Dear Suleika, you and your partner Jon and all that is going on in your life & lives have been on my mind a lot lately. I saw Jon at the Jazz fest last month (stayed statued against the barrier separating me from the VIP for three shows prior to him coming on stage so I could claim that spot). He is by far, one of the most magical humans I've ever witnessed. And for me, the fact that you two are partnered makes the most profound and perfect sense. You both possess inner beauty and grace and allow it/them to flow and manifest creatively, weirdly, with risk and passionate energy. You are both astounding. I read the Atlantic article this last week and loved it. Old enough to be your mama, I was caught off guard by how proud of you I felt, and overwhelmed a bit by learning that I really didn't know the full extent of your health challenges...I knew the headlines, the chronology, but like all of us, we never know every single setback or misstep of our friends & families, much less the social connections we cultivate via www or from afar. Your artwork is extraordinary and so uniquely you. And that is the magic. You poured yourself onto canvas and have allowed us to witness. You are incredibly brave. There isn't a price tag you can put on brave, by creating and sharing, you have encountered the same bounty I imagine Jon witnesses in the studio, sitting at his piano, composing for you, drafting what's called to the stanza. You with prose, with your deep caring for others, & for animals, with a paintbrush or fingertip, with a studied placement of a dear object on a mantle. Thank you for everything you share with us. Ultimately, you teach, you inspire and in turn, you have grown love on the planet. ( what's funny is even on this Substack platform, little red dots appear underneath your name when typed, like your name needs to be fixed. Nothing's broken. You're human. ) I'm not a consistent contributor here, but I read the prompts weekly and write. Thank you.
I am of a vintage too that makes me old enough to be her mama! And am sometimes caught off guard when I have that same feeling. I mentor a couple of young women and love to see them growing and thriving
This description is so apt. I love it and it expresses how I feel about Susu & Jon as such a magical couple. Susu - just do your art and don't hang a price tag on it. If someone wants to buy something - let them make an offer! Surely we all want a piece of you as you created this incredible community and we all feel so much LOVE! And the cartoon by Erin McReynolds stole my heart as well - a big Anais Nin fan since the 70's - it so spoke to me. cheers to you and this art journey - can't wait to see the exhibit. #phillyfan #isolationjournalsfan #suleikajouadincrediblespirit
Yes!! All that Antonia says is so true!! Your willingness to show up fully human is a gift for us all. As I read your post Suleika I couldn’t help but connect to the same that I feel when having to “price” my ceramic art. It always is a challenge to she something sells. So one thing I’ve started to do, is take photo of the person who buys my art, this helps to remind me that now this brings joy outside. So yes, dear Suleika let it go into the world and know just like your words and presence here your art spreads the love and light this world needs.
I so love this description of Jon, Antonia, and totally agree with you. I haven't had the honor or privilege of actually seeing him onstage in person, but I've followed his career since he was on Colbert's late night show. He's so inspirational, loving, giving, talented, and his adoration for Suleika is palpable.
I also wanted to comment on Suleika's "humiliating" talk in Portland a few years ago. It made me feel comforted as I've had speaking engagements that didn't always go so well, and always because of the same reason she described -- totally stressed out, not feeling well, thoughts jumbled, you go off script and it doesn't quite work. But here's the thing...
Suleika always keeps going, she keeps her focus even in, perhaps especially in, the darkest of times, when her body is in rebellion against seemingly anything she tries to do. But she carries on, which gives the rest of us such motivation and faith. When we live in a world devoid of judgement or the fear of it, so much can be shared, intimacy increased across the board. Thank you for always being authentic, Suleika, for sharing the good with the bad, and thereby showing us your humanity and acceptance. What an amazing couple you and Jon are. A testament to love, faith, endurance.
I had a go making mine into a cartoon which I restacked onto my notes, but here’s the words. I really enjoyed this prompt!
At 17, I packed my bags and moved halfway down New Zealand. Pimply, uneasy, full of hope, and adventure. I arrived, to a city much bigger than the small coastal town I had grown up in. I missed the sound of the waves and the sight of the mountain from my bedroom window, I missed the calls of morepork owls in the bush. Instead, pigeons cooed painfully outside my window. And I cried, missing home, my family, and friends desperately. There was concrete everywhere. And so so many people I didn’t know. But slowly, surely as my severed and sore roots began to recover, they dug down into the shaky earth. Down into the city of earthquakes. But the unfamiliar faces soon became home; holding my gaze when my eyes got glassy, and crinkling with mine when I smiled. They came to know my tells, and I, theirs. We sat on the couch, side by side, my new friends and I. And I realised, that though I was far from home, friends could become kin — we’re water rippling in the same river. Going, growing, flowing.
