My rituals and spirituality keep me nurtured. My family keeps me cocooned, safe and loved. As always in the dark nights of the soul,  the light comes through, reminding me that there is balance and that fears will always be there, but it is the moving forward in those fears that the courage comes.

Love is the strongest engine of survival, life’s calling and I’m moving forward with the light of courage.

Peace to you and yours.

(“Life’s Calling” Collage/Paper-5″x7″ - ©2012 Indigene Theresa Gaskin)

The Highs and Lows of my 2011 year:

1.) I RESOLVE TO PROMOTE MYSELF SHAMELESSLY.  (Those of you who read my blogs, encountered me on Facebook and Twitter know this is true! :) I also handed out many business cards and postcards during 2011.

2.) I RESOLVE TO CULTIVATE A GREAT WEBSITE. Well, it’s great website to me! My wonderful webmaster son and I spent an enormous amount of time on it, updating it!

(© 2011 Indigene Theresa Gaskin – Frontview of my 2011 journals).

3.) I RESOLVE TO CONTINUE OPERATING WITH COMPLETE INTEGRITY.  This was done a 100% of the time and gave me great satisfaction, since this is one of my values, to act and serve with integrity!

4.) I RESOLVE TO CONTINUE EDUCATING MYSELF IN THE BUSINESS OF ART. I did this through workshops on and off-line! I made it through 9 workshops this year and in the midst of completing the last one now! I’ve read over (120) books this year, with thirty (30) of them being about art business and marketing (My bookstore receipts state I’ve purchased about 250 books, I still haven’t read them all yet)!

5.) I RESOLVE TO CONTINUE CONNECTING WITH OTHERS AND SHARE INFORMATION. I joined a guild and participated in meetings and continue to mentor others.  This was really big for me, since I am incredibly introverted and enjoy my solitude greatly!  These were all the resolutions I made in the new year of 2011 : (See http://indigeneart.com/happy-new-year-happy-birthday-to-me/)

Additional highlights included winning an award in arts and culture and participating in (2) Art Fairs!

So I feel so incredibly wonderful that I accomplished all my resolutions and lived in true abundance that I gained this year.

(© 2011 Indigene Theresa Gaskin – sideview of all my journals completed in from 2011)

Wonderful highs, also come with lows. The lowest points of 2011 and which will make 2011, unforgettable is that I lost my Mom (August 22) and my sister, Renee (June 27). I can honestly say that I have been in the abyss and on the mountaintop in 2011. I was blessed with the abundance of kindness from strangers and family. The outpouring of love from my internet friends still continue to overwhelm me and kept me held in the abundance of hope and warmth.  I learned so much from this heartbreaking ordeal and I still continue to learn from it. I realized what true friendship meant during this time.

So, 2011 brought me a fire of grief, a rainstorm of love and true growth and will never, ever be forgotten by me.

So with the old year, only a few hours left, I wish you all a very, wonderful, peaceful, spectacular, loving, prosperous, healthy and loving New Year!

I will see you in the New Year, with my intentions and resolutions and I hope to see yours as well! :) Peace to you and yours.

Breakout, the wine, food, flowers, music and love! I’m celebrating!!!

I have a brigade (the Home Love Brigade), aka “My peeps, my tribe, my love buckets, my family” and the nick names go on and on. No matter how I’m feeling or who I’m yelling at, my brigade is my stronghold.  They love me fiercely and I them! :)

The last few weeks were extremely busy, holiday stuff, school work, household junk, workshops, sales, art fair preparations, holiday studio tour preparation, marketing and creating (my only grip on sanity)!!

My brigade has been there through the thick (which is me) and the thin (my patience)! But, they still love and support me! So this is my special way of giving them a shout out and absolutely begging them to continue…:)

(c. Indigene T. Gaskin – “Food Celebration” – 10″x10″, Mixed Media/Paper)

So meet the Home Love Brigade:

Jon: Commando, BBQ-Meister, Security, Confidante, Framer, Baker,  Kindest man in the whole world and my Go-To Snuggler!

