BIG CHANGES FOR ROSAMUND IN 2012

It is difficult to post everything I am thinking and feeling here but I have felt for a long time now that I am in the midst of a major transformative time.  I can feel and see all of the old ways of "being" falling away.  It is all at once frightening and exciting.  I am chosing my path very consciously.  I am staying true to myself.  I am stepping into 2012 trusting myself.  And there is a part of me that is saying "Never Again" to some things so that new doors of possibility can begin to open.

So with this being said, I am discontinuing my Rosamund blog in order to begin anew.  Please visit my new blog at: http://www.lisaannesartblog.blogspot.com/.  My etsy shop, Rosamund, will continue and I will be listing shop items which reflect more of an art and illustration focus, although I will still list other hand crafted items from time to time.   Thank you for taking a peek.

Best wishes to you all for a Happy New Year!

Peace - Lisa

Artist Love...e.e. cummings

If you have never read e.e. cummings, I would surely encourage it. Cummings seems to have been a passionate man in every sense of the word and it appears that, that passion seeped through every pore of his life. He was also a painter and this edition includes some of his paintings and pencil sketches. And...he wrote a little known short book of fairy tales which are wonderful.

I was so inspired by my week with Cummings, so to speak, that I made this poetry necklace. It is vintage wallpaper printed on muslin with my favorite e.e. cummings poem (which is really a prayer) printed on the inside. The chain is part of an old amythest rosary from France that I found hanging in an old barn in these parts - the owner sold it to me for a dollar. This poem/prayer is the first thing I say each morning - usually as I walk Benny. It is a wonderful, positive way to start the day in gratitude and sets the tone for the rest of the day. Thank you e.e. cummings.

Julia Cameron's Beautiful New Book

Of course, Beloved Sulamith Wulfing

Trusting

Have you ever felt like a painting? This one is by the beloved John William Waterhouse. These days, I feel much like the woman in this painting - somehow emerging after a long period of dormancy to a brand new optimism - chin up, beauty in hand. I spent half of our hard winter and all of our spring pulled into myself - silent and still. I could feel things changing. I could hear guidance coming through and I knew I needed to be attentive. For a long time, I stopped creating. This seemed necessary for listening. Then, when it was time, I did what my intuition told me to do. I carried a journal around and recorded my insides - my heart and my gut and sometimes even my brain. And something remarkable happened....I could HEAR the important stuff. What I want and what I am trying to create became crystal clear for me - thankfully - during this time. And then, I began to sketch. Not even consciously - which I think might be the best way of sketching. All in this lovely large Anthropologie journal given to me a couple of years ago by a dear friend.

And sometimes, I painted freely. This is Ms. Daffodil. She came from my insides. Funny little thing. And then I sketched some more...

Many of my sketches looking like children's book illustrations, which surprised me somewhat. And then I decided to do something bold - something that really scared me a lot. I submited a painting to a juried art show in the Berkshires. This was agonizing in every way. The finished painting was not quite what I had envisioned and this festered in me for weeks. I hung the painting on our dining room wall and ripped it apart in my mind. I asked myself just who I thought I was thinking that I could submit a painting to a juried Berkshire art show. Hmmm?! And I thought that I was not going to do it. No, I would not submit it at all but just place it in the corner of our study and it would collect dust for eternity. And then one day, when I was once again sitting in the dining room staring at it, my youngest walked in. "Are you still agonizing over that painting?" he asked. I shook my head yes then added a heavy sigh. Then he said, "The thing is that you always tell us that you can't know until you try. So why don't you just try?" Oh, the wisdom of a thirteen year old. I knew he had me there. And so I did what I knew I had to do. The very next day, I loaded that painting into the car and I drove it to the art school where I would officially submit it. And yes, I sat in the parking lot for a while working up the courage to go inside.

The task was to create an art piece with KITE as the theme. It could be any medium. This is what I submitted in acrylic:

Which leads me to this quote:

I submitted my painting to this art school in Stockbridge, MA:

This is IS183 Art School of the Berkshires. Funny thing happened when I walked into this building.... I got chills. And then I heard myself say, "Please God, let me work here someday."
In the meantime, I will become part of its community by taking three art classes there this summer and then, hopefully, volunteering in the fall.

And so I emerge from being still and silent taking some risks; stepping outside of my box. It feels good. And what I hear most now are these two things:

#1. TRUST YOURSELF

And #2.

