Today is My Birthday

Today is my birthday, and I am so so happy to bring you this guest post from the most amazing Goddess Leonie.  If you are not familiar with her exuberant, joy filled posts and products (my favorite is the Goddess Year Workbook), I encourage you to run right over to her website and take in all the goodies she offers! 
And now, a celebratory message from Goddess Leonie!
 

Every year, I celebrate my birthing day with style.
And by style, I mean the style of an overexcitable eight year old girl who thinks unicorns and lollipops and rainbows and birthday cakes are pretty much the best thing ever.
I'm not one to NOT celebrate.
Birthing days are magical and wonderloose and opportunities to unleash gladness.
Like April Fool's Day… but less fools, and more fabulous.
It usually includes:
Calls to my mama to hear my own birthing story
Mysterious adventure packs complete with maps and directions
Incredible picnics
Ridiculous cakes
Singing loudly, proudly and profoundly offkey a happy birthday song just for me
And finally, walks to the top of the mountain…
to give thanks for another year
and to welcome in the miracles of another.

And most of all… to deeply, wildly and unconditionally
love and celebrate and adore
this Leonie I was born to be.
This is how I celebrate my birthing day.
And I want you to know:
Wherever you are,
whatever age you are celebrating,
you can make your birthing day
one that utterly & ridunkulously
celebrates the magnificence of you.

____
Goddess Leonie is the creator of GoddessGuidebook.com, a popular creativity + spirituality blog for women.

Just reading this post made me grin from ear to ear.  And I couldn’t help but think of this joyful song from the wonderful Loretta Lynn.

Now I’m going to go call my own mama and find me a mountain top! 

When I Wrote This

I was listening to the Traveling Wilburys a lot when I took these.  And reading Heyden Hererra’s biography of Frida Kahlo.  So, on a chilly March day, with nothing to do with a bored toddler and a few props from the local Woolworth’s, some photos were born.

Here I took a full shot of Deva, wrapped in a simple lace scarf with kitschy fake flowers in her hair.  I was really into the idea of shrines and altarpieces at the time.

I added another lace scarf and a length of gold lame to this one.  She was a very patient model, and took direction so well.

Here I felt a little funny about doing all these Catholic images (my husband is Jewish), so I wrapped her in his tallis.  My mother-in-law said she looked like a little old lady in this one.

And my favorite, with real gerbera daisies from Kroger’s. 
There is a website where people re-create childhood photos of themselves.  Today (February 20th) my favorite model turns 25.  I wonder if she’d be up to a re-shoot?

The Mother and Child Reunion

My children have always made art with me.  I couldn’t imagine not creating when they were small, and so they always had some variation of art supply, and close supervision as we worked side by side.  It helped keep me sane during those demanding toddler years and helped give them a leg up when it came to making art for school.  I never held back on what supply they could use, I just made sure it was a child safe alternative (adhesives) or I did part of their work myself (cutting). 

My youngest is soon to be 12, and he shares my studio with me.  We do the occasional show together and we brainstorm ideas for our work.  It’s really nice to have an art buddy so close at hand!

His favorite medium is polymer clay.  He’s sold many pieces and has even taken a few commissions.

You can see some of his older work in the background, while his newer work is in the foreground.

We bounce ideas off each other, and take inspiration from each other’s work.  Recently I created this sea scene:

Octopus’ Garden 2011  Machine embroidery with Kreinik threads, machine pieced and machine appliqued.  I still need to measure it, but it’s around 36” x 36”

We have an upcoming show opportunity, with parameters of no larger than 5 inches in any direction.  Izzy chose to make his own coral reef.

Izzy Stern  Coral Reef  2011 5” x 5”

Detail of the sculpture.  He was very concerned that the colors be accurate.  I love the eel peeking out from behind the fronds, and you can see the tentacles of the octopus that is hiding behind the anemone.

This is one of his most ambitious pieces to date.  I am really excited to see where he goes next!

It’s funny to see how you influence your children, or friends, or other people in your life, even if you don’t realize you are.  Sometimes a little encouragement and belief in their abilities can go a long way.