This blog is on hiatus, but . . .

 

. . . in the mean time, I will probably be posting a few things during the summer on my other blog, A note from your Mother, or my website/artblog, Bleeding Heart Studio.  Stop by, if you get the chance.  I'd love to see you there.

Thank you for your friendship and support. See you back here again in a few months.

(The painting is by a self-portrait of Caterina van Hemessen (1528 - ca.1587), the first artist of either gender to paint a self-portrait seated at an easel.  To read more click here.)

I am an invisible woman

"I am an invisible woman"
self-portrait
mixed media on 8 x 10 canvas board
acrylic, collage, egg-carton papier mache

I just finished this piece this week. It's the first in a series, I think. It represents how society doesn't see women of a certain age anymore.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

As an invisible woman, we gain power, too. We can become keen observers and, if we choose, wise and unconventional teachers. We come into our own in so many ways, and that can be an incredibly freeing and powerful feeling.

"I am an invisible woman"
(detail)

I have also been working on an art website called "Bleeding Heart Studio," and while I was jotting down some ideas for it, I wrote this:

"After spending over a decade working my way up the corporate ladder in the marketing departments of several well-known large corporations, I chose to become a full-time mother to raise my two children. This I did, for longer than I ever felt possible. It was the most worthwhile thing I have ever done.

I emerged from this period of self-imposed domesticity to discover that, during this time, I had become an invisible woman in society.

So I returned to my first love. Art.

This time I started with some self-portraits."

What this description doesn't mention is that out of necessity I've also had a series of horrible part-time jobs during my post-corporate years. We live simply, and we are by no means rich. So, like many women, I've had my share of funny, mind-numbing, soul-sucking part-time jobs. The sulphur smell of hard-boiled eggs reminds me of two of them.
:0)

I have been an artist of sorts my whole life. It started when I was young. I drew almost daily well into my teens. I was a writer, designer, and coordinator during much of my corporate career. (That's how I could be corporate, without losing my mind.) I was a creative mother, encouraging my children to explore anything and everything. I have had a large kitchen garden, and am still a creative cook. And I've painted and made jewelery, off and on, for years.

Now is my time, I think. It's my time to really see where this burning love of art can take me.

*****

October 15 is Blog Action Day. Bloggers from over 139 countries will be writing about climate change, reaching over 11 million readers with their message. Please join me on my environmental blog, A note from your Mother, where I'll have links to some interesting information on the topic.

Thanks!

Spring Dreams

Well, the desperate need I had for a radical change last week has passed. It was a combination of many things, not the least of which was a strong primal fight or flight response to a personal crisis. Combine that with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), which comes from living in an area with long cold winters and little sunlight for months on end, and you have an ugly situation. Wisconsin isn't even as cold, snowy and cloudy as many places, but I can see that most other people around here are eager for Spring, too. There's an impatient energy in the air. You can almost reach out and touch it.

I did rename my other blog, though. It's now called Bleeding Heart Studio. I'm still planning to use it to focus on environmental folk art, but I'll be doing lots of other things there, too. Right now I've got so many ideas, I don't know where to start. And every time I sit down, our 15 pound cat jumps on my lap, my legs go numb and the dog decides he absolutely must go out. (This is happening as I write this, too.) We're all ready for Spring!

I was hoping to welcome Spring on March 1, rather than March 21, with a bouquet of flowers, but it's been too cold to buy any. And the bouquets I saw looked either too limp or too artificial, so I decided to share a photo from last June of a bouquet and a fresh fruit tart which I made for a weekend treat. The bouquet was a mix of florist's flowers and peonies and early wildflowers from the garden. It looked, and smelled, beautiful!

When the ice melts in our garden, I'll start looking for the crocuses that pop their little heads through the snow in early Spring. I plan to take a picture of them before the rabbits find them and eat them to the ground. Those first tender young plants must taste so good to the rabbits after a long, cold winter. I often wonder where all the animals find food and shelter to get them through until Spring.

Next Sunday is the beginning of daylight savings time already (can you believe it?), so Spring isn't too far away, even for us. :)