a week full of art, poetry and midcentury treasures

from the studio of virginia fitzgerald     Share Tweet Forward Share Pin MARK your CALENDARS ... Tuesday, April 10th, 7-9pm.  Opening Reception for 'A Long Distance Relationship' at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro Arts Museum, 86 Park St., Attleboro, MA 02703, 508.222.2644 This event will include a recognition ceremony that honors each exhibiting artist and exhibition partners. Free and open to all. www.attleboroartsmuseum.org Wednesday, April 11th: CLOSING RECEPTION of "100 Extra Days"  6-8 PM The Carney Gallery - Regis College 235 Wellesley Street, Weston, MA 02493 MORSE LIBRARY POETRY SLAM Poetry SLAM! 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM @ TCAN Slam is held at The Center for Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick, MA 01760 Experience the power of words in this multigenerational SLAM for beginners and seasoned performers where only the audience gets slammed.  Led by the dynamic Geof Hewitt at the historic  The Center for Arts in Natick the evening starts with participants of the Dr. Seuss group (those ages up to 15), then moves onto the Dickinson performers, ages 15 and up.  Prizes awarded to the top performer in each group  Free to the general public www.natickarts.org Thursday, April 12th, 6- 8 PM. 1st RENEW Pop-up Trunk Show  Contemporary Art, Mid-Century Antiques, Sustainable Fashion and Craft Brews together at Fountain Street! @ Fountain Street Gallery 460C Harrison Avenue, Suite 2 Boston, Massachusetts 02118 www.fsfaboston.com Taste Springdale by Jacks Abby‘s newest innovative barrel-aged ales and sour beers. www.springdalebeer.com For more info. check out the links above or send me an email: va.fitzgerald (at) comcast.net look forward to seeing you soon! peace, Virginia www.virginiafitzgerald.com Copyright © 2018 Virginia Fitzgerald, All rights reserved. Your are getting this email because you have shown an interest in the art of Virginia Fitzgerald, her 'dressproject ...' & her creative endeavors. Our mailing address is: Virginia Fitzgerald 25 Washington Ave. the Winchell Building Natick, Ma  01702 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Claire Wellesley-Smith

Claire Wellesley-Smith: fiber and textile artist, slow movement enthusiast, teacher, author.

photo from claire wellesley-smith's blog

Today's feature is Claire Wellesley-Smith, a contemporary textile artist, living and working in  England.  I discovered Wellesley-Smith because I am reading her book,
Slow Stitch: 

Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art, 

photo from claire wellesley-smith's blog

a beautiful and inspiring book about slowing down and quality over quantity.  A concept I know I desire in our current, high-octane, 24/7, fast paced, always-connected life.  The idea of slowing down, turning off the electronics and tuning into the materials, the process and our surroundings seems like nirvana to me.  And in fact, this may be why I have returned to my embroidery practice, as a response to the current state of our country and the world.  I am aware of how my different 'work' cycles, either photography, sculpture, drawing, etc... and for the past few months I have been finding myself, nesting in the corner of my couch, with needle and embroidery floss and any scrap of fabric, paper, ribbon, 'life' that I can find and slowly sewing them together.  I call this body of work, 'meditations ...' 

So with my rekindled love of the stitch, I gravitated to Wellesley-Smith's book and then to her web site, blog and instagram account, all of which I have posted link to below.

fitzgerald, 'meditation #9 ...' (2017)

Besides her beautiful stitching, Wellesley-Smith talks about connecting textiles more to the earth and she discusses how she dyes her own textiles from plants that she grows in her studio garden.  (see video below).  She also features many other textile artists' work.  The book is a treasure to slowly cherish, I only wish I either had more hands so I could read and sew ... or more hours in the day!! But no matter I plan to savor this book and I recommend that you do too.

my contribution I made this January for a call for art by
GatherHere in Cambridge, MA

The Slow Stitching Movement is an illuminating revolution within the stitching and fiber art industry, launched by international quilting personality Mark Lipinski. Modeled after the international Slow Food movement, The Slow Stitching Movement is open to all fiber and needle artists and will prepare you for a higher form of creativity and important work in the needle and fiber arts, be it quilting, knitting, crochet, tatting, embroidery, rug hooking, weaving, needlepoint, cross stitch, etc.