I see a couple of the significant places for me: Berlin and San Francisco, my third home town and second home town, which makes me feel excited! What were you up to and where about in Berlin?
So lovely to be awake when your Sunday post drops! I feel as if I’m reading in silence. In the moment, all I want to do is thank you. For the gift of your work, all of it. You are a gift of authenticity and joy and pleasure to read and contemplate. As you slide into the home plate of your show, enjoy the hell out of the process. You will be a home run!
Sliding into the home plate of your show . I love that Sandra . You said it so well . This Sunday missive is a balm to my soul this morning for me as well .
I remember that moment in foster care as a teen watching my foster mom ask for a receipt in triplicate to submit to the welfare office for a refund. I began putting a price on every moment. How much did it cost to take a bath, eat a meal, simply breathe. Was I worth it? My foster father had an old set of paints in their den which he said I could use and I began to paint an image on a gessoed board. Eyes a mouth a nose afloat in a dark triangle of questions. It was the beginning of a lifetime of painting and drawing and writing all the deepest and darkest and yes often joyous questions I had about life. Drawing begins with a chosen point of departure and then descends into the psyche. Where I swim with my oldest questions. In my experience the judge of their worth is time. It’s not our job to know the value. Only to make while we can from the gift of our life. Reading your Atlantic profile was very moving. Because I can relate tho your internal journey though our circumstances are different. And that to me is the miracle of art.
Suleika, thank you for sharing your creative struggles and your methods for working through them. So often we see only the stunning end results, but knowing what it took to get there adds another layer. It’s also helpful to learn and take inspiration from. When I’m stuck in a piece of writing and at the point of overworking it I’ve learned to step away for a few days. I think of it like stirring up a pond and making it muddy. You have to let the dirt settle to the bottom to see clearly again. By the way, your Atlantic profile was beyond. So powerful and beautiful.
Good morning! I so enjoy watching you describe your process. It’s visceral and raw, dreamy and generous. So excited for your opening soon as well. I’m thoroughly enjoying the comic/artist too! Reminds me of Allie Brosh. So playful and dark, heartbreaking and funny. I sense the emotional travels of creating art—the process— IS part of the composition itself. Maybe it’s what separates artists from factory produced creations or AI of the future? I mean to say, would we have life and art experienced any other way? Illness and pain sucks. Yes. And yet, here we all are creating through as artists always have. Something to ponder I suppose. Love to you and the fam. Paws up! Let’s keep going! ♥️💫🐶🐾🌷💖💫👩🎨🎨
Thank you for these weekly reflections and prompts. I was gratified that you likened an MRI to an avant-garde nightclub. I had one this week. When the test started, I nearly laughed out loud; I had a first row seat at a world premiere avant-garde symphony! That perspective made the experience much more interesting and enjoyable.
Ah the I Ching! My early 20’s compass and like you I wonder, did I know how to utilize the I Ching? I was looking for any form of direction as I roamed the US.
Shingles! On top of everything? I had shingles when I was on staff at the NYT and it was incredibly painful. (My doctor asked me, “Are you under any kind of stress?” I burst out laughing, because my life at the time was 100% stress.) You are superwoman, truly. Sending retroactive calamine lotion.
Sorry to hear you’ve had shingles. My husband had them twice and I have several friends who have had them. I haven’t had them, but I know they are painful from being with my husband and friends who have had them.
I was traveling the east coast after I left college (earlier than my parents had hoped) visiting all my new friends from the “university without walls” (I chose my school based on a Saturday review article of that title). I roamed from Chicago where my disappointed parents were, to Vermont, Rhode Island, NYC, DC and while visiting RI my friend who was looking for a new rental as her lease was up., I decided to search with her. We looked at all the little beach cottages and the few year round rentals available and when we toured a 2 bedroom house 🏡 and we both liked it so I decided to move to this house in RI and begin to put down some loose roots. I moved to Vermont for a year and lived a few other places but RI kept drawing me back energetically and I’ve sunk in deep roots now fifty years in the making.
I read somewhere the other day that the word "painting" is best when considered a verb rather than a noun because it puts emphasis on the process of creating rather than the end product. It made me think a lot about how the process itself is the art.
