Many people ask me, how do you come up with Ideas?
How do you keep going for so long and not 'give up'?
I don;t wake up with an idea and just do it on the spot. I experience life, I think, I write, I research and I LISTEN. Something that I am creating today may be part of something that was begun 30 years ago. I may of done it before, I may of only sketched it OR I may of been creating it CONSTANTLY.
Through it all, I have kept Journals.
These are not some Secret tome of esoteric wisdom. They are living breathing books I happily share with others in coffee shops in snowed in afternoons in other lands... on hiking trails in forests.... on sunny beaches watching children play. I always have aT least ONE in my pocket, rucksac or bag and I am NOT precious about it! I scribble in it, stick tickets in in, photos, write in it while juggling bags on a train, while bumping on a dusty road. Ideas, stories, memories, research.... they all live here. Yeah Spells, Rituals... Blessings.... poetry...quotes... in the go.
They HAVE to breath, to live, I'm happy to share... I have no secrets and you know, MANY is the time someone has sat across from me flicking through a Journal and has said something that has set us BOTh off on new wondrous Journey in Life.
This weekend, Nature filled my Journals with joy, knowledge and possibilities!
The Wisdom captured in a simple quick sketch while LISTENING really LISTENING to Nature.
shhhhhhhh just being there.... not asking anything, just watching, sketching, writing and being a part of the Now within the arms of her turning Seasons.
I went to breakfast with The Admiral and wandered past a beautiful old door..... the colour took me back to Mexico. My years living in the USA and travelling through Mexico and the effect it had on my Spirit, my Art, my Writing and my outlook and connection with All.
There was a trip I took North of my home in San Diego, to Arizona and Northern California to explore the Hopi Katsina (Kachina) Figures after I had been creating Art in Mexico. I had been researching and creating Retablos and Nichos there and THEN had stumbled across Native American Kachincas through conversations with other Artists and reading their journals.... looking at their sketches as they explained them to me..... Journals shared... friends made over pages and pens... memories and understandings.
So when I returned home to Southern California, I took off immediately North to learn more...
The figures are part of female rituals sacred to the Hopi People, given at certain times in her life to ensure a long prosperous life. They are the spirit of ancestors of all form, people, animals, earth, plants, all.
For many MANY years after those amazing experiences.....I drew, sketched, painted and created my own. i gave my interpretations to friends and family to mark certain occasions and by creating from Recycled materials I brought to life Figures which I hoped would inspire through the Ancestory Spirit they depicted and through the materials they where created from would inspire others to care for the Future of their Earth, their People, Animals and all that is here.
As I created.... I JOURNALED.... as I JOURNALED I grew in Spirit, in Understanding and in new directions and explorations. I did not stand still.... my work evolved.....
This long work culminated in an exhibition in Paddington, Sydney, many many moons ago of a body of work.... "Everyday Goddesses" .....
I returned, ALWAYS to my Journals.... picking up the tread.... sewing some more... adding patches of knowledge and wisdom as I layered and grew.
The Kachincas then became more Totemic in form......
for another exhibion "Reconcilied Rejections" and many many more years of work and spiritual grow.
Today I am still working with Kachincas and I pick up my old Journals often.... to live again with the source of inspiration..... to live in THAt feeling again.
I'm always pleading with my students and friends to keep Journals...
The most important Relationship you can make and maintain is one with a Journal.
I couldn't do my work, live my passion without one!
My travelling companion in Life, she listens to me, helps me work out what is deep within, we share secrets, we cry together, laugh and be REALLY silly at times, we make plans, oh so many plans! .... she captures the Research notes as we study together.... we walk as best friends through Nature, exploring and discovering possibilities together and later.... days... years... decades... we come together to remember, the things we forgot, the things we treasured, the things that put us on this Path Today.
Do you have a sketch, photo, words that Nature shared with you these last few days?
SHOW ME! and better yet, if you don't Journal, perhaps you could start TODAY. Grab a book, pop it in...... The Journaling has begun!
to YOU on your Journal Journey. xx