Following the tenets of The Slow Stitching Movement you will:
Approach your creative art-making in a totally different way.
Recharge your passion for the needle fiber arts .
Engage the connection between your body, your quilts, and your legacy. .
Expand your creativity, self-esteem and even your spiritual journey.
Tap your right brain, to train and develop your imagination.
Find the creative genius in you.
Implement your creative thought in today’s too-fast world.
Heal your life, emotions and boost your physical health.
Create groups and habits to support your creative vision.

If you’ve hit a creative wall, if you have more yarn, fabric, floss, threads, and notions than you do inspiration, if all of your projects are beginning to look alike, or if you’ve been creating in the needle arts for years and have nothing especially wonderful to show for it . . . The Slow Stitching Movement is for you.  

THE SLOW STITCHING MOVEMENT  © 2013

Claire Wellesley-Smith's links:

website: www.clairewellesleysmith.co.uk

instgram: https://www.instagram.com/cwellesleysmith/

pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/cwellesleysmith/

blog: http://www.clairewellesleysmith.co.uk/blog/

If the above video doesn't work, click herehttps://vimeo.com/123040597

Naomi Shihab Nye

Today's feature is:

 Naomi Shihab Nye. 

Since today is World Book Day, I thought it would be good to shine my spotlight on an author.  Also, this Sunday at church, I heard her poem, Gate A-4,  and knew I needed to share it.  It is such an inspiring piece and it speaks of the kind of world that I want to live in and which is being threatened by current affairs.  In fact I was so moved by Naomi Shihab Nye's words, that I came home and created this 'embroidered dress'. 

( I did say it is an inspiring piece)

To learn more about Naomi Shihab Nye, see links below the poem. 

  I highly recommend that you seek out more of this amazing woman's work, you will not be disappointed!! 

(click here to go to her page on amazon) 

Gate A-4
Naomi Shihab Nye, 1952


Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning
my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:
“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please
come to the gate immediately.”

Well—one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just
like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. “Help,"
said the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We
told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”

I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly.
“Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-
se-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly
used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled
entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the
next day. I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is
picking you up? Let’s call him.”

We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would
stay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to
her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just
for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while
in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I
thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know
and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life, patting my knee,
answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool
cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and
nuts—from her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate.
To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the
lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered
sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.

And then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two
little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they
were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend—
by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag,
some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradi-
tion. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This
is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that
gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—seemed apprehensive about
any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those otherwomen, too.

This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.


Naomi Shihab Nye, “Gate A-4” from Honeybee. Copyright © 2008 by Naomi Shihab Nye. 

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1952. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. Her experience of both cultural difference and different cultures has influenced much of her work. Known for poetry that lends a fresh perspective to ordinary events, people, and objects, Nye has said that, for her, “the primary source of poetry has always been local life, random characters met on the streets, our own ancestry sifting down to us through small essential daily tasks.” Characterizing Nye’s “prolific canon” in Contemporary Women Poets, Paul Christensen noted that Nye “is building a reputation…as the voice of childhood in America, the voice of the girl at the age of daring exploration.” In her work, according to Jane Tanner in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, “Nye observes the business of living and the continuity among all the world’s inhabitants…She is international in scope and internal in focus.” Nye is also considered one of the leading female poets of the American Southwest. A contributor to Contemporary Poets wrote that she “brings attention to the female as a humorous, wry creature with brisk, hard intelligence and a sense of personal freedom unheard of” in the history of pioneer women.

Nye received her BA from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and continues to live and work in the city. “My poems and stories often begin with the voices of our neighbors, mostly Mexican American, always inventive and surprising,” Nye wrote for Four Winds Press. “I never get tired of mixtures.” A contributor to Contemporary Southern Writerswrote that Nye’s poetry “is playfully and imaginatively instructive, borrows from Eastern and Middle Eastern and Native American religions, and resembles the meditative poetry of William Stafford, Wallace Stevens, and Gary Snyder.” Nye’s first two chapbooks were published in the 1970s. Both Tattooed Feet (1977)and Eye-to-Eye (1978) are written in free verse and structured around the theme of a journey or quest. They announced Nye as a “wandering poet”, interested in travel, place, and cultural exchange. In her first full-length collection, Different Ways to Pray (1980), Nye explores the differences between, and shared experiences of, cultures from California to Texas, from South America to Mexico. In “Grandfather’s Heaven,” a child declares: “Grandma liked me even though my daddy was a Moslem.” As Tanner observed, “with her acceptance of different ‘ways to pray’ is also Nye’s growing awareness that living in the world can sometimes be difficult.” 