I also saw the Yoko Ono exhibition at the Tate Modern in February and I adored how she displayed creative prompts as artworks, allowing the viewer to imagine for themselves what the art could be, bringing ourselves to the work and no doubt imagining entirely different things. My mother is a painter and a hugely talented one at that. I used to think it was really sad that she'd paint these massive, stunning canvases and then just store them away. But she doesn't seem to care. She says it's the act of painting she loves - people seeing/buying her work is just a bonus.
For me, each creation feels like one of my children. I raise them into being and then release them into the world in the hope that people will receive them with care and love. I love the idea of them growing beyond me and I can't quite imagine ever being happy with just hiding them away.
All that is to say, there's no wrong way or right way to create and release. We all just have to do what feels good for us when it feels good for us. The process, however, is always the most important and fulfilling part, i think. xx
"All that is to say, there's no wrong way or right way to create and release. We all just have to do what feels good for us when it feels good for us. The process, however, is always the most important and fulfilling part, i think" Love this so much. ❤️
My sister is an incredibly talented artist and like your mother, she doesn’t sell her work. She has given some of her oil paintings as gifts, some hang in her home, and one is in the art gallery that led to our father’s office suite. But the amount she has in storage? She says she loves painting for the pleasure it brings to her.
I think my Mum would love to sell more often but she never really puts herself out there. I made her a website about a year ago (https://diannesweet.com/) and hoped she'd build on it but, even though I'm a little disappointed she hasn't, I do admire her for painting simply for the love of it.
I'd love to see your sister's work. Is there anywhere I can find it? x
Is there anyway you could share some of your mom’s work with me? I wish I could show you my sister’s work, but the only piece she has hanging in public is in the art gallery that led into our father’s private suite of his offices. (He was a CEO and had professional paintings in an art gallery that led into his area in the building.) My sister’s piece is just as well done as the numerous professionals paintings that hang in that art gallery. One of my college friends who double-majored, one of her majors being art history, has seen my sister’s work and couldn’t believe that she didn’t sell them. Perhaps she is a lot like your mom in this way? I will never forget when Therese (my friend) picked up one of my sister’s oil paintings of Jesus Christ and told me it was the best painting of him that she had ever seen. She literallt said those words. I showed her all of my sister’s work that was stored at my parents’ home at that time and she loved all of it. One of my favorites is a charcoal self-portrait which she had to do of herself in college. It looks so much like her, that it gives me goosebumps whenever I see it.
My maternal grandmother was an artist. Before I was born, she was doing statues. After she took them out of the kiln, she would paint them so beautifully. I have two of the women statues she did of them in a different era. She did many, but she did an entire set of the characters in the manger and you would have thought a professional had done them. She gave them to mom years before I was born. (I am one of the yougest of a large family.) One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting down together, with our mom handing each piece to us, securely wrapped for the season, and we’d look at each other to see which person or animal we opened that year. It wasn’t until her elderly years when my grandma joined the Senior Citizens Center that she began to do oil painting scenes. I had one hanging in my home for years. She was amazing as well!
I, on the other, hand, am not gifted in this manner. I have other gifts, as we all do, but I can’t draw or paint to save my life. My freshman year of college I signed up for an oil painting class. (We had to take a minimum of two art classes no matter what our major as I went to a Liberal Arts college.) I was horrfied by my first piece. It was a Still LIfe of a vase of flowers. After our paintings were finished, we had to critique one another’s work. Imagine how horrfied I was as there were Art Majors in this class!!! Thank God one nice Art Major said he liked my earth tones. The next morning I went into my advisor’s office and told her that she had to get me out of that class. She looked at me and gently said, “Susan, we all have gifts in life.” I immediately replied, “Yes, we do! But my gifts are not in my hands in painting or drawing! Please get me out of this class!!!” She did and I took and finished a ceramics course. No, I didn’t look like a master at that pottery wheel; far from it. But I completed the class and my dad actually put one of my pieces in his office amongst professional pieces of pottery, statues, etc. When the architecture of their new building told me how beautiful my vase was, I literally smirked at him and said, “You are being far too kind, as the only reason it is there is because I am my father’s daughter.” You have to keep your sense of humor in life, right? ;-)
Yes, I have gifts, but not in my hands for painting or drawing. But I do love and appreciate artwork! I love museums, local art fairs, you name it. Again, if you can share any of your mom’s artwork with me, I woud love it! If I am able to get any of my sister’s, I will do likewise.
