Reboot.

 

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(my kid is a master at the pause…and pause…and…you get the toddler point:)

excerpt from this blogger’s forthcoming book via Prodigy Gold Books: “Reframe Your Artistry,” on the topic of artistic renewal: 

Unclog this moment from aiming for something. Opens your beginner eyes. Embrace what is. From that angle, sparkles and shine emerge. If you don’t want to get that romantic, pause and see life through a child’s point of view which provides a similar state of wonder.

Otje van der Lelij summarizes the tale of a student seeking feedback from a Zen master in her piece titled, “Why Life Looks Better with Beginner’s Eyes,” included in A Book That Takes Its Time. The student arrives to the master with a head full of scholarly information and opinions for which he wishes to gather more knowledge. After a period of mindful listening, the master responds by sending the student away, stating “…Your head is so crowded with thoughts and questions that there is no room left for my answers. Please go away, empty your mind, and only then come back here. First create some space in your head” (p.100).

Go, my curious pupil. Like that Zen student, go to that open space. Sort out junk, dump teachers you no longer have use for, and erase rules that no longer apply. In your open space, be the artist that you are. Frame your creations off-center or however else you light up.

 

Breaking News: Open Spaces Soon Available.

Take a Pause and Apply Within!

 

Dedicating time and energy to pausing, we expand productive energy. I’m not saying think like this all the time or go on a permanent pause (though I hear silent or knitting or couples retreats are quite delicious). I’m encouraging carefully curated moments to pause from thoughts, feeling states, circumstances, and routines, in order show up, renewed for an artistic moment.

Grow permission and ability to pause. Trust in your artistry and the universe, let go of the rest of life for a set amount of time. It is okay, even, to let go of any thoughts and ideas that emerge. If a creative idea is worth dedicated, active time, the idea will resurface.

by honigjq

Artistic Guardian Angels

 

 

 

art (with attached quote) by my guardian angel: Geri Kelly

Channel your artistic guardian angels, today.

Do you have that special someone, or maybe it’s someones, who noticed your potential?

Maybe they took that potential, not only as a sign to blossom you into the artist that you have become, but also, they sat still with you – dug their heels in with you – as you grew, popping from the mud; sprouting the roots and leaves and flowers you were meant to sprout?

I have been blessed by a few amazing special someones. They have felt larger-to-me than my ordinary small-town lifestyle or point of view. They noticed my seed and propelled me forward, whispering (and at times jerking me forward) to GROW! GROW!

There was Roy Kaiser, my patron saint, who told me I had big city potential. By early teen years, he opened that door to me – letting me know that city artistic life was mine to grab, if I believed in myself, and worked very hard. He had a favorite expression, “no pain, no gain,” which I have come to question in my adult life. I’ve tweaked the expression, internally, to accommodate my feminine core values. My mantra sounds more like, “embrace the discomforts of growing pains.” Roy would go on to become Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Ballet not long after his mentorship of me. His own artistic sparkle allowed my adolescent self to believe that  – I too – was capable of great artistic things.

Then, there’s my dear husband – a far better writer regarding grammar and character development and pace than myself. Michael Gross has led an extraordinary life without telling many people about it (so far), except those patient and literate enough to read his words. To say that his majestic nature stems from being son of a kind, talented MLB talent, is like saying what makes him interesting is one particular constellation in the vibrant night sky. Michael’s mind is vast, like the sky, and unassuming or at times taken for granted, as a steady introvert over our hurried humdrum of footprints upon Earth. It’s the sky and the way he looks at it that is most compelling. During a tough period in my life, those almost-thirtysomething-question-everything days, he reappeared in my life via that clumsy world of Facebook. He has inspired my adulthood, journeying alongside his sky – a personal universe to securely explore new galaxies.

And – the inspiration for this post, she’s a petite female figure who deserves big credit in fine-tuning my view of artistry and humanity. I met her when I was fourteen, and if lucky, I still get to visit her every other week at my ripe age of forty. Geri Kelly. Simply, she is my therapist. But more exactly, she taught me how to view my circumstances, my connection to others, and connection to true fulfillment – as a mere seed that will forever grow, whenever or if ever I am ready.

