Check me out!

I was spotlighted on Julie Balzer's blog the other day as part of a long post she did. What fun! Julie has the best blog full of great ideas, her own and other crafters, tons of photos and inspiring ideas, and lots of links to other artists blogs.

Liz Curtin is a student of mine and a lovely artist. 

See the necklace she's wearing?  She made it and the charms are...paperclips!  Isn't that cool?  Paperclips!

She bent and curled the bottom part of the paperclip so that the charms would hang from the chain.  I think it's a totally genius idea!  I am on the lookout for some pretty, decorative paperclips to use as charms!

A walk in the park

It was a beautiful day today. Not too hot, a little breezy. Perfect. I went for a walk in the park after dinner and pushed myself to walk a little harder and faster and further. It felt good. No, it felt great! That's how it is with the Kelly Rae Roberts ecourse, Flying Lessons I'm taking ( I spoke about it in the previous post). I push myself a little harder, learn something new, feel good about it, move onto the next thing, and so on and so on...... Life is good for so many reasons.

I have been working with Stacey Curnow, a Life Coach who has the blog Midwife for Your Life http://www.staceycurnow.com/blog/ , for 4 months now and I have to say that the experience has changed my life. She is so supportive, encouraging and right on with her advice and suggestions that I don't know how I got by without her for so long. Plus she sends wonderful gifts. She's a gem! Thank you Stacey for helping to make my life so much better and for reminding me to "Live Imperfectly with Great Delight"

Flying Lessons ecourse

Just a quick post to tell you about an incredible ecourse I am taking from the extremely talented and generous and fabulous Kelly Rae Roberts . It's called Flying Lessons: Tips and Tricks to Make your Creative Business Soar. Check it out here: http://kellyraeroberts.com/ecourses/

My Beautiful Park

My Secret Place

Near where I picnic in the summer

Another view behind picnic spot

Bearded Iris Hold Court

Glorious Color

I took these photos the other night between 6 and 7 pm. The light was so amazing and perfect. Carl Shurz Park is this little gem in Manhattan very close to where I live that is so beautiful and magical and I think of it as my park. In the nice weather it can be jam packed with people. I don't like it so much then. On rainy or colder days I may be the only person in the park, except for the people walking their dogs. Since Sasha died last July I don't have that honor anymore. Soon I will get another dog, I'm just not ready yet. So I walk around and visit all our old haunts and look at the dogs in the dog run and dream. I sit near the bridge in the photo above and paint or bring my guitar and play. Anything to connect me to my park again, bittersweet though it is.

Cone flower Quilt & ATC's

Homage to John

My cone flower quilt was designed from a journaling exercise that Julie Balzer did in her Journal Quilt class at City Quilter in Manhattan. Each person was handed a small image and from that had to do a series of quick sketches that the image invoked. From the 8 or 9  sketches done, one image is chosen to blow up and make into an 8 1/2" x 11" quilt. I chose the cone flower because it reminded me of the beautiful house I had in Vermont with my late husband John and the perennial gardens I tended lovingly. It is an homage to my husband.

The quilt is painted with Lumiere fabric paints, machine and hand quilted and in the process of being hand beaded. I spent three glorious hours in the park yesterday sitting at one of the chess tables hand beading.

These are two of 9 ATC's I made for a recent trade I did with a group of women in the Journal Quilt class I just finished taking with Julie Balzer at City Quilter.  The only criteria was that they had to be quilt like in some way. So I took patterned paper I had previously painted with acrylic paints, layered that with cotton batting and backed it all with lightweight canvas. I stitched each ATC with a cross stitch in each corner to hold the layers together then sewed on a found object gleaned from the streets of Manhattan in the week prior to making the ATC's.

Central Park Busking

I'm headed to Central Park soon with my guitar and my songs to sing my heart out. I plan to be by the benches across from Bethesda Fountain, where the roller skaters are,  if anyone is in NYC today or tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

High Time

front of journal

inside of journal

back of journal

Well it is high time I got back to blogging, don't you think! I know I promised myself not too long ago to post more regularly. I just haven't felt like it or been too busy or too tired or, or, or...... Lame excuses I know. It's not as if I don't have anything to say or images to share. So here I am and happy to be back. Hope you are too.