No. 1 – Radical Son: Web Meister, Great Cook, Creative Buddy, Listening Ear, I have to beg to snuggle him and who now can say no to me, with no repercussions (except Mom-guilt, it still works)!!!

The Baby:  The Love Bucket, Assistant Baker, Chief Eye-roller to certain demands of mine; Major Art Fair Helper; aka: “messy-haired girl” and a sweet snuggler!

I love and have absolutely the best brigade in the world!!! (Uh, love brigade, you are going to be helping at the next two events, right?!) :)

Loving your people, makes life pretty spectacular!

In peace to you and yours!

P.S. I am so in the dog house for putting their pixs on my blog! It’s holiday time, maybe they’ll forgive me…again?!

Attending workshops, creating new work, gearing up for my  Holiday Studio Tour, conference calls, video summits and taking care of my daily business routines!

I’ve also spent some incredible time with new friends and old friends, (Thank you, awesome goddesses, you know who you are); which always fills me with love and adrenaline…:)

My thoughts have been scattered, but focused…is that possible, you ask? Yes, because these scattered thoughts and actions are an abundance of energy, that I believe are coming together, to bring another dimension to my life, creating richer experiences for me. They are only scattered, in the sense that I’m snatching time from here and there, because I want it all (insert, Vincent Price loud laugh here)!

I want to do so much and every waking moment is filled with something I love and need to get done, but at the same time, I’m savoring every nano-second and loving it! Now, how’s that for scattered thoughts and feelings?! :)

Every day, I miss my Mom and my sister, Renee, but I remember their beautiful spirits and then I live…in all my moments!

Savor your scattered moments, they have a place in your life, too.

In peace to you and yours.

(Image: collaged page from my “Creative Entrepreneur Business Journal”, Date: Friday, Oct.14, 2011)

P.S. I didn’t have time to edit this, so pardon any typos or scattered thought processes (insert more Vincent Price laughter!)

Night Flower

Since August 22, 2011, at 9:30PM, I am  disguised…Mum died.

I appear strong to my family, I thanked people who gave me their sincere condolences.  “Not now, maybe later” is what I’ve said, to the many well-meaning offers of support.  I have nodded my head appropriately in conversations, completed household routines, consoled my children and clung to my husband.

I am a dependable, responsible and strong daughter, a calm sister and a quiet mother.  I keep my disguise intact.

Disguised this week, making the phone calls, finalizing information and writing Mommy’s obituary, (because my siblings think, I write better than them). Trying to capture a woman, “the Mommy”, who I was connected to from conception to the end of her life; the container of my childhood, my maiden years, parts of my mid-life, the starter of my creativity, the strength of my stubborn will, the fierceness of my independence, the sweetness of my caring and the sour of my temper.

But in the dark soul of every night since August 22, the disguise comes off… like some insidious poison, grief drips into my heart, gently at first, waking me from my tenuous sleep, as if someone is calling me sweetly from sleep.  This grief pummels me awake, until I’m finally sitting with my knees to my face.  A sharp sliver of anguish piercing my chest.  I cry hard and long, with bouts of inconsolable anger, ill-formed regrets and wracked with confusion, I pick up the phone, and call my mother’s home.  After several rings, her message comes on, “This is Gloria, I’m not home right now, would you please leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you.  Thank you and have a good day.” I leave a message, “Mommy, I need you, call me back, I miss you.” I realize, just how corrosive grief is, at night.   Like some dark, insidious poison, it drips into my heart so gently, it goes unnoticed during the day. In the morning, the disguise comes back.

I will work every day, because routines and rituals help keep me sane and thriving.   I put pencil to paper, paint to canvas, my hands are in the habit and my mind pushes for it.   My heart is broken.

I am more determined now, than ever to continue a artful legacy, my Mum gave it to me…a love of creating.   It is the one thing, in this ending that I can begin anew…my art.   It is the thing that goes on with or without a disguise. Thank you, Mommy.

It is morning, I wish peace to you and yours.

P.S. My mother loved flowers, birds, all things of nature.  I generally do not create flowers, every time I have, it’s been with her in mind.

“Night Flower” 9.5″ x 8″ Pastel/Paper

It’s not something that I can articulate well at this point, and maybe I never will.

