“Why do Artists sometimes take years to complete a work of art?”
    
    I was asked this question shortly after graduating from college with my completed bachelors degree. I was personally at a loss for the answer to the question, because of lack of experience. Art was always something I wanted to do and no one ever really had to force me to complete any of my assignments in art. I too, had asked myself the same question about some artists that are considered masters in the art world. Still the answer to which I had no real comprehension of the context that can create the tides of an artist’s life, as I was still a student.
    My life offered me many opportunities this one comes with becoming an art educator. I began to look at how, not just what information is disseminated to the student. What does the student need to know? What does the student need to learn? What would the student identify with? I began to research for my students and not just for myself on each lesson I brought to my classroom. Each lesson plan had a life of its own, exploring artists as people, the context of their lives, and what they inspired through their artwork. Art History has always been a thorn in my side, my Achilles’ heel if you will. I decided to take a spoonful of sugar with my regular dose of art history and find out the beauty of the artist as well as the beauty of the product the artists creates.
    Life being the thorough educator, also gave me an experience of my own which gave me many answers to the question above. The experience of an injured spine that, by itself can continue to fill pages and volumes of my own personal journals, so we will leave the details of that aside. Several things have to be considered when asking about why did it take so long to create?
    â€œIt will be finished when it is finished” is what Michelangelo said to the Pope while working on the Sistine Chapel. Art is the equivalent of conceiving, incubation, delivery, raising and educating a child into an adult. Only the art knows for sure when it has reached completion. We have trouble with this context, because most main events in our lives are determined by an outside source. Age, Gender, Race, Religion and Economics all ingredients in the mixture, for example we start school by the age of five. That does not mean we as an individual is ready to start school at five, some maybe ready earlier or later, this is the mean or guideline as to when a child should begin to start school. These rules and guidelines are there to help us live in society. I am a girl and therefore I should wear a dress and learn to become a lady. I am a boy and therefore I should wear pants and learn to become a man. And each label give a set a rules or standards to live by. Anthropologically speaking art is a bi-product of a civilized society. When we have time to reflect about how we live about our daily lives culture becomes refined and the Arts are born within that social structure. Art lives outside of the box.
    Sometimes the reason is within the artist, unbeknown to him or her, they have something that must be learned, experienced or mastered before the art can reach completion. Sometimes it is a skill, or a new perspective, most of the time it has to do with living and coming to an understanding. These abstract concepts are much harder to perceive, learn and possess mastery of before completing the product of that education.
    â€œI Spy With My Little Eye A Butterfly?” is an acrylic painting that was started in 2003. I completed the painting in 2009. I still do not think it is finished, but that is my humble opinion. It is finished for the moment and is hanging on my bedroom wall. Every morning I do not work at my job, I ask myself is it finished? And the answer is no. Yet, when I ask myself what I need to do next? The answer is the same, I do not know. SIGH. So I wait until the answer comes and the desire to complete what has yet to be finished tells me to get my paints and complete it.

Over the last ten years I have gone through a series of friends. I have decided this has been weighing on my conscious so I thought it time to write it out. Each friendship was a unique experience and as all real relationships have their ups and downs. Their where moments of ecstasy; moments of hum drum mundanity; moments of tempers flaring; moments of pure bliss and contentment. There were always emotional moments filled with passion and love in every one of those relationships. Or at least that is my perspective. Even within the power of love there is loss and grieving. For each unique individual that friendship is a moment in my life, good, bad or indifferent, I chose to get close to these individuals.
    I may explore in a future moment each individual, but I think it is the weight of the quantity. See I have always had this belief that friends are golden. Special people should never disappear without a cause or a reason. I have recently had to explore the idea that people serve a purpose and then leave, a new nuance for me to learn about in the genre of friendships. The weight comes with the quantity of people. Uncle Ray used to say about my eccentric behavior exhibited at quite an early age; “She is either too stubborn to quit or is too stupid to know the difference.” Sometimes I think there is an interesting recipe constantly under revision that creates me and there seems to always be a little bit of both.
    So my first response was what did I do wrong? Second thought was how do I fix it? And inevitably came the-what if there is nothing I can do? I then came to the perspective of: you can only control how you feel about a situation, so I began focusing on what I could change and do something about that. In retrospect, I began to zoom out and try to perceive the larger picture. My best friend gave me another concept: “Some Friends Have Expiration Dates.” Some people are there to help you through one thing and then move along. Which triggered another reverie about “Eyes are the Windows to the Soul, but how can we see ourselves?” I answered this question in college by realizing that we are all constantly evolving into the best possible “US” we can be, ideally. So each person is a mirror into the Soul of the Viewer. We see that part of ourselves that is similar to that which we reflect to others. We bring about the part of the personality of the Soul in an individual that has the best receptivity to our own and vice versa. So as we navigate the “Path” of our lives, people reflect that which we both love and dislike about ourselves. I choose for these last ten years to work on the part of dislike. When I was a child it bothered me as to why people did not like others. I then was faced with not liking someone myself. I then had to ask myself how am I like or similar to this person and began to work on the person I wanted to become. All these experiences have taught me to become the person I wanted to be. These ideas are all very important knowledge to have learned. Yet, each time I always worked on myself. I hope I have offered others something in return for their time and energy while they were in my life. The concept of reciprocity has always been important to me.
    My Best Friend reminding me that these people came into my life for the time we shared a common interest or goal. This is where the expiration date comes, just like death you never know when it might be coming, but it seems to be an inevitable fact of life. So then there levels of importance for every relationship, but how do you know how to prioritize without being able to look at the end? Death is different in the time expired, because that soul has moved onto another plane of existence. Here, when the friendship expires we still live in the same city, you still know each other’s address, you still have each other’s phone number and yet the window of opportunity has ended.