About a month ago I signed up for Mary Ann Moss's Remains of the Day Shabby Journal online class and I've been loving it. This was the impetus for me to clean up and organize my apartment, move three sets of shelves and all the stuff on them including books, jewelry supplies and sewing stuff. All of this in an effort to take a table off it's risers and set my sewing machine up again in a permanent place so that I can sew at a moments notice. I still have lots of work left to do but I am so happy to have my machine back and I'm dreaming of all the projects I want to finish or get started. So here are a few pics of the cover of my journal. I'll have more soon of the sewn pages and I hope to make a video of the finished journal.

I highly recommend Mary Ann's class. Not only does she have excellent video tutorials but also downloads of the class instructions as well as lots of labels. There is also a Yahoo group where you can share not only pictures and video's of your finished journals but also can connect with lots of other artist's and crafters and get advice on problems you may be having with making the journal. It is also a great way to find out about lots of other resources and supplies. Once you sign up for the class you have access to the site for a year. The best $60.00 I've spent in a long time! Enjoy.

So Long 2009, Bring On TWENTY TEN

This morning I got an email from Lisa Call listing her 100 accomplishments for 2009 and thought to myself, I can do this, I should do this. So while I lay in bed recovering from a cold that doesn't seem to want to leave my body I started composing this list in my head and below is the result. I am in awe of Lisa's list and all her incredible feats and realized that my own accomplishments would make me proud as well. It's a great way to look back and fully appreciate all the things one person does in a year and also to think about what goals to set for the coming year.