Nye’s next books include On the Edge of the Sky (1981), a slim volume printed on handmade paper, and Hugging the Jukebox (1982), a full-length collection that also won the Voertman Poetry Prize. In Hugging the Jukebox, Nye continues to focus on the ordinary, on connections between diverse peoples, and on the perspectives of those in other lands. She writes: “We move forward, / confident we were born into a large family, / our brothers cover the earth.” Nye creates poetry from everyday scenes throughout Hugging the Jukebox in poems like “The Trashpickers of San Antonio” and the title poem, where a boy is enthusiastic about the jukebox he adopts and sings its songs in a way that “strings a hundred passionate sentences in a single line.” Reviewers generally praised Hugging the Jukebox, noting Nye’s warmth and celebratory tone. Writing in the Village Voice, Mary Logue commented that in Nye’s poems about daily life, “sometimes the fabric is thin and the mundaneness of the action shows through. But, in an alchemical process of purification, Nye often pulls gold from the ordinary.” According to Library Journal contributor David Kirby, the poet “seems to be in good, easy relation with the earth and its peoples.”

The poems in Yellow Glove (1986) present a more mature perspective tempered by tragedy and sorrow. In “Blood” Nye considers the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She describes a café in combat-weary Beirut, bemoans “a world where no one saves anyone,” and observes “The Gardener” for whom “everything she planted gave up under the ground.” Georgia Review contributor Philip Booth declared that Nye brings “home to readers both how variously and how similarly all people live.” In Red Suitcase (1994), Nye continues to explore the effect of on-going violence on everyday life in the Middle East. Writing for Booklist, Pat Monaghan explained that “some of her most powerful poems deal with her native land’s continuing search for peace and the echoes of that search that resound in an individual life. Nye is a fluid poet, and her poems are also full of the urgency of spoken language. Her direct, unadorned vocabulary serves her well: ‘A boy filled a bottle with water. / He let it sit. / Three days later it held the power / of three days.’ Such directness has its own mystery, its own depth and power, which Nye exploits to great effect.”

Fuel (1998) is perhaps Nye’s most acclaimed volume. The poems range over a variety of subjects, settings and scenes. Reviewing the book for Ploughshares, Victoria Clausi regarded it as, above all, an attempt at connection: “Nye’s best poems often act as conduits between opposing or distant forces. Yet these are not didactic poems that lead to forced epiphanic moments. Rather, the carefully crafted connections offer bridges on which readers might find their own stable footing, enabling them to peek over the railings at the lush scenery.” Like her mentor, William Stafford, Nye again and again manifests her “belief in the value of the overlooked, the half-forgotten,” wrote Clausi, as well as investigating more “worldly concerns” like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though Clausi believed that Nye’s “poetics require a calmer language,” a reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly found that “Nye’s witnessings of everday life and strife never quite acquire collective force, yet they convey a delicate sense of moral concern and a necessary sense of urgency.”

After the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, Nye became an active voice for Arab-Americans, speaking out against both terrorism and prejudice. The lack of understanding between Americans and Arabs led her to collect poems she had written which dealt with the Middle East and her experiences as an Arab-American into one volume. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (2002) received praise for the timeliness of its message. Publisher’s Weekly declared that it was “an excellent way to invite exploration and discussion of events far away and their impact here at home.” Nye’s next book, You and Yours (2005), continues to explore the Middle East and the possibilities of poetic response. Divided into two sections, the first deals with Nye’s personal experiences as a mother and traveler and intersperses Nye’s typical free-verse with prose poems. Part two examines the Middle East with “indignity and compassion,” according to Publisher’s Weekly. Donna Seaman wrote that the book is “tender yet forceful, funny and commonsensical, reflective and empathic,” adding, “Nye writes radiant poems of nature and piercing poems of war, always touching base with homey details and radiant portraits of family and neighbors. Nye’s clarion condemnation of prejudice and injustice reminds readers that most Americans have ties to other lands and that all concerns truly are universal.”

