Keep it Simple & Tell the Truth.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

-T. Roethke, The Waking

Yesterday was PRODUCTIVE! Walk in the AM with April, then to studio to restretch and gesso a very large canvas, then off to the rec to meet Vicky. We signed up for a personal trainer and are going to do the sessions together, we then stayed to work out, finally April and I cleaned the office and made dinner. FULL DAY!

Today, I woke before 6:30 and just stayed in bed for another ten minutes...COFFEE Please! I was not feeling studio today so I stayed home and worked on sketching and my artist statement. I know I will have to write one sooner or later so what I do today I won't have to do tomorrow.

I have answered quite a few questions different websites recommend on answering to get started on your very own statement, for example:

• Why do you create art and what does it mean to you?
• How is your work a reflection of you?
• What is your favorite tool and medium? Why?
• What message are you trying to convey to the viewer?

And there are many more. I have four whole notebook pages filled with questions and answers. I have also made a list of words used by myself and others to describe my paintings. Yet still I am finding it difficult to start. Maybe mostly becuase I am still unsure of what I am actually trying to convey or do. I am just drawing and painting the forms and things I find most exciting to me. I am informed however that from is only part of it. I know this but yet it is what I like the most.

Anyway, Anne of Green Gables is on the tele. It is one of my all time favorites. She is an amazing character and has one of the best imaginations. I have always pictured myself as her without the red hair of course. Oh and Gilbert reminds me of someone I know, that makes me smile.

This time it feels different. I feel older yet new and fresh. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. And I learn by where I have to go.

-B