Artful Adventures: A Belated Happy Mother's Day!

May 13, 2008

A Belated Happy Mother's Day!

Another of the necklaces from last week, carved jade, onyx, turquoise, freshwater pearls & a skeleton key-it's a little chunkier than what I've been doing, but fun, and green just like it's looking outside!

I was planning on blogging about the ArtBeet meeting held last night at Clay on Steele in Algoma, where Mark Fraire from the WI Arts Board came to speak to our group about grant writing. But due to a swollen up knee, thought it would be in my best interest to stay home, feet up, and rest it before it got worse, turned out to be the right thing to do. This morning Amanda and I met to have coffee & be inspired & work on some art together. We've been getting together once every week or 2, just to keep each other on track, bounce ideas back & forth while we work, that kind of thing. It was hard (not hard, just felt strange) for me at first-not sure if it's because I'm not coordinated enough to work & talk at the same time, or if I'm just so used to working alone, but it's working out well and has been fun. This has been something I've been wanting to do for years, find a like minded person to be able to share the process of making art & work together on a regular basis so we could both grow, and it's finally happening. So go grab yourself an art buddy & give it a try!

Now lets back up to toMother's Day. This young couple, Ali, Jason, and their baby(the horns from the assemblage behind her are quite the addition!), Penelope (don't you just love that name?) spent the previous week end with us. Ali is a co-worker of Jeremy's & they were all in town for an annual Autism conference in Green Bay, so stuck around and spent the night here. On Mother's Day, I couldn't help thinking of Ali and how she might feel on this first Mother's Day as a parent. Do you remember your first Mother's Day? I do-it was scary and grand, all at the same time. All the thoughts that still roll around in my head on that day, thinking of when I became a Mother, having a Mother & what kind of relationship that was/is, hoping I've done an adequate job of being a Mother but also knowing that all I could have done was what I did-the best that I could do at the time. Naturally I think we all wish there were some things we had done differently, or is it just me?

In the meantime, Gary & I spent the day together (Kids will come another day) with him treating me like a Queen for the day, starting off with this gorgeous vase of flowers the day before, and then presented me with these goblets that I've been eyeing up since last fall-aren't they cool? We drove up to Sturgeon Bay to The Artists Guild to pick up some more large canvases, always nice to stop in there & chat and see what's new-they've really expanded their product line and seem to have a little of everything. From there we had brunch at Scaturo's-it was delicious! Stopped at a greenhouse & got a few plants to start container planting, stopped at the gallery for coffee & bought a tree while we were there:)

For years, every Mother's Day I got a tree, but somehow that tradition stopped. This year though, it changed again and we got a birch tree ( Betula pendula 'youngii') that has a wonderfully contorted trunk-it's gorgeous! I've always wanted birch trees here anyway, now I'll have one! Even though I'm a couple of days late, my wish is that all my friends had a great Mother's Day-doesn't matter if you have kids or not, you've all mothered something or someone, somewhere along the line! Some pink flowers, Bonnie:)