Last weekend Shoshana, Coco, Mz. Blu, Greta, and set off for some rest and chillaxation at Greta's grandma's house in Snoqualmie.I don't know what I enjoy more, leaving the city and feeling the excitement of escaping my everyday life, or coming back to city and getting to sleep in my own bed. Greta's grandma is lovely lady and owner of a very comical white french bulldog named Henry. I am not much for animals. Contrary to popular belief, I never had any really negative animal experiences, other than living with Jupiter, the cat from hell, getting thrown from a horse twice and getting pissed on by a rabbit sometime during Kindergarten. I just never had a pet, so animals, to me are kind of like other people's children, not my responsibility, and something that should refrain from licking or jumping on me. Henry in definitely a jumper, but there is still something really endearing about him.Mz. Blu, adores small dogs, so she spent her entire weekend alternating between playing with Henry and trying to get him to jump on me (thank for that).
But that aside, it was really awesome to just hang out. Coco couldn't join us until Saturday, so the rest of us had a leisurely dinner at Yanni's, a fabulous Greek place not too far from my house. Then we drove to Snoqualmie and made it in time to see the second showing of the debates. I worked on some painting and we all just drank tea and chatted. The next day Greta and I were the first up so we ran some errands and ended up taking a moment to get some pedicures. By the time we got back the other women were awake and Coco had arrived, so after a nice brunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup, we broke out the canvasses and started to paint.
Like me, most of my friends were discouraged from painting. I remember one of the art teachers I had when I lived in Colorado made some sarcastic comment about drawing just not being one of my gifts. Well, like most of the teachers at that school, she was wrong. Maybe she wasn't entirely wrong about me lacking perspective...but she was wrong in that she had no right to assume that she could measure my potential aptitude. Thankfully I ignored her. As we sat around the table there were lots of "What should I paint?" and "I can't do this, I suck at art". And then eventually everyone just shut up and sat down and produced some fabulous paintings. It felt good to be a part of the process of watching my friends change their beliefs about themselves. Maybe they still don't think they are fabulous artists, but they lost some of their fear of trying. I think that's what it's all about. These wonderful people come into my life. They each have their gifts or special things about them and part of our friendship becomes nurturing that light in one another.
God I think this church is really turning me into a sap. The long and short of it is that the weekend was fabulous. It was a great chance to rest and renew and to reconnect with some very special people in my life. Thanks Greta for being a fabulous hostess.
1 comment:
I know you are already doing this,but Julia Cameron's books were a great start in overcoming my fears. Here's a blurb from her website about her two books
A Guide for Starting Creative Clusters
When The Artist's Way was first published, I expressed a wish for Artist’s Way groups to spring into being. I envisioned them as peer-run circles—“creative clusters”—where people would serve one another as believing mirrors, uniting with the common aim of creative unblocking. It was my vision that such circles would be free of charge, that anyone could assemble one, using the book as a guide and a text. Many such peer-run circles did form and many more are forming still. Such artist-to-artist, heart-to-heart help and support are the heart of The Artist's Way and The Vein of Gold.
What you guys are doing is so beautiful!!!
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