Notice Each Thing

We are here to witness the creation and abet it. We are here to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but, especially, we notice the beautiful faces and complex natures of each other. 

We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us. We witness our generation and our times. We watch the weather. Otherwise, creation would be playing to an empty house.

  

According to the second law of thermodynamics, things fall apart. Structures disintegrate.

Buckminster Fuller hinted at a reason we are here: By creating things, by thinking up new combinations, we counteract this flow of entropy. We make new structures, new wholeness, so the universe comes out even. 

A shepherd on a hilltop who looks at a mess of stars and thinks, ‘There’s a hunter, a plow, a fish,’ is making mental connections that have as much real force in the universe as the very fires in those stars themselves.

~ Annie Dillard

  

Witness. Yes, we can do that for one another. These paper structures, created with rusted and water colored papers, evolved from the need to create. Of course they evolved. For instance, we worked surrounded by long pine needles so they became the center of a flower. 

In a tree, on some rusty springs, in the brush, amongst the dried flowers from summer we set up the paper flowers and took photographs. 

          My niece and I walked around and found several different appealing placements.

 These are the new structures, the wholeness we contribute to the universe. And I       have returned home with boxes of pine cones, pine needles and dried summer        flowers. 

  More to come.

Following the Lead of Watercolors

Leslie Avon Miller

You are valuable because you exist. 

Not because of what you do or what you have done

 - but simply because you are.

~Max Lucado

Leslie Avon Miller

In a dream this week I made selections. From several choices I had in the dream, I chose a vase, which was old, vintage and, typical of the oddness of dream images, of several styles all at the same time. I knew the vase would fit in with the collection I have inherited from my female ancestors.

Then I selected a mantel clock with a graceful curve of wood and a simple round face. Not too big, not too small, but just right, this clock was designed to sit on the mantel, above a nice warm fire in the heart of the home.

Leslie Avon Miller

A vase; a container of plenty, meant to hold water and beautiful blooms. A clock keeping time, measuring out the days and hours. I choose a container and time.  I think the message is about a life not too full, not too lacking, but just right, here, now in this time. 

Leslie Avon Miller

I acknowledge a sense I have experienced of late that I want to simplify a bit. I want to focus on what is important and to remind myself that there is enough. Enough means I am satisfied, calm and I feel gratitude. My appetite is satiated.

This is not a strongly practiced concept in Western cultures where we experience a lot of messages to have more, do more, earn more, spend more, invest more, be more, compete for the prize more…well you get the point.

  

Leslie Avon Miller

There is enough to go around. There is no competition. There is enough for you and there is enough for me. This concept relaxes me and allows me to be here, at this moment in my life. I like the feeling.

Pausing to deeply enjoy the stars and moon before bed and hearing the bird song in the early morning brings me enjoyment and satisfaction at the beginning and end of the day. It is enough. Life is rich. Life is a miracle. 

A simple life is a treasure.  The lovely and appreciated connections made through the blog world with like minded souls like you are one of my dearest treasures. These experiences are the beautiful blooms I want to place in my container.

 

  

Leslie Avon Miller

Gently following the lead of watercolors in the studio, the placement of a piece of paper just so, and wrapping little bundles just because I am called to do so provides me with contentment in the very moment.

If you would like to receive one of these small paper constructions, you are invited to leave a comment and let me know. I will wait a week and then I will drop your names in a basket and announce the results in my next blog post. I suspect my next post will go up in a week or so. If your email is available via your profile I’ll contact you.

 

Scraps of Time and Paper

Priceless Gifts

An empty day without events.
And that is why
it grew immense
as space. And suddenly
happiness of being
entered me.

I heard
in my heartbeat
the birth of time
and each instant of life
one after the other
came rushing in
like priceless gifts.

- Anna Swir

Gathering scraps, I pieced together many minuscule bits, arranging, adding, gluing, and tearing apart.

The tiny bits blended with one another, beginning a new whole; a thing, a composition, a space in time born of smallness and insignificant scraps of paper. A picture of my time. 

Time is the music of our being.  

It is to us what water is to fish.

~ Jessica Julian

In this world, there are two times.

There is mechanical time and there is body time. 