In addition to her poetry collections, Nye has produced fiction for children, poetry and song recordings, and poetry translations. She has also produced a book of essays, Never in a Hurry (1996), and edited several anthologies, including the award-winning This Same Sky (1992), which represents 129 poets from sixty-eight countries. In her introduction to the anthology Nye writes, “Whenever someone suggests ‘how much is lost in translation!’ I want to say, ‘Perhaps—but how much is gained!’“ Booklist critic Hazel Rochman called it “an extraordinary anthology, not only in its global range…but also in the quality of the selections and the immediacy of their appeal.” Nye also compiled and edited a bilingual anthology of Mexican poetry, The Tree Is Older Than You Are (1995).Nye edited the collection I Feel a Little Jumpy around You (1996), which combines 194 “his and her” poems, pairing a poem written by a man with one written by a woman. And Nye’s anthology The Space between Our Footsteps (1998) is a collection of the work of 127 contemporary Middle-Eastern poets and artists representing nineteen countries.

As a children’s writer, Nye is acclaimed for her sensitivity and cultural awareness. Her book Sitti’s Secrets (1994) concerns an Arab-American child’s relationship with her sitti—Arabic for grandmother—who lives in a Palestinian village. Hazel Rochman, in Booklist,praised Nye for capturing the emotions of the “child who longs for a distant grandparent” as well as for writing a narrative that deals personally with Arabs and Arab Americans. In 1997 Nye published Habibi, her first young-adult novel. Readers meet Liyana Abboud, an Arab-American teen who moves with her family to her Palestinian father’s native country during the 1970s, only to discover that the violence in Jerusalem has not yet abated. As Liyana notes, “in Jerusalem, so much old anger floated around…[that] the air felt stacked with weeping and raging and praying to God by all the different names.” Autobiographical in its focus, Habibi was praised by Karen Leggett, who noted in the New York Times Book Review that the novel magnifies through the lens of adolescence “the joys and anxieties of growing up” and that Nye is “meticulously sensitive to this rainbow of emotion.” Nye sees her writing for children as part of her larger goals as a writer. As Nye explained to a Children’s Literature Review contributor, “to counteract negative images conveyed by blazing headlines, writers must steadily transmit simple stories closer to heart and more common to everyday life. Then we will be doing our job.”

Nye told Contemporary Authors: “I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things, as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late—there’s that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantime…Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”

bio from poetryfoundation.org

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47993

Naomi Shihab Nye on amazon.

craftivism: is a form of activism that is centered on practices of craft/art

my contribution to @whatchidid's project  

Craftivism:  a form of activism, typically incorporating elements of anti-capitalism, environmentalism or third-wave feminism, that is centered on practices of craft - or what can traditionally be referred to as "domestic arts". Craftivism includes, but is not limited to, various forms of needlework. Craftivism is a social process of collective empowerment, action, expression and negotiation. In craftivism, engaging in the social, performative and critical discourse around the work is central to its production and dissemination. ^[1] Practitioners are known as craftivists. (definition from wikipedia.org)

I love the concept: craftivism, as it embodies two ideas that I feel passionate about: making my voice heard and making things.  So when I saw this project, "Draw the Line" by @Whatchidid I just HAD to participate ~ Embroidery and Women's rights.

photo: @whatchidid

photo: @whatchidid

Artist Chi Nguyen (@Whatchidid )—in partnership with the Textile Arts Center and the Center for Reproductive Rights—put a call out to anyone who wanted to participate:

The public is invited to Draw the Line by joining the embroidery process at the stitch-ins, or by sending in their own 10x10” swatches with as many tally marks (卌) as they would like to embroider. All swatches will be patched onto a larger quilt to be used at the Supreme Court rally on March 2nd, 2016. ** (she is continuing to add swatches after today so don't despair)

Many stitch-ins were hosted and swatches were sent from all over the world; as of yesterday @whatchidid stated that the quilt now represented 300,000 embroidered lines with submissions from 34 states and 6 countries and the project is still going.  Today the quilt stood outside the Supreme Court of the United States but @whatchidid is still collecting swatches, her aim is to have 

5.4 million lines to represent the 5.4 million women of reproductive age from accessing the healthcare they need. So if you are interested grab your needle and hoop.

