time I believe I will succeed.  Why?-  Because I have hope.

2012...I Loathe New Year's Resolutions

Welcome to 2012.  Do I have high hopes for this year?  Absolutely.  Do I have any fears for this year?  You bet.  I always look forward to anything new.  I constantly believe that this time it will be different.  This time I will keep it nice and keep it going for the whole year.  I always believe.  I remember when a school year would start and I would get new notebooks with clean, lined, unblemished paper.  I would smile to myself and promise that I would write in my best penmanship for the whole life of the notebook.  I would succeed for the first week or two, then I would start writing a little sloppier and more carelessly.  By the third or fourth week I was back to my old ways scratching out words and writing so poorly that even an archaeologist would  be unable to decipher what was written. I sabatoge myself in so many ways that I have absolutely no hope in succeeding.  I loathe New Years resolutions because they are the prophesy of our failure.  We list our resolutions every year to emphasize how unaccomplished we truly are.  How could we possibly win?  Why do we do this to ourselves?

We do this to ourselves because one of the great attributes of our species is....HOPE.... We have hope in everything. No matter how horrible something is, there is that within us that spurs us on.  HOPE.  I write down my resolutions because I have hope that this time I will achieve my goals.  I have hope that I will excercise regularly, eat right, go to church every Sunday, be a better wife and a better mother.  I have hope in my fellow people.  With hope comes that irritating yet endearing quality that we share with our pets- OPTIMISM.  My dogs have lots of optimism. Every time we eat dinner  they are optimistic that we will share or that something will magically fall from the table to the floor.  When our kids were small the dogs were rewarded for this optimism by having a veritable bounty fall from the sky.  Now as the children grow older that optisim has not diminished, though the bounty has.  The dogs still stand watch for those treasured, tastey bits that never come.  We list the things we want to change about ourselves, because we want to be better.  This is not a bad thing. I actually think it is quite commendable to want to better ourselves and our world.  So though I loathe New Years resolutions I still make them.  Slowly but surely some of them get done.  But mostly, what gets accomlished is that I am better every year,  not in leaps and bounds but in little bits here and there.  I have hope.  So, to all my friends and family, make those resolutions, keep your hopes up and be optimistic.  2013 is only 361 days away.