Hazelnut Cottage

Indie Artists: Another Girl at Play

Another Girl at Play is a website highlighting women entrepreneurs—indie artists—and how they’ve been able to make creative play their life’s work. Each of the 25 women featured include a photo, links to their individual website(s) and an interview where they share their personal stories and their artistic journeys.

Here are a couple of my faves:

Alicia Paulson:
Rosy Little Things {website} and Posie Gets Cozy {blog}
Who doesn’t know about and love this girl? Her blog is wonderfully written, filled with beautiful photographs lit skillfully with natural light. A visit here makes you feel as if you’ve just settled in for a nice long weekend at grandma’s house. Her story of creative recovery after a pedestrian accident is inspiring and touching. She also gives great business and indie art advice, welling up from her own experiences as an indie artist and shopkeeper.

...and, she’s a foodie to boot. Gotta love that!

Tera Leigh:
Tera Leigh {website}
This female entrepreneur is also a lawyer, writer, marketing and public relations specialist and artist. In her interview she reveals two things: one is some hearty advice about allowing oneself to evolve as an artist. She along with many other mature artists have achieved a sense of peace with themselves (something that still eludes me) and their progression as artists.

The other revelation is her work providing Memory Boxes to grieving parents in hospital maternity wards for families of infants that pass away in the hospital. To date she has given away about 105,000 boxes completely free of charge. What an awesome way to be a light in the darkness...her program moves me...wow!

Etsy Find: Labokoff’s Shop

Such dreamy images are the creation of this Etsy artist, known simply as Labokoff. Her images are part original photography and part painting. They have such a lightness about them, while at the same time being tinged with a bit of melancholy...somehow so appealing. Just look at these beauties! Sigh...

(Christmas is coming...*hint, hint, nudge, nudge*...)

pAris $26

piquant blanc $26

matin $26

What the Mail-Lady Brought!

:) ...ooooooo..just a glimpse...look!

...can you guess what I’m up to?

I am so overwhelmed with joy, I cannot even express...

...though alongside that joy is a good bit of fear and trepidation, but I am doing my best to work through it...

oh, the best is yet to be!

!

Fall/Winter 2008 at Hazelnut Cottage: More New Stuff 2

Here are a few more newbies at my Hazelnut Cottage on Etsy shop:

Freely Be
$62

*{THE MEANING}*
Freely be who God made you to be...

Sweet Friend
$62

*{THE MEANING}*
A friend keeps your heart company. A friend listens to you with kindness and understanding. A friend tells you the truth, but withholds judgement. A friend comforts. You are my friend.

...and one of the things I’ve been keeping under wraps as of late (yes, there are more things abrew!) is some of my photography. I had originally thought that I’d offer some prints and other types of art as a seasonal special type of thing, but for so many reasons I have not...or well, at least not yet..

...and...

...so...whaddaya think?

Tadaaaah!

:) Welcome to my brand new blog!

Well, technically it’s the same blog, just with a different design! And knowing me, I’ll be tweaking things around for a bit, so expect some changes!

Yay!

One BIG revelation I’ve come to through my Artist’s Way group is that my self-care is atrocious. ATROCIOUS. So I need to focus on this in the coming weeks...

Anyhoo, hope you like it! I do! :}

Pumpkin Pickin’

We made our way down to Aloun Farms to pick our pumpkins...we couldn’t believe it had already been a year (obviously) since the last time we came! Time goes by so quickly!

It was overcast, but very warm...and dusty. Ewa was dry that day, although the rest of the island got some rain (it’s almost winter, you know!) Red dirt all over the us, in our car, on the stroller...

Looking at the pumpkin patch through this weathered fence...wonder which one we’ll take home with us?

...some of them were heavy!
 
 

Guilt and Art

So, I don’t know why making art is such a guilt inducing activity. I’m sure some of the answers lay buried deep in my childhood somewhere...tho’ I can’t think of any overtly negative messages I received growing up. And without going into the nitty gritty details of my life, my childhood was often full of trauma, of responsiblities no child should have to bear and the pain of homelessness, along with other incidents...and so I think I spent at least part of my childhood and teen years just surviving. I believe I appeared quite “normal” on the outside, earning fairly good grades (math doesn’t count), being active in school, etc. etc.

But when you are busy surviving, art in all of its forms is a thing of luxury. So the subtext of my growing up years was that art is a waste of time and money is definitely difficult to come by, so better use your time working hard to earn a living, to provide for your family and keep a roof over your head. With the added fears in later years of becoming a “starving artist”, it’s no wonder I chose a steady paycheck over a steady artistic life.

At this point in my life, and with Julia’s help, I am coming to understand that I my life doesn’t have to be an “either, or”. I can have both my art and a financially secure life (uh, even though it doesn’t always appear that way).

And another thing...around the time (was it just last year?!) that I opened my Etsy shop, it is as if someone turned on a faucet, and out spewed all these artistic longings and desires. And now I can’t seem to stop it; everywhere, art interests me.

Tonight I saw a fabulous local product of Miss Saigon at the Paliku theatre. WOW. And in the lobby, bronze sculptures...oh, YUM! I feel so full and joyful down to my toes, I do. (And the Greek food I had at dinner surely didn’t hurt either!)

And it hit me--that just as it would be ridiculous for someone to have just one song or one artist on their ipods, or one movie in their DVD collection, so it is with me and art stuff. I long for it all! A bit of photography here, some collage there, throw in some sculpture and assemblage and YAY!!!!! A life filled with play!

