creating

Making

| Kelly Barrow @ Faithacre Studio

So, I got some positive and encouraging response to my last post. Positive and encouraging is always a good thing!

I’ve decided to start making the art cards again even though I have a jarful already made. I enjoy the process and it’s a way to add more mindfulness to my day which I struggle with. I’m not great (yet) at sitting and thinking and just “being”. I tend to fill my minutes with activity and to-do’s and making art cards is sort of an in-between thing between the two.

Once a quote is chosen and the basic card designed, it’s all about the paints, paper, messy hands and process – mindless and mindful at the same time. It’s a good activity for me to engage in.

It’s also partly a “product” oriented activity as I’m making something for a purpose – art to share with the world in a small way.

Process and product!

In keeping with my goal to become a zero(ish) waste household this year and to get out of debt, I’ve decided to challenge myself to only use supplies that I have on hand and can re-use and re-purpose from things that show up in my life – mail, packaging materials and the like. I’m going to make do with what I have and purchase nothing. It shouldn’t be a problem. I have a lot of supplies “hoarded” in my studio and I haven’t been working creatively for quite a while.

Hopefully, making the cards will ease me back into art-making!

I’m hopeful that these cards continue to make their way into the world and bless someone’s day…

What’s Important & How to Count It

| Kelly Barrow @ Faithacre Studio

lightbulb_coloring_pageI wanted to pop in for a moment and share a lightbulb moment that I had this morning.  A bright idea, you might say.

I was sharing some cards that I worked on last night and happened to notice the number that was on the back.  Way back, when I first started this project, I thought it might be cool to number each card so that I could track their travels. Somewhere along the line, I lost track of the actual number of cards that I had made.  That makes the number on the card irrelevant.

I’d kinda like to know how many cards I’ve made, but then again – maybe not.  Does it really matter?  Is an accurate count of how many I’ve made reflect any sort of truth?  I’m sure some end up in the trash or lost behind a store shelving unit.  Some are aging quietly in the back of someone’s junk drawer or lost under the seat of a car mouldering away with discarded fast food wrappers.

I imagine that some might be stuck to a refrigerator door with a pizza delivery magnet and maybe one or two are stuck on a cubicle wall in someone’s office.

How many really doesn’t matter, does it?  It’s not a true measure of worth or value.  It’s just an attempt to reassure myself that the project is important.  Kind of like keeping track of church membership or weekly worship attendance.  We struggle to assign a numerical value to our efforts.  To validate our work and endeavors.  But, numbers are false indicators in most cases.  Being counted in church on Sunday doesn’t mean you benefitted from the attendance and having a thousand members in your church doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing a better job than the church with 25 folks.

In the past I’ve bought into this numbers game.  More is most always better…more money, more cars, more shoes, more friends….

I going to try to work on this – to try and stop trying to count “value”.  Hundreds of cards or thousands?  What matters is the one card that finds the right person at the right time.

After this batch is out, there will be no more numbers.  No more trying to keep track of what a good job I’m doing or failing to do.

Just cards.  Just art.  Just sharing.

A New Idea

| Kelly Barrow @ Faithacre Studio

I’d like to share a link to the site of one of my favorite people who I’ve never actually met.  She’s an inspiration to me in the way she shares her sparkle, art, and enjoyment of (and struggles with) life.  She’s got a new project started:

Uncustomary-Art-Snail-Mailing-Listhttp://uncustomary.org/uncustomary-snail-mailing-list/

I messaged her and told her that I was blatantly stealing her idea.  (She said it was okay).  I’m in love with the idea of sending out real mail filled with art and fun.  I’m in the early planning stages which really just means I’ve got the idea and no actual plan at all, but it’s been a rough week or so in the world and I’m ready for something good to happen.

If you’re interested in getting on the mailing list for this art project which is as yet unnamed, you may email me your address here:  faithacre@yahoo.com

I realize that there is a bit of trust involved in sharing your address.  It’s just me at a computer in my little house.  I won’t share your address or do anything else weird with it.  I’ll just send you something nice in the mail.  I promise.

International is okay, too.  Like I said, I haven’t worked out all the details…like how I’m going to pay for it.   BUT, I believe that love, art, and nice will always find a way.  I’m just naïve that way.

I hope your day is filled with something truly awesome!

Peace.

A new poem!

| Kelly Barrow @ Faithacre Studio

Greetings and salutations,

I am back….both post-surgery and post-artists’ retreat weekend!

The healing and recovery from my surgery at the beginning of October is going well.  A bit slower than I expected, but progressing nonetheless.

The return from my artists’ retreat at Laity Lodge in the Texas Hill Country brought sadness and excitement.  I’m always reluctant to leave the lodge because it does seem to be a sacred place that closely mimics my idea of what heaven must be like.  You get to hang out with other artists from all over the world…visual artists, writers, poets, musicians, singers, songwriters, actors…did I miss anyone?  Oh, almost forgot…I took about 400 or so cards with me to share and be re-shared when all returned from whence they came – in Texas, New York, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri,and the United Kingdom to name a few.

The featured speaker was a gentleman named Malcolm Guite.   Check this out for more information:   http://www.malcolmguite.com.  He has just released a book of poetry entitled The Singing Bowl and has given me permission to reproduce it on my next series of cards.  I am very excited.  Here it is…

The Singing Bowl

Begin the song exactly where you are,

Remain within the world of which you’re made,

Call nothing common in the earth or air.

Accept it all and let it be for good,

start with the very breath you breathe in now,

This moment’s pulse, this rhythm in your blood.

And listen to it, ringing soft and low.

Stay with the music, words will come in time.

Slow down your breathing.  Keep it deep and slow.

Become an open singing bowl, whose chime

is richness rising out of emptiness,

And timelessness resounding into time.

And when the heart is full of quietness

Begin the song exactly where you are.

malcolm
Malcolm Guite

I’m off to start them right now!