The first is as rigid and metallic as a 

massive pendulum of iron that swings 

back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. 

The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay. 

The first is unyielding, predetermined. 

The second makes up its mind as it goes along.

~ Alan Lightman

 one moment, one chance

 

She had always felt

that the essence of human experience

lay not primarily in the peak experiences, 

the wedding days and triumphs 

which stood out in the memory like dates

circled in red on old calendars, 

but, rather, in the unself-conscious 

flow of little things--the weekend afternoon

with each member of the family

engaged in his or her own pursuit,

their crossings and connections casual,

dialogues imminently forgettable,

but the sum of such hours creating a synergy

which was important and eternal.

~ Dan Simmons

Happy New Year my friends. 

May 2012 bring us all 

ample creative bluefish times.

Seized with Creative Vigor

Being seized with creative vigor can result in fabulous art discoveries. And a few other things can be discovered too.


Here is a discovery. If you are concurrently doing the laundry while creating interesting collage papers, and you leave the lid of the clothes washer open it will not drain out all that fresh soapy water.


Then sometime later when you meander by, feeling all pleased about your new papers and notice the machine, you can add the clothes and no one will ever know you were a distracted laundry lady. You may wonder how I know these things…I’m not telling!





Are you interested in some tips for collage paper preparations? I know some people have all the technique they need, and some folks are open to trying more. If you have created papers that you find too dull or too bright, or too intense, or too ugly, might I suggest you assume an explorers mindset. Get those papers out of the drawer and on your work surface. Contemplate and consider what you have at hand. Then begin!


I usually work atop a piece of plastic such as a new white or clear garbage bag that has been softened to remove the sharp pleats and fold marks. I put the plastic bag in my clothes dryer with a wet load of laundry. I turn on the dryer for about 60 to 90 seconds and then retrieve the plastic bag. It will be nicely free of fold marks. If you want, you can then turn the dryer back on to finish drying the clothes.






If you don’t have a dryer, you do have an option. Crumple up the plastic bag and place it next to your warm skin. If you are female you have two pretty good spots under your shirt for two bags, one on each side. If you are male you’ll have to think of your own spot. It’s a bit itchy, but after a while the bag will be soft and the fold creases gone. A tip of the hat to Eydi Lampasona who taught me that technique.


Put the side of your paper you like the most face down on the plastic. This technique is for more porous papers like washi and tissues, not watercolor papers. I often find it’s the “B” side, the underneath side I like the best. If you enjoy mark making this is a good time to try some on your paper.






If your paper is too bright apply something to calm it down. Apply your problem solution – what ever it is – ink, paint, what ever you can think of and wait for the magic to happen. I leave each sheet of paper on its own plastic until it is completely dry. I don’t try to move the paper without the plastic support.


If your paper is too dull, how about a nice time flinging paint, or dripping ink, or transferring paint from one surface to another? Let dry, and repeat. That is literally how I create my best collage papers.






My next experiment involves cherry tree bark. I am taking my inspiration from India Flint, who uses eco dyes on cloth. Her work is stunning. I am waiting for the library to let me know her book Eco Colour is available for me to read. But since I am in the mood for exploration, I am just going to plunge ahead and try some things and find out what happens. Its only paper…


I attended a great non art work shop recently on human brains and learning. I love that kind of stuff. The fellow who taught it is John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, researcher and really funny guy. He knows a lot about how humans, especially babies, learn. Did you know the ideal student to teacher ratio is 1 teacher to 5 students? That is how many students the teacher, or more accurately, the teacher’s brain, is actually able to attend to.

The new studio space is tantalizing now. It’s all bright and white. The ceilings sore above the open beam and light streams in through the skylights. The scaffolding is moved out. The space is open and inviting. I could give in to temptation and move in before a floor covering and trim work are completed. I will try to resist, at least until there is a floor. Kurt says he will go investigate flooring options tomorrow. He must sense my patience beginning to melt now that moving into the studio is so close. It’s been five years in process.


I can envision the new studio space having ample room for 5 students and one teacher to work, even with the framing equipment in place. I can envision a 4 day class about collage and creating papers. A little exploration, a little collage paper making and creativity coaching…I love visions.