Yucca Hummer
Into the desolate places
of my life
Where no stinky bug
dared to tread,
No spiders set up web
and where only the crevices
carved by tears
bore evidence of green life
— into those desolate places
of my psyche —
there flew a hummingbird
hovering before my face
and awakening my heart
Unfamiliar Joy
Each Moment
A simple plan…
love each moment,
live each moment,
let the song in your
heart blossom and
guide the dance
in your walk
Flow and the Creative Urge
Today has been just one of those days that I love. Most of the day was really pretty uneventful, however the whole day was extraordinary. Like many days I spent an inordinate amount of time alone, on the computer and designing. So what was different? The energy, the energy in me, the thrill in my gut.
I stayed up until almost 2am last night working on a project. I was exhausted. This morning I woke up before 6am, and just jumped out of bed. I’ve stood and danced most of the day at my computer. I accomplished a lot. The ideas were flowing. I started a new blog, created a few jobs for clients, began a book, listened to lots of my favorite music and continue to have the urge to just create more and more.
I don’t know where this burst of creative energy came from except that it has something to do with being in the flow of walking my walk. I think I’ll come back later to this. I feel like painting!
What IS the Daily Napkin?
What IS the Daily Napkin?
How the Daily Napkin began: My husband and I were married in the winter of 2004. He is such a blessing in my life! We have done a lot of healing work together. The first day he was headed back to work I was filled with love for him.
It Started with My Mom
I remembered that when I was little, my Mom would write our name in fancy lettering on our brown lunch bag, or “I love you” on our napkin, with a little flower or some other drawing. I LOVED that. It made me feel good. So, I decided that I would do the same for my new husband. I tore off one of his brown paper towels, folded it in quarters like a card and wrote “I love you” on the inside, with a little heart, and hid it in his backpack near his lunch.
He Didn’t Say a Word
He didn’t say anything about it, yet I kept doing a new napkin each day all that first week. After all, I was doing it for him, not recognition for me. After the first week, however, I started to get bored with saying the same thing over and over. I started free-thoughting, uplifting or thoughtful things and I continued writing those every workday that I could. There were very few that I missed (Maybe 1-2 days in 6 months). He still didn’t really say anything. But, that did not matter to me.
He came home from work this one day, about 6 months into it, with a plastic shopping bag stuffed full of the napkins. I was shocked. I said, “You never used those?!”
Golden Messages
“Of course not,” he replied, “this here is gold! It’s pure poetry.” I didn’t know what to think about that. My heart filled up to almost bursting with appreciation for this sensitive and loving man who would not throw away my daily scribblings. I found out he would hang them up in his cubicle at work, and change out the display on a daily basis, as long as the message was not too personal.
Daily Practice – The Daily Napkin
I continued the daily practice for years, until Marshal retired the end of 2015. We had many, many bags of napkins through the years. After the first couple years, Marshal said I should create a book of the napkins. I’ve never gotten that far with the process, however, we did start a practice toward that end at that time.
It expanded to be OUR ritual of the heart, as Marshal started typing them up every day, and emailing them back to me. He many times shared the messages with his friends, who then frequently commented back to him positively.
We decided to share them as a blog with you. Since Marshal’s retirement, I decided to incorporate the almost 2,000 poems here instead. May you enjoy them. May you find your own daily ritual of the heart. It so feeds the spirit.
Designing – Art or Craft?
I met with someone yesterday who wants me to completely redo his website. He’s an engineer and very good at writing php and software. He’s definitely not a graphic designer, however. Yet I’ve got to say he is one of the most creative individuals with whom I’ve been acquainted. His enthusiasm and passion for life are contagious. He has that priceless skill of being able to incite epiphany. I am sure the collective IQ of a roomful of any people raises when he walks in.
It’s my belief that each and every one of us has some art form, some natural outlet for our creative urge that makes our heart sing. Whether it be a fine arts expression like painting, dancing or playing a musical instrument, or the valuable art of uplifting someone’s psyche, the urge to express has been exercised, and the world is a better place for it.
To me, it’s the infusion of spirit – the touch of the muse – inspiration that makes it art. Craft is the accumulation of skills. You can be an artist without having developed any level of craft at all. Spirit expresses through you, your heart pours out and art is the process. You can also practice your craft without creating art. Mathmatical formula may produce something quite beautiful, yet if it is not borne of a conscious connection I have perceived some distancing or coldness about the outcome.
Of course all of this is simply semantics. As was pointed out in yesterday’s stimulating conversation, even quantum physics has concluded that it is all one, we are all One. So, you can’t art without craft, and you can’t craft without art. Nevertheless, contrary to what I always believed (we are all artists), I’ve discovered that it is rare to find someone with both old world art skills as well as techno graphic designer skills in this world of specialization.
I’ve found it to be such an enriching combination in my life. I wish it for everyone. It seems to me we could use an infusion of old world skill training in the graphic design world. Wouldn’t it be great if students regularly learned how to really draw before learning Illustrator and designing? Both Art and Craft would benefit.
