I felt really under the weather yesterday and stayed home from school. A quiet day of mostly sleep, with a little stitching at night. Despite being pretty rested I went to bed early, putting on my audio book. Somehow I bumped the titles around and one loaded that I didn't expect. Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach.(Selected quotes can be found here.) I'd put a hold on it months ago through BPL online and it had become available last week. While parts of the meditations are beyond me, the author acknowledges the reasons why and forces one to think more deeply. Delicious quotes by Rumi and Hafiz pepper the narratives. and I slept through the book, sometimes being completely awake, other times being somewhere in the land of nod. When I did sleep deeply, my dreams were populated by people from my past that I had strong feelings for. They were explaining their side of things and bits and pieces of recurring dreams kept popping up. Lots of strange feelings in my dreams. Very odd. I wish I fell asleep to Dean Koontz of Stephen King book instead. Still, at 3:47am I was awake and drawing in my sketchbook, taking down thoughts and ideas that had seemed interesting in that twilight hour. I believe strongly that I will never be a meditating Buddhist but some of the philosophy makes sense in the ridiculously layered and tumultuous world we all live in today. Maybe a Cafeteria Buddhist.
Happy to have finished a "quick" piece for QC. Now back to the other work, which lies patiently waiting for attention. And there is a lot of it! I started a little owl collage at school for a demo paper painting piece for my 8th grade elective class, and I am thinking of making a biiiig fabric one, too. I am letting the ideas percolate right now to see if the investment of time is worth it. I am seeing something a bit different, here -- a blend of the brightly colored fabrics I love and computer printed ones, some hand painting, and lots of surface work. Trying to get it to the "I see you!" stage in my mind without getting tired of it. I also want to make a GIANT piece of an African Grey digital image I made at school when demoing techniques. Not a heavily embellished piece, but a quilted large piece just because I want to make it. I'm thinking of taking the graphic and printing it on tiled pieces of fabric and combining them in patchwork form to make the normally small grey about five feet tall. Hee hee hee... Hard to know what is a distraction vs. the Real Art we are supposed to make. IS there a difference? Is the distraction the Real Art we just don't have time for because we have to work so much? Hmmm.... So much art, so little time.
As I wait for my legs to calm down so they stop screaming when I need them to support me, the elderly canine crew rests on its bedding. The cats have already appeared to demand breakfast as though they've never been fed (I think the last can was provided at 3:49 am, however) and the birds wait patiently for their morning routine to begin, offering "Good morning"s and kisses from the back room. My house is a mess, my art life often feels like a mess, and my body sure as hell is a mess. I think if a quote from the book I absorbed last night:
“There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.”
― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With The Heart Of A Buddha
Cheers.