The Childhood Keys...
Linked to Craftberry Bush
Can you remember the most captivating gift of your childhood? What treasure did your heart grab onto, did you spend hours with? Did you have just one? I kind of think that idea about finding your heart where your treasure lies is very, very true when it comes to toys from the years when we were so very ourselves. (For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matt. 6:21) As a child, I had never thought about losing a love, being lied to, losing my way, or sacrificing little pieces of myself to satisfy the ugly demands of the day. I just got up every day, slipped into my dresses sewn with love by my gramma, and did what I wanted... I had few chores, and I lived alone in the "middle of nowhere," so I found hours of delicious time...
I was fortunate to have wonderful family and friends who gave me just awesome presents, such as Barbies, dolls, bicycles, books, and little pet figurines. But, oh be still my heart, I truly loved, I mean loved my little blue Draw-a-Cartoon Artist board. It was actually just a light board, a concoction of plastic with an exposed on the underside "ouch!" Light bulb and translucent sloped drawing board on top... I love writing. I gave my heart to teaching. I live to cook. I come alive when I decorate... But I feel my spirit sing when I play with papers and markers, glitters and goop... I stand back and mentally hug myself when I create a pretty nook or table scape. Beauty is all around us.
Julia Cameron tells us to affirm ourselves as what we want to become. In that case, I am an artist. No formal training. Possibly no true talent or gift, but definitely a calling. Ephemera, Pictures... And creativity? I love to arrange, edit, and putter with the printed word, using all the pretty techie things, and I just love art in any form. Say it again. "I am an... Artist." Insert your "joy" right there.
I also love the art of the day to day that I see from all of you... Art in cooking, in home design, flowers gardens, raising animals, crochet, knit, and paint... Paper crafts and displaying treasures...
Today, my art broke forth in some jewelry splayed out on the little table in my bedroom. I followed the lead of Cielo in The Here and Now (on my side bar).. And I used my jewelry as a medium of art.
If you recall the hardest tug at your heart from childhood toys, I think you might find your muse tonight. My light board is around here somewhere, I have boxes of glitter and new markers in satchels, suitcases of pretty stashes of paper. Our souls yearn for a palette; this life provides it.
Comments
My most remembered gifts at Christmastime...I was 7 yrs old, my mom and dad had just divorced...very heartbreaking for a little girl. Mom and I moved far away from my daddy...that Christmas, in 1944, Daddy sent me a whole box of Hershey Bars, a whole box of Juicy Fruit gum and a little Mexican doll. I was so thrilled to get these gifts and I'll never, ever forget them. I'm now 76 and can't remember all I got LAST Christmas...hahhaa.
xo bj
Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger
Joseph Campbell and Jung, had the same idea.... Remember what you loved to do, as a child. And do it again. Jung had loved to make patterns with stones. So he proceeded to build himself a house, of stone. Talk about "doing what you preach." :-)
And yes, I will email you, how to do click-able links!!!!! :-)
Tessa~
Get that light board out!!!
Love your jewelry display. That is certainly a work of art itself-xo Diana
The colors are gorgeous! Love the way you drape, and hang the pieces here, and there for the greatest impact.
Music brought happiness to my heart as a child. It's still a big piece of my life.
This is a very touching post, Gayla.
xoxo
This is certainly so for you—“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures (or creations). ~Henry Ward Beecher. You have a lovely soul.
Cielo