Today is the end of month Two of the Art AppleA Day Retrospective – for information on the project click here.
NEW December 2020 ~ Snow Globe Apple
Another new Art Apple A Day apple!!! I’m loving doing this year as digital images – this time only one colorway – I might do more colorways later but I’m ready for 2021 celebrations to begin!
Today is Day 91 of the Art Apple A Day Retrospective – for information on the project click here.
Day Ninety One – December 30, 2010
Looking back 10 years ago today…
Communication is getting more difficult as our lives move more into the digital world. We’ve replaced a letter with and email, a phone call with text, and a walk to the neighbors house with Facebook. With these changes we’re misunderstanding one another at a greater degree and we’re analyzing EVERYTHING! A simple phrase like, “you’re comparing apples to oranges” is now scrutinized for its validity in the annals of idioms believe it or not.
And… just today I saw on Facebook that if you have a star on the side of your house that it is a sign you are a swinger! Of course, I have a star on our house… but I had no clue about this supposed signal. We’ve lived here almost 5 years and we’ve yet to be propositioned so either my neighbors are as clueless as we are or we’re just not their type! I did a quick Google search and the apparent signs of your proclivity to mutually agreed upon cheating are vast.
I have no idea what world I live in anymore. I want to plant pampas grass and install a pineapple door knocker without imaginary sexual signals being conveyed. Just for your knowledge… don’t you dare wear a black ring on your right hand or put any pink flamingo garden decor in your yard! And… now I’m seriously questioning my friend Stacey who years ago gave me a garden gnome… what exactly was she trying to find out about Doug and me???
I give up. Communication is too difficult. If you need me, call. If you want to swing, I’m not the one you’re looking for, and my garden has no secret agenda!!!
I’m starting a new secret code… people who surround themselves with Apples OR Oranges are just normal boring suburban folk.
So. There.
To see my original Day 91 post ~ Dare To Compare ~ from 10 years ago click here or on the image above.
Today is Day 90 of the Art Apple A Day Retrospective – for information on the project click here.
Day Ninety – December 29, 2010
Looking back 10 years ago today…
My style has actually emerged over the past ten years! Isn’t that interesting. I think when we lived in Colorado I struggled with how to blend the western influence with my roots in New England and since we moved to Maine in 2013 my love of antiques has been able to take hold where they looked a bit odd in Colorado. I now have a fairly traditional home although still eclectic with a touch of whimsey.
In terms of having a defined style as an artist, it was always an elusive concept for me and a year of apples where the point was to create many many different looks and styles didn’t help me evolve a style. Pushing to create so many different looks was a great exercise and really pushed me creatively but it left me in a bit of chaos at the end of the year of apples. Fast forward to late 2018 when I made the decision to take over the apartment above our garage as my full time artist studio, I still didn’t feel like I had a recognizable style. So I painted, and I painted, and I painted… and guess what happened!!!
My artistic style finally blossomed! And it feels amazing.
Have you heard about the 10,000 hour rule? Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his awesome book Outliers. He basically theorizes that you can become good at (or an expert) at something if you put in 10,000 hours of practice. I loved this thought when I first read his book back in 2011. It helped me decide to spend a full year just painting constantly to see what emerged and I was fortunate to be able to dedicate that time. His ideas on this have been analyzed, some say “debunked”, and he’s been run over the coals a bit over it. I can see the reasons. I could spend 10,000 hours practicing the 100 yard dash and I would never be a competitive runner. I might improve my time by a lot and become stronger but there is a limitation to my ability to achieve expert level in that endeavor. I’m not looking to disprove his concept – I understand its power.
Dedicate yourself to something and once you’ve done so for a significant amount of time you will have a certain mastery of it. By “debunking” the 10,000 hour rule I think we hurt more people than we help. We have too many people saying to themselves that it’s pointless to work towards something because they will never be proficient. How sad is that! Pick something you love even if you’ve never done it. (I’ve threatened to learn Cello for years now – imagine if I had started learning 10 years ago!)
What do you wish to learn? When are you going to start? Time moves on no matter what and looking back I can see my evolution in so many things. This reflection is helping me make decisions to start new things – might as well pick up that instrument, enroll in that degree program, learn to weld… the sky is the limit.
My brother’s mantra is, “nothing to it but to do it” and I’d love to hear what you are going to dedicate 10,000 hours to starting in 2021!
To see my original Day 90 post ~ Apple Whimsey ~ from 10 years ago click here or on the image above.
Today is Day 89 of the Art Apple A Day Retrospective – for information on the project click here.
Day Eighty Nine – December 28, 2010
Looking back 10 years ago today…
I am a perennial optimist but I’m also a realist. Can those coexist? The optimist in me wants to love the weeds as well as the flowers but the realist in me wants to clear the garden of the weeds so that the flowers may flourish. What’s a girl to do? My newest approach is to send love to God’s creation as I rip them out of the soil! It seems to work for me – blessing and sending love to everything and everyone. This is a work in progress – it’s often very difficult.
This last year in my struggles to manage all that 2020 has brought into our world, I stumbled upon Ho’oponopono.
Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian practice that combines love, forgiveness, repentance, and gratitude in four powerful phrases. You send love and ask for forgiveness to things and people who have brought us pain.
