never the same sky twice

June 23, 2020 Misty Mawn

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. -Heraclitus

Maybe it was a river that Heraclitus was talking about over 2500 years ago, but these clouds from this morning made me feel the same kind of marvelment that comes with our fluctuating world that I imagine Heraclitus must have felt so long ago. When I looked at the sky a few hours later it was nothing like it was in these pictures, as storms have been rolling through all day. Also I have aged a tiny bit since I took this picture, even if it was just this morning.

I wonder what it must have been like to be a Greek philosopher of that time, sauntering around in linen bedsheets tied to you with a rope. Stepping in any river must have been a pity with one of those robes on. Personally, if I could pick any time period to go to it would be the Rococo period and only if I could wear a dress such as this. Although, thinking about it, what if you drank too much tea in one of those dresses? The thought of a chamber pot in one of those dresses seems like way too much effort. Instead, maybe just a Rococo costume ball, or maybe I will just paint more paintings in a style of such a dress, one that I dream of never wearing. This style of painting really feels natural to me, strangely, since I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe I did dress like this in a past life, highly unlikely, but who knows why we truly love what we love? My problem is I love too many things and feel like I want to explore them all in-depth. This comes through in my life in so many ways, from the clothing I love, to the foods I love, to the art I love, and so on. When I go to an art museum I want to see it all, including what I saw last time, or when I go to the university art library I want to look through every single book there. Is it possible to love too much? Somedays I wish I could be content with just being a painter that sticks with the same style or a full-time potter, but I can’t, I want it all. Maybe it comes back to the river quote, maybe each time I go to the museum, or library, or show up to paint it’s not the same, I am not the same, so why do what I have already done in the past? The painting below and the painting above are both new works, an example of this. The painting below was inspired by a folk art tapestry from a book. Both very different paintings, but both feel very much like work from my hand, and like so much else, inspired by all those that came before me.

five pairs of hearts

June 22, 2020 Misty Mawn

After I watched this video by Dominic Wilcox, my daughter and I have informally challenged each other to sit down and blog each day for at least 30 days. So we are here, day one.

You can find her blog here.

I know I have said this before, but I miss blogging daily, as I once did years ago starting in 2005. I miss writing, I miss taking pictures like I used to, I miss making art for no other reason than to make art, I miss connecting with other bloggers, and while I miss all that good stuff I have no expectations other than to show up and share.

Live less out of habit and more with intent.

Did you know an earthworm has five pairs of hearts? Well, scientifically they aren’t actually “hearts”, they’re blood vessels, but most people just call them hearts. It’s information like this that makes me realize how little I actually know about all there is to know. I started getting interested in earthworms weeks ago. I have this dream to have my own worm farm, which I didn’t even know was a thing until I found out it was and it is and now I want one. Before I did more exploring I thought earthworms would be the kind of worms I would want for a farm, but with further investigation, it turns out if you really want a beneficial worm farm, one that helps the life of your soil, you want red wrigglers. I am no expert like Uncle Jim, I just hope to one day have my own worm farm. Until then, I still have a lot to learn, like what kind of bedding to get, how often to feed them, what kind of house would they like? Besides, we now have 15 new chicks to take care of and we have become so emotionally invested in them already and they are only seven weeks old. We named all 15 of them.

For years we have been talking about getting chickens, but I had a feeling it would be one of those things that just wouldn’t happen and I would have to continue to live vicariously through other families with chickens. Back in March, we decided it was going to be a long summer in quarantine without something to do and look forward to, so 15 tiny chicks, a chicken run, a chicken coop, a bag of chick grit, three 50 lbs of chick starter, and many hours later we kinda have a small farm starting in our back yard. We even have two full beehives this year, after two swarms needed homes. Now, if I could only talk my husband into a goat! All of my energy, all that I can muster up lately, seems to be devoted to spending time with our chickens or researching weird information on Internet Archives, hence the worm hearts. We haven’t been a mile from our house since mid March and I can honestly say I have spent so many hours on Internet archives, compensating for the lost time at the library and bookstore, woe is me. It’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole or two. It’s been great for researching ideas for my upcoming online workshop, but I feel like I have gotten so deep in the archives that now I am on a mission to get to the end, although the books are no longer as easy to borrow as they were at the beginning of quarantine. Some nights I have to drag myself to bed, pulling myself away from books about Navajo Pictoral weaving and Japanese Pottery and books on Wildflowers. It’s not a bad place to get lost.

I even found the art spirit by Robert Henri, one of my favorite books on art. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in art. It was written in the early 1920’s and even after all these years it’s still very relevant. You can also get a copy on amazon.

