These are some crazy times. We’ve been stripped of certainties and forced to redefine our lives. What is of true value in our lives? Friendship. Sharing. Communication. For me, the common factor is love - letting others know that I love them, am here for them, and letting them love me back. Yet, first and foremost, I must love myself. Who ever I am today is where I begin.

Burt Bacharach had it right with his song: “What The World Needs Now Is Love”. Because of the Covid 19 shutdown, I’ve found new ways to be grateful for who I am and how I live my life. Self-quarantine requires solo T.L.C. Being alone, who better to love me, than me?

First color wash and wax

The act of creating can be a helpful tool - it reflects the now and heralds change. It can show us who we are and what we may want to alter. For me, creating art is like creating love, each painting contains little bits of my love for life. I create for me, for sure, but it’s also to invite others to feel good, too.

Forced change, as in the Covid shutdown, most often results in a realignment of perspective. In the middle of things, I can forget that there’s so much more to life than raging headlines. While the shift has been trying and worrisome, oddly, I am the happier for it.

Second color wash and wax ironed off. At this point, I’m thinking the white wavy lines are distracting and I can’t see enough of the bamboo or moon.

This might interest you: it’s a 2-person Q and A game from Dean Graziosi’s book “Millionaire Success Habits”. Person A asks Person B: “What is important to you about being a successful artist?” (I tried to do it to myself but the answers were far more surprising and authentic when done with a friend.) Whatever Person B says, is then tagged on to the original beginning phrase and asked again by Person A: “What is important to you about…”. This Q and A is repeated 7 times. I think you’ll be amazed at what you say.

I did this with sister Jean and we went from her first impression of “being able to treat others, giving joy to others” to “it’s about self-love and showing others the value within them”. We never did crystalize what the original question was. (So like us). It was maybe something like: “What is important to you about being abundant in your life?”, but I’m still not really sure.

Here I’ve asked for critique from my art group and have darkened more behind the bamboo, and created a second bamboo on the right by using crayons and pencils to darken the area around the design. (At this point, simple watercolor washes will not adhere to the waxed paper and I have to get creative to make any changes. Also note, I despised that right hand bamboo and experimentally cropped the painting to see if that would make me happier.)

Other questions might be: “What is important to you about being the happiest you could be?” or “What is important to you about being your most authentic self?”. As Jean and I proved, any question (or no question at all) will lead you on an interesting journey.

As to self-quarantine? I have found I’m kinda built for it. I love having so much more studio time and, with the help of my co-creative art group, I’ve been happily (with some spectacular failures) exploring and expanding further into my creative self, who is all about love. She loves trying everything and nothing gets in the way of her fun. Sounds like a good way to move forward to me.

So, what is important to you about…? I’d LOVE to hear your answers! Or, if you want, we could do this together.

More feedback from the group encouraged me to keep the right bamboo and add more turquoise to make the left side bamboo standout more. You’ll note I decided to not crop the painting. This painting and lots more are in the Beaux Batiks category on my new and improved Website!

Hang in there…I love you!

Have you heard of the “lost object” syndrome? It’s when you look for something even as you think it may be gone. I’ve made myself insane over this - searching, doubling down, backtracking, looking under things in rooms I didn’t even enter. Most often, what I want shows up after I drop the search and stop obsessing.

Here is the original bamboo drawing transferred to the rice paper - an open invitation, a journey yet to unfold. I love this part.

Lately (yes, even more than usual) I’ve been struggling with maintaining a train of thought. I’d like to hold steady focus on the innumerable blessings in my life, as well as all of my goals. Living with the recent pandemic - the upheavals, the fears, the uncertainty - pushes me to achieve still more. I feel that, even when awful stuff happens, I don’t need to let it stop me.

I’m laughing at myself right now as I just interrupted this letter to begin yet another one. (I think I’ve got about five in the works.) Things are shifting quickly and I feel disoriented, concerned, upset, and very much off-center. Naturally, my mind flits from thought to thought and I want to get them all on paper before they go.

First wax and color wash: I’m currently learning how to use a batik tool to apply the melted wax and my lack of control always brings surprising results. This is both challenging and rewarding and encourages me to explore new paradigms - how can I make this now moment work when the old way isn’t cutting it?

Today, I misplaced my salad bowl on my way from the desk to the kitchen. I had stopped to consider a painting in progress. I remembered hearing the clunk as I set down the bowl, but I couldn’t find the darn thing. (Fun Focus Fact #1: Finish Task A before attempting Task B.)

Lost object syndrome ensued. I searched but I simply couldn’t see it. An “Ah HA!” moment suggested I view the living room from the kitchen. There sat my salad - right next to the painting I had been examining. (Fun Focus Fact #2: If stymied, try changing your point of view.)

