It is with much enthusiasm and woopies that I announce that my other blog, Sunday Evening Art Gallery, is back in business!

Back in business, you ask? What are you talking about?

Well, like all seniors on social security, there are priorities. Priorities and more priorities. Having blown my yearly wad on vacationing down in Florida, I had to wait until my budget came back around to be able to afford a renewal — one that includes more storage space and no ads.

There is no doubt that every one of us has to budget our life away. There are always priorities that take precedent over other priorities. Food is more important than going to the movies. Paying your electric bill is more important than buying plants for your garden.

Unless you hang out with the likes of Zuckerberg or Gates, there is always a struggle to figure out which priority needs to come first.

Determining priorities isn’t always a life-and-death decision, of course. It can also be as simple as if you want a shrimp dinner next week you’ll have to eat spaghetti this week. You know. Substitutions.

ANYWAY…..

I’m glad I could rearrange my finances so that I can bring you  larger galleries of the artists I introduced in here.

I do hope you are going over there now and then to check out the diverse worlds I’ve collected through my journeys through the World of Creativity.

See you on the other side!

When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.

~ John Lennon

Sometimes a repeat is just what the imagination needs!

The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.  ~ George Eliot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a human being is hard work.

The road forward has so many bumps and twists and turns it’s hard to set a path to the next stop. And the past has memories of bumps and twists and turns that don’t want to let go.

I know you feel like I do.

One Day you’re Up, the Next Day You’re Down.

Often the down part of it comes from being knocked off your path by unseen circumstances. Or circumstances you anticipated but still hit you hard.

The happy part is what gets you through every day. Love, creativity, inspiration, friendship, all help us float above the rocks and debris to a resting spot ahead.

I have been doing a good job lately of keeping a steady emotional state. Working on my health, my sleep, and my creativity, I have been able to find a comforting balance between chaos and nirvana.

Last week my brother-in-law wound up in the hospital. He’s been a medical mess for years, and this time it might not be as easy to get a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.

And once again I find myself riding that all-too-familiar roller coaster of emotions that travel between ups and downs and guilt and freedom.

That’s the human being part of all of us.

I sometimes feel awkward loving and playing with family and friends when not long ago I lost my son to someone else’s madness. Sometimes I wonder how could I be alive and happy when he cannot.

Before you start to worry, I have worked through all of that. Emotions have their place; they never really disappear. But it’s so much easier to weave it all together into one tapestry and let everything exist together. I have family and friends that I love just as much that keep me going.

One Day you’re Up, the Next Day You’re Down.

Maybe the point of today’s blog is to remind you that it’s okay to be happy when some part of your life is sad. That life is relentless, and it’s up to you to make the most of every day, every situation.  That there is something to be happy about every single day of your life, and it’s up to us to find it.

I went shopping today and bought a lot of bling for my Angel Tears bookmarks and purse charms. I am almost finished with a website so I can share these crafts with you, and that makes me happy.

In reality, One Day you’re Up, the Next Day You’re Up, Too.

Embrace it All!

John Whitehead was born in Demerara, Guyana. He came to the United States at age five and grew up in various inner-city neighborhoods on the west side of Oakland, California.Whitehead pursued a major in economics with a minor in art and in 1979, received his B.A. in economics with high honors. In 1986, he was awarded a master’s degree in economics with magna cum laude distinction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

His sculptural works are the result of geometric abstraction and are primarily abstract expressions of beauty, nature, freedom, human progress, modern architecture, and cultural empowerment.

Whitehead’s body of work mainly consists of totemic sculptures built from fine-grained wood and mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture with varying geometric shapes, repeated forms, and negative spaces.These sculptures reflect a high level of geometric abstraction and often contain objects that are perched precariously atop each other, appearing to defy gravity and/or displaying a balance/imbalance dynamic.“I view my work as an evolving process that seeks to achieve three objectives,” Whitehead explains.“One, to provide sculpture that is imaginative and original; two, to provide sculpture that reflects meticulous craftsmanship and structural strength; and three, to provide sculpture with durable materials, which can reflect, absorb, or blend with their surrounding environments.”

More of John Whitehead’s sculptures can be found at https://www.johnwhiteheadsculptures.com/.

The other day I posted three more of what I endearingly call “My Masterpieces,” a winter’s art project. I am not a professional artist — I’m actually not a professional “anything.” But I love to play.

One of my friend/followers, Maddie Cochere at Breezy Books  wrote a comment that really rang my bells: I love these! You’ve put so much detail into them. And colorful! Don’t they make you happy every time you look at them – they’re so vibrant! That quilt effect is fantastic! 4 exclamation points from me. 🙂.

I found myself thinking of a short thank you, and found myself writing:

You know, everyone likes praise now and then for feats accomplished. Sometimes it’s tough with those around you.. maybe they’re used to your efforts or don’t quite understand the point of why you do extracurricular things. I have written a number of novels and short stories and no one in my family and friends circle have ever asked to read them. Same with Art. So an outsider saying something nice in a particular way makes me feel amazing. Thank you.

After I hit “send” and moved along to reading other blogs, my answer began to haunt me. In a good haunting way, of course. Yet I thought about how much a little compliment means to me. To others.

And I wondered — do we all consciously or unconsciously seek praise for our accomplishments?

Even if it’s something small like cooking a great dinner or cleaning out a closet or teaching your kids how to chop parsley, we all like to hear an atta’ boy now and then.

I mentioned I’ve written a number of things through the past 30 years. Novels I thought were top notch, short stories that were on the mark, poetry that was clever. Yet not one of my circle has ever asked to read anything. 

Not that they don’t love me — not that they don’t appreciate me. It’s more like they’re not aware of my writings. Or I don’t talk about my Creativity enough. Or I haven’t printed something out and requested them to read it. You can’t say something nice about something you’ve never seen.

Yet I do love a good atta’ boy just as much as the next person.

That’s why I always try to throw out compliments to strangers when I can. Nice outfit, great t-shirt, great blog. The complements are genuine, the moment genuine. And a mere sharing of that appreciation at that nano-second can make someone’s day.

And their reaction can make yours.

This isn’t a blog about fishing for compliments. This is a blog about appreciating all kinds of gestures and moments and choices and sharing that appreciation. Getting and giving. 

I don’t think that’s narcistic at all.

That — is human nature.

Having fun looking backwards at my Days of Future Art, seeing what was a hit and what was a miss. I can definitely tell which were experimental and which were a definite plan. Sometimes any sort of art can do that to you — start out with one idea and wind up with something different. Writing did that alot to me, too.

All in all, it was a fun experiment. I plan on hanging these over my work table downstairs.

Until the next Art Experiment ….

Wherever there are birds, there is hope.

~Mehnet Murat Ildan