Another way we have been spending our “free” time, making Instructables. I made some bracelets. India made a bag and beaded fringe earrings. Jade is working on several projects as his knee heals from a bad running accident. One is a chicken playground for our girls another is a necklace he made from Yucca and Cedar. He has also been working on perfecting the perfect loaf of whole wheat sourdough. Now ten pounds heavier, I would say he’s very, very close.

Under Quarantine Offering

March 17, 2020 Misty Mawn

What a strange time it is. While I pretty much spend my days the same way, it’s weird to know the whole world has shifted to a more isolated way of living. I can imagine that for many that aren’t used to being home all day that you are looking for things to do to bring a sense of peace to your life. I have collected a few things to try and help bring some peace and fun into your days.

If you also have an offering (a playlist, a list of your favorite books, podcasts, a favorite video tutorial…etc) to share with anyone here please feel free to leave it in the comments.

Feeling Anxious?

There are some great meditations on Insight Timer. Like this one.

Deepak Chopra offered this message

Tara Brach has a lot of wonderful talks and meditations on her site.

Need Art?

Check out these 12 museums you can tour virtually.

I LOVE this google collection here.

Binge watch the Portrait Artist of the Year 2020. This is such a wonderful show! I wish all seasons were online. There’s also The Great Pottery Throwdown. SO fun! I love it. I think all the seasons are on youtube, you might just need to search for them.

Need Something to Read:

Check out Libby for audio and digital books. I am rereading The Untethered Soul. Such a good read.

This American Life still remains one of my favorite podcasts. As well as Reply All, Middlebrow, Hidden Brain, How I built This.

Need some music?

I made you a Spotify playlist:

NPR also made a great 6 hour playlist of calming music

“Art is a way to run away without leaving home” - Twyla Tharp

Quick Portraits Under Quarantine

I created a mini-lesson on painting quick portraits using a couple of different techniques.

This is a demo for all ages! If you have never painted before this a great place to start.

Please feel free to share this with anyone that might enjoy it. Thank you.

If you paint your own portrait and share is you can use the hashtag: #portaitsunderquarantine

Supplies Used:

Acrylic Paints • Brushes • Print Making Paper • Marks-All Pencil • 3B Pencil • Block Printing Ink • Glass Palette • Brayer • Glue Stick • Reference Image (You can use a portrait of yourself or check out the ref. folder on Pinterest. )

Wishing you peace and good health.

Rising
by Lee Robinson

All night while they slept
the water was rising
and as they sat at breakfast
with coffee and croissants

it was rising
while they bent over desks
in their important offices
the water rose and kept rising

as they met after work for drinks
(gin and tonic, a good chardonnay)
though they knew it was rising
they ordered another drink

and drove home through water
still rising He said I think it's starting
to go down She said Surely someone
will tell us if we ought to leave

The children called from faraway
to say We've seen it on TV
She said We're fine although by then
the water was up to the windowsills

They ate their dinner by candlelight
and went to sleep, sure that tomorrow someone
would rescue them and they would be
as safe and happy as they had always been.

15 days until spring

March 4, 2020 Misty Mawn

My three things might be more like thirty… since it’s been too long.

First off - hello 2020!

The days roll into weeks, the weeks pile into months, the months push into years and we keep swimming, sometimes floating, sometimes on the verge of sinking, and sometimes gasping for air as we reach out for a life raft, hoping someone or something is there to save us. After a few months of that sinking feeling, I started looking for a path to that floating feeling. Sometimes it takes taking the wrong path to get on the right path, there’s always that, but every experience informs the next. luckily for me, I had a few paths in mind and found several things that have helped remind me of what happiness feels like and I almost feel like I am floating. maybe once we all get passed the current heavy load of news and fear of contagions that feeling will come. Until then, let’s take a moment to wash our hands, twice (something I heard a mother say to her child yesterday at my son’s state track meet).

Yeah, I know, it’s getting old, but just this week I had to give my own family a lesson on how to properly open a public door with the least amount of physical contact and then a lecture on why we don’t put things in our mouths that aren’t food and how important it is to wash our hands, often! yes, I am sorry to say that I am one of those people. I have this overwhelming fear of being sick and always wipe out whenever I do get sick, and while I have not bought a face mask, I am diligent about washing my hands.

• In better news, 2020 started off pretty exciting! I joined a community dance group that I love so much and feel like it’s shifting something inside of me. Two hours of dance every Sunday morning, it’s my kind of church. This Sunday I will be providing the music for the group, which is fun and a bit daunting, like having a huge dinner party and hoping the guests like what you make for them. I am still working out my playlist, but you can check out the past playlist I made here.