100 Accomplishments for 2009

1. Chose the word CHOICE as my word of intention for 2009. No more resolutions for me!
2. Attended a weekend retreat called Uplevel Your Life with Christine Kane in North Carolina in March on my birthday weekend.
3. Got over my fear (temporarily) of flying and flew to Charlotte, NC then rented a car and drove to Asheville for the retreat.
4. Made the decision, after many starts and stops, to register for this workshop.
5. Called my friend Christine in Asheville after not speaking with her for at least 10 years.
6. Spent several days in Asheville with Christine & her family who I hadn't seen for 20 years!
7. Drove 3 hours to visit my oldest friend Debbie near Greensboro after the retreat was over and had a fun time. She's lived there for 8 years and this is my first visit.
8. Ordered the Uplevel Your Life workbook upon returning home and started integrating new habits into my life.
9. Began the difficult transition of merging my long time employer into another organization.
10. Drove for 13 hours with my brother Mike to be there for my mother's 80th birthday.
11. Broke off a love relationship that had gone on too long and wasn't working.
12. Taught a new project to my mixed media collage class every Friday morning minus holidays, 1 sick day and 1 personal day. That's 48 times, I think.
13. Starting in late August, taught a new craft class every Monday morning at the senior center of my new employer.
14. Organized and ran four all day workshops of crafts for seniors. All items will be donated to charities.
15. Taught my very first Found Object class and loved it. The finished sculptures will be exhibited from February through April at Hudson Guild Gallery 2.
16. Taught Wrapped Wire and Beaded Jewelry for the first time.
17. Took Julie Balzer's wonderful Journal Quilt class at City Quilter 2 times.
18. Started knitting again after a year long absence.
19. Vowed to not buy any more yarn until I made a big dent in my current stash. Only had one slip up here. Shhh, don't tell anyone.
20. Wrote 45 songs!
21. Committed to working on my songs more and playing them regularly.
22. Performed 10 of my songs at Logos Bookstore, in the garden.
23. Performed my songs at Banjo Jim's open mics three times.
24. Studied with Alex Forbes,  a wonderful songwriting coach.
25. Registered for a day long songwriting workshop that Alex is hosting for her students on January 30th.
26. Read about and worked on my performance anxiety.
27. Bought a beautiful new guitar, a Martin DC-1E.
28. Practiced more and improved my guitar playing.
29. Decided to make a CD of my music. Will start working on this in the next few months.
30. Opened a page on Reverb Nation and MySpace but still can't figure out how to upload my music. One of my goals for 2010.
31. Celebrated 23 years of sobriety.
32. Donated 7 boxes of books and countless bags of stuff to the thrift shop.
33. Donated 4 boxes of books to the library.
34. Cleaned up my studio so I could get in there and work again.
35. Started making jewelry again after a long absence.
36. Had a solo show at Hudson Guild Gallery 2 for two months in the fall.
37. Made 11 brand new pieces for this show.
38. Exhibited a total of 56 pieces of artwork made in the past three years.
39. Sold 7 pieces, several to collectors who already own my work.
40. Added two new collectors to my mailing list.
41. Displayed a photo of my late husband in the living room for the first time in almost 7 years. Couldn't look at his photos prior to that without crying or feeling very sad.
42. Got through the 7th anniversary of his death without falling apart or being totally depressed.
43. Moved all my art supplies out of my bedroom and into my studio (with the exception of my jewelry making supplies).
44. Designed and made a new line of jewelry using vintage mother of pearl buttons and wrapped wire.
45. Displayed and sold my jewelry at Handmade in New York, sponsored by the Ink Pad.
46. Displayed and sold my jewelry at Studio 307, NYC.
47. Worked more on getting my Etsy site up to sell my jewelry and artwork.
48. Posted on my blog after an absence of more than six months.
49. Had a bunch of new comments on my blog.
50. Committed to doing blog posts regularly.
51. Took Stephanie Lee's fabulous online journaling class, Thought Threads.
52. Signed up for Thought Threads again for 2010 and it started today.
53. Celebrated 3 (maybe 4, I've lost track) years of NO TV!
54. Became a Hulu junkie. 
55. Read countless books. A few recent favorites are Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Up Island by Anne Rivers Siddons, The Whole World Over by Julia Glass and the Piano Teacher by Janice YK Lee.
56. Made a vow to read less gory mysteries and more novels and to broaden my scope of authors and subject matter.
57. Wrote in my Gratitude Journal more.
58. Wrote more in my journals.
59. Started an art journal.
60. Cured my plantar faciitis, finally, by buying shoe inserts. Thanks Mom!
61. Quietly mourned the loss of Sasha, my beloved Black Russian Terrier.
62. Adjusted to life without Sasha with my 17 year old cat Blue (Mittah).
63. Hugged my cat more.
64. Listened to my favorite radio station, WFUV as much as possible.
65. Attended many concerts including Jonatha Brooke, Rauol Malo, Lindsay Mac, Kelleigh McKenzie, Chris Smither, Natalia Zuckerman, Joseph Arthur and Krishna Das.
66. Bought CD's for new musical interests: Diane Birch, Kelleigh McKenzie and Lindsay Mac. 
67. Discovered Live from Daryl's House (Daryl Hall's very cool music site) on the internet and watched some amazing performances. Thanks Mike.
68. Enjoyed talking to my brother Mike about music: his, mine, other artists.
69. Started a quotation book.
70. Had a nice Christmas with my family.
71. Celebrated my father's 83rd birthday with him and the family.
72. Made a paper and fabric quilt hand printed from found objects.
73. Hung several shows of student work to great acclaim.
74. Joined facebook and have a love/hate relationship that I need to change.
75. Contacted a singing friend from my days in Port Jefferson and we've stayed in touch.
76. Listened to a cassette tape of me singing songs I'd written in my late teens and early twenties and didn't cringe.
77. Registered for a day long workshop with Krishna Das.
78. Bought a new bed.
79. Saw an old flame and realized I didn't love him anymore though I continued to speak with him on the phone even though I knew I should end it. There's just something about this guy that gets me every time we speak. Plan to end it soon. I promise.
80. Pulled myself out of several bouts of down in the dumps and got back on the horse to ride into the sunset with a smile on my face.
81. Made plans for 2010 to be a big year for me by starting to write my goals down.
82. Made a mini journal to draw in with cool colored markers and make patterns.
83. Visited the ASPCA several times in November and December to look for a dog to adopt and left without crying my eyes out.
84. Decided to maybe wait until spring to adopt a new dog.
85. Cleaned my cat's litter box more regularly. I know, gross. 
86. Borrowed books from friends and family or bought cheap at second hand shops instead of paying full price.
87. Didn't blow my paycheck at TJ Max while visiting my family for the holidays.
88. Hung new artwork in my apartment.
89. Was more aware of what I put into my mouth.
90. Was good to myself a bit more than usual.
91. Was kinder to myself.
92. Gave myself a break more.
93. Listened to my intuition more.
94. Was open to trying new things.
95. Laughed more.
96. Cried less.
97. Dealt with my emotions better some of the time.
98. Realized that I am the only one who can make me happy.
99. Picked my word for 2010: COURAGE
100. Picked my backup word for 2010: HAPPY

Well there you have it! Never thought I'd get there. At about 45 or 50 I didn't think I had anything left to add to the list but just kept going and here we are. I am so proud of myself 

for  making this list and so proud of all my accomplishments in 2009. Thank you Lisa Call 

for writing your list and inspiring me to make mine. Now on to my goals for 2010-next post!

