Socking ya' in the kisser,Ridding Yourself of Toxic Thoughts & Octopus Rides!

HAPPY NEW YEAR Bloggy! Well, 2009 is now long gone but sure does leave a bad taste in my mouth filled with residual messes that still need fixing. Even though it was a challenging hard year for so many including myself I do recognize I had some wonderful things that happened such as travel, exhibitions, art making and just getting to spend time with friends and family that I adore. You know the good stuff that makes me balanced and happy. But the challenges I faced from last year are following me into this new year. Sure they can honestly be scary but I am doing my best to keep a heads up positive outlook...I am not immune to the blahs and blues I have my bad days but always know I have to push past the negative toxic goo so I don't get stuck mucking around in it for too long halting my progress in life. I hear it all over I don't feel alone in how hard life is right now so many are struggling to get to a better place to be more balanced and healthy. I have regrouped and rethought things and I hope it starts to align the way I see fit and everything heads the way I am navigating towards.

Modern life depends so much on a financial income which right now for me is not so great.Following a creative life path is surely challenging but I feel it's worth it. I am sure another creative position will open up shortly as I feel I have so much to offer both in my own personal fine art endeavors as well as helping shape things with my vision in a day job creative position. Yeah so, it's hard struggling I have been on the bottom of the barrel and know how it makes it that much harder to be creative because you are trying to pull yourself out of this hole and that takes both hands making it more difficult sometimes to create. The stability of a day job offers balance and put worries to rest or quiets them enough where real work can get done for me anyhow. Now I push through these hard times still drawing but notice how during times of worry when I am in survival mode I feel a bit more stiff. A clarity that I normally experience since for me making art is a form of meditation but it's harder as of late to clear my mind, I do it just takes a bit longer.

Here I am in 2010 with more challenges ahead which I accept and I know very exciting projects also lie ahead such as book projects,exhibitions in NYC and Los Angeles. Things are not bottom of the barrel at all right now but I just have some life sorting to do to get back on a path that doesn't have so much poison ivy and sticker bushes pricking me.

It's times like this I feel like cleaning out my sock drawer. Some how going through something that gets so jam packed cluster fucked full of strays, old, holed up, useless socks; clearing it out is more symbolic as it's another form of meditation for me. I came into the new year greeted with a cold so my energy has been lower than usual, so doing a deceptively simple task such as cleaning a sock drawer is therapeutic and makes me feel like I am getting things accomplished. The drawer is like my mind and I am getting rid of bad ideas and keeping the good ones that work. I exercised some demons and forced myself to throw away weird old socks that some how feel sentimental to me yet I never wear them. I did still keep one sentimental pair of socks with snails on them that I got when I first started dating my now husband some 16 years ago I could not bring myself to throw those away. I did really well this time, I remember the last time I tried to clean my sock drawer I ended up cheating by getting a storage bin and just dumping the socks into it making them out of sight out of mind but still they're there taking up space. This time no bins just trash bags clearing out things making room for new things. This is how I like to think of the socks as ideas or memories... keeping only useful positive ones and getting rid of torn broken holed up messes of memories that do no good and are useless. I am practicing the art of throwing things away, clearing my tablet when it's the right time. The new year purge of my sock drawer was a great success and if it's a metaphor for how things will go with the rest of my life this year it's look quite tidy,colorful and fresh. No more old holey torn socks for me and no more toxic thoughts halting progress. Clearing my minds drawers only allows for new thoughts to fill it and pushes me along further on my path. And really that is what this all about. Socks are a metaphor for stagnant thinking and fresh ideas. I know I have said the sock drawer thing or closet comparison before either in conversations with friends or maybe even on this blog but it's truly such a simple way to some how begin to re-energize when things get a bit rough and feel stagnant. NOW WHO WANTS AN OCTOPUS RIDE!!!! * Click the sock drawer picture for explanation :)

* Pictured from top to bottom... My painting palette, My actual sock drawer to illustrate my point further, My cat Nervil in recovery after surgery earlier this year, My Cat Nervil makes an empty glass totally full!!! The Glass is neither half empty or half full it's simply Nervil. Nervil says real pain for everyone and only champagne for him... he has an attitude :)
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The amazing show I am apart of - the 'Feedback' Exhibition travels to Frankfurt Germany this January 12th! Here is the promo poster:

And finally I leave with you a short movie I made during the holidays which I have shared with people but I have not posted it here on my blog so just so my blog doesn't feel left out here is my short movie: 'Not So Magical More Like A Mess'
Expect more animated art movies from me this year... next up I will animate an artwork from the Feedback exhibit and pair it with the original score that Adrian Stout of the Tiger Lillies created just for my artwork. :) YAY! OK NOW HERE IS MY MOVIE ENJOY!