The words have become a bit of a personal mantra for me when pain (either physical or emotional) enter. The practice of being present helps me first in recognizing the state of pain has started and then repeating the Ho’oponopono until I move past the intensity. It is as follows:
I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
I love you.
Thank you.
Do you believe in our oneness and collective spirit? It’s a powerful way to look at the world, much better than seeing us all as separate!
This practice has been the most powerful for me in sending this thought/energy to someone who has hurt me and people I love. I don’t want the anger in me any longer so I decided to attempt this when these powerful negative feelings came up. Shifting to this approach is optimism at its most extreme! lol But, guess what, it feels so much better and my body recognizes the difference.
The realist in me can use this approach for yanking out weeds – I’m sorry, please forgive me (for ripping you out of the soil) I love you (in a creation sense). Thank you.
Find the way to turn pain and difficult people into lessons. The little weeds and mean people can then be transmuted! Oh how I love to transmute things… if only I could transmute a weed into a flower! But those life “weeds” exist to teach us so much.
To see my original Day 89 post ~ A Weed Is But An Unloved Flower ~ from 10 years ago click here or on the image above.
And the story will continue tomorrow…
Side Note: Do you see all the apples in today’s Apple Art? How many can you find?
Today is Day 88 of the Art Apple A Day Retrospective – for information on the project click here.
Day Eighty Eight – December 27, 2010
Looking back 10 years ago today…
I can see that all these years later, I’m still managing the ups and downs of insurance issues with a drug I’ve now been on for just over 14 years.
Wow.
I almost had to postpone my regularly scheduled infusion this last month because my dose was adjusted down for the 40lbs of weight loss I’ve accomplished since March. The change (even lowering of dose of a drug with a 14 year track record) required an approval from my insurance company. You would think they would jump at the lowered dose. Lowered dose = lowered cost! But it took a lot longer than any sane person would think it might. All worked out fine but it is just another example of how difficult it can be to manage getting a life changing medication and the worry that goes along with that. On top of that in the two weeks since lowering the dose, I’ve experienced pain in my hips that I wasn’t having before. Could it be a coincidence? My Rheumatologist believes a change couldn’t make an impact so quickly. I’m not convinced but time will tell. I made sure to report the issue so that it is in my chart to support increasing my dose back if needed. It’s always something, huh?
Guess who knows that? Yes… YOU. All of you who share this diagnosis. I feel loved and surrounded by you and your understanding love and empathy. What would I do without you all! I paint us apples, you send me love to keep going – thank you so much!!!
To see my original Day 88 post ~ All Heart and One Apple ~ from 10 years ago click here or on the image above.
Today is Day 87 of the Art Apple A Day Retrospective – for information on the project click here.
Day Eighty Seven – December 26, 2010
Looking back 10 years ago today…
The day after Christmas has always been a day of reflection for me. It seems like a day we all take a collective deep breath. We made it through the busy giving season! We shopped and wrapped, we planned our family meals (we are a small pod of five), we shopped some more, we shipped off packages, and we watched as our loved ones opened our presents, and this year we Zoomed!
I love the holidays!
In my year of looking back, it is also a time to look forward. We gauge our lives in events and accomplishments and plan for reaching the next goals. Anyone who knows me understands that I love projects and plans – it fills my life with structure and meaning but I don’t think I was that way until after my year of Art Apple A Day! Doing this project and now rejuvenating it fills me with love and purpose. Oh how this Apple Lady – to the core – missed having her apples a part of her life!
So… looking back… to look forward, I’m also contemplating how I continue past the second year of this daily blog post and my 12 new apples (December apple revealed on the 31st!).
Where do these apples go next? I’ve created them to help serve the Axial Spondyloarthritis community. How can they continue to do so? Time will tell…
To see my original Day 87 post ~ Apples To The Core ~ from 10 years ago click here or on the image above.
Today is Day 84 of the Art Apple A Day Retrospective – for information on the project click here.
Day Eighty Four – December 23, 2010
Looking back 10 years ago today…
This is a favorite! Maybe one day I will recreate it in a large enough scale to get more apples and details.
Shifting to today in 2020: This year I decided to decorate an over the top happy and full Christmas tree. Bold LED colored lights (love the fuchsia in LED’s) and as many ornaments as we could pack on the tree! It is our “take that 2020!!!” tree! Today will be full of all things preparation for tomorrow evening and Christmas day. I get a bit anxious right before Christmas because of all the tasks on my list and looking at all the things I wanted to accomplish and didn’t. It seems inevitable that my body reacts to the added stress and this year doesn’t disappoint. (well… it is disappointing) but my right hip is the culprit and my Rheumatologist doesn’t believe it flaring is due to the reduction in my biologic medication. I lost 40 pounds since last March and he wanted to adjust the dose down. We shall see. It seems very coincidental that I’m flaring right after the dose change but again, it is a stressful time of the year and the weather has been crazy this month in Maine.
No matter what though, my hip won’t stop our wonderful Christmas! Wishing you and yours a beautiful Christmas!
To see my original Day 84 post ~ Art Apple Christmas Tree ~ from 10 years ago click here or on the image above.