I learned of the project while taking my daughter on a college tour via Amtrak, but luckily for me I always travel with a needle and embroidery hoop and floss (I always think I would do really well on the Monty Hall version of 'Let's make a Deal' (Monty) "Let's see what you have in your purse" , (me) "well I have a paint brush, glue stick, pliers, ... ) 

It has been really interesting to see the different swatches and different interpretations on these swatches while just using tally marks!! Below is more information, links to articles about the project and photos,  along with the link to Artist Chi Nguyen (@Whatchidid )'s web site where you can find all the information about how to participate.  

from Artist Chi Nguyen (@Whatchidid )'s website:

photo: @whatchidid

"On March 2nd, 2016, the United States Supreme Court will hear the most important reproductive rights case in almost 25 years. The decision will determine whether Texas can shut down nearly all abortion care providers in the state and prevent 5.4 million women of reproductive age from accessing the healthcare they need."

DrawtheLine.org where you can see pictures of many of the beautiful swatches.

from the article on MS.blog.com:

“Because this is a very public and collaborative project,” Nguyen says, “some might want to embroider one line and others might want to embroider all 5.4 million. I think that’s the beauty of it. When we surpass the original number, we ourselves become ‘and Counting.'”

from the article about the project on VICE.com:

This Artist Is Making a Giant Quilt to Represent 

the 5.4 Million Women Affected by Texas's Abortion Laws

How will the quilt function at the rally? 

I really wanted to use a quilt because it represents comfort, safety, and security, and the lack of access to abortion care and reproductive health care in general is anything but that. The quilt represents those things for me and also creates a sense of unity from supporters across the US who can send in swatches, which we will sew together. Right now, I have no idea how many swatches we will get by March 2. If we don't get enough, we will hold stitch-ins at the rally, but if we finish, we will use it as a banner. However, it won't just be a banner. It will also provide warmth.

where to find : CHI NGUYEN

website

twitter : @whatchidid

instagram : whatchidid

peace 

#wip wednesday: a little catch-up

There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time. ~Napoleon I, Maxims, 1815

 here's a bit of the projects that are filling my time these past few weeks . . . 

latest embroidery, made for a dear friend and angel!!

Still pulling together and creating pieces for my second delivery 

to the oh-so patient Eujin @ Uni-T!

new dresspaintings, heading to Uni_t at the Natick Mall

more flowerpower paintings for Uni-T

new dresspaintings, heading to Uni_t at the Natick Mall

dresscard design

most recent order of dresscards heading to Uni-T. 

My plan is to offer these notecards for purchase online  . . . just need to figure out details, the how.

I am thinking about offering a kind of DYI approach - create your own set of notecards, as I can't fathom buying just one card online?!? 

'i still rise . . .' 19april15, 43F, 7:30AM

one of the ephemeral dresses made during these past weeks - 

to see all of these ephemeral creations check out my instagram account, Flickr, twitter or FB. 

I post them on those sites on a regular basis only because I can post directly from my phone.

I want to figure out how to post directly onto this blog, but until then . . .

'dear jeff . . . ' at the SSAC just before i packed her up . . .

and as all good things must end, "Forever & After" closed.  It was incredible exhibit and experience.  Also the difference in the weather on the day I delivered my pieces (freezing and with snow piles so high that it was dangerous to drive) and the day I picked them up (sunny, warm, Spring)!!! 

Gotta love weather to live in New England!! 

Lastly I am still pondering, playing with #the100dayproject and will be posting 'part 2' of that mental discussion in the next few days.  However no matter what I decide to do for the project or/and if I even decide to do the project at all, this has been a terrific exercise in thinking about social media, time and purpose!! 

so 'til later, thanks for stopping by and joining me on this amazing journey called life!! xxxx, va

#the100dayproject: distraction or solution?!?!? (part 1)

(warning: this post goes against all the social media guru's advise to 'keep it brief.'  However I have always viewed this blog as a chronicle of my current state of mind, and how that affects my art, my choices and my life.  x)

This world of social media exposes a user to many, MANY ideas, opinions, events, opportunities, recipes, projects and distractions (to name a few of its offerings).  Earlier this month I discovered a 'project' that really caught my attention, The Great Discontent 's  #the100dayproject.

kitchen table drawing

I was intrigued!! i LOVE challenges such as these! My brain started to explode with ideas about the best project for me to do for 100 days!!! Everything seemed like a perfect activity, heck most all of the examples in the graphic above excited me!! In fact the more I thought about doing 'X' for 100 day straight, the more my heart raced and my enthusiasm mushroomed.