Love what you wrote about your children. We only have the one and he just stepped out of college and in to his career path. And has found love too. It is a delight to see them
I don't actually have any real children (yet) so, for now, my creative projects are my only kids ☺️. But I do always wonder if i I've made them robust enough to handle what the world might throw at them and whether learning to deal with that fear might be good practice for eventually having to deal with it when it comes to my children (although that will be a million times more intense, no doubt!).
I'm so happy your son has found love and joy in his work. It's means so much at that age, doesn't it, and I bet you're beyond proud. x
As my son’s friend once said, Duh, Mrs Mages. (He was six) I re read it! Sounds like you are infusing your creations with a healthy dollop of grit and resilience❤️
Dear Erin, those sketches of life's experiences are absolutely bad ass. 6 degrees of separation on steroids. I am especially fond of the image of mommy dancin+smokin on the couch/table.
And hey Susu, just so we are clear, I am confident those paintings that are spawning from your life's unique experiences are likely to be priceless and if you can possibly just part with just one of them, I'll pay in gold or bit or even hamburgers....................goodmorningAmerica
1) after college i wanted to do work related to the cause of the hour -- 'world hunger' -- so i
got a job as researcher at oxfam.
2) one day (as stories go) a woman my age come to give a talk about a small community project in a remote area of chile where she was living.
3) she begged me to come and stay at her farm and do whatever i fancied.
4) two months later, speaking no spanish, i arrived at her door.
5) she gave me a list of all of the places i needed to see before my visa expired.
6) one place was a national park in a remote area of southern patagonia that took me 3 days to get to, including hitchhiking a long ride in the back of a pickup truck with wall-to-wall sheep.
7) i was smitten by this park and knew i had to work there.
8) a park ranger told me about a wildlife research project overseen by a professor in the US.
9) i called the professor as soon as i got home and he agreed to let me to work on the project.
10) i returned to the park a few months later and stayed for a year and a half, fulfilling my childhood fantasy to be Jane Goodall when i grew up.
11) after i left, i went to graduate school in wildlife ecology.
12) i did my field work in chile, studying water contamination from copper mining.
13) for almost 40 years, chile has been my home away from home.
14) i translate and edit books about nature, wildlife, and conservation in chile.
15) and it's all because i worked at oxfam...and met a visitor...who begged me to go there...and told me to visit this park.
OMG!! I love this story!! How beautiful that she begged you to visit, that you listened! Then you kept listening and following your heart, your interests, and your desires. It's led to such important, life-changing experiences for you, and I am sure, all the people and nature you impact.
I’m sad to hear your memory of your Portland appearance is so negative. I’m the speechwriter who told you what a fabulous job you did that day. In fact, your speech was the only bright spot on a day when we learned my wife’s cancer had returned. And your kind comments on the difficulty of my role as her caregiver helped sustain me in the months that followed. Your Portland speech was a triumph!
Wow, talk about synchronicity! I had a feeling reading Suleika's memory of her speech that it was probably brilliant, but how would she know? And here is Fred, telling us the multiple gifts she gave!
This full circle moment is breathtaking, and a beautiful reminder to hold lightly the harshest voice in our heads. It reminds me of Irvin Yalom's book "Every Day Gets a Little Closer." He discovers that the sessions he felt least competent in were the greatest gifts to his patient, because of the little kindnesses he extended during it.
Dear Suleika, you and your partner Jon and all that is going on in your life & lives have been on my mind a lot lately. I saw Jon at the Jazz fest last month (stayed statued against the barrier separating me from the VIP for three shows prior to him coming on stage so I could claim that spot). He is by far, one of the most magical humans I've ever witnessed. And for me, the fact that you two are partnered makes the most profound and perfect sense. You both possess inner beauty and grace and allow it/them to flow and manifest creatively, weirdly, with risk and passionate energy. You are both astounding. I read the Atlantic article this last week and loved it. Old enough to be your mama, I was caught off guard by how proud of you I felt, and overwhelmed a bit by learning that I really didn't know the full extent of your health challenges...I knew the headlines, the chronology, but like all of us, we never know every single setback or misstep of our friends & families, much less the social connections we cultivate via www or from afar. Your artwork is extraordinary and so uniquely you. And that is the magic. You poured yourself onto canvas and have allowed us to witness. You are incredibly brave. There isn't a price tag you can put on brave, by creating and sharing, you have encountered the same bounty I imagine Jon witnesses in the studio, sitting at his piano, composing for you, drafting what's called to the stanza. You with prose, with your deep caring for others, & for animals, with a paintbrush or fingertip, with a studied placement of a dear object on a mantle. Thank you for everything you share with us. Ultimately, you teach, you inspire and in turn, you have grown love on the planet. ( what's funny is even on this Substack platform, little red dots appear underneath your name when typed, like your name needs to be fixed. Nothing's broken. You're human. ) I'm not a consistent contributor here, but I read the prompts weekly and write. Thank you.
