It felt so good to take some time away last weekend to play and think about creative ways to get the juices flowing. I attended a Sourcing Material for Artists and Writers workshop at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts last Saturday. It was taught by local sculptor and painter, Kat VanHammen. Kat has a Masters Degree [...]
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Stone Polishing 101
A very fun event I had the pleasure of being a part of earlier this year was teaching some elementary aged children all about hand-polishing beach stones. They certainly had fun with it and they got closer to the stones of the Great Lakes through their work. Of course, that is something that I love [...]
Spring Break Stone Hunt
We just got back from a Spring Break Stone Hunt weekend up in the Traverse City are of Michigan. This is in Northern Michigan (kind of by the pinky finger if you use your left hand as a representation of Michigan). I always like to try to find new beaches to explore. The weather was a [...]
The Creative Process
“Culture doesn’t really beg people to pursue a career in the arts. I think you decided every single day – when you wake up you just decide you’re going to do it. Because there are so many reasons not to do it. Every time that you go into the studio and you make something, every [...]
Lake Superior Enchantment
I haven’t set foot on the shores of Lake Superior in at least a decade. It sure did feel good to be back in the presence of this massive beauty of a body of freshwater for vacation last week. We had only been in Grand Marais, MI a short time and my daughter and I [...]
Lake Michigan Stirs My Soul
Lake Michigan sunset from behind the dune grass, PJ Hoffmaster State Park, Muskegon, MI Last weekend during Art on the Mall, my mom and daughter popped into Nature Connection of Kalamazoo. My mom ended up purchasing me the book A 1000-Mile Walk on the Beach – One Woman’s Trek of the Perimeter of Lake Michigan [...]
Etsy Article in NY Times
This is an interesting article published today in the New York Times on Etsy. It compares and contrasts Etsy and Ebay. <nyt_headline type=” ” version=”1.0″>Online Bazaar Builds on Its Base With Sense of Community <nyt_headline type=” ” version=”1.0″>I enjoy the benefits of Etsy becoming more well known as it brings shoppers to me that [...]
Love and Peace
I’ve been sort of immersed in the understanding of peace these last few weeks as we have been discussing it in my church community. It seems that peace can be a very idealized concept making it seem impossible. But I have really been meditating on this by Lao-Tzu of the Taoist tradition. This is so [...]
Healing and Creativity
So much healing and creativity has been happening in my life of late, I feel as if I am in a lake and the waves just keep washing over me. It was good tonight to sit and touch the stones of my work with my hands and see them become something new – just as [...]
Fall Scenes & Nature’s Force
Backyard scene with clouds & long fall shadows The fall scenes are heavily upon us here in Michigan. And the inevitable arrival of cooler weather has swung in. We are expecting frost tomorrow morning! Genevieve and I spent some time yesterday afternoon walking and digging in the sand in the back yard. It is amazing [...]
