Treasures

I’m on vacation in northern California having quality time with my sister. We seem to be eating our way through the area, laughing, and having deep bonding.  We toast the memory of our mother and know she would love to be with us sharing in these good times.

I was here the same time last year for a wedding and to empty out and get rid of my storage. It was a painful process. (You can read about that at : http://susan-tereba.blogspot.com/2012/10/benediction.html). 

This year I’m going through the few things I salvaged and stored at my sister’s house. One of those is a set of ten large flat art drawers.  Last week I tackled the first five.  Today I started on the sixth. 

As I went through the drawings, preliminaries for watercolor paintings I’d done and sold over twenty-five years ago, a swirl of emotions over took me and soon tears were cascading down my checks. I sat back to sort out these emotions as colorful and varied as my paintings were.  These artworks were all done during my marriage, to John, an artist in his own right. The memoires of that life have grown thin leaving a vague otherworldly sensation.

But the drawings surprised me in their quality of execution – I wondered, “Who did these? They seemed to be from a distant me that I could hardly remember - a time of innocence and naiveté and youth of spirit.”

I wondered if I painted such happy paintings because I projected that as my life.  Of course in reality I dealt with fear, trepidation and self-consciousness – all aspects that have mellowed with maturity, aspects that don’t plague me as they did in my 20’s and 30’s. I was surprised at how much I liked these pieces and how they made me feel – happy as well as nostalgic.  And then something new stated to take wing.

I can see this as a pendent

If you’ve been reading this Blog you know I’ve been experimenting with coloring bone.  I see this as a coming back around to painting while still making jewelry. Looking through my old drawings I started to see possibilities for carvings that tell a story as my paintings did plus an excuse (as though I need one) to use color once again.

There were several images in these old drawings that could become pieces of jewelry. It’s strange to be inspired by my own inspiration. I usually look outside for that.

Tomorrow I’ll put music on, open the garage door for more light and pull out drawer number seven. I wonder what treasures it (and the other not yet opened drawers) hold for me.  What new inspirations might carry me off on new adventures.

Break Through!

I’ve finally found a product that works to color bone carvings as I’ve envisioned for over two years. It’s waterproof and lets the light of the bone shine through just like the paper's white does in my watercolor paintings.

I am basically a painter. When I was studying for my BA in Art - oh so many years ago - I ended up painting on my hand built ceramic sculptures.  I eventually chucked the ceramics and moved on to paper which thrilled me for years - and still does when I find time to use it. Painting on paper was more immediate than having to wait to fire the ceramics and hope with crossed fingers that it wouldn’t crack or the colors change dramatically.

Now I’m painting on bone. What a departure! And one I couldn’t have imagined without a crystal ball just a couple of years ago. However, I feel a bit hemmed in by the small assortment of colors I have after purchasing everything I could find in the local art store. I have no yellow or true red. So it’s on to Google Search for another source. 

It was such a thrill to have this click into place. I've been craving color in my mammoth jewelry which I’ve gotten using semi precious stone beads.  I still love the mammoth tusk and jet carvings but my muse is demanding something new. I knew abstractly what I wanted but didn’t have a concrete vision. That took time to come into focus and then ‘bang!’ it hit me that I wanted a watercolor look on the carvings.

The creative process is so exciting!  I love how stepping out of the way let’s the magic in - magic you couldn’t orchestrate on your own.  And often stepping out of the way is automatic - you don’t even realize you are doing it! 

Wings in Living Color!

 

I started posting about this process in July. At the time the colors I used sat opaquely the surface of the bone. Here's the entry I wrote and a photo of my early attempts:

http://susan-tereba.blogspot.com/2013/07/back-in-saddle.html

 

  

A Gift

I had hoped my book would be a instant wild success.  I’ve poured my heart, soul and energy into it for four years and was ready to send it on it’s merry way. Then a publisher friend had his editor read it and sent me a list of criticisms, detailing how to improve it.  I knew in my heart what he wrote was right but still it’s a blow to the ego. I felt so mediocre.

Now in the light of a new day I think, what a gift - to be told just what to do to make it work.  There were some positives in the critique as well but isn’t it strange how our minds gloss over the pats-on-the-back to focus on the criticisms?  I’ve realized minds are like that - they dwell on the negative, perhaps as a form of preservation and protection. If you wait instead of reacting to that initial response, a new more mature perspective takes root.

I'm ready to tackle this diversion from what I thought the road ahead would look like. There will be new scenery and leaning and hopefully more barriers broken as I traverse the land of book editors.  I need someone who can be ruthless but compassionate as we need to cut about a quarter of the words.

The current challenge is to find someone who believes in my book and with whom I’ll have a rapport to create a much better work - to push beyond what it is now to something greater.  I have an appointment with a friend who does this professionally. We’ll see if we can work together and if not I’ll be back on the hunt for the right person.

Found on Pinterest

That seems like a gargantuan task but one that must be done step by step. Making a list of what I want in an editor would be a place to start. Got any ideas, hints, or do you know of a good professional editor? Let me know if you do. 

In the meantime I content myself with creating new necklace designs and continuing in my experiments to color bone.

I wish you Happy Creating in whatever medium or mediums you use!