Listening

And so it seems I simply cannot manage to stay on task these days. Somehow I feel as frozen in time as the earth outside my front door. The new year came and all of the "tasks" dropped off and I replaced them with stillness and listening. It is true that I feel some major changes coming. There are whisperings just beyond the veil and I hear them and I feel them and I wait for the guidance that I know is coming. And now the changes have begun.

Last week, we lost our dear friend Rosey. She was sixteen and in kidney failure - blind, deaf and relying on IV fluids. It was her time to slip peacefully into the next room and I held her as she did so. She was sweet and she was lovely and I will never forget her. And as these things go, there is a very good story behind our Rosey and her life with us.

My father had a gray female kitty named Rosie the year before he died. He was an animal lover and throughout my childhood, our tiny house was filled with animals he was constantly rescuing. Rosie was one such animal. He had a deep and abiding bond with her and when she died suddenly, he was as deeply saddened. But then shortly after, he followed her to the world beyond. One year to the day after my father's death, I was on the phone with my mother. We cried as we talked about how much we missed my father and I told her that the hardest part for me was not having his physical prescence in my life. We live in such a physical world - if only I had something physical from him - something that would replace his prescence in my life - that would be so comforting - I told her. The very next day, a petite gray female cat showed up in my life. No one knew where she came from. No one claimed her as their own. She was a stray and had made her way into my life. Matted and starving and covered in ticks, I brought her to the vet where they cleaned her up and gave her all of the necessary care. I then called Mister at work and said,

"I really want this cat. PLEASE say we can keep her. You MUST understand that I know my father sent her to me." And Mister replied,

"Lisa - you just told me your dead father sent you a cat. Am I now supposed to tell you that you can't have it?"

And so I took her home and we loved each other from the very beginning as we both needed each other so much. And...of course, I named her Rosie. But the vet spelled her name "ROSEY" on the paperwork and I thought that spelling was fitting - that her life and mine would be Rosey from that point on - and it was. And there is one more thing to add to this story...my maiden name is Desrosiers - which is french for "of roses". The rose has always been a symbol for me of my father and our family.

Another change here is that I have realized that I have so much love in my heart that there is room for another animal in my life. In the spirit of our Rosey and my father's rescuing of animals and my love of dogs, we have decided to rescue a a sweet little dog named Teddy. He will officially become part of our family next weekend. We are all very excited to welcome Teddy. I think Benny will enjoy having a dog friend. Teddy is a 2 year old mini goldendoodle. Ben is a 3 year old standard goldendoodle. They both have common interests - walks and playing fetch. I hope they will have a bromance.

I the meantime...I continue to be still and to listen and when it is time, I will be back to post our laundry room makeover.

Peace - Blessings,

Rosamund

To Andrew,Will and Jack

Love, Mom

What Up? Rosamund's Notes for the New Year

If you live with three teenage boys, you get very used to being asked, What up?" Well after a good, long break, I am back into the swing of things here at Rosamund. I have spent a full month contemplating some goals (mind you, certainly not resolutions) for the New Year. This year, I am going to try a little blog experiment of sorts. What I really would like this blog to be is a shared journal of creative exploration. I want to spend this year truly exploring everything creative. I want to learn about new artists. I want to listen to new music. I want to try new recipes. I want to explore new art mediums. I want to read more books. I want to focus on positivity and words of wisdom and infinite beauty. I want to not be overwhelmed while I attempt to explore these things. I want it to be fun and to not become a chore. So I have incorporated a little structure to help me along; some small attainable goals for each month.

Each month, I will have one blog entry per week. The month will begin with a quote, poem, prayer or some source of wisdom. Then, I will post on four different themes - one per week - throughout the month. These themes are:

1. Make - in which I share my latest art/craft creation (maybe even a recipe). Also, including any Rosamund shop updates.
2. Art Exploration - in which I explore a new art supply, medium, artist, movie, etc.
3. Book Nook - A review of books I read - one adult book per month and maybe a children's book here and there. I love children's books and still read them!
4. Beauty - one photo; no words (unless it is an item belonging to another artist, in which case I will provide a link).

Here is the sneak peek for February:

1. Make - Laundry Room Redo
Here is our laundry room - more like a closet, where everything gets tossed. What a disaster! We are in the process of the revamp - making it more functional, more organized and nicer on the eyes. Of course, this all began as most improvement projects begin in homes - with a broken dryer. Next month, in Make, I will talk paint colors and cabinets.

2. Art Exploration - gouache paint

3. Book Nook - This book for review:

I hope everyone has enjoyed a good start to the New Year. See you on February 1st for Make!