TracyDove.com

“coffee break”

“double shot”

“triple shot”

I ran across one of my many piles of pen and ink drawings that I saved from years ago. Pen and ink have always been my first love. I was reminded that I need to do more of them. I get completely lost in a dream world while drawing. It is the greatest high. I LOVE that! ~ So, of course, I gathered up my pen and ink supplies and started diving into that world again. I have discovered that it must be incorporated into my daily, creative routine.

I am working on a monthly art newsletter that will include the pen and ink with inspirations, positive affirmations, quotes, etc. I am calling it the ‘Magical Muse News’ ~ it is an exciting project. Besides incorporating them into my own art journey, I will offer them to Phoenix Body, Mind and Soul magazine.

In the meantime, I’m just drawing, painting, thinking, and making it all happen. There are so many things that I want to indulge in and there really are not enough hours in this lifetime to cover everything! ~ “One step at a time. Focus on the here and now. Pay attention to what is front of me.” ~ These are the things that I tell myself in an effort to stay grounded. If I think too far ahead of the moment, I tend to get scattered and cannot accomplish anything! Then I need a long nap!  Which leads to more dreaming, which leads to more art, which leads to more napping! A vicious creative process that is best to avoid.

Oh, Yah, I need to boil some water and get out the french press…..a HUGE cup of coffee should do the trick! The obvious really does often escape me.

So, now the coffee is steeping and I am on my way to another creatively full day. ~ That is, if I don’t start daydreaming my way into some grandiose scene and wear myself out! HA!

I’ve been playing around with PhotoShop and learning some new things. I never want to stop learning for as long as I live. Fortunately, our world is so mysterious that I don’t think that there is any danger of running out of new things to learn about. I think that I was 5 years old when I first discovered that I wanted to be an artist. It sounds crazy, but, for those of you who haven’t been told the story….here it goes…

I was in Dallas the day that president Kennedy was assassinated, in a daycare two blocks from “the scene”. That was the first time I had ever been to daycare so I didn’t know what to expect. I remember that it was around Thanksgiving because we were to a table and given pages to color. One was a pilgrim guy and the other was a pilgrim chick. We were given two crayons, one yellow and one blue. Then they told us to color the man’s tie blue and his shoes yellow. That didn’t seem right to me, so I did my own thing (on purpose) I have always been defiant, apparently. What I didn’t know is that when we were finished, we had to go around the table and show them. It freaked me out because I knew that I didn’t do what I was supposed to and thought I’d be punished in some way. By the time they came to me, I reluctantly held up my pictures and nothing was said about how I colored it wrong.         Whew!      Nothing bad happened.       It amazed me.            I was so wrapped up in my art dilemma that, of course, I was oblivious to the horrible events taking place down the street. And because I was only 5! The return home revealed what had taken place. As the world grieved, I continued to color and get lost in my art world. All the adults around me were too wrapped up in their shock and grief that I slipped under the radar. No one was paying attention. I knew then that art was my ticket to happiness. ~ There have been many other things that led me into a world of my own creation, but this was my first memory.~

I believe that moment set my coping mechanism that has lasted a lifetime. The more chaotic or intense external things are, the easier it is for me to paint or draw. I am pretty certain that my experience on that day helped to define me as an artist, in some obscure way!

I LOVE the quiet and solitude that is needed to work on art projects. No audience, no one to answer to, no acceptance to seek, no drama or pain. Just me…..in my self created, magical wonderland. I’m not a hermit, I just REALLY LOVE it when I’m alone! Listening to music, playing with color and designs. The time always comes too soon when each finished piece is sent out into the universe and into the heart of another.

I have always said, “HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS”.

May you be blissful.