However I am the QUEEN of productive procrastination and I started to wonder if this newest undertaking would fall into that category.  

 is this something i 'should' do now?!?!? 

in fact, what 'should' I be doing now?!?!? 

That last question has been tormenting me these past weeks, causing me to get in a rut. So as this mental debate about my #100 day project continued in my head, the start date of the project past and so did my excitement.

#fromthelandofdragons

But then, this weekend, I once again stumbled onto information about the project, along with the announcement that even though the start date has past, late comers were always welcomed!!

I took this as a sign that I DID need to join this 'movement', and for numerous reasons.  The first reason being that I AM in a RUT!! I am not one who is usually stuck, but I am paralyzed, stymied about the direction of my career, of my art, of my life.



In the past my answer to any and all ruts was to work, to make art, make a dress about the situation!! but since the divorce that has become a much more difficult response.

Sadly, making art, especially large sculptural dresses, has become complicated.  There is now a much greater pressure for financial success.  There is a much larger demand of my time and other resources.  One of the result of such constraints is that everything has become precious and for me that is the kiss of death!!

hand-lettering quote

My time feels precious, so my output feels scrutinized, mistakes are not welcome and everything must have a purpose and a successful outcome!! that is not a state that encourages any type of true creativity, especially not for me! So one of the perks of #the100dayproject is that by repeating an activity/practice it becomes less precious - and for me that is a very good thing.


Also, as I alluded to above, I am struggling with the direction of my career, art, life.  I am at a crossroads.  I wholly desire to make my living via my art.  I believe in my core that I have a unique 'voice' to add to our world, but I am scrambling to figure out how to share my creativity and vision as well as pay the rent.

Now this is not an earth-shattering life dilemma - most all creatives bump up against this quandary and usually the result is finding a 'job' for the rent and following your passion on the side.  However, I have been reading and learning a lot about a current movement that believes that by finding your passion and your purpose, and with that personal knowledge, you can make a financially successful business.  One champion of this theory is Ann Rea, the creator of Artists who Thrive.  Another believer is Scott Dinsmore, just listen to this TED talk, How to find and do work you love.

painting

I want to excavate my passion and my purpose and find my value.  In Dinsmore's talk he addresses the need to get out there, make mistakes and do work, to see where your passion lies.  As I see it showing up for 100 days of work would be doing the work!! And though that process I would think you would discover your true purpose?!? So reason number two, a good way to excavate my purpose.

cooking

Another positive is that to sign up you are making a commitment to a larger community?!?! Part of the project is to share your 100 days of on social media!! Nothing like a bit of cyber-peer pressure to help motivation?!?

Also I see sharing as another way to remove the preciousness of the work since during those 100 days you will put out work that you may not think is your best.  Even in the description of the project it is emphasized that it is the 'process' not the product that is important in this project!!

Lastly, the exercise of repeating a practice/an act/a project for 100 days is proven to help add that practice/behavior into one's life.  The number of days needed to change or alter one's behavior vary depending on the source, but it is clear that if you consistently practice a certain activity for X (definitely more than 21) amount of days, it will become part of your daily routine.  Here is an article by James Clear that explains this theory further, How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science).

embroidery

Those are all very good reasons to join #the100dayproject, however, I still have some trepidations: is this a good uses of my time, will there be benefits?!?

I already share my creative endeavors online, on a pretty regular basis and I am very comfortable doing it.  On my dailydress inspiration blog I posted a daily inspiration for over a year, possibly 400 days.  With my #fromthelandofdragons series I usually post at least one photo on a daily basis.  

AND I still have NO IDEA what to DO for the 100 days!!!
As I mentioned , almost everything appeals to my creative self - 100 days of recipes, of drawing faces, of embroidering, of doodling on post-its (how fun!!). The idea of 100 days of my kitchen table drawings, or ephemeral dresses or dressmats; it all excites me!!


Also,

So I believe to commit to this project I need something that pushes me out of my comfort zone, something that will contribute to my personal growth and/or something I wish to incorporate into my daily routine . . .

(again head exploding)
so many choices, so many endeavors . . .
so much more to say . . .
so , 'to be continued'.
va