June ShowPost

“Is This A Good Fit? Is This Time Well Spent?” ~ These are two questions which a coach and I rustled up together a while back, as Navigational Aids. 
They’re proving ever more helpful, as the well-spent Time continues to flow, and Winds, Season, everything shifts, and suddenly things that were completely right turn into Not Quite Such A Good Fit.
This has been the way of it for me, for as long as I can recall. 

• 

• 

Creatively, this transitioning time around, noticing the shifts, the slightly-at-first, then obviously-later, signals and feelings – has been a clearer, more consciously tracked flow.
A work-desk that needed clearing and re-setting up for a different purpose.
Paint-stuff from last paint-time, cleared, and doll-stuff lightly placed.
Combinations of materials re-arranged more pleasingly, more functional.
And then the creeping realisation – Oh – I really want to paint again.
And though I noticed it, I was so deep in with the fabrics, the dresses, the Dolls, that I was reluctant to let the painting rip. 
And. The impulse, the desire, the direction, is not going away, so I plan to paint, again, soon.

• 

• 

The reluctance was partly about fearing that if I paint, I won’t want to stitch.
It’s generally been one Or the other.
I still wrestle with accepting that my focus for creative expression can shift completely, quite suddenly. Accepting then requires doing something about it, of course.
And letting it be ok that I invested so much focus in the fabrics over the Winter, but/and that I no longer feel the same sparky-connection to those things.
That they were centre-stage for so long doesn’t mean I have to hold on to that focus a moment beyond the ‘done, for now’ signals. 
It all kept me some kind of sane through the deeply-hard Winter of 20-21 –
that was purpose enough, in itself.
And, in Time, all things textile will very likely once again have more pull.

• 

• 

Perhaps there will be some Paint+Fabric developments, too. That could happen.

I once read in Barbara Sher’s book about working well with shifting creative focus – and my patterning, within her pattern-seeings, was the most chaotic one, the as-and-when one.
Not the set ‘six-months this, six months that’ schedule.
Not the school-like ‘few hours this, few hours that’ timetabled version.
The subtler ‘as-and-when’ style is mine. Willy-Nilly, Mysterious-Impulse-Driven Navigation.
When the signals come, the time has arrived to shift action accordingly. It’s the style that needs the most noticing, to stay fully on track. The most attentive listening within, and commensurate action. 

My other favourite navigational words, (maybe originally Japanese?) – 
“Given That This Is So, How Then Shall We Proceed?”

‘Authentic, not Formulaic’ helps, too. I’ve got an ever-stronger radar for both those, now.  

As old-pal Rita, originally from the Bronx, said, when we spoke about creative production: 
“One Does Not Churn”.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Dear entrepreneurialy-inclined pal Martin + I laugh still about his response to my creations, for decades: “You could Make A Living with those” – and me, horrified at the thought of being shackled to churning, re-creating versions of something that was only a Juicy Experiment.
Accepting our Stylistic differences seems to be key to how old Friendships remain Heartily Current.

—

So. Suddenly the Juice, Fire, Air goes out of something that was centre stage.
During this month, Stitching, the Dresses, + the Dora project went off the boil. 

• 

• 

Well, maybe the Doras can stick around a while longer. I’ve still got such grand ideas for them.  
If I bring them on through, there will be MoonDora, SunDora, and EarthDora.
The three larger Dolls.
And since we’re amidst Eclipse season, it seems a good fit to continue with them. 
The others – who may become little Temple Beings of Elements/Seasons/SomeThings – may remain on the waiting list till the tides shift again. 
“We’ll See.”

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The first Dora is a delight. She came out of my desire to Just Do It – in that case, to Just rustle up some clothes for her. I’d sleuthed patterns, how-to vids, all that – and then realised O – I don’t Like working from patterns. “What Happens If…” became the direction. What happened if I tried a little sleeve buttoned over her shoulder? O! Its Good. What happens if I do the other one? O It’s even better. And so on. A fold here + there, and that was it. Done. 

Dora One is a kind of Temple Mama, a Yoda-ish being, simple-simple, + quite Lovely.
She’s like the BluePrint Dolly for the rest of the big-project, whose ideas all landed quite clearly. ‘Done’ showed up surprisingly quickly, in that case. 
In the cases of the Moon Sun Earth Doras, there will likely be more ornamentation, decoration, allsorts.
+ + +

I made another rich+ fabulous Pinterest Board on the way with all this –
please enjoy a look – Girrl.2  – Dream With Me!

• 

I discovered how to make sections there, so we have 2 ‘side-rooms’:
‘Holy Kachinas’ + ‘Dogu + Old Pals‘. I’ve enjoyed the process of creating the Girrl boards in private, and unveiling them shortly before publishing the ShowPost.
. . .

I saw with a fright, at some point since the last ShowPost, how things suddenly can seem meaningless. That’s a scary place. I was very glad to regain my sense of meaning again.
Then, learning, a couple of days ago, of a Death, of a relative, long-estranged,
gave a new light on all this too. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

There are two main possibilities there – one is that ’these things’ become completely meaningless around the fact of Death, and another is that anything that feels like a good fit is entirely worth doing, because, dear, that’s how we find our way ahead, until there is no further Earthly way ahead. 
Thankfully, the second has settled around me, again, and I’m on board again with Just Playing, Just Exploring, Just Having A Go Because It Feels Good. While I Am Here.

| ~ |

I’m going to take + post a pic of a painting I did last year, which I’ve lived closely with, all through the long long 20-21 Winter (which lasted maybe a couple of years? I lose count.)
Spring didn’t really Spring here, and Summer is still figuring it out.
Warmth, Light is increasing, intermittently, and it rains, often. Things are Growing Enthusiastically.

• 

• 

• 

_ _ _

Anyways, here is one painting that I see closely,
sometimes when I am on a (rare) long phone call.
It never reached the screens previously. It’s definitely one of the catalysts for ‘I Want To Paint Again’. It might be tricky to represent – it has copious Gold in the mix.
I really like the level of splashy commitment I reached at the time of painting –
layers of revisiting to reach some kind of settled Harmony.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I turn 59 tomorrow (Monday, 7th June). That’s quite an age. Next year, if I make it through, I will enter my Seventh Decade. And here I am, playing with Dolls, aiming to splash with Paint. I can’t imagine Life without Creativity. I’m glad I made this space to share about it, and glad of your visit.

If you made it all the way through this enormous Mercury-Retro (as is mine Natally, conjunct verbose mid-Gemini Sun), post, then Congratulations to you!

Thank you, for being here/there, with me, while we both Breathe.  
Here’s to delicious Deep Full Breaths, of BeautyFull Clean Vibrant Air.
Happy My Birthday, to you! x x x Keep Well, Dears.
May our Time be Well-Spent, with concerns that Fit Us Well, now.

x x x

• 

• 

• 

On We Go. x x x

• 

• 

• 

• 

. . .