Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Holy Spirit painting at Garcia Wedding


Holy Spirit painting at Garcia Wedding
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

One of my paintings was used in a local wedding where my wife was the floral designer. I think it complimented the design quite well :)

homemade cards


homemade cards
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

Did you get one? I made them kind of late in the game but needed the creative distraction. Happy (belated) Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 13, 2010

wreath 3


wreath 3
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

The adoptive families in our clinic created wreaths as a family art project. Very unique and beautiful artwork to hang around the clinic.

Rose graffiti


Rose graffiti
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

Here's a new screen shot from my even newer flickr group called "My phone is my canvas." I change the screen a couple times a week so thought I should post them online for posterity.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Happy Holidays


Happy Holidays
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

Started a new group over at Flickr.com called "My Phone is My Canvas." I have this habit of changing my home screen almost daily. This graphic is the latest. Click on it to see them all. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Snowflake 2 - handmade card


Snowflake 2 - handmade card
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

Well the holidays are here...ready or not? I have a hard time getting ready for them. I guess I need to put more "fun" into the dysFUNction. Anyway, happy holidays to all!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Dirty laptop


Dirty laptop
Originally uploaded by pr3ttyUgly

I can't say that I have made a full commitment to this crazy event but I am at least in the shallow end - on the first step. Here's what I am talking/writing about:

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2009, we had over 165,000 participants. More than 30,000 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Monday, October 4, 2010

Open Studio

Join me for Open Studio's - the premiere artist event in San Luis Obispo county where artists open their studios to you!


Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Magic Studio

This is a video by Robert Burridge (http://robertburridge.com). I can't say I have had many mentors in the art world but Robert is someone I tried to emulate and his ideas about color theory have revolutionized my design. Here he talks about the "Magic Studio" where he shares his philosophy about art and how a true artist thinks.

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Wine Experiencia Event

Come out and join me at the Wine Experiencia event to support the restoration of the San Miquel Mission. I will be donating two pieces of art work and selling some more! Get details here: http://www.missionsanmiguel.org/events
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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Cruciform Shapes


7 Up
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

The cross or cruciform design is a classic element in art. I have used it several times to convey various spiritual themes. Click the following link to see more examples in my artwork: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rehuxley/sets/72157606171976169/

Saturday, August 14, 2010

healersprayer


healersprayer
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

This is an old bit of art from an altered book that I never finished. I still love this prayer and try to live by it as much as I can.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Alerted disk cases- Miracle


Alerted disk cases- miracle
Originally uploaded by rehuxley

I have had these "ancient" 3.5 computer disk cases lying around in my closet for a long time. I couldn't throw them away because I knew I would do something artsy with them. Well, I finally did. Click the picture to view more...

Friday, July 30, 2010

Art Donation to Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)

I recently made a donation of one of my paintings to a local organization called CASA. They help court dependent children navigate through the system and make reports to the courts on the needs of hurting kids. I have donated some of my time to help them interview potential staff and regularily attend county meetings with their team members. There will be an Art Reception for all the artists that donated to them. See the graphic below for more information and come out and support us all:


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Monday, June 14, 2010

ATC: Story of the Kings and Queens



This set of Artist Trading Cards is a fictional lineage of royalty over time, from barbarian kingdoms to industrial revolution. You complete the plot lines...

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Almost 1400 Members in the #flickr Ephemera Group

Do you love ephemera? Join us in are quickly growing flickr group...
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Save the Date for Open Studios 2010

I will be participating in this years Open Studios. This is an annual event where artists open their studios to the public to view their artwork. I will be hanging my art at the Kinship Center at 71 N. Main Street, Templeton California.
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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Why Poetry Matters

Poetry matters because it gives the heart a way to express its deep reservoir of emotions.
This act gives the heart permission to grow and heal. This is the essence of mental health:
To allow the heart, heartfelt expression. The heart is not concerned with answers to problems.
It wants resonation and understanding with another human being to bear life’s problems.

Without a voice, the heart feels lifeless, like a “barren field frozen with snow” (Langston Hughes).
These emotions might include romantic feelings of love or give birth to painful grief. Emily Dickinson
comments on the hearts scrutiny of loss in her poem I measure every Grief I meet:

I measure every Grief I meet
With narrow , probing, Eyes -
I wonder if It weighs like Mine -
Or has an easier size.

Here is one poet’s attempt to share a deep emotion common to the human condition. Emily Dickinson was not the only person to have experienced this examination of loss. As a reader of the poem, it may resonate with others who have had similar experiences. This connection between writer and reader allows healing or what therapists call “acceptance.” Letting these deep emotions go in a healthy way, increases the quality of life. Leaving them stuck inside results in more suffering. The same is true of positive emotions such as love or joy. Emotions don’t want to stay buried. When the heart is full of joy, it feels like it will burst if isn’t shared. News of a job promotion drives you to tell a spouse or close friend at the earliest opportunity. The birth of a baby demands announcement to all family members. These are everyday examples of a basic, underlying need for the heart to speak. Poetic speech is perhaps, the highest form of this expression.

