Daisy Flowers. I love when Jack says those words. We went to hunt for wildflowers yesterday. Up a hill off Lucas Valley. Yellows covered the hillside like I’ve never seen before. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Wind blowing. “I’m cold” says Fiona. I dressed her in pants in the morning before school; she wanted to wear a little pair of white shorts with a pink bow we pulled out of the summer drawer last night for pajamas. “We’re going hiking, I don’t think you should, keep your pants on. “I say. But it’s too late, she already has her pants half off, trying to get them over her thick Keen sandals. “Let me help you” I say. On the hill, I hand her Jacks green and yellow thick plaid shirt from out of my backpack. She has me button it to the top; it’s so hip pared with her flower skorts, navy blue keens, beaded necklace, (she made herself) and short haircut. Which I often have to explain to the little boys at the park that she is a girl and girls have short haircuts too, in fact all the best super hero girls have short hair! Then I explain “What’s in her ears?” when they ask that next. “Her hearing aids” I say. I should add a fantastic story about them being part of her super hero status. I sit on the hillside watching the children, Jack, Fiona, and Valentina have the best time of their life. There is a small, trickling stream that turned into the softest, throwable, mud as the kids play in it. Jack and Fiona both say they want to go home and take a shower more than once, but immediately run back in the mud and stomp and laugh. “I love mud” Jack says. I take it all in. A dream come true. Heaven. Today I am able to work in my studio and go to yoga, where I find my pelvic floor. It is the strangest thing: I studied all about the pelvic floor, hip, internal organs, spine connection last night, then today I go to Yoga and the whole class is about what I had studied the night before. This made my yoga workout today extremely intense focusing on breath and proper alignment and which muscles to engage (instead of being on auto pilot). It was pure serendipity! Spring is bringing me a bounty of inspiration and intuition. My alone time is coming to an end now though. I certainly haven’t gotten enough of it lately. But I appreciate all the time I do get to be alone creating! Namaste.
Month: April 2017
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Sunday Special. Studio Time. Family Yoga. And putting my foot down.
The day started off mellow, I told Jack and Fiona first thing in the morning that I wasn’t going to listen to their whining or fighting today. I had had enough. Alan is sick today, I need to take care of the babies by myself which is unusual for a Sunday. I find a family yoga class nearby, it doesn’t start until 11:00 so I have plenty of time to get there toting three-year-old twins! Jack and Fiona are into the idea of going to a yoga class. We get to the studio, it’s in a Daily Method studio. I fall in love, they have a kid play room and offer childcare that corresponds with a few classes a day. There is a woman giving an essential oils class, and a Daily Method Barre class is just finishing up. The ladies look like they’ve had a great workout, very friendly too. No one seems annoyed there are several three-year old’s running around. The Yoga instructor has her three-year-old daughter with her. We set up our mats in a circle. Fiona does the whole class, she does a perfect down dog, hand stand on the wall, bridge pose, she tries everything the teacher says, during the louder, more active moves Jack joins in, he dances and does volcano and lions breath. Me and my babies hug a few times, I pretend I’m eating them during one of the movements, it’s so enjoyable for everyone. That might become a new routine! After yoga class, we went out for Pizza and checked out a Space Museum; a couple is showing their collection of space suits and space craft stuff, actual pieces, like control panels and seats. They have a collection of model rockets and space tools. Most of the paraphernalia is Russian, she said a while back the Russians were so broke they were selling this stuff, she said it was hard to get the American stuff. When we get home, I put Jack and Fiona down for a nap. “If you guys don’t take a nap or be quiet and play I will separate you” I say. I give them about thirty minutes. They are laughing and carrying on so I go down. Jack has the sink overflowing with water again. I separate them, Jack in his bed, Fiona in the other room. They go right to sleep. I come straight to me studio, I start where I left off Friday night. I draw and paint. I paint three portraits just like in my dream. I listen to Miles Davis and smile. I did it, I controlled my own universe. I was able to give myself and my children exactly what we needed today, it went smooth. Now it’s time for Jack and Fiona to wake up from their nap. Dinner to be made, and the rest of the evening until bed time.
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I have a Dream. I walk by the door of the Gallery, my show is being installed. I can see three small framed portraits being hung, the installers say, “not yet”, they don’t want me to see yet. I wake up. I want to clean my studio. Something inside is leading me, a part of me more certain than emotions or intellectualism. I clean, throw away, I paint all the paintings on board, on canvas, white. All the paintings I’m so-so about. I haven’t been able to work in my studio the past couple Of weeks. I write and complain, it’s because my kids won’t take their naps anymore, its because they are being bad, its because they aren’t giving me any space. I throw away three bags of trash from my studio. I throw away paintings on paper that never worked, that scattered the floor, my press, under my table. I throw away junk left from frantic studio sessions, old yogurt containers with dried yogurt. I couldn’t work in my studio because it was too cluttered with the past. Not because of motherhood. Now there’s space here. I create a special corner for Fiona with her easel and her art supplies. I haven’t had a chance to paint yet; I have all my notebooks opened up to clean white pages, painting surface after painting surface gessoed with only ghosts showing from what was. Fiona tells me she wants to paint in her new spot; It’s after 5:00, I should be making dinner. Alan is playing with Jack in the house; Fiona and I go in my studio, she starts painting, cutting string, gluing, she is completly absorbed in the process. I start drawing, reacting with new lines and reacting with lines that connect with the ghosts of the past paintings. Jack comes in and says he wants to throw paint. I set him up with a canvas and black paint, he starts splattering the paint, Jackson Pollock style. I continue to work, my head feels light and my body free from the neck work I did in yoga this morning. Fiona and I paint for almost two hours together. Alan comes in and says he’s getting really hungry and it’s really late. I tell Fiona, we clean up. I go upstairs and make dinner. I have a dream last night: I’m re-writing a story to read out loud, I get up in front of a group of people and I can’t read myown writing. Its so confusing, I can’t tell what happened to the words. I try to skim it and fill in the blanks, I’m so confused. I wake up and here I am.
Dirty Laundry Blog by Jennifer Hynes 