The Freedom to Create

The truth is someone could hand me a canvas or a piece of paper and all the art supplies I could possibly want and say "create something" and I would start to think .  Something happens, I freeze, my head takes over and I start to over think it. What will I create, what if it doesnt turn out, what if people don't like it, what if it makes me look like an amateur.

Its in that moment when my heart is overwhelmed by my head and my fear and I can't create. 

It has nothing to do with time.

It has nothing to do with supplies.

Its because I can't get out of my own way.

But then.....

I hand a child a box of chalk and say create me something. There is no thinking , there is only colors being choosen and shapes being drawn. 

First a flower, then a portrait. Chalk isn't enough, flowers are picked and layed carefully onto the hair and dress, a living portrait finished in no time at all.

This is the beauty of a creative heart, one that is free from the head noise and is happy to get lost in the freedom of creating. 

I love that freedom, I watch them and wonder in their creative awareness, lost in the process. I love how they are happy to create in front of all onlookers. 

A reminder that the process is more important than the result!

Our retreat

I was able to sneak away for a few days and sew on our art quilt groups annual retreat. I think one of the hardest things to do is decide what projects to take along to try and accomplish. Often I take far to much or something far to big but I think I gaged it just right this time. I had some small projects that I had need to do but never make time for like Megan's Quilt, Nathan's pillowcases, even my SAQA auction piece! Today I go home but hope to finish up the last of my little projects first. Here's Megan's Quilt, not embellished but almost done. She is swimming with her googles on! I will add a fish like I did on Rachel's last year.

Megans new quilt! All it needs is the fish!

Rachels Quilt from last year

A Dandelion Wish

I happened to be taking a walk with my twin granddaughters, they are now already four! Two tiny people that hold a key to my heart. On this particular walk we were enjoying the yard after weeks of very cold weather. Today it was warm and the sun was out. We had decided to go for a walk in the backyard before getting our picnic lunch together and heading to the park. Rachel bolted forward as I said to them, Lets see what we can find on our walk.  Megan slipped her hand into mine and stayed behind to walk with me. I hadn't seen them in a week and that was much longer than normal, I missed them and they missed me!  Rachel came bounding back holding a tiny hair clip she had found, a treasure left from a previous visit I assume, Look Nana, she excitingly exclaimed. I dusted off her treasure and clipped it in her hair and she was off again to search for something else. I could tell Megan was feeling torn between staying with me and joining in on the hunt. What are we looking for Nana? She asked me. Your looking for anything that is special and means something to you. Just then Rachel appeared again with a beautiful flower, one of only a few to survive the weeks of cold weather. She ran up to us to have us both smell it and we both responded as though the flower was the most fragrant one of all. It was then that Megan screamed out, LOOK, Nana,LOOK and she dropped my hand and ran over to the flower bed, I found a wish! About to burst with excitement she bent down to pluck the wish from its stem and in doing so lost many of the fragile seeds waiting to be set free by the wind. She held the dandelion carefully now as she walked it back to me and reached up, handing me her new found treasure she said, Nana, make a wish and blow! 

There's nothing better than finding a wish!

I then added my journaling on vellum and glued it over one side of the sketchbook