(“Mind Body & Spirit” – Mixed Media/Paper)

My sweet little sister, Renee is in hospice, that is really all I can say now. My dreams are filled with surrender, an outpouring of love and a deep hole of sadness. So on these midsummer nights, I try to understand, believe and sustain faith. May the God you believe in, give you the peace of mind, that can surround the body, so that the soul may be released. Blessings to you and yours.

]]> http://indigeneart.com/midsummer-nights-of-mind-body-spirit/feed/ 16 http://indigeneart.com/shadow-of-her-former-self/ http://indigeneart.com/shadow-of-her-former-self/#comments Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:01:29 +0000 Indigene http://indigeneart.com/?p=1956

Soaking up this beautiful weather, communing with nature, chatting with friends, loving family, laughing, being shamelessly silly and truly understanding how life is so precious, always puts me in a pondering mode.

(Work In Progress- April 25, 2011-SEE COMPLETED PAINTING BELOW)

I’m currently pondering on…

Creating starts  with shadows, some darker than others, with more and more substance added and once the shadows have become a thing of substance, color invades it from all angles.

Like our earth.

Maybe that’s really the big bang theory, or is it what God created from the shadows, what is now our earth; no matter what you believe,  something started it off.

Is that what it will take to save the earth from the onslaught of humankind’s continual draining of her resources? An intervention is inevitable. She is a shadow of her former self…Save her…save us.

(COMPLETED WORK)

“Saving Me, Saves Us“

(24″ x 18″ – Mixed Media/Paper)

Enjoy what has been given freely…the earth.

Peace to you and yours.

]]> http://indigeneart.com/shadow-of-her-former-self/feed/ 12 http://indigeneart.com/honor-the-women-in-your-life/ http://indigeneart.com/honor-the-women-in-your-life/#comments Sat, 23 Apr 2011 04:13:04 +0000 Indigene http://indigeneart.com/?p=1918 For those of you who are blessed to have your mother, May 8th, is a day that is recognized to honor her. if you are like most, you honor this woman every day of her life, by living your life in a way, that she would want you to.

For those of us, whose mothers have transitioned out of this life, this can be a bittersweet day. We remember her with love, and then remember, that she is no longer with us. We continue her legacy by living our lives with integrity and the lessons she taught us.

Some of us may not have any of those memories above. You may be one of those courageous women, who did it alone, then you are to be celebrated too!

Maybe your memories are not tempered with love, maybe that mother figure was not what you would have liked; hopefully, there is a woman, that gave you some semblance of a Mom.

Hopefully, in most of our lives, we have met a woman, who has embodied that “mother” figure. She has nurtured us, cheered us on, when we needed it most, told us about ourselves when we were acting less than we were, she may be your best friend, a girl friend at work who taught you something that one else could or would take the time to!

I don’t think of Mother’s Day as the only day to honor my mother or the other women in my life, but it is a day, that can be used to remember all the other women in my life who have given me their “mothering ways”; the ones, that I might forget in the hectic thing, I call my life, it is these women, I honor on Mother’s Day, because, my Mom tells me I honor her everyday, so she would prefer that I honor all the women in my life who have been there for me as well!

So I encourage you to do that on this upcoming Mother’s Day. Honor the Women in Your Life. A special call, a card, take her out to breakfast, a gift, an “I love you for who you are”. Give her a token of your love. As women, we treasure those things, because the words and the action are important.

May you continue to honor the women in your life, wherever they are.

My art work is created and based on honoring all women, from various cultures, traditions, myths and spirituality.

For prints or cards, order by April 30th the latest for Mother’s Day at:

indigene-theresa-gaskin.fineartamerica.com

In peace from me to you.

Make all your journeys count, because in life, destination always looms big before you.

May all your journeys lead you to your ultimate self actualization.

Peace to you and yours.

No illustration or painting can stand up against my beautiful creation except her brother, my first beautiful creation!

This Saturday is strictly family time, I’m hoping for a few good snuggles…:)

Happy Saturday!

Be with the ones you love, if not call them!

Peace to you and yours!