See my Jewelry at

The Holiday Sale at Studio 307

307 Seventh Ave, Suite 1401

between 27th & 28th St.

New York City

Monday Dec. 14th - Sunday Dec. 20 from 10 am - 6 pm

Journaling

It's been almost a week and true to the promise to  myself that I would post, here I am. Not much to say today. Coming out of a rough time emotionally but working it through and through and through..... I've been doing an online journaling class with Stephanie Lee and it has been wonderful but I think draining for me as well. I would encourage anyone interested in journaling to take her online course. She's a fantastic writer who has much insight and very thought provoking exercises. I signed up for the second go-round which starts in January.

Last night when I couldn't sleep and was ruminating over and over and over about every bad thing I could possibly think of, I got up and started writing in my journal. I wrote for almost an hour. Poured my heart out, cried, said some things that really scared me. But then I started feeling better. Towards the end of the mostly negative writing I turned it around and finished up with a few positive things to carry me off to sleep, finally. I did get about 3 hours, not nearly enough for me but felt better today than I have in a long time. Today I wrote pages and  pages on the bus in the pouring rain waiting for all the people to get on and off and finally making it to Broadway to catch the train.

So the moral of this story is 1. I had way more to say than I thought 2. keep up my daily practice of writing in my journal 3. get a good night's sleep tonight 4. write to heal

Flow of Grace

detail

Flow of Grace was one of those pieces that came together almost effortlessly about two weeks before my last show opened in mid September. The day I gave my artist's talk in October, it sold and happy though I am about that I feel a little hole in my heart for this piece that I never got to live with. The title, Flow of Grace, was taken from a CD by Krishna Das that I love. I just loved the title and the way it made me feel. I need more flow of grace in my life and as soon as I finished this piece I knew that would be the title. So thank you Krishna Das for the title and your beautiful music. I recently got to experience him in concert in NYC and it was incredible and the music profoundly moving. I will be taking a workshop with him and Sharon Salzberg in January. Can't wait for that.

Back to My Roots

Paper Quilt

Detail

I made this printed paper and fabric quilt about a month ago based on a class that Melanie Testa taught using recycled items such as cardboard, string. corks, etc. I love printing on paper and fabric and do it a lot with the mixed media collage class I teach.  The individual blocks were machine stitched together then layered with cotton batting and back. The binding was hand stitched and I really want to add some hand stitching in a circular pattern (what else!) but that will come some evening over the long cold winter when I have some extra time.

I have sewn for my whole life starting at about age 5. My Grandma Smith was an excellent seamstress but I don't remember her teaching me. I just picked up a needle one day to make some clothes for a doll and later taught myself to use a sewing machine when I was 12 and started making clothes. 

Quilt making came later when a friend taught me the basics of traditional patterns. This was back in the late 70's to early '80's when Art Quilts were just getting their start and I felt the calling to design my own quilts. I had quilts in a bunch of shows but soon tired of the labor intensive process and abandoned quilts in search of a more immediate process. This led me to being an apprentice at a handmade paper mill and making that my main medium for a number of years. Slowly I incorporated found objects into my work and they eventually won out over the handmade paper to become the stars.

Coming full circle I started playing with fabric again about ten years ago making much smaller quilts that didn't take as much time but were still incredibly satisfying to make. I probably have at least 20 small to medium sized quilts in various stages of finish that I will one day exhibit together. It's funny, I still have people from when I was known as a quiltmaker that ask me how my quiltsmaking is going and soon I can say, "really great and I'm having a show at......."

Onward

Sleight of Hand

Mirror, Mirror

Plunge (detail)

Plunge

Here, at long last are some images from my show Transformation, which came down this past Thursday. I sold 7 pieces! and surpassed the goal that I had set for the amount I wanted to sell. Thank you Christine Kane and Gailann Bruen and Lisa Call for setting me on the right track.

