Motherhood is a significant and transforming process, rather than a singular event. It is somewhat like becoming an artist: we improve with experience and by trusting and following our natural instincts. The experience of motherhood is so rich it brings significance to all of us. Each of us has to invent mothering for herself and reinvent it over and over as we move forward through it.
Women are, by nature, creators. We create children within our bodies; homes with our hearts, freedom of spirit with our minds. As women artists, we create artwork with our hands from our hearts.
Motherhood is a life-style change. Time becomes precious–almost sacred; thought becomes fragmented. The changes in my life manifested in my work: designs that had previously moved throughout the entire piece became as segmented as my time.
The needs of our children are immediate. Hugs to share, a story to read and questions to answer won’t wait while tiles are carved.
As the children grow, their needs don’t diminish; they evolve. As I write this, my teenage daughters are engaged in their assorted activities; they are emerging as incredible young women with gifts that are their own. It truly doesn’t get much better than this.
By fromskilledhands (
May 27, 2007 at 2:05 pm)
· Filed under Art, creativity
For the past 6 or 7 years, I have had the incredible opportunity to participate in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Parade the Circle. This colorful celebration of the arts is a spectacular event, with stilt dancers, people powered floats, giant puppets, steel drum bands and more.
I have had the honor of sharing this process with my 15 and a half year old daughter, who is an amazing and talented young woman, artist and stilt dancer. She has developed the concepts for our ensembles and has designed. batiked and sewn our costumes. She has refined her stilt dancing and performing skills, and is now teaching others as an intern during the Museum’s workshops
My daughter once wrote that she started out wanting to learn how to walk on stilts, and that she did learn that skill. She also discovered that she has the power to accomplish her goals and to help others to try new things. Meeting artists and musicians from all over the world and working with a diverse group of community members, she has learned that the arts transcend differences. These are life skills; the ones that are ours forever. The ones that we bring with us wherever we go.
This year’s Parade will be Saturday, June 9, from 11am-7pm, in Cleveland’s University Circle. I hope you’ll come. I guarantee you won’t regret it.
By fromskilledhands (
May 24, 2007 at 11:34 am)
· Filed under Kids' Sets
Visitors to our home have the opportunity to choose whom they want to be when they drink a cup of coffee or tea. We have mugs for Aiden, Cassie, Emran, Eva, Mary, Jason, Helena. Claire and assorted others. If the color isn’t quite right, or if we have been given the incorrect birth date or spelling, the mug generally finds it’s way to my kitchen. So this morning, I was Helena. It’s just that kind of day.
By fromskilledhands (
May 24, 2007 at 10:57 am)
· Filed under creativity
As I walked the dogs and one of the cats in the woods this morning, I was astounded by the lush beauty of nature. The delicate beauty of the Bluets, the soft greens of the dense moss and the amazing height of the Jacks-in-the-Pulpits. Just a week ago, the leaves were suggestions of green. Today they are open, inviting us into the cool shade of their canopy.
It occurs to me that this planet is an incredibly abundant place. Nature’s creativity is all around us. All we need to do it look.
By fromskilledhands (
May 18, 2007 at 10:21 pm)
· Filed under Clay
I love porcelain clay. I love everything about it. I love the delicate smooth quality of it and how it requires that I pay attention. I love that it doesn’t let me hide; every finger and nail mark is right there. These are the marks of the craftsman; they show you the item was made by a person rather than a machine.
Working with porcelain is kind of like working with Philadelphia cream cheese as a canvas. You have to wait for just the right balance between wet and dry; an exercise in attentiveness. It’s a useful thing thing to work on.
By fromskilledhands (
May 13, 2007 at 12:00 pm)
· Filed under Uncategorized
Today, at 1:00pm, I will go to Wade Oval in Cleveland’s beautiful University Circle, and stand quietly for 5 minutes. I will be joining women all over the world in bearing witness for change. I will stand for peace, for non-violence and for loving acceptance of the beauty of the Universe. I’ll let you know how it goes.
By fromskilledhands (
May 9, 2007 at 9:57 pm)
· Filed under Uncategorized
When my children were small I often told them that it was important to listen –that sometimes the quietest people have the most to say. I was struck by the power of this way of being when I came across the Standing Women site. The power is in the silence. Check out this You Tube video from standingwomen.org
By fromskilledhands (
May 6, 2007 at 5:17 pm)
· Filed under here and now
Our children are computer natives; we, however, are immigrants. Here in a new land, one that is populated with widgets and gizmos and gadgets. One with new languages and codes. I remember writing in code: it was a secret. The message was written on paper in lemon juice. The only way to read the message was to hold the paper up to a heat source,and voila! The message magically appeared.
Today’s codes seem secret to me, but they are really accessible. And with time, lots of time, and the patience of my friends, they slowly make sense. The children, however, just seem to “get it.”
Several years ago, I asked our daughter how she knew how to complete a task on the computer. “Mom,” she drawled, “I just knew.”
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