Thank you, Antonia, for this beautiful message, and for being part of this beloved community. ❤️
I am of a vintage too that makes me old enough to be her mama! And am sometimes caught off guard when I have that same feeling. I mentor a couple of young women and love to see them growing and thriving
This description is so apt. I love it and it expresses how I feel about Susu & Jon as such a magical couple. Susu - just do your art and don't hang a price tag on it. If someone wants to buy something - let them make an offer! Surely we all want a piece of you as you created this incredible community and we all feel so much LOVE! And the cartoon by Erin McReynolds stole my heart as well - a big Anais Nin fan since the 70's - it so spoke to me. cheers to you and this art journey - can't wait to see the exhibit. #phillyfan #isolationjournalsfan #suleikajouadincrediblespirit
Yes!! All that Antonia says is so true!! Your willingness to show up fully human is a gift for us all. As I read your post Suleika I couldn’t help but connect to the same that I feel when having to “price” my ceramic art. It always is a challenge to she something sells. So one thing I’ve started to do, is take photo of the person who buys my art, this helps to remind me that now this brings joy outside. So yes, dear Suleika let it go into the world and know just like your words and presence here your art spreads the love and light this world needs.
I so love this description of Jon, Antonia, and totally agree with you. I haven't had the honor or privilege of actually seeing him onstage in person, but I've followed his career since he was on Colbert's late night show. He's so inspirational, loving, giving, talented, and his adoration for Suleika is palpable.
I also wanted to comment on Suleika's "humiliating" talk in Portland a few years ago. It made me feel comforted as I've had speaking engagements that didn't always go so well, and always because of the same reason she described -- totally stressed out, not feeling well, thoughts jumbled, you go off script and it doesn't quite work. But here's the thing...
Suleika always keeps going, she keeps her focus even in, perhaps especially in, the darkest of times, when her body is in rebellion against seemingly anything she tries to do. But she carries on, which gives the rest of us such motivation and faith. When we live in a world devoid of judgement or the fear of it, so much can be shared, intimacy increased across the board. Thank you for always being authentic, Suleika, for sharing the good with the bad, and thereby showing us your humanity and acceptance. What an amazing couple you and Jon are. A testament to love, faith, endurance.
I had a go making mine into a cartoon which I restacked onto my notes, but here’s the words. I really enjoyed this prompt!
At 17, I packed my bags and moved halfway down New Zealand. Pimply, uneasy, full of hope, and adventure. I arrived, to a city much bigger than the small coastal town I had grown up in. I missed the sound of the waves and the sight of the mountain from my bedroom window, I missed the calls of morepork owls in the bush. Instead, pigeons cooed painfully outside my window. And I cried, missing home, my family, and friends desperately. There was concrete everywhere. And so so many people I didn’t know. But slowly, surely as my severed and sore roots began to recover, they dug down into the shaky earth. Down into the city of earthquakes. But the unfamiliar faces soon became home; holding my gaze when my eyes got glassy, and crinkling with mine when I smiled. They came to know my tells, and I, theirs. We sat on the couch, side by side, my new friends and I. And I realised, that though I was far from home, friends could become kin — we’re water rippling in the same river. Going, growing, flowing.
I love the idea of home being somewhere where people "know my tells". ❤️
Thanks Suleika! 💛
That took a lot of courage and look where and what your courage landed and taught you! Good for you!
Thank you Susan for your kind words, aroha nui (much love) 🌱😊
Love it and would love to experience both your original roots and the city you describe. Is that Auckland?
Thanks Eavan! Christchurch is where I moved, but the region of Taranaki is still home.
Beautiful.
Thank you Laurie!
Beautifully captured - how tenuous roots going down into a city of earthquakes seems but yet the roots grow.
Or Christchurch
Could not see the cartoon--but here goes
1) Pasadena-Hollywood- the end a beginning
2) Many moves, cold water flat, tub in kitchen, love on city streets
3) You go Yugo- Morocco, home, hitch, West Berlin- Old Eden Saloon- home
4) Paris, sold NY Times, Tangier, Berlin
5) Gay Street, Human Be-In romance
6) Berlin
7) Life change Santa Barbara, San Francisco, St. Marks Place. West 11th Street
8) Princeton, New Hope, Lambertville
9) Philadelphia
“Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
I have always loved this quote and it fit in perfectly with your list of the places you have been!
“Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.” Thank you for sharing this. It’s what I needed to hear .💓🪶
me too
I see a couple of the significant places for me: Berlin and San Francisco, my third home town and second home town, which makes me feel excited! What were you up to and where about in Berlin?
So lovely to be awake when your Sunday post drops! I feel as if I’m reading in silence. In the moment, all I want to do is thank you. For the gift of your work, all of it. You are a gift of authenticity and joy and pleasure to read and contemplate. As you slide into the home plate of your show, enjoy the hell out of the process. You will be a home run!
Much love,
Sliding into the home plate of your show . I love that Sandra . You said it so well . This Sunday missive is a balm to my soul this morning for me as well .
I remember that moment in foster care as a teen watching my foster mom ask for a receipt in triplicate to submit to the welfare office for a refund. I began putting a price on every moment. How much did it cost to take a bath, eat a meal, simply breathe. Was I worth it? My foster father had an old set of paints in their den which he said I could use and I began to paint an image on a gessoed board. Eyes a mouth a nose afloat in a dark triangle of questions. It was the beginning of a lifetime of painting and drawing and writing all the deepest and darkest and yes often joyous questions I had about life. Drawing begins with a chosen point of departure and then descends into the psyche. Where I swim with my oldest questions. In my experience the judge of their worth is time. It’s not our job to know the value. Only to make while we can from the gift of our life. Reading your Atlantic profile was very moving. Because I can relate tho your internal journey though our circumstances are different. And that to me is the miracle of art.
❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for sharing this💙🌿
Suleika, thank you for sharing your creative struggles and your methods for working through them. So often we see only the stunning end results, but knowing what it took to get there adds another layer. It’s also helpful to learn and take inspiration from. When I’m stuck in a piece of writing and at the point of overworking it I’ve learned to step away for a few days. I think of it like stirring up a pond and making it muddy. You have to let the dirt settle to the bottom to see clearly again. By the way, your Atlantic profile was beyond. So powerful and beautiful.
Love this pond metaphor, Abby! ❤️
Good morning! I so enjoy watching you describe your process. It’s visceral and raw, dreamy and generous. So excited for your opening soon as well. I’m thoroughly enjoying the comic/artist too! Reminds me of Allie Brosh. So playful and dark, heartbreaking and funny. I sense the emotional travels of creating art—the process— IS part of the composition itself. Maybe it’s what separates artists from factory produced creations or AI of the future? I mean to say, would we have life and art experienced any other way? Illness and pain sucks. Yes. And yet, here we all are creating through as artists always have. Something to ponder I suppose. Love to you and the fam. Paws up! Let’s keep going! ♥️💫🐶🐾🌷💖💫👩🎨🎨
Let's keep going! ❤️❤️❤️
Yes! Let’s! ♥️♥️♥️
Thank you for these weekly reflections and prompts. I was gratified that you likened an MRI to an avant-garde nightclub. I had one this week. When the test started, I nearly laughed out loud; I had a first row seat at a world premiere avant-garde symphony! That perspective made the experience much more interesting and enjoyable.
This makes my heart sing! ❤️
Seattle 1978 and wondering if I should move back east where my family lives.
Throw coins to the I Ching ( Did I know at 23 how to do that really?)
Interpret the I Ching
“Your home is where your body is.”
I moved back to East Coast, Northampton specifically, which at the time felt like Seattle.
Have moved lots more always now home in my body wherever I am.
And Suleika and all-how do we ever know our work is finished?
Ah the I Ching! My early 20’s compass and like you I wonder, did I know how to utilize the I Ching? I was looking for any form of direction as I roamed the US.
I guess the I Ching is designed for us to interpret as we apparently did and look how we turned out!
Wonderful. A new challenge I can work from home. Sharpen the pencils. Cartoons will come.
Shingles! On top of everything? I had shingles when I was on staff at the NYT and it was incredibly painful. (My doctor asked me, “Are you under any kind of stress?” I burst out laughing, because my life at the time was 100% stress.) You are superwoman, truly. Sending retroactive calamine lotion.
Got to respect the message Shingles sends. It was my parting gift as I retired (on half of my face!!!!)
Still learning to not overdo!
Ooooo, that had to hurt!
Sorry to hear you’ve had shingles. My husband had them twice and I have several friends who have had them. I haven’t had them, but I know they are painful from being with my husband and friends who have had them.