Poetry can capture an emotion from the past as well. William Carlos Williams’ poem The Red Wheelbarrow demonstrates the entrancement of the heart through the mere observation of a child’s toy:

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens

Such simple lines can make one feel alive again, like a child. It brings up all the memories of the past and allows one to accept them, dark or light. For that brief moment where the image of the wheelbarrow engrosses the mind, life is restored. This is not a part of conscious thought or logical concepts that one can control by sheer act of will. It is a matter of the heart. More specifically, it is the language of the heart that enables one to embrace the mysteries of life, not achieve its mastery.

Poetry can also remind one of the beauty in everyday life as in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem Spring:

Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
Poetry has been a “Spring” in the middle of many Winters.

This surprise of a Spring in our Winter moments can cause the heart to blossom. Poetry gives new life and warmth to a heart that aches from the coldness of life. In the face of dark times, “hope springs eternal” through poetic words.

Of course, many people find ways to give the heart voice without any real admiration for poetry. They wrongly believe they couldn’t write a poem if they had to. Writing poetry, like any healing effort, takes hard work. To makes matters worse (or better depending on how you see it) a million dollar greeting card industry makes it so people don’t have to be a poet to express a sentiment of the heart. This still verifies the need of the heart to find its voice. An anniversary or birthday seems incomplete without a trip to the store to pour over dozens of pre-written cards to find just right one that captures the hearts intent. Hazrat Inayat Khan, the philosopher, knew this truth long before greeting cards arrived in the marketplace, when he wrote: “Poetry came before language. It was the poetic spirit in man that made language.” In Western society, we see it the other way around. Consequently we get tied up in formulas for success and strive to manage our health care system in order to get a return on investment. While our ability to function may stabilize, many people experience an ongoing sense of alienation. We have a primal need to connect poetically to others and the world around us.

This language of the heart is not reserved just for human beings. It has a Spiritual ingredient as well. Call this your higher power or Christ or whatever, but mankind looks for a Spiritual connection to explain the unexplainable mysteries of life and death. Poetry is part of this spiritual/heart language.

The mystical poet, Rumi, illustrates it this way:

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.

Additionally, when the Psalmist of the Bible says that “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” he is expressing a deep need for connection to something bigger and more powerful than himself. This is perhaps one of the best-known psalms because it resonates with a feeling of the need for a divine caretaker in the lives of hurting people through the ages.

All of these examples reference a path for mental health that is often the “road less taken” (Robert Frost). The heart is at the core of mental health and poetry is one “way [that] leads one to way” and for those that follow this path, it is one that may make all the difference.

Poetry is comfort for the suicidal teen. It is hope to the newly divorced mother of three. It is the answer to the man in mid-life crisis. It is the adoptive child’s promise of a forever family. The poetic therapist can use words ancient and modern to help hearts find their voice. Even with the constraints of a managed care system, mental health practitioners can use poetry as a “talking cure” that creates a new narrative to life. Poetic expression opens up new possibilities and unique outcomes by offering the heart a new way to open up, grow and heal.

For an individual suffering a malady, Poetry helps her/him move through dark places. As Wendell Berry wrote: To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms, and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. Poetry allows hurting souls to nurture themselves and heal. The healing is not quick, no matter what managed care systems believe. What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it (Antoine de Saint-Exupery). Poetry lends a hand to these steps as reflected in the Japanese poem by Kojiju:

Merely to know
The Flawless Moon dwells pure
In the human heart
Is to find the Darkness of the night
Vanished under clearing skies.

This Flawless Moon of poetry shines in the human heart and connects us to one another, beauty, and to the Spiritual.

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Friday, April 23, 2010

Join the Craft Corps today

I think I may NEED this book...
clipped from vickiehowell.com

CraftCorpsInspired by NPR’s Story Corps (an audio project collecting people’s stories and archiving them for posterity), Craft Corps the book will be community, our community, celebrated on the written page. The book will focus on my conversations with 30 influential designers:

CraftCorps

  • Amy Butler (Amy Butler Designs)



  • Traci Bautista (Collage Unleashed)



  • Wendy Russell (She’s Crafty)



  • Travis Nichols (Artist/Author)



  • Carol Duvall (Carol Duvall Show)



  • Ed Roth (Stencil 1)



  • Jennifer Perkins (Craft Lab/NSC)



  • Mark Montano (TLC’s While Your Were Out)



  • Claudine Hellmuth (CollageArtist.com)



  • Amanda Soule (SoulMama.com)


  • To quote Oprah, “everyone has a story”, and Craft Corps will share some of ours/yours with the world!
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