A Brilliant Summer Solstice to You

Summer Solstice and time once more to do a bit of a personal review.... 
... I've achieved a lot this year... and I feel pretty pleased with the way things are going... of course, there is always room for improvement. It seems to me, that the more encouragement I get, the easier it is to shine brightly. Well, after all, that's what Marigolds do, is it not?

But not only Marigolds... everyone can shine, and everyone has something of value to contribute to the world... It seems tragic not to shine for fear of being cut down by criticism...

So, I would like to see people being kind.... actively encouraging each other to shine - to reach further and glow brighter.... It's not only for ourselves that we need to beam out our brightness, but it is for the world, which can't be the same without every single individual.... 

Every single flower makes a beautiful garden.


Wishing you a splendid Solstice, and I'm looking forward to basking in your brilliant illumination!

The importance of working at play

I feel a big shift in my attitude to work this year, & am joyful...

my workspace - a creative play room for an adult

I used to feel guilty, having so much fun when I was meant to be working! Ha!

Engaged in creative work, I relax, & enjoy life... I'm in the child-like frame of mind required to connect with the creative process ... my ideas can take flight, & I am free, feeling light & strong...

                one small room contains my tools for creating happiness

As a child, almost everything I did was a creative act... constructing worlds in the sand pit, creating creatures in plasticine, drawing, painting, making with glue & scissors... even arranging peas on my plate, or soap bubbles in the bath...


You can read my first guest blog post here: 
http://annefallas.blogspot.fr/ - 
   It's about women & transformation, & the invitation to write this piece really encouraged me to take the required playful element of my work very seriously.

It is part of the process of acceptance... of who I am, what I am, & how I fit into the pattern of nature.... just as I am... 
..... part of growing up....

Where is the spirit within art from?

Working with clay lately, has me wondering where ideas really come from. Is it from the collective unconscious, or my own unconscious mind, or am I simply opening the door of my mind, & letting in entities that want to manifest in this material world, and use art as their entry point.

I wonder about the latter, because we so easily form a personal relationship with famous subjects of great art, like Mona Lisa or Michelangelo's David, who are from a different time & place, yet we can still relate to them as individuals. It is the daemon of each art work with which we connect, not just the design. By that, I mean the spirit that inhabits the work - much like the spirit of place of any particular location... we "know" it intuitively.

My own process with sculpture, is a completely intuitive affair. It seems any preconceived idea I may begin with, is quickly thwarted, as the clay morphs & changes, the end result often a complete surprise to me, the maker. Even the end of a piece can come as suddenly as the jolt that wakes a person sleeping on a bus... Without warning, a piece is complete, & the process over.

Completely unpredictable, I wonder just how much of me is actually in my work... and yet, I know that nobody else would produce anything the same as I, & that I can not produce any work the same as that of another artist...

I like to think this is a great mystery, and that it can never be explained, and wonder how many other people find this is their experience too.