Wow! Moments

 "Honor the WOW moments in life!" and the Quiet moments too!

After looking through old pictures on my computer I realized the "Wow" moments come quietly, like the gentle way the sun shines on the petals of a flower in the garden or the water sparkles on the sea. Most often my WOW! moments are connected to nature or the arts, such as a beautiful painting, dance, or music.

Recently Instagram has decided I need more music in my life and they post things for me to notice. Some of the music has touched my heart. I find myself saying "Wow"!!!

Art always intrigues me. I wonder 
"how did someone actually do it and what was their inspiration?"

The light and darkness, the shadows delight.

How is it that the light just captures the three cups, yet holds the fruit in the shadow?

The sunlight enhances the petals of a flower.

I love chatting with the birds or animals that cross my path. This parrot enchanted me. But the cat that shows up on my patio at unexpected morning moments will pause when spoken to and I say "Wow" "you are comforted by my voice".

The water sparkles on a slightly foggy day.

Light guides the way. It says here I am, follow me, notice what you notice.

What makes you say "Wow"?

I am planning on some "Wow" moments in the next 2 weeks, as I adventure to Alaska. I am sure there will be some nature involved, but maybe even a song. How I would love to hear the songs of a whale, a bird, or the strum of a guitar.

Sending love,

Marilyn

It Makes me Happy!

 When I was a young girl I dreamt of designing clothes. I would take small scraps of cloth and hand-stitch them into clothes for my dolls. But growing up in a conservative family I knew the only thing allowed was to be a wife, mother, or maybe a secretary. I kept my dream locked up tight. The high school counselor suggested I attend business school and become a secretary. My mother made the same suggestion. The only other acceptable family push was to attend a "Christian college" and find a husband, which I did. My secret remained and I worked in offices until I had children.

I would design and make clothes for myself and my two children.

As I was approaching 40 years I asked myself what do I still want to do. My children were more independent. I finally let the secret out and told my husband I wanted to go back to school. After much hard work I graduated with a degree in Apparel Design. The illustrations you see here were done during my time in design school. I hadn't looked at them in a very long time. 

Yes, that is me in those snap shots!

My mind has a bit of an engineering thought process and I ended up working for Jantzen, Inc. as a patternmaker. It was a good career choice and I loved it. When I retired I was working for Nike as a technical designer. A technical designer needed the patternmaking background and good writing skills. I worked with an amazing design team to develop street clothes, making sure the garment fit correctly and the quality was up to the standards of the company. I was the final approval before it went to production. My career makes me very proud of myself.

One of the 100's of sportswear outfits I worked on at Jantzen, Inc.

Now in writing this I was thinking we must acknowledge our dreams and gifts in every step through life, not just our careers. I have heard it said "what do you want to do with your one, beautiful life?" It is so important for our hearts to do the big things, but also the little things.

It's also important to encourage those around us to follow their dreams.

She doesn't look happy, but she shines. In shining and following her dreams, she is happy. She puts on her sparkle and shines, she dances.

I danced too, which is a story for another day.

The spirit of creativity still sits in the center of my heart. Each time I do something creative, even writing these posts, it satisfies my heart. It makes me happy. 

Just a little peak of my past dreams come true, living the dream.

Sending love,

Marilyn

David Hockney

 On the first Thursday of every month the Portland Art Museum has a free entrance day. Off my "live-in gardener" and I went, as I wanted to see the temporary exhibit of more than 100 pieces of art by David Hockney. 

This was David Hockney sitting in two different chairs viewing bouquets of flowers. Each of those flower pictures also showed up individually around the room.

What a variety of techniques from collage, video, photographic art There were whimsical child like drawings to very intricate personal artwork of friends and lovers. There were scenes from Yosemite, British landscapes, his dog Stanley, flowers, swimming pools, and intimate pictures of people. And then there were paths, which fit in very well with my word for the year (Path/Adventure).

Here is Stanley.

I was enthralled by the different art techniques he so creatively used to express his artistic talents.

And a swimmer for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The museum recently built a new entrance to the museum and added a small French style bistro/restaurant. We stopped there for a bite to eat and a pot of tea. For a little while I felt like I was in Paris. They even served and sold tea and jellies from my favorite teashop in Paris, Mariage Freres. Their baguettes, which they made, were amazingly good.

The park outside the museum was so pleasant to walk through both to and from our car.

Two books completed recently, both about young girls that grow into womanhood in different ethnic lives. One is from Iran and the book is The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali. The other is from China and the book is Teagirl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. This second book was a re-read from several years ago. I read it to refresh my memory for a presentation I am doing at TeaFestPDX the end of June. I really enjoyed both books. 

Now I wrote this post a couple weeks ago and forgot to say "Publish".  The museum exhibit was amazing and the books were too.  Already I want to return to the museum before the David Hockney exhibit leaves the museum.

Sending love,

Marilyn

A Week that Was

These days I love noticing "supermarket flowers".

The hellebore is in full bloom at the market by my home.

I just couldn't resist capturing one in my lens.

Watermelon Portraits by Christine Miller was found at the Portland Art Museum this week. Now for some this would not be picked as a favorite, but it touched me. The watermelon has been historically stereotyped to represent Black people and culture. The fruit was domesticated in northeast Africa more than 4,000 years ago and as a symbol of African American freedom. For the artist, the seeds symbolize Black resilience.

Another part of the exhibit. I went to the Portland Art Museum to see modern art by Rothko, but this separate exhibit of black artists drew me in. Being open to surprises is part of following a path to adventure.

From my kitchen window. Do you see the little one so close, but with the barrier of the window between us? My "live-in gardener" and I are soooo excited to see the hummers discover the feeder.

January is National Hot Tea Month

I finished reading The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth by Barbara O'Neal and really enjoyed it. Love reading with my morning tea.

“Do you want an adventure now…or would you like to have your tea first?” Peter Pan

I thought this quote was perfect for my year of adventure.

Next month my tea group will celebrate Chinese New Years, the year of the horse. We bring a small gift for everyone. This week I made tea brewing counters, but they could be for counting anything. What do you count?

 So that was the days that transpired last week. Looking forward into a new week with new adventures. Right now, it looks like paperwork, ugh! But I am hoping for some surprises.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Teabag Art

Last year I participated in the Teabag Art show at A Framer's Touch in Forest Grove, Oregon. This year I haven't had time to paint much, but still wanted to see the creativity of art incorporating a teabag or two.

Enjoy the art show and see if you can find the teabag or two in each piece of artwork. What surprised me both last year and this year is how creative the artists were in their use of a teabag. Can you pick out the teabag in each of the pieces? Some were a challenge for me to see.

I found this one unique in that they layered the teabags from different teas to create different color/shades and then left a chart of the tea colors. I have dyed Easter eggs with different teas to create variation in shades, but hadn't thought of layering them for the different shades.

The teacup and saucer had been cut so they would fit into the artwork.

And of course I loved the Alice in Wonderland theme of several.

Seeing all the teabag art inspires me to pull out the art supplies soon and start painting again. First I need an adventure or two, but yes!!!! Creativity feeds my soul.

Sending love,

Marilyn