Tag: Art

No resolutions made.

I did not make New Year resolutions this year.  I have decided they don’t really work for me.  I guess I do not have a very resolute personality!  Instead I have decided to take a close look at those things in my life that may need resolution to try to find solutions.  So they are not resolutions.  Just perhaps solutions.

I have rheumatoid arthritis.   I was diagnosed about a year and a half ago.  It took me about 4 months to get an appointment with a specialist.  I gave the prescribed drug a try….over one year’s worth, mind you.  I felt worse on it than I remembered when I wasn’t taking it.  So my solution, at this point, has been to discontinue the program and find something more holistic for myself.  Which is what I am all about anyway, and I can’t believe I let myself be talked into a prescription medication.

My solution:  cleansing my body of toxins.  I feel so much better.  And it has only been about 2 1/2 weeks.  My pain level has decreased.  My activity level has increased.  Oh, and I have lost a few pounds, too, which is a bonus!

I live in a very small house.  I did not do a very good job at  weeding out possessions when moving from large to small to smaller.  And every time I get resolute about making more room for us humans in the house, I come across things like this: 

Really, how can I not have my favorite picture of my first grandson and I.  And the Russian Orthodox triptych…given to me by my godsons.  The shell tree – made by my youngest daughter.  The whalebone ptarmigan and the ivory sea otter.  Good grief, those, perhaps unlike the others, will never go….made by my mother Gert Svarny.

I believe I will try some small, unobtrusive storage boxes.  You know, either baskets, or linen covered boxes with lids.  And put stuff away, put the boxes in the closet, and recycle things once in a while.  Hmmmm….I’ll let you know if it works!

Side projects.

Yesterday was a foggy, drizzly day.  Not a day for battling the salmonberry bushes if you had any regard for your physical well-being.  The fish is all up in the drying house, with heat and fans on it (note: fog=no wind) so that it will continue to dry and not spoil.  So…what to do.  Not clean house!  It was Saturday, so no grandson to watch – although he did end up spending the night!  Instead of making chocolates, Mom and Diane shamed me into working on a project I started at least 4 weeks ago. 

My design phase of a fur seal throat pouch.

You can see my basket start, which will be used on the pouch, as well as my mock up.   Diane and Mom have already finished theirs, basically, so yesterday Diane was working on a wild rye grass basket that she is ready to start the turning stich on. 

There is nothing like the sheen of a wild rye basket.

Diane was commenting, that no matter how many baskets she makes, she always drags out the Svarny-girl bible…Aleut Basket Weaving, or Sophie’s book, when it comes time to turning. 

Mom was forced to get out the graph paper to work on her blueberry design for the basket she is weaving.  She hates to do graph work, although not as much as Diane.  Diane says she needs to do more planning and design work – but it just ain’t gonna happen!!  As you can see, Mom decided that piano work was a bit more interesting than anything else! 

Lalala....even the best of artists procrastinate at times!

We will get it together.  There is just so much else to do, though.

Starting young.

I sit here contemplating the short distance to the studio and think that I should use the wovel to clear the path from mom’s front step and then mine to the studio.  I pick up two pieces of soapstone.  Turning the first over in my hands,  I cup the rounded edges of a flower, studiously crafted by the hands of an 8 year old Laresa.  Smooth, with the beginnings of a shine on the surface, a process that takes hours and days to complete. 

The other, still a rough rectangle with slightly smoothed and rounded corners, made by SP when he was 6, shows the beginnings of carving techniques, and also the impatience of youth, as the object is turned into a ladybug with the addition of paint to create color, legs, head, and antennae. 

And, yes, I am on my soapbox again.  Starting young just opens the mind to creativity which is so necessary for productivity.  Plus, as my mom says, working with someone else also bears the fruits of creativity as you bounce ideas off one another. 

Gert's alabaster and Laresa's acryllic.

 Enough said.