Thursday was a sad day for me. I always have a hard time with transitions and taking down a show is high up there with "what do I do next?" and "how do I top that?" Well the thing is I don't have to top that. I just have to keep moving on, to the next goal, the next show, the next event and make them the focus so that I don't feel this big empty hole in my life.

So moving in the right direction I am participating in a craft show called Handmade in New York on December 12th from 11am to 5pm at St. Anthony's Church on the corner of Sullivan and Houston Sts. in NYC. I will have jewelry, scarves, fabric bags, cards and other paper goods and some small artwork. Hope to see you there! Tell me you saw this blog post and I'll give you a 10% discount on your total purchase. 

Another way for me to move forward is to start posting on this blog again regularly. So my promise to myself is to post at least once a week, more if time permits. See you again soon...

September 2009 Show

I am happy to announce a show of my art work this September at Hudson Guild Gallery ll in NYC. The opening reception is Thursday, September 17th from 6 - 8 pm.  All are welcome!

    Transformation: 

Mixed Media Collage, Painting & Found Object Sculpture

by Liz Curtin

at

Hudson Guild Gallery ll

119 Ninth Ave. between 17 & 18 St.

New York, NY 

September 17 - November 11, 2009

Opening reception: Thursday, Sept. 17 from 6-8 pm

Artist's Talk: Thursday, Oct. 22nd from 1-2 pm 

CHOICE

Soapbox

It has been such a long time since I posted that it's taken me a few minutes to get it all back. The holidays are so hard for me. Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of my husband's death. I just want it to all go away: Christmas, THE anniversary, New Year's; with Thanksgiving, his birthday and our wedding anniversary before that. From late August through New Year's I feel as if I am under siege from the memories. Add to that the economic decline,  the state of my job, the country's erratic weather patterns lately and the wackos out there gunning down their families and it's a wonder I've made it through so far. I did have a few meltdowns, one on Christmas morning and another the day after. Luckily I had good friends nearby who helped me through the crisis. I think I just needed a good cry to get me past part of it.

So this all brings me to the word I have chosen for 2009 to inspire me: CHOICE. Every day I have so many choices to make. Some days it is very clear what the outcome will be. Other days it is exceedingly difficult. Do I spend hours working on my blog, networking and learning new things to add to the blog or do I practice guitar and work on my songs? It's a very hard choice for me to make and when I first started blogging the  choice was clear and the guitar took a back seat. After about two weeks of blogging however I began to feel slighted in the music department. I missed my songs, my calluses were getting soft and my blogging fervor was declining. 

So here I am back again for a new post but I feel ambivalent about the whole thing. It takes so much time to blog. Time that is taken away from other more pro active activities like making art, making music, seeing friends, cooking and organizing my studio and apartment. I could go on and on but you get the picture. I really don't know how I will sort this all out. My boyfriend Tom says do one thing this day and the next thing another day and in theory this does work, except that I tend to get caught up in new things in a big way and everything else falls to the side. 

It all comes down to making better choices, using my time more wisely, letting go of the things that really don't matter in my life. It's an ongoing process that I'm sure will evolve as I do. I would like to credit Christine Kane's blog for the insight about choosing one word to guide us through the New Year instead of making New Year's resolutions (that usually don't work). I discovered Christine's blog through Lisa Call's blog and I got that through Paula's self taught artist blog! See how much time it takes. Unfortunately I don't know how to link those sites in this post but hope to learn that soon. More time!

About Me Photo

Fairyland Shoes

I stepped outside this morning to a cold wet rain with no hood and no umbrella. Sasha and I were not happy. Yesterday it was almost sixty degrees here in NYC. Beautiful but a little freaky for this time of year. Now I sit here trying to do a new post and my computer is acting up again. Makes me want to throw the damn thing against the wall but where would that get me? I guess it's time to head to the Apple store for a check up 'cause this is really frustrating!

The topic for today is my About Me Photo. Several people, friends included, have mentioned that I look a little somber, even nun like, in said photo. A few have politely mentioned the object in the background looking like a cross, which I guess it does, but most definitely is not! It's this charming little piece I did several years ago called "Fairyland Shoes". Of course it's so small that you can hardly see the details at all so I thought I'd set the record straight and prove how uncross like it really is. SEE!!!!!

