Spring Cleaning (Art Sale!)

In my pre-Cowgirl days, regularly I would toss my bike into the back of my pick-up truck (yes, truly a lifetime and two cars ago) and head over to an amazing trail that afforded me 16, 25, and 40 mile riding options. Heading out, the trail seemed flat but slowly gains altitude until I hit a nice patch of hills that would take me up and down and up and down through wooded areas and rolling farmlands. I carried snacks to fortify me and to celebrate the turning around point, although the longer trek had an ice cream shop as its incentive for schlepping over more hills. But the real treat was the return ride with its gradual decline which meant long stretches of coasting, sitting upright and hands off handle bars to savor the view and the exhilaration of cool air washing over sweaty skin and tired muscles. 

It's been years - no, more than a decade! - since I rode that trail, yet it came to mind as I tried to explain to a friend how I am feeling right now after sloughing through a series of emotional hills since my mother died.  Some weeks things seemed smooth-ish although there still was the sense of effort, the need to keep peddling, keep moving. Then came a number of steep hills: all the firsts one goes through in the initial year of mourning. My first birthday without my mother; first Thanksgiving, Christmas, her birthday and now Easter. I actually have traversed much of the steepest terrain with Mother's Day as the last big hurdle. 

So right now, I feel like I am in the coasting section... the fast flying over stretches of time and geography ... moments of pure exuberance as I engage with renewed enthusiasm in favorite creative practices.  It helps that Spring is ushering in gentle and cleansing rains, greening the landscape around me while the birds add their raucous soundtrack to my days. I've been Spring cleaning while whistling a happy tune and as I pause to catch my breath, I see a number of old friends needing new homes.

I literally have paintings stacked against the walls in my home. (I once joked after watching a documentary on the painter Alice Neel whose New York apartment held corridors of canvases 2 to 3 pictures deep that this would be Cowgirl's inheritance) Many paintings have stood by my fireplace, warming my heart and hearth throughout the previous seasons.  It is time for them to find good homes.

Here then is my blog-exhibit: Spring Cleaning!

Each piece available for adoption purchase has a link to its own page (click on the title) with full information on size, materials, and price.  If you are interested in giving a painting a good home (ahem, purchasing a piece), just leave me a comment on the appropriate page or send me an email and I will make arrangements for payment and calculate shipping cost. 

Email: Lishofmann88(at)gmail(dot)com)  
Shipping to U.S. destinations will range in price from around $7 for small pieces to $10 for the larger ones.

Baby Ganesha

xoxo (Girl 1)

xoxo (Girl 2)

Buck's Magic

Hopeful (Fox and Bird)

Mermaid

Rooted (Rabbit)

Believe & Receive

Seeing all of these friends from the past year arranged in one space, I get a little weepy thinking about the journey they have taken me on.  I know it is time to release them, to share their magic with others.  They have been part of the uphill journey; now it is time to let them (and myself) enjoy a stretch of coasting, a period of celebration and release.    

easter bunny magic

Look at what the Easter bunny did:

He gave our chicks legs and feet!

Speaking of legs (I know, I am a master of the segue) I wanted to encourage you to check out the next leg of our virtual blog tour ... these blogs being the treats I turn to for an instant infusion of inspiration and insight.  

Michelle GD is a photographer and writer playing with lens and verse.  She believes there is beauty in tiny moments and healing in image and word.  You can find her on michellegd.com.

Mel Leavey is a "writer, magic-keeper, fire-raiser." She has transformed her drafty garret into the inkblot kingdom (www.inkblotkingdoms.com) and our world is richer for it. She has saved and supported me in ways beyond the scope of a blog post ... let's just say I have a reoccurring payment to her karmic bank account and I take pleasure in wiring those funds!

Mandy Smith is the proprietress of Flora Phenomena. Mandy enjoys creating herbal remedies, playing with plants, and learning about the relationships between the natural world and the human species. Her blog posts are meant to empower the reader and reignite our sense of wonder of the world and nature. Her herbal products at Flora Phenomena (coming soon!) offer healing and nourishment for the mind, body, and spirit. You can find Mandy exploring her always sun-drenched world (or so it seems to me!)  on her current blog at the present moment. 

What strikes me today is the many ways we each support and fuel the magical in our lives and in our world.  And when I speak of magic, I mean that which allows me to believe the impossible can happen ... that miracles such as the healing of our planet, or respectful and truthful communication among people, or children growing up steeped in love and wonderment, or felted chicks growing legs are to be expected.  

(A gentle reminder that today is the last day for early bird registration to my course The Gift of Practice which starts May 5.  Registration will be open through the first week, but in order to receive a complimentary mentoring session you need to sign up NOW!  All the details and registration information can be found HERE)  

trusting ...

it will arrive 

eventually

just not

today 

or even

tomorrow

Spring ... 

I STILL believe

Meanwhile ... the antidote to my malaise is copious cups of tea (thank you Mel!), taking refuge in paint AND in wool (never a lack of knit projects to return to!), and when the going gets tough, I retreat to my cozy bed with heating pad and mystery novel (am a sucker for the Ann Cleeves Shetland novels and Vera Stanhope series both of which have been made into television shows through the BBC so oodles of comfort and fun awaiting me should Spring skip out all-together.)

How are you coping with seasonal bipolarism?  Any miracle cures you are willing to share?

fevered

my new Morning Pages Notebook a la Mel with sewn cover

Awesome, really

creative impulse

masquerading as

avoidance

This morning I awoke to this:

Winter's last and feeble gasp ... it actually helps to abate the fever within. My symptoms: frenzy of new activity;

back view; an impulsive Must Do This Minute project?

resurrection of old projects from the vaults (embroidery, a sweater, a felted bag, paintings, journals) shuffled in with the new; 


 

ah, a girl rummaging in the paint tub!

eyes wide open to the quiet and boisterous declarations of Spring shaking me to Wake Up!  It is Time to Don Color and Celebrate!

I am learning from The Man II (Mr. Whyte) to cease trying to name what is yet unnameable ... to declare the destination prematurely would be to limit the scope of the journey, pigeonholing myself and any transformation that might occur in the act of striding through this forest of delights (oh, and shadows and strange noises and wonderful birdsong and sunshine through the branches.)

I am welcoming the excursions to shore ... the side trips (This begins on Friday and I don't think I can - or ought to! - resist this and goodness goddess, how can I not want to don gypsy grab and set forth with my adventure journal?)

I blame all this on the worms. The earth waking up, the worms working their magic underground, the green fingers of Spring wiggling their greetings and invitations to me.  Spring fever?  Oh my yes! And I am feeding it!

What has the Worm Moon awoken in you?