Geri is with me in every therapy session that I now host, with every dear client I try to fully see in the way I have long felt fully seen by her. Geri is in every chapter of Reframe Your Artistry, the book I woke to write for two years – mornings when I could afford to rise before dear husband and daughter. She is fuel to my purpose and authentic voice. And Geri dances throughout most precious material items in my home: like the painting SHE painted (displayed here, hanging beside my daughter’s bed). Gifted to me with a special quote on the backside, it was intended to honor of my daughter’s birth. And Geri lingers as the most radiant of my guardian angels, just as her selected quote implies…”Grow! Grow!”

To say that I have artistic guardian angels, it negates the full expanse of who they are to me – they are, in reality, great artists and angelic inspiration in how best to live my days: honoring discomforts, celebrating the most precious parts of life, and eternally committed to growth…ever. so. gently.

by honigjq

Please Do Not Disturb the Sand

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Look what happens when museum culture intersects with an installation?

Urban legend tells that the creators of the FedEx logo had no idea they’d created an arrow in the middle. Happenstance, so the legend goes, the logo took on a life of its own, earning design awards for the subliminal message.

I like to think that this installation at the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College has that same kind of potential. The main exhibit hall is dedicated to Sci-Fi through October. And be it that this museum is free of charge and kid friendly, you have no excuse not to check things out if you live in the greater Philly area.

While I want to believe this artist – Andrew Yang – is my next besty in the efforts of artists to make bold statements to bridge gap between climate issue and global tipping points, I think this is merely another FedEx happy accident**.

Yang – a Georgia native and now residing in Chicago, Illinois – composed this piece allegedly as a tribute to Carl Sagan and his celestial regard.

“…each star is represented by one grain of sand.”

A Beach (For Carl Sagan), 2016

But what drew me to the piece, pardon my ignorance Mr. Yang and Mr. Sagan, was a funny-ish fusion in my mind between the museum prompt, “Please Do Not Disturb the Sand” and a running melody in my head – of late – that art sometimes imitates life. Art, sometimes, even in a happy accident moment like this, says exactly what I’ve been trying to formulate and spread as a message re: climate and Earth’s native inhabitants (like stone to dust or sand, land just the way it was born, or water in its infinite states and placement).

So, when I went to the free museum on a typical Sunday for family time, I left with much more. I had that transcendent experience that art and nature provide, expanding my own growing points of view and marrying that with imagination.

Congrats to the Berman Museum of Art and Andrew Yang for sharing this vital masterpiece with me, my family, and my virtual world.

Go forward, friendly readers, and create your own clever thing of natural genius!

 

** FYI, despite what people have told me over the years, I just looked it up – and seems like the subliminal arrow in the FedEx logo – created in 1994 – by Linden Leader and Landor – was quite deliberate in its genius. But, my story is better told with the suspension of reality. No?

by honigjq

How long must we wait? May the future start now…

#phoenixvillereads

Story one, in “How Long til Black Future Month?,” was everything I hoped it could be. And more. I purchased the much anticipated book at my local, adorable bookstore: Reads & Co. It was a self-splurge after dropping whatever I could afford on my daughter’s first visit to this inviting, carefully curated collection of books. My daughter’s words encapsulate the welcoming vibe at the store, when to the kind co-owner – Jason Hafer – she said, “can I stay here forever?”

Complete with a spaceship in the kids’ section and the very it book I’d been craving to read (since happening upon an interview with Black Future Month’s author, Jemisin, in Writer’s Digest) my daughter and I left the store – literally – skipping. And she asked, “when can we go back there again?” And I said, as soon as mommy can afford it.

But about the it book.

I believe authors to readers (like teachers to students, therapists to clients) pop into our world, at the very time they are needed, and we cling to those that speak to our truest longings.

That is where Jemisin found me. And held me.