It feels like you are lying on needles. Thanks - I know I’m not alone!
I was traveling the east coast after I left college (earlier than my parents had hoped) visiting all my new friends from the “university without walls” (I chose my school based on a Saturday review article of that title). I roamed from Chicago where my disappointed parents were, to Vermont, Rhode Island, NYC, DC and while visiting RI my friend who was looking for a new rental as her lease was up., I decided to search with her. We looked at all the little beach cottages and the few year round rentals available and when we toured a 2 bedroom house 🏡 and we both liked it so I decided to move to this house in RI and begin to put down some loose roots. I moved to Vermont for a year and lived a few other places but RI kept drawing me back energetically and I’ve sunk in deep roots now fifty years in the making.
I love RI.
I read somewhere the other day that the word "painting" is best when considered a verb rather than a noun because it puts emphasis on the process of creating rather than the end product. It made me think a lot about how the process itself is the art.
I also saw the Yoko Ono exhibition at the Tate Modern in February and I adored how she displayed creative prompts as artworks, allowing the viewer to imagine for themselves what the art could be, bringing ourselves to the work and no doubt imagining entirely different things. My mother is a painter and a hugely talented one at that. I used to think it was really sad that she'd paint these massive, stunning canvases and then just store them away. But she doesn't seem to care. She says it's the act of painting she loves - people seeing/buying her work is just a bonus.
For me, each creation feels like one of my children. I raise them into being and then release them into the world in the hope that people will receive them with care and love. I love the idea of them growing beyond me and I can't quite imagine ever being happy with just hiding them away.
All that is to say, there's no wrong way or right way to create and release. We all just have to do what feels good for us when it feels good for us. The process, however, is always the most important and fulfilling part, i think. xx
"All that is to say, there's no wrong way or right way to create and release. We all just have to do what feels good for us when it feels good for us. The process, however, is always the most important and fulfilling part, i think" Love this so much. ❤️
My sister is an incredibly talented artist and like your mother, she doesn’t sell her work. She has given some of her oil paintings as gifts, some hang in her home, and one is in the art gallery that led to our father’s office suite. But the amount she has in storage? She says she loves painting for the pleasure it brings to her.
I think my Mum would love to sell more often but she never really puts herself out there. I made her a website about a year ago (https://diannesweet.com/) and hoped she'd build on it but, even though I'm a little disappointed she hasn't, I do admire her for painting simply for the love of it.
I'd love to see your sister's work. Is there anywhere I can find it? x
Is there anyway you could share some of your mom’s work with me? I wish I could show you my sister’s work, but the only piece she has hanging in public is in the art gallery that led into our father’s private suite of his offices. (He was a CEO and had professional paintings in an art gallery that led into his area in the building.) My sister’s piece is just as well done as the numerous professionals paintings that hang in that art gallery. One of my college friends who double-majored, one of her majors being art history, has seen my sister’s work and couldn’t believe that she didn’t sell them. Perhaps she is a lot like your mom in this way? I will never forget when Therese (my friend) picked up one of my sister’s oil paintings of Jesus Christ and told me it was the best painting of him that she had ever seen. She literallt said those words. I showed her all of my sister’s work that was stored at my parents’ home at that time and she loved all of it. One of my favorites is a charcoal self-portrait which she had to do of herself in college. It looks so much like her, that it gives me goosebumps whenever I see it.
My maternal grandmother was an artist. Before I was born, she was doing statues. After she took them out of the kiln, she would paint them so beautifully. I have two of the women statues she did of them in a different era. She did many, but she did an entire set of the characters in the manger and you would have thought a professional had done them. She gave them to mom years before I was born. (I am one of the yougest of a large family.) One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting down together, with our mom handing each piece to us, securely wrapped for the season, and we’d look at each other to see which person or animal we opened that year. It wasn’t until her elderly years when my grandma joined the Senior Citizens Center that she began to do oil painting scenes. I had one hanging in my home for years. She was amazing as well!