Joy of Food
Tomorrow evening I am facilitating the Equinox celebration at a beautiful place called Picollo Pastures down in Elk Grove. Before that, tomorrow morning, I am hosting the “Grandmothers” – the women that get together consistantly many times each month to plan, support, and hold space for the circle of women – at my house for final planning and breakfast.
I decided to fix a really nice vegetable, potato and egg thing. I worked for a good hour putting all the components together, put it in the oven and was carefully timing it, when my husband called me into the other room to look at something. One of the not-so-efficient things of being completely in the now is the tendency to get totally involved in whatever you are doing. Well…
Tomorrow I will be joyfully serving the brownest egg dish I’ve ever seen! It smells good. I so thoroughly enjoy fixing food for those I love. And I get great joy from playing with food.
The picture here is at the Agro Art Festival up in Lincoln California, which is put on by the Arts Council of Placer County. They have me (aka Ruby Grapefruit Pearl) come up there and teach children how to play with their food. It’s right up my alley! The kids and the kid in many adults create all kinds of creatures and other things out of raw vegetables and fruits in the Play Garden while sculptors and teams of artists work on more involved agro-art pieces. It is great fun.
The Joy of Tea
My friends and I enjoy doing High Tea up in the mountains every year. One of my best friends has a cabin at a private lake with a clubhouse. It has been in her family for generations. I have many great memories of going up there in the alpine forest, camping, hiking, sunning, visiting and having High Tea, with all the ladies.
One year we invited men too. Husbands and boyfriends dressed up and hung towels on their arms. They waited on us, serenaded us, and generally treated us like queens. It was an exciting year.
I have not got to attend for a time or two, and I have missed it. So, today, Oh Joy, I am headed up for the annual Ladies High Tea. We will have little fancy scones and things, fruits and treats. We will have at least half a dozen different fancy teapots with different flavors of tea. Mostly, we will have some time away from the hustle and bustle of our lives, separated by time and space from all the daily concerns. Time to visit in peace, time to sit joyfully by the peaceful lake and reconnect.
And, time to play! Big hats and feathers, dressed up or down as much as each decides, we will fill up our hearts with the camraderie and sisterhood. It is time to fill my creative coffers, renewing the connection to the artesian well of Joy in my heart. Off to tea!
The Joy of Mining Images
A big piece of Joy for me is mining images.
I am still going through boxes from storage, even though I moved in here over 4.5 years ago. Every box of papers that I bring in has to be gone through and filed (Most of it goes in the big round file marked “recycle”). It’s a bit of a stretch to find the Joy in that job. A big piece of Joy that does stem from that job, though, is mining images.
I have been doing art all of my life. I have lots and lots of old sketchbooks, paintings, ideas and photos. Years ago I took yet another photography class so that I could figure out how to create my big .5mm pencil drawings using photographs and darkroom magic instead, in a sort of chemical montage process that I was inventing. I had to back away from the project when I got pregnant as there was no way I would risk my babies health with exposure to a toxic chemical soup.
When computers came to be more available, I kept imagining that there would be a way to create my vision with them. Years later now with a scanner, a digital camera, Illustrator and Photoshop and Painter, the tools available for my palette are so far more sophisticated than anything I could have imagined back then. I am so grateful for programmers and technology! YES!
So I mine images in my files, redraw or repaint them, add pieces, cut out pieces, scan or photograph them, pull them into Photoshop or Painter and have at it, emerging in a short while from the instantaneous creative flow with another jewel to add to the treasure of images I have available for my work. What a joy!
A few samples of prints created from images that I have mined in this way include: Fanny, Kady, and Remembrance:
Some Challenges of Website Design
I find it curious that I make a good part of my living doing website design. Why curious? Well, even though the “D” word (design) is right in there in the title, in reality the job only entails about 1/2 what I would call design and artistic creation – the part of the job that I naturally shine. I can create new ideas and original art easily all day long.
The other half of the job, however, has constantly been a major challenge for me: writing code, trouble-shooting geeky computer stuff, and learning about SEO matters. Yikes, it makes my hair stand on end just thinking of it, yet it is absolutely critical to the success of my business and the businesses of my clients.
Someone pointed out to me a while back, “Dena, what good does it do for you to design a beautiful looking site, if no one sees it?” Good question. One that we should all pay attention to. We’ve all seen the really pretty sites with all the flashy flash splash, and no content. All dressed up and no place to go.
I’ve worked a long time studying all the different online gurus and implementing what I learned, while battling my urge to close my eyes or grimace at the blatant sales pitches housed in the ugly, garish layouts that rankle my artist sensibilitys.
Recently, I have been working with a woman who is a real SEO specialist. Finally, it’s all making sense. When there is the elegant combination of quality solid website design AND dynamic SEO understructure – AH! Now we have a true winner!