And the very complex, intricate, convoluted answer I came up with – because it’s fun. It’s fun to create, it’s fun to use your imagination, it’s fun to play with color and application, it’s fun to see a piece evolve minute by minute, day by day. But we all need input from others and a dry spell in sales can give cause for a lot of self-examination. And too much focus on oneself.

Over the years, we’ve all known people who brought to mind the phrase “enough about me, what do you think about me?” So to guard against too much “me”, it’s necessary at times to get away from your own little self and see what is going on in the world – or at least in your part of it.

Yesterday, I was able to attend several art events exhibiting work by artist friends. One was the Real Gallery, part of the East Austin Studio Tour, which has an impressive number of artists and locations, and a wonderful variety of work. Another event was at a friend’s house, where we enjoyed inspiring music and a beautiful display of her art and technique. And lastly, a visit to another house where the art was created from wood – lovely work and design.

So it was nice, for a change, to not feel the pressure to sell my work – that’s why God made the space between walls and sofas – and to spend time enjoying and appreciating the fruits of other’s creativity.

I think it is a fantastic and amazing library where I can instantly – and usually for free – find the answer to any question that pops into my little pea brain.  Who played JR’s dad in the television series Dallas – both actors?  What is the best way to ship pastel paintings?  Where can I find a list of prime numbers?  How can I color my hair back to grey?  Is there a Quantum Physics for Dummies book? (YES!)  Do I give my dog oatmeal after he ate an entire chicken off the counter top?  (Yes, among other options, and you get to watch over do-do for the next few days)

Absolutely anything you need to know is there.  Someone else has had the same question, problem, or curiosity at some point, and other kind people have helped them to figure out the answer.  Yep, I’m a Pollyanna and I don’t care.

One of the things that tickles me the most is when I see that someone from the Isle of Man or Prudenville, Michigan has visited my blog.  I was lucky enough to visit the Isle of Skye, and Holyhead Wales, and Agana Guam, and I’ve lived a lot of places because my father was in the service. So I love seeing that someone in Romania has checked out my blog.  I hope that I have helped someone get started in learning to draw or to use pastels.   Send me a comment, and I’ll check out your site!

Some of the visitors from yesterday – courtesy of Statcounter.com (a free service) show the city, state, and country of each visitor.  Not your name nor anything else, just the search terms and the city location ~
Isle Of Man / Moscow, Moscow City, Russian Federation / Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam / Madras, Tamil Nadu, India / Sioux Falls, South Dakota / Austin, Texas / Coronado, California / Saint Paul, Minnesota / Cambridge, Ontario, Canada / Windsor, Ontario, Canada / San Diego, California / Prudenville, Michigan / New York/ Altoona, Pennsylvania / Oakville, Ontario, Canada / Grand Rapids, Michigan ( I used to live there! - And in Ada, Lansing and Kalkaska) / Collierville, Tennessee / Radford, Virginia / Washington, Durham, United Kingdom / Blandford Forum, Dorset, United Kingdom / Memphis, Tennessee / Los Angeles, California / Plasencia, Extremadura, Spain / Leicester, United Kingdom / Banbridge, United Kingdom / Albuquerque, New Mexico (Hi, Jo!) / Roslindale, Massachusetts

How cool is that?

So Hello and Kanys t’ou? to Manx! (”the people born on the Isle of Skye are known as ‘Manx’ and are classified as British (as opposed to English” – www.isleofman.com) and bienvenidos a mi blog to Plasencia Spain too.

Here is one I found today –

Andrea Joseph’s sketchblog

Wonderful, wonderful sketches.

And I found Andrea through

Rose Welty

who also loves to paint, draw and figured out how to combine her blog, website and newsletter!

www.mikeetie.com

It will be well worth your time to visit and see his great landscapes.

We are artists. Period.  Say it.  It took years for me to be able to say “I am an artist” and not feel like I was being pretentious.  Okay….  I still feel that way at times.  But one of the main things that brings joy to my life is art.  Creating art, thinking about art, viewing art. And being grateful to have that passion.

And I need to be able to dedicate at least a small portion of every day to what I love.  Thanks, Rose.

When I leave home and drive in any direction, there are new neighborhoods emerging – in an incredibly short time span – from the freshly razed ground.  Mature trees are now heaped into scrap piles around the perimeter.

With the construction of most new homes, we seem to move further away from a life which integrates the home with the surrounding land and trees.  New subdivisions often appear to consist of a pasture planted with garages, each with an attached house and a token stick of a tree centered in the front square of grass. Along with new housing for our increasing population, we bring more cars and an increasing array of technology which creates emissions harmful to the environment.

One way we can counteract this is by planting a tree!

Even if you are lucky enough to live in an established neighborhood with mature trees, age and disease can damage or wipe out your trees – many trees were lost last year in our area to a combination of drought and oak wilt. So it is a good commitment to make to the value of our homes and to the health of our neighborhoods to plant a tree!

If you live in Texas, one very cool website created by Texas A&M is helpful on how to select, buy, plant and care for a new tree, based on your Texas county and the size of tree you want and where you are going to plant it – http://texastreeplanting.tamu.edu/

Plant a tree in memory of a friend or loved one who has passed or to celebrate a new child being born – one way to do this is via the National Arbor Day Foundation. Contact them: http://www.arborday.org/

Dell is partnering with the Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org with its “Plant a Tree for Me” Program which will offset the carbon dioxide produced through powering customers’ computer systems – http://www.conservationfund.org/node/326

Nature gives us balance in life in a variety of ways – physically and spiritually. Trees benefit us not only in their beauty but with their practical functions. Each positive step we take toward restoring the trees we have lost contributes to bringing Earth – and ourselves – back into balance.  (from previous blog of 8.2007)

And click here to view a great post today on “Making a Mark” blog on how to draw trees – it links to this Squidoo lens. Squidoo has some very helpful and detailed “how-to” draw, paint, etc. art pages.

Sunflowers         Sue, painting

Jo, painting                 My sunflowers (in progress)