I, on the other, hand, am not gifted in this manner. I have other gifts, as we all do, but I can’t draw or paint to save my life. My freshman year of college I signed up for an oil painting class. (We had to take a minimum of two art classes no matter what our major as I went to a Liberal Arts college.) I was horrfied by my first piece. It was a Still LIfe of a vase of flowers. After our paintings were finished, we had to critique one another’s work. Imagine how horrfied I was as there were Art Majors in this class!!! Thank God one nice Art Major said he liked my earth tones. The next morning I went into my advisor’s office and told her that she had to get me out of that class. She looked at me and gently said, “Susan, we all have gifts in life.” I immediately replied, “Yes, we do! But my gifts are not in my hands in painting or drawing! Please get me out of this class!!!” She did and I took and finished a ceramics course. No, I didn’t look like a master at that pottery wheel; far from it. But I completed the class and my dad actually put one of my pieces in his office amongst professional pieces of pottery, statues, etc. When the architecture of their new building told me how beautiful my vase was, I literally smirked at him and said, “You are being far too kind, as the only reason it is there is because I am my father’s daughter.” You have to keep your sense of humor in life, right? ;-)
Yes, I have gifts, but not in my hands for painting or drawing. But I do love and appreciate artwork! I love museums, local art fairs, you name it. Again, if you can share any of your mom’s artwork with me, I woud love it! If I am able to get any of my sister’s, I will do likewise.
Love what you wrote about your children. We only have the one and he just stepped out of college and in to his career path. And has found love too. It is a delight to see them
Thrive
I don't actually have any real children (yet) so, for now, my creative projects are my only kids ☺️. But I do always wonder if i I've made them robust enough to handle what the world might throw at them and whether learning to deal with that fear might be good practice for eventually having to deal with it when it comes to my children (although that will be a million times more intense, no doubt!).
I'm so happy your son has found love and joy in his work. It's means so much at that age, doesn't it, and I bet you're beyond proud. x
And congrats on Brit list!
As my son’s friend once said, Duh, Mrs Mages. (He was six) I re read it! Sounds like you are infusing your creations with a healthy dollop of grit and resilience❤️
Dear Erin, those sketches of life's experiences are absolutely bad ass. 6 degrees of separation on steroids. I am especially fond of the image of mommy dancin+smokin on the couch/table.
And hey Susu, just so we are clear, I am confident those paintings that are spawning from your life's unique experiences are likely to be priceless and if you can possibly just part with just one of them, I'll pay in gold or bit or even hamburgers....................goodmorningAmerica
Payment in hamburgers! Now that's something...
1) after college i wanted to do work related to the cause of the hour -- 'world hunger' -- so i
got a job as researcher at oxfam.
2) one day (as stories go) a woman my age come to give a talk about a small community project in a remote area of chile where she was living.
3) she begged me to come and stay at her farm and do whatever i fancied.
4) two months later, speaking no spanish, i arrived at her door.
5) she gave me a list of all of the places i needed to see before my visa expired.
6) one place was a national park in a remote area of southern patagonia that took me 3 days to get to, including hitchhiking a long ride in the back of a pickup truck with wall-to-wall sheep.
7) i was smitten by this park and knew i had to work there.
8) a park ranger told me about a wildlife research project overseen by a professor in the US.
9) i called the professor as soon as i got home and he agreed to let me to work on the project.
10) i returned to the park a few months later and stayed for a year and a half, fulfilling my childhood fantasy to be Jane Goodall when i grew up.
11) after i left, i went to graduate school in wildlife ecology.
12) i did my field work in chile, studying water contamination from copper mining.
13) for almost 40 years, chile has been my home away from home.
14) i translate and edit books about nature, wildlife, and conservation in chile.
15) and it's all because i worked at oxfam...and met a visitor...who begged me to go there...and told me to visit this park.
16) this i know: serendipity runs the show.
What an incredible story! ❤️
OMG!! I love this story!! How beautiful that she begged you to visit, that you listened! Then you kept listening and following your heart, your interests, and your desires. It's led to such important, life-changing experiences for you, and I am sure, all the people and nature you impact.
I’m sad to hear your memory of your Portland appearance is so negative. I’m the speechwriter who told you what a fabulous job you did that day. In fact, your speech was the only bright spot on a day when we learned my wife’s cancer had returned. And your kind comments on the difficulty of my role as her caregiver helped sustain me in the months that followed. Your Portland speech was a triumph!
Wow, talk about synchronicity! I had a feeling reading Suleika's memory of her speech that it was probably brilliant, but how would she know? And here is Fred, telling us the multiple gifts she gave!
This full circle moment is breathtaking, and a beautiful reminder to hold lightly the harshest voice in our heads. It reminds me of Irvin Yalom's book "Every Day Gets a Little Closer." He discovers that the sessions he felt least competent in were the greatest gifts to his patient, because of the little kindnesses he extended during it.
Fred! It is so kind of you to post and say this. I'm so glad to hear my speech was a bright spot for you. ❤️