Here I’ve hand-painted the melted wax with a brush on the bamboo only and then applied a darker wash of colors. Now what? I knew I needed to highlight the bamboo and I wondered if the virgin white was too distracting. Negative painting was in order so I...

Ultimately, we are the masters of our moods. I say this knowing that sometimes a little freak-out is just the thing - think of it as a mini seismic shake-up to help make way for solutions. We often tend to overthink things and to hold onto beliefs or habits of thought that no longer serve us. These can get in our way. One solution that has proved successful for me is to find something (anything) else to take my mind off what’s bothering me. To that end, here’s (Fun Focus Fact #3: Give yourself a break.)

Another successful solution is to call on fresh eyes. Scene: Something’s “lost” and I am searching for it. Enter a friend who says, “You mean this pen/ document/ salad bowl right here?” (Fun Focus Fact #4: Ask for help.)

My so-far successful solution to what’s happening now is to paint. I will be posting a LOT of new and very different paintings in the near future. I am also revamping the Website and my pricing structure and will give the heads up when all is in place.

I send my love and best wishes for your peace of mind and your safety. I hope you are all finding new ways to cope and even to re-invent yourselves and your lives.

With love,

Judy

…went bold and put a very dark wash around the bamboo and decided to turn the white parts into fireflies or fairies dancing in the dark. To that end, I softened the edges a bit and added a pearl coating to make the white lines and dots effervescent. This piece is stunning in person - the result of a mini freak-out (yikes…now what?!) and asking for help (fellow artist friends).

P.S. Since shooting this letter off to my web wizard for posting, I’ve left my keys in the ignition while grocery shopping (the car was there when I returned) and sliced through my palm while sharpening a knife (doc says no stitches but I have to walk around with my hand on my head for a couple of days and have to limit my movements a lot). I think this is riotously funny as it coincides with me writing about focus. I’ll take my own advice and refer to Fun Focus Fact #3. I love you guys. Please be more focused than I have been.

Does anyone out there have trouble doing what this title suggests?

Ask for what you want. Sounds so simple, so… easy. I did this naturally as a child and kept doing it even though I didn’t always get what I was asking for. When going through my horsey stage, every year, for about four years I think, I’d tell my mom all I wanted for Christmas was a horse. We lived in the suburbs; I thought I could just keep her in the backyard. Life seems simple when you’re a kid.

Yet, in and of itself, asking is simple. The give and take of asking and receiving is simple. The messy bit is being vulnerable while you ask. When did that become difficult? How else will we get what we want? Why do we keep ourselves separate from potential loving responses and the support we crave and need?

It’s really so silly to fear being vulnerable, when that is the real reward. At its center, vulnerability offers peace and grace and strength. (This is who I am. Who will like me as I am?) Being vulnerable allows for true friendships and love, and weeds out those who cannot offer that.

Gypsy Mood: I love the colors and the light-hearted sweep of this piece. This is one in a series of abstracts (you saw others in a previous blog) I began in my quest to loosen up my painting style. My desire is to take this free-fall feeling and reinterpret all the creatures and things I love to paint like dragonflies and bamboo and garden temples…

Like the horse dream, I have another that is just as heartfelt, just as deep. It is to be a really good artist (and I mean a really really really good one) and to have the message of my art reach out to touch the childlike eager hearts of others. I want so much for what I paint to soothe and uplift and happyfy (it’s my blog, I’m allowed to make up my own words) the little kid souls in others - maybe lying dormant, perhaps reluctantly swept under the rug of adulthood - quietly waiting for someone else to acknowledge them.

To that end, I am in the deep process of reclaiming my authentic artistic voice. Let me say this clearly: I see you. I love you. You are safe. Come out and join me.

I am involved in a process of excavation. I am revamping my Website and you will soon see a tidal wave of new art I have been busy with during my time with the Master Class program I spoke of earlier. I am now involved in a second group of fellow creatives who are seeking the same reward of authenticity, uniqueness, freedom, contentment.

I want feedback. I want you to play with me. How do you think I am doing? What do you see and feel and think when you look at my art? What would you do differently? And then…do you want anything right now? If it feels right for you, tell me about your dreams. Let’s start a conversation.

Eight Brocades: Here I share my love for T’ai Chi. This pose in one of a series (hence the title) and is called “Drawing The Bow To Shoot The Arrow.” The remaining “brocades” are represented by the seven background colors. I have already redesigned her so keep an eye out for a different interpretation coming soon to a blog site near you!

I’m also asking, if this blog strikes a similar chord in you, that you forward it and my website info (judyaveiro.com) to others. I want to grow my tribe. I want to put myself out there and co-create with as many other crazy creatives as I can. I want to build friendships based on trust and dreams and reaching for happy.

Vulnerably yours,

Judy

PS: IF you’re interested, the book I’m reading that started all this is by Amanda Palmer titled: “The Art of Asking.” Thanks, Patrice, for turning me on to her! xo