Yesterday was the big day, the New Christmas Cookie Tradition with my Aunt and her side of the family. I started out with the idea from her brother last Christmas. I asked her if she wanted to join in having a Christmas Exchange and I began asking co-workers, friends and other avid bakers. I had 20 people interested in October. By Thanksgiving we set a date for either the first or second sunday of December. As the date grew closer I have more and more cancellations. Before I knew it - it was down to just me, my mom and my aunt. I then was chatting with (e:springfaerie) and told her how bummed I was that she would not be coming. After a little while my numbers went up to four as the Sunday was arriving by the end of the week.

We all baked at least 4 different recipes, with a doged determination to make things work in a new kitchen. We had problems from the get go, but my mom and I were committed. We kept working. We really had the most fun I have evr had baking cookies. No, it was not your traditional cookies exchange. We baked at our location, mostly family experience. Other family members dropped in to check on our progress. We ate. We laughed. We worked. We baked. We frosted. We did lots of dishes. I can not tell you the final numbers because we were very unorganized. I can tell you all the amazing cookies we baked: The Traditional Anise Polish Cut-Outs; Sugar Cookies with Anise frosting; Anise Pizzelles; Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies; Tree Spritzers; Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies; Mexican Wedding Cakes / Russian Tea Cakes; White Chocolate Macadamian Nut Cookies; Peanut Butter Cookies; Gingerbread Cookies; Chocolate Chip Nut Cookies; Spanish Galletas and Homemade Pizzia to fuel our energy.

We started at 2pm until 11pm. So nine hours later we had so many cookies we had no clue what to do with them. YEAH! We all agreed to give it a go next year.

This morning I awoke with more aches and pains than I knew was possible. I felt like I had gone to the gym for a full body workout! I fell asleep before I remembered to take any pain relief medicine and boy did I pay.

In summation I really decided that Christmas Cookies are a labor of love, but aren't we all worth it? So remember the next time you take a bite out of a homemade cookie the amount of love, work and time that goes into making that delicious moment of pure heaven in your mouth!

My mom and I have been looking forward to buying this movie. So when Target's sale paper came out off we went to Christmas shopping and also bought this DVD to help aid our motivation in making Christmas cookies (see in a blog near you).

We watched this movie over two evenings due to our crazy days and schedules. We also watched the specials in the bonus features. The added benefit of buying or renting the dvd versus the paid per view, just my humble thought on the matter. Both of us enjoyed the dual storyline. It did peak my interest in finding out more about Julia Child. We both agreed to look for the Chefography to see if there are any on her.

I think the wierdest part about a happy ever after ending movie like this had me questioning the timing. Did they ever meet?

My second thought the movie inspired was the blog perspective. So many questions, most of them I need to direct toward (e:paul). How did blogs evolve into being? What is the rest of the story behind blogging? Andy you are falling behind? I ask myself, why do I blog? You know folks, I do not know I have an answer that I like. Because I need to. I have to take this up under further advisement. I enjoy reading as many other blogs as I have time to read. I feel like it is more personal and is a way to be real. Of course I joined this blog because I met many of the core group and really enjoyed them. I also wanted to met more people that live off the strip. Yet I am amazed at how often other people's blogs seem to have an element of role play. I really do not know how I feel about all this, jury is still out, but I am curious and collecting more information.

I have been really good for a while about blogging when I am actually online, which as you can tell I have not been in awhile. WOW! I have so many photo blogs to update that I still have to edit the pictures, we are going back to like July. UG. I have had some things pop up that are still not quite finish enough to post. I am still tackling my attic, but Christmas shopping has cut off that project for a few weeks. I usually make handmade gifts each year with some kind of theme. For example, I decided one year to make jewelry as the theme and I made earrings and necklaces for the women and rosaries for the religious and either keychains or beaded critters for the men. I usually start buying things between thanksgiving and Christmas this year to work for 10 to 12 months for next years presents. Well, I am not sure what happened, but recently in the last few months someone asked are you ready for christmas? And for the first time in years I am like NO! It was already the first week of December and I had not one present for anyone. UG!
It is 11 days to Christmas and I am proud to report I only have two more presents to buy and I will have everything I need for the holidays!
I have been trying to write down thoughts and ideas, journals, blogs and other stories. So I will have a few post tonight to make up for the past few, but I warn you they are completely out of order and are priority to the muse that runs my brain when I am off resting.