And why not? When I am making a mess and working with my hands, when I am on the receiving end of song or a play, when I am enjoying a sculpture or photo or holding a pretty something in my hands that someone made, I feel so alive, so very close to the God that created me...is that not a good thing?! So away with you, guilt! Away! Shoo! And don’t come back, you hear?!

A small and obvious revelation for most of you normal folk out there, but pretty enlightening for this little noggin of mine, let me tell you!

Etsy Find: Papered Together

By now you know that my artistic loves wander far and wide. Letterpress, the fine art of printing so that the images sink deep into the paper’s surface, is among my loves.

Papered Together is a yummy Etsy shop...just look at these pretty silhouettes...

 
 

...sigh...just lovely!

Alternative Careers for Teachers; Encouragement for Weary Souls

Maybe it’s because on my way to becoming an indie artist, I first stopped off to get my Master’s of Education in Teaching followed by a 3 1/2 year stint as an elementary school teacher and with all of the strife I keep hearing about, this topic has been on my heart lately.

Now, please, this post is not to 'bring down' teachers public or private at all. No way! My husband is a public school teacher, my sister is a public school teacher (at an ALC no less), my best friends are public school teachers, etc. etc. For those who are called to this profession, I have nothing but admiration, appreciation and respect for the life-changing work you do so tirelessly.

No this post is meant for the teacher who wants OUT. For you, dear so miserable teacher, searching for another career for oh, so many reasons...

Dear Teacher,
I know how you cry at the start of each new school year. I know how pained you are at work, though you love the kids you work with and you love the growth you see in your students. I know that feeling of something just not being “right” about being there in that classroom, and you can’t quite put your finger on it, and it makes you feel guilty that some days (most days) you don’t really want to even be there, but honestly, you don’t know what else you can do and you very much need that paycheck. And one of the reasons you stay is the connection you make with your students; powerful, meaningful times when you connect over some piece of literature, or a personal story, or those teachable moments that aren’t in your plan book those times afterschool that you log, unnoticed by anyone, and certainly unpaid, when you see the impact that you are having on the lives of all of these children, these students, these people.

And yet, the angst is there and maybe you don’t know why. I didn’t know why for a long time too. And other people don’t understand it...and you think to yourself that you have a degree and that you must use that degree in the classroom as you are, and that you should be able to just live with the disrespect you face everyday, the upset parents who sometimes show up at your door unannounced, the low pay, the unsupportive administration, the ridiculousness of the NCLB.

But there is more. You sense that work feels too much like work, and that your work life should be filled with more joy, more passion. There is something inside of you that longs to be doing work that fills you with deep joy and doesn’t leave you drained at the end of the day. And maybe you feel like there must be something not just purposeful, but meaningful out there for you to do, but you just don’t know what, or how, but you could do a great job at it and fully enjoy yourself if only you knew what it was you were looking for.

I wish I could tell you “here it is!”, but this is a road you must travel and find your own answers, and you will find them. All I can say is that there is life, a very, very good life after teaching, if you are indeed brave enough to leave the profession to seek out a more meaningful, joyful life for yourself. It will take a lot of soul searching, lots of trial and error, lots of perceived failures along the way. But what I would say to you, if you were my friend, my sister, my love, is that you must take the risk to live a joyful and fulfilling life. Plan your escape. Journal to help you reflect on your life, what is important to you, what really matters. Go see a counselor or life coach and seek out your life today, don’t waste another moment wallowing in a place you know you don’t belong. Teaching (as in all other professions) is the right and noble vocation for those who are called...but if you sense that you are not called, then there is something else calling you, and other meaningful work for you to attend.

Read Parker Palmer, “Let Your Life Speak: On Vocation and Calling”. If you sense you are an artist type, by all means read “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. If indeed you know you are an artist cloaked as a teacher who really wants to be an artist, email me! I have lots of resources to point you on your way! Did you know there is a HUGE indie tribe that is thriving and to which you belong?

And in the end know this. You are NOT alone. And you will find your life. The reason for all of this angst and misery is because God is calling you to Himself, to the life you were meant to live; the stirrings have begun. Take heart!

Love,
Jan

Abundance & Luxury

“What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.” ~Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

...hmm...how much am I really believing all of this right now? And if the money isn’t “coming to us—to me”, or at least not in what I deem is “abundance” does that mean that I am not doing what I am meant to be doing? And another thing, what happens if “what we really want to do” changes as quickly as the shifting of the wind? I mean, yesterday I may have wanted to throw myself into the arms of TTV, but today it’s something else entirely!

Or, is that my THING? Is it that I “really want to do ALL KINDS of art?!!” And that when I do, then everything will flow, the universe will conspire towards my good the planets will align, God will give me the burning bush?! Ha.

So, why do I hold back?

Oh, so many reasons. Who the heck am I to put all that art out there? Jewlery and photography and _____________? I mean, PICK ONE! And where will the money come from, to invest in all these new supplies? And what about the negative impact (somehow, I can’t imagine a positive impact) to my “Hazelnut Cottage” brand? Are the things I make “good”? Does my artwork suck? Does it say anything important to anyone? Does it say anything important to me? Do I have the time to do anything new? Will anyone like it? Hate it? What will the response be? When will I find the time to make all this art? To promote it? Or will it promote iteself, somehow, if it’s what I need to be doing?

OH, agh. If only I knew what I was doing.

Isn’t it ironic that though there is an abundance of creative ideas and yearnings, I resist, only to look elsewhere for that abundance...and that the luxuries I feel so guilty indulging in, is actually basic self-care?