The power of the brain

Successful athletes "see" themselves winning.  They basically will themselves to success.  In your mind's eye see yourself achieving what you want, one step at a time.    This process of creating success in your life is something that is practiced in sports, theater, losing weight, etc.  (I've been trying it on the golf course, but too many things distract me from focusing on my goal...... hence my lousy scores lately.)

I know that artists can work this way too.  That's why I have "Believe" signs in my studio.  I'm basically an optimistic person, but occasionally a negative thought will creep in and influence my creativity and production.

I know the brain is powerful and that it can make things happen.  Case in point.... I often think of someone I haven't seen or heard from in a long time.  (I know this has happened to you too.)  When I was still teaching, I thought of a student I hadn't seen in a long time and two days later, there he was standing in my doorway.  

A while back I was discussing another former student with the artist across the hallway and a few days later there she was, at the Graffiti Gallery opening.  Yesterday, I connected on face book with a former student, Samantha McCauley.  She said she was just talking about me two days before and then there I was making a friend request.   (I hope she doesn't mind.....  the picture is the underpainting to a self-portrait she did in high school.)  

There are many students that I wonder about.  Guess I'll just have to start thinking about them and see what happens. 

I also need to work on applying this mental exercise to my art.  Ah, the power of the positive brain.  (Negative thinking...... get thee behind me.) 

Life is a circle

For 13 years I taught elementary art before I transferred to the high school level and finished out my last 22 years there.  Usually I had three elementary schools that I saw each week.  One of them was Oakland Elementary which consisted of K-6 classes.  Oakland was a rural school that sat in the middle of one of those weather centers.  There could be a major blizzard at Oakland, but in town the sun was shining (which meant that school would not be let out early.)  Often whoever had bus duty had to stay until after 5:00 because the buses couldn't get through.  Even though it made for longer days, Oakland was a wonderful school to work in.  The people I worked with were great and the students were great.

I saw about 300 children a week (and in those days I could remember every single child's name...... don't ask me about names now though.)  Surprisingly there are elementary students that I still remember.  One of them from Oakland works with my son.  In the mornings Dan use to carry boxes to all the classrooms for me (there wasn't an art room.)  Dan's wife, Angel was a student there also and I remember her crying when we got a letter back from Andrew Wyeth.  (He painted Christina's World.)

For Christmas this year, Dan wanted a necklace made for Angel that included a pearl they'd gotten at Sea World.  (The pearl was such a pretty teal color.)   How convenient that I had taken Gordon's class on a box ring with pearl.  I kept the design simple and made the necklace reversible but I had to work out a different method for setting the pearl, as it wasn't drilled.  (And I wasn't about to drill the pearl since there was only the one.)  Instead of setting the pearl on a post, I created a small dish to work as a well to hold lots of glue.   This would create more surface for maximum contact with the pearl.

This isn't something I would have done with a ring, but a necklace doesn't take the beating a ring does.  My biggest concern was getting the dish the right size for the pearl (which luckily worked out.)  I torch fired the little dish so I could check it's size and remake it if needed.  My next concern was that it would shift inside the box during firing (but it didn't.)  When Gordon fired our rings, he filled the box with vermiculite to keep them from slumping.  I wasn't able to do that since the dish enclosed the opening.  That was another concern but it all worked out.

At least for this piece, the Jewelry Gods were watching out for me.  I think they were on hiatus when I was doing my wrapped piece!