What is it about red shoes? Hans Christian Anderson's girl couldn't stop dancing in them, I can't stop drawing them....

Lots of interesting things happened this week. I accepted a new job, I helped my co-workers meet a frantic deadline at my current job, I got my spare room ready for another teenager moving in, and I received my first check for my freelance illustration business. And I received a blog award (more about that in the next post.) So with all this is going on, what was most prominent thing on my mind? Red shoes. Or more specifically, drawing pictures of red shoes.

Which goes to show…. um....what does it go to show? It shows that apparently what is going on externally with me has very little connection to what is going on internally. On a whim, I did one picture of a me-like person wearing red heels and reading a book. Complete fantasy by the way. In real life I have a crippled toe joint and cannot even walk in high heels.

Then a friend asked me to do a picture of her wearing red shgoes, and another friend, Michael Ann Riley, mentioned Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz in her blog (http://thinkinginmyheadma.blogspot.com/), and I was off on a series.

I’ve always loved red shoes. Maybe it goes back to that spring day when I was four and we had just moved into our new house in the suburbs with the the giant back yard. I was in the back yard and through the chain link fence I saw a fascinating scene in the back yard next door. There was a tire swing hanging from a big maple tree and next to tire, there on the grass, I zeroed in on a pair of tiny red T-strap shoes. I wanted desperately to meet the girl who belonged to those shoes. 

The owner of the red shoes came to my door a short time later, holding her mother’s hand. Her name was Karen and she was three, a few months younger than me. We became the best of friends. But I never got shoes like hers. I colored all the shoes red in my coloring books and have loved red shoes ever since.

Recently, as I began drawing pictures on this theme, I remembered a story by Hans Christian Anderson called "The Red Shoes." I looked it up and read a translation of the original. The story is not quite as charming as the title would imply – more like a combination morality/horror tale. The red shoes of the title become the obsession of a little orphan girl (whose name, it turns out, is Karen) and she thinks about them when she should be thinking about church or being obedient to her guardian. The obsession gives life to the shoes and when the girl puts them on her feet they begin dancing and will not stop, with decidedly unpleasant results. Read it if you dare. Complete translations are in the public domain and available on the Internet.

There are some newer kinder versions of this story. One is The Red Shoes by Gloria Fowler and illustrated by Sun Yung Yoo and another is The Red Shoes by Barbara Bazilian. One reviewer, Donna L. Scanlon, says of Bazilian’s book, "Bazilian's tale bears so little resemblance to the original that one wonders why the reteller bothered to use it at all." I don’t wonder at this at all. I don’t think there is much of a market these days for books about a child getting her feet cut off by an executioner…..

Anyway, there is something magical and maybe a little decadent about red shoes, and they are a lot of fun to draw and paint. Here are some more pictures inspired by the theme…..

My favorite dress

Day at the art gallery

Dancer

Nourishing our creativity: A 12-step approach in The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

Nourishing the seeds of creativity

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron is a fantastic and inspiring book is about the things that block our creativity and specific techniques for freeing it up. Julia Cameron uses a model similar to 12-step drug and alcohol programs and in fact refers to her audience as “recovering artists.” Apparently we are recovering from the destructive patterns we have set up out of fear to avoid following our calling as artists. The chapters are set up as a progressive 12-step course, each setting up a problem and possible solutions, and ending with a set of specific assignments to help you master the concept and get your creativity flowing. For example, weeks one, two, and three are titled Recovering a Sense of Safety, Recovering a Sense of Identity, and Recovering a Sense of Power.

I did find many useful practices in this book, some of which I already do. For example, one of her linchpin techniques is to get up in the morning and write down your stream-of-conscious thoughts for three pages long hand. I don’t do this first thing, but I do it.

The first thing I do in the morning is make a pot of coffee. The second thing I do is exercise for at least 30 minutes, because that is the biggest pain and if I don’t get it over with first thing, I probably won’t do it at all. There are so many things the gurus want you to do first thing in the morning: write down your dreams, do your Bible study, write, walk your dog, kiss your significant other….but there is only one first in the morning and I use that time to brew coffee and maintain my body. I figure my body is my foundational tool for doing everything else for the duration of my stay on this planet, so I’d better keep it maintained.  Like paying my bills or getting the oil changed. Besides, I can thank God for another day and gather my thoughts while I work out.

Cameron says that we need to acknowledge