Thursday, February 22, 2007

Artist Date and Morning Pages

Flower painted in Painter using a Sumi-e blossom brush


Yesterday I took my artist date for this week. For some reason I'd not really been looking forward to them in general - I think I'd got into a rut - stopped being inventive enough and I was fooling myself that just because I spend so much time alone I didn't actually need a date with myself to look forward to - it was reading that phrase in Finding Water that clued me in to where I was going wrong.

So before going to sleep on Tuesday night I decided to take my date the next afternoon and see what the local shops looked like with fresh eyes... so I borrowed Jim's camera which is compact and went out to see. This was also partly inspired by having wished I'd got a picture of the elephant to show you from Tuesday's list - so here it is:


This pub is covered in rather strange butterflies, presumably inspired by its name:


In the toy shop children are being tempted with this enticing promise - to fly!


And one of the charity shops has this unhappy animal in its window:


Look closely at its label and you will see the poor thing is only a standard tiger:


One of the outcomes of taking my inner artist child to the shops though is that she gets a bit keen on buying toys... in another of the charity shops I bought all these for a total of £3.30. The volunteer at the counter said she had only just put most of them out:

The four bugs are a bee, butterfly, wasp and ladybird; plus there is a little cow and a gosling.

So my inner artist child came back very happy!

This morning I woke up from a strange dream about morning pages. A man who is a friend of a friend, not someone I know well, was in the dream and he was complaining vociferously about having to write morning pages - in fact he was being very eloquent on the matter so I suggested that instead of mouthing off about them he wrote it all down in them... but instead he turned into two children - his inner shaman (he is an apprentice shaman) and his inner child - and we collected up all the soft toys in the dream to make a totem pole!
In my dream it was possible to get them to all sit on top of each other vertically but of course here I just got them to lie down in a line...

Five (more!) lovely things:
  1. I looked in Cotswold Life magazine and fell in love with a house... worth three times what we could currently afford but the stuff that dreams are made of!
  2. I put on a new CD and danced to a couple of tracks for the first time in ages.
  3. I had a lovely bath with my favourite rose scented body wash... mmm...
  4. I heard from a friend who had been away for 3 months - it was great to know she'd returned and was in one piece - it was also a surprise as I thought she wouldn't be back until Saturday.
  5. My valentine roses are still going strong and looking gorgeous.
Hope your week has been going well!

20 comments:

Leah said...

what a joy-filled, inspiring post, caroline! i thank you for sharing it all and all the pics, the "standard" tiger made me smile and i love that you bought all those soft toys and made a totem pole! awesome stuff! i also love the elephant and butterfly signs. i've continued seeing elephants everywhere. this morning i found two small plastic orange elephants that i had completely forgotten about. they came as decoration on a lemonade i had the day i went to a craft fair and they were so cute i kept them. it was fun to find them again. :-)

Joanna said...

I love your totem of toys, you will see that tiger around alot, he was a free gift from Boots. there's also a very miserable elephant, a sad looking giraffe and a hapless hippo all in the same style.
I didn't make it to the exhibition, but picked up a fantastic pack of cookie cutters in the shape of letters up in Tescos for a pound and this will have to do for the moment.

Tinker said...

Oh I love what your inner child found for you - what a wonderful Artist's Date! So glad you went so you could share the photos with us. What I love most though, is your totem pole! It would be wonderful if they could somehow remain vertical as they appear in the photo, wouldn't it?

I have yet to take my Artist's Date this week - it's supposed to rain soon, so I should probably at least get my walk in before that happens...Thanks for sharing your AD with us! (and as soon as I can get my e-mail to cooperate I'll be answering you - I'm hoping this comment will take, the computer's been a bear the last day or so - hmm...)

Anonymous said...

I lost your email - I emptied my mail instead of deleting just the marked copies and now it won't let me back in...re your offer - yes please. I'll take anything I can get - resend if you need more info.

I am inspried to take a camera my next artist's date (I am so proud I managed it already this week - they are so hard for me! Yet to do the walk....)

I am in love with the bees

andrea said...

This post was a pleasure to read -- made me smile. I wished I was with you! The only disappointment was not being able to see the house in the Cotswolds...

Caroline said...

Leah - you life must be getting a bit crowded with all those elephants in it... I have wondered why elephants... and writing this it suddenly occurs to me that I heard one of the possible reasons given by biologists for the evolution of an elephants trunk is to that it is a built-in snorkel! What do you need if you find too much water? A snorkel!

Jo - I read your comment about my totem as my "totem of joys" which is a great name for it! Cookie cutters sound like you are all set for some other sort of AD now.

Terri - I've been wondering about how to make a vertical version (and also the delight of putting the picture on flickr with tags that will mislead people to assume its about pole dancing! :-) I think it could be done with some wire and a pole to attach them too. If I get it to work I'll post a photo. I hope you have had a chance to get your walk before the rain.

Tammy Vitale - you've got your name back! - I don't need more info but I will email you soon. Ah you see them as bees too - I saw them all as bees at first, so did Jim...

Andrea - sorry about that - the magazine site doesn't have copies of all their articles on it... glad the rest made you smile!

gma said...

Great Post!!! Enjoy your art work and photos....Just love reading all the various insights from others in this group!

Cream said...

Flying shoes? Gis a pair! I feel like flying...
Are you sure your roses are real?
Great post, Caro!

Caroline said...

Gemma - thank you for popping by and commenting - I'll be over to visit you too.

Cream - my roses are just beginning to look the worse for wear today...

Unknown said...

Hi Caroline
This post is like a splash of delicious peppermint soap on my soul. There's so much fun and energy in it. I really liked seeing the image from your dream. I also can relate to the feeling of just going through the motions with artists dates. Bravo for your adventure.

Jessie said...

oh my gosh, i am in love with this post! i don't know what i love more...the photos, the flying shoes, the dream, the stuffed animal totem pole, or your list! there's some seriously wonderful stuff happening for you. ahhh...it feels good to read about. :) i like caroline's comparison to a splash of peppermint soap on the soul--yes, i agree! :)

Leah said...

caroline, i just read your comment about the snorkle. that is too funny! love it!

Anonymous said...

Your inner child is a delightful child, she sure knows how to get you out of a rut. I must take mine out to play too.

I want flying shoes too, I'd go really far, Australia. I wonder if they'd run out of flight though, seeing that's so far.

Caroline said...

Potato Print - I love that smell and metaphor - thank you!

Jessie - hi! - thank you, maybe I'll have to let my inner child loose more often - oh oh I think I need an AD today!

Leah - thanks - maybe it would be fun to do a picture of it...

GG - oh and another vote for an AD today - looks like I'll have to make that date with myself... thanks for the encouragement... and GG I'm sure if you got some flying shoes you'd be able to get them to go anywhere!

Anonymous said...

What a delightful post and a joy to read! Leah is right...you are very inspiring! Thank you, Caroline.. I feel like I went on this wonderful AD with you. The flying shoes gave me a big chuckle thinking of my grand daughter wearing her's while walking their dog! No problem keeping up there! :-)

Caroline said...

Dianne Mayne Forche - hello! - thank you very much! I'm glad my inner child's adventures are inspiring.

Janet said...

Hello Caroline! I've been away from blogging for a long time....I've got too many things going on at once (remodeling and painting my house,for instance). But I have to come by and catch up on you whenever I can.I especially liked the little sad faced tiger.I wish I could have been along with you, too!

Caroline said...

Janet - I wish you could too but then it wouldn't have been an artist date... but it would still have been fun!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

i hope you bought that Standard Tiger he looked sad, I bought my wife a similar Stripy Tiger from a shop in Bamburgh in Northumberland, I went into the shop and he was sat on a chair near the door looking very sad, she named him Toffee, although he still has a sad face we think he's happier than he was :)

Caroline said...

Andrew Glazebrook - hello! - I didn't... I do hope someone else has... he's not in the window any more.

Northumberland - that reminds me of wonderful skies and the sea... thank you for that whiff of salt air... goes well with tigers!