So the question is should the photo stay or go? Should it be an arty photo without me in it or another attempt at me trying to look arty? I will consider all comments carefully and make my decision later this week. Thanks for your input.

Hello, it's been awhile...

Blockhead

Good morning crazy world. I'm trying hard to stay optimistic in light of all the wild things that are going on around me. Obama troubles, money woes, business crash and burns, foreclosures and bankruptcies abound! What's next in these troubled times? How many of us will go down and who will survive? What will we do to reinvent ourselves, our country, our world? 

What place and future does art have in all of this madness? How are artist's to make a living? Talk about selling our souls..... I have to stay positive and know that my soul will stay intact and make it through to keep creating. For what is my life without my art? 

Look, it's a studio!

Yes indeed folks, there is hope for me after all. On Saturday you couldn't even see the top of this table! You can't imagine how happy I am to have workable space once again. In uncovering some found gems I made several new pieces:

Whitewash

Star Bright

and found this partly finished piece "Who's there?"

Unearthing a studio

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day moving things out of the room in my apartment that I used to call my studio. I had to move stuff out in order to be able to move things around and make the space workable again. In the process I came across lots of work I'd done in the past two years at my former studio on East 10th Street in Greenwich Village. Below is a mixed media collage that incorporates gesso with washes of acrylic paint, fabric scraps, braided trim, masking tape and small pieces of smashed bubble wrap, watercolor crayon and a "nest" of vintage brass metallic cord. 

I was forced to give up my studio in late August because both my apartment rent and studio rent had gone up and I just couldn't afford a separate space any longer. I knew I had to make a decision about this but kept putting it off until I finally said I just have to do this. I spent several months junking stuff and had a few breakdowns in the process. It's hard to give up stuff you've collected and loved for years. I had to close my eyes and open the black bag and toss it in and not look back. A few things got taken out but most of it stayed put and got dragged down four flights of steep stairs to be carted out to the curb. Several weeks before the actual move date I had to start packing everything else in boxes because I couldn't make decisions any longer. It was too hard. I figured I'd do it at the other end, meaning my apartment. What a mistake that was. As the movers brought in box after box of art supplies, found objects, furniture and books I realized there was not enough space in my 450 square foot apartment to house all these treasures, let alone have space to make art. 

Fast forward several months, four to be exact, and I am still surrounded by towering boxes in my bedroom, piled high books in the living room and myriad piles of other stuff everywhere I look. Can you say packrat! I collect stuff and have for years and now it threatens to overwhelm me and swallow me up. I even considered not making art any more (or just miniatures) so I could get rid of everything and live like a normal person, whatever that is. I have been going through things and throwing stuff out and organizing all along. The problem is I have so much stuff that it's a daunting task. And the days that I work I come home exhausted and get nothing done at night. Until I started blogging! Bear with me, I'm almost done........

I have renewed energy and optimism and have finally gone into the room I once called my studio, and has since become the junk room, and unearthed a long table with lots of work waiting to be finished, supplies I'd forgotten about and artwork I haven't seen in months. I still have lots to do and I am happy to report that I started four new pieces from things I found in my cleanup crusade. Wish me luck! 

Sunrise

This morning I watched the sun rise on the eastern shore of Manhattan. It is a beautiful, crisp, clear morning with no wind and only the dog walkers and runners out this early. Sasha led me to the park instead of our usual walk around several blocks. As we came on to the promenade along the East River I watched the light play on the clouds over Queens and Roosevelt Island and decided this was the perfect time to enjoy the serenity and beauty of a sunrise. 

I've lived here for 30 years and don't remember the last time I stood and watched the whole event. My body ached for stretching so I complied. Sasha nudged me for affection so my hand soothed his massive head. I nodded hellos and good mornings to fellow early risers and stood my ground. 

The light playing on the edges of the clouds changed from soft to bright white. Gradually tones of yellow, pink, peach and rose fought for attention while seagulls squawked their breakfast overhead. The chill of morning and Sasha's restlessness almost did me in but I was determined to stay and see my goal of that bright orange ball cresting the top of the clouds. Patiently, patiently we waited and were rewarded with a blinding light show. I felt the energy course through me, preparing me for a mighty day of cleaning and organizing my studio and apartment in preparation for making art and living well.