• Anthropologie started selling two of my prints this year, which I couldn’t be more thrilled about. I first discovered Anthropologie around 20 years ago in Cleveland, Ohio. I fell in love with the store and clothing the very first time I walked in. Having my work on their site is just the coolest thing! As cool as seeing Victoria Smith of sfgirl post her collection of my work on her beautiful site here. I have Artfully Walls to thank for all of it, providing a wonderful place to sell prints of my work. You can see more of my prints on their site.

• Online classes - I was planning on taking several of my older online classes down this year, but have decided to leave them up for one more year at the sale price. So all workshops on my site are available until January 1, 2021, if not longer depending on when they were created. I am also planning on offering a brand new online course this spring. I was hoping to have it available sooner, but a large commission was offered to me that I am so grateful for. I will post news of the new workshop as soon as it’s on the rise.

• I have slowly been getting back to making more pots. My friend Mary Ann set up her Raku kiln and invited me over for a firing, it reminded me why I fell so deeply in love with clay so long ago. I cannot wait to do another firing and hope to have an online pottery sale in the upcoming months.

• Other randomness… I am still loving my karate class and working on getting my orange belt, although I am really in no rush since I love my yellow belt, it’s pretty. I did get my patch and feel rather official now. Who knows, maybe one day I will actually know what the heck I am doing and be okay at it. It’s definitely a challenge, but I love it.

• I started drawing song lyrics and other phrases to share on my instagram stories.

• I am also crushing hard on Devandra Banhart lately, this song and video are on repeat. Why is he so cute!

• And then there’s this beautiful video, it makes me want to put on a pair of my white high tops (it’s an obsession) and go dancing in a museum.

• Lastly, for now - I am loving the art of Mark Milroy. His great tshirts make me want to make my own.

prone to sadness

October 8, 2019 Misty Mawn

• Some of us are naturally prone to sadness. I especially am during the quieter months of the year, when everything seems to settle in for a while. Although I have never felt depressed, I think this is slightly different than sadness, I’ve rarely been an overly bubbly person, especially in the morning hours. It’s not that I am always sad, it’s just that I feel everything deeply. I let everything I read, hear, and think about penetrating below surface level. I try not to read the news for this reason. As soon as I do I find myself googling more and more about the story I read and can’t stop thinking about it. There have been times when people have commented on the sadness felt in my paintings or self-portraits, in the past this bothered me, but then I thought about how often do we see happy artwork? Like myself, I find my own work pensive, not sad. But when I try to think of one piece of artwork that exudes happiness I cannot think of one, at least not outside the commercial world. We don’t turn to artwork to seek happiness, we turn to others, or inward with meditation, or to animals, or to the sun, or to nature, or to shopping, or unfortunately, to drugs and alcohol. Art is a way to find solace and to feel understood, It’s a way for artists to get lost in a world that doesn’t feel so overwhelming. Lately, when not painting or making pottery I have been getting lost in the work of Theophilus Brown and his partner Paul Wonner’s work.

• Still on a Devandra Banhart kick, loving this sad song.

• This morning I finished The Sun Does Shine, the true and heartbreaking story by Anthony Ray Hinton that I think everyone should read. It brings so many things to the surface that need to be thought and talked about as a human race. It makes me think of the song Hurricane by Bob Dylan. This book leaves you with an unshakable feeling of sadness for those that live lives that are less than what they could be or could have been if the world was a kinder place. Right after I finished it I read this poem by Danusha Laméris and was then reminded that the world is also full of small kindnesses.

Small Kindnesses
by Danusha Laméris

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”

September 25, 2019 Misty Mawn

These photographs from Markus Brunetti leave me in awe.
The latest album by Devendra Banhart is so good. I love his quirky artwork, too. He might just be on my "‘stuck in an elevator list’… at least for now.
Squash has to be one of my favorite seasons, all but spaghetti, I don’t care for it all that much. Tonight, for a late-night dinner, after my husband gets home from work and then class and my son gets home from his cross country meet they will come home to this dish, patiently waiting for them. Instead of quinoa, I am going to use farro. It’s heartier and chewier, I love it for those reasons, plus is sounds kinda famous, at least for a grain… tonight’s dinner? Kale salad with roasted butternut squash featuring ‘Farro’.

Past 3 Things posts can be found here.

my goal here is to share daily findings; inspiration, podcasts, photos, books, music, and other random things that bring me happiness somehow or other, three things at a time.

Quick Portraits Under Quarantine

my goal here is to share daily findings; inspiration, podcasts, photos, books, music, and other random things that bring me happiness somehow or other, three things at a time.

please email me if you are interested in a print of any of the photos posted here.