In story one, The Ones Who Stay to Fight, Jemisin choreographed a world where I’d like to reside: halfway between speculative fiction and philosophical brushstrokes that, together, dance a scene for a better world. In Jemisin’s constructed world, aside from a well thought out and carefully debated violent moment, there is fresh ground on which I hope to plant my feet in a not-so-distant future.

The author’s voice, to me, is part clairvoyant, part anthropologist, part diplomat, part social worker (and she does a fabulous job, my fellow social workers, of directly addressing the dilemmas and bravery of social workers!! in this story, woohooo). Jemisin presents a place that I can picture and yet feels perhaps out of my grasp in my own lifetime, but hopefully not out of grasp during my daughter’s. She closes the story with a calling, “Now. Let’s get to work.” And, I cannot help but feel like she embodies the best of a Reframe Your Artistry world, gathering a thing or two of beauty through artistry, and trying to elevate our existence on both a micro and macro level.

Jemisin’s world? Oh, glad you asked. It’s centered around a city named Um-Helat, and maybe the most approximate realish place may be Brooklyn. But Um-Helat presents a:

“realization that once…differences of opinion involved differences in respect. That once, value was ascribed to some people and not others. That once, humanity was acknowledged for some, and not others…they begin to perceive that ours is a world where the notion that some people are less important than others has been allowed to take root, and grow until it buckles and cracks the foundation of our humanity.” pp.9-10

I wonder, in naming the city – Um-Helat – might Jemisin be teasing her readers to ask for more cities and more stories like this, like, “Um-Hell-of-a-Lot?”

If I take nothing more with me, forever, from this story (and I do take pride in my memory vice v. virtue….that great art stays with me, like a tattoo), it is that I shall not stop believing in tomorrow. Because, like Jemisin, in my mind – I am living it, today.

by honigjq

New Routine: Face Art Anxiety with a Beginner’s Curiosity

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depending on your outlook, art?

The primary key to unlocking your artistry requires pulling back the cozy comforter and making art. Show-up, pay attention, and make art. Make art, any art, make art. It’s not about getting rid of anxiety or curing it. For those who struggle with either more general anxiety or Art Anxiety, specifically, the primary goal for both involves learning to live with and give less credit to our anxiety, rather than anxiety dictating our lives. We also do not want to repress or reject anxiety because it will show up in other ways such as excuses or inauthentic gestures. And remember, whenever possible, turn off the mindless social media and memory chatter. It fuels unproductive anxiety.

Move toward your artistic side, right now:

  • Re-examine an abandoned project or a portfolio with beginner eyes. Add material to the old material you have neglected or forgotten about.
  • Set a timer for five minutes. Play around with scraps, clay, newspaper, or non-recyclable-whatever-you-haves (better as art than landfill), and see where your imagination takes you. Place less emphasis on defining your project, and instead – focus on showing up to art making; be playful, curious, and directionless.
by honigjq

Play Around with Dirt

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Dirt 2002

This is a favorite go to, for me: play around with dirt. Besides the metaphor as wildly inspiring, dirt offers our inner-artist much guidance.

Step outside, place your hands in the first patch of dirt or mud that you locate. Smother as much of your skin into the mud. Paint a portion of your body. Consider jumping up and down in muddy puddles, as my daughter and Peppa Pig have invited me to do. The celebratory energy has a twofold effect: 1, you are stirring circulation needed for creative focus; and 2, it brings an inherent appreciation to something too often thought of as a problem spot in the world. “Watch out for the muddy puddle. You don’t want to get messy,” sounds different to me than, “Look for muddy puddles to jump in. Let’s have some fun!”

One of my favorite creations arrived one sullen afternoon. I was depressed (triggered by a grieving coming-of-age-self-absorbed heart), and moodiness oozed over my plate of life. I walked into my parents’ backyard and smeared dirt over an old canvas. Then, I dusted the dirt with a coat of paint. It remains a piece of abstract wall art of which I am most proud. Go on. If you read this far, make your own masterpiece with dirt.

Share with us – submissions accepted at reframeyourartistry@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

by honigjq

Avoiding Your Artistry?

 

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Vent in need of cleaning? v. Black hole of rediscovery?

If You Currently Avoid Art Making:

Allow nature, just as it is, to inspire. A blade of grass has masterpiece potential. Refrain, respond, or repurpose nature for simple avenues back to creativity.  Allow for imperfection throughout your artistic and non-artistic moments. Cheer yourself onward through coffee spills,  painting smudges, or social snafus.

 

 

Breaking News:

We are humans, and by nature of being a human, we are imperfect. Mistakes do not make us less valuable. Rather, they affirm exactly who we are, with all our natural human potential. Feel inspired by mistakes, as often as possible. Mistakes are teachable moments or discoveries in the making.

 

 

Allow impermanence to remind you that every moment ends and leads to a new moment. As mindful artists, we do not have to feel trapped by any one project or style. Lessen the pressure on any one moment and, subsequently, quiet the avoidance meter.

Allow incompleteness to guide you back to previously abandoned projects. Or take a break from a project deciding at some future moment if it is beautiful just as it is or needs some TLC.

by honigjq

Change Your Frame of Reference, Change Your World.

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Bananas, by Brenda Honig

Your mind might go in any which direction with art. Some see what is before them with an explicit lens. Bananas are bananas. However, with the gift of art: you may see way past the the surface (and come back again, to it, if you want).

This is a painting conveying bananas and to people open to the representational frames of reference it also conveys intimacy and sensuality. Representational frames of reference create a narrative. The narrative is a tango between the image, the imagination of the audience, and the boundless freedom of interpretation.

Be an explorer, let me know what you see. There is no right or wrong, again – to me – the beauty and healing power of the arts.

Today, I challenge you to create something that has surface meaning and infinite meaning and no meaning, at all.

by honigjq

Join the INTENT…

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View from my 1st and only hike (so far).

 

Very big into intentional living and thinking, lately.

The more we place our attention in the direction in which we intend to go – for the next minute, weeks, years, or lifetime, powerful energy awakens. Mallika Chopra, the elegant original thinker – and yes, the daughter of Deepak Chopra – developed strategies that follow the acronym: INTENT.

INTENT, as per her Living with Intent: My Somewhat Messy Journey to Purpose, written in 2015 and featured in adapted from in Time’s Special Edition on Mindfulness: The New Science of Health and Happiness includes:

Incubate: pause, quiet your mind to begin again, and ground into who you are, now

Notice: pay attention and recognize the surrounding world

Trust: confidence building through intuition and compassion

Express: share with the universe and create accountability

Nurture: cultivate and honor that growth is not linear; coping with ebb and flow

Take Action: show up, show up, show up (yah know, my familiar chorus!)

 

I am drawn to the way Chopra walks me through a process, so that an intent is less an abstract notion in the moment, and rather, evolves into a companion throughout the lifespan. Go forward, today, creating and inspired by INTENT.

by honigjq

When Art imitates life imitating life.

 

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Walden Pond, 2017

JOIN ME IN DOWNLOADING YOUR DREAMS IN THE COMMENTS OF THIS POST…

I had a dream, last night. I returned to a favorite spot – Walden Pond. This time, I arrived, alone and along an unmarked, previously untravelled path. I didn’t know I was there ’til I saw dark, brownish-gray water popping through evergreen and heard summer laughter.

The laughter turned to, “Oh, no,”‘s.

My lush path parted and I was right next to the other Walden Pond visitors. Now, I saw what they were looking at with both wonder and concern.

Giant rocks jumped out of the water, seemingly spontaneous and unprompted. It was interesting at first. Then, the rocks erupted more intensely and approached all of us visitors, pond side. I recall a moment to pause, thinking something deep within the pond is causing this rupture.

We ran for cover. I was the only one that knew the secret path. I thought of those I left behind. I thought of my selfishness. Soon, the only thing that I could think about was running back home to my partner and daughter.

Sometimes, I wake thinking, our dreams are vivid allegories.

by honigjq