Appreciation

I am so grateful every day for all that I have been blessed with, most especially all the family and friends who share their lives with me. Thank you.

Happy New Year!

What is inspiring you in this new year? And what are you wishing for this year? What are you planning to accomplish? How do you hope to grow? Where do you want to go? I love January because it is a chance to start fresh and refocus on what is important in my life. So to answer some of the above questions about myself....some images, of course!

A big plan this year, and every year, is to make art every day. I work in sketchbooks often, and learn so much about my process by doing that. I'm also continuing to explore the poured acrylic work on panels and canvas.

I plan to continue my study of ceramics with Ingrid Bathe. I learned so much last year, and have a lot of work I just glazed and some which is drying, so I'll have photos to show soon. In the meantime here are some artists who are inspiring me in ceramics and painting.

I do not know who the artist is here, but love the form.

Takahiko Hayashi

Kazunori Hamana

Kazunori Hamana

I am part of a monthly book group and we are reading Anna Karenina for the next 2 months. Yes, we felt we needed 2 months! And I am getting so much pleasure out of Art As Experience, the old art school staple by John Dewey. I think it has so much wisdom about getting pleasure out of the everyday experience of living, and that is always a resolution of mine.

And then there is food (as if I have not indulged enough this holiday season), I got out my favorite dessert cookbook, Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert, and made this panforte. Very chewy and hard, but such subtle flavor of orange and anise, nuts and figs. Ummm. And check out the 101 Cookbooks Library here. You can join and then give and get all kinds of cookbook and recipe reviews from ordinary cooks.

I would love to travel this year, and we may have a trip in the works, but we shall see. Above all else I will strive to be patient and maintain my inner peace as much as possible. Heaven knows our world needs more vibrations of peace!

Happy New Year!

VADS

VADS is the Visual Arts Data Service, an online image catalog, which is a portfolio of over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK. I just spent an hour looking at textiles. There are collections of all kinds of things in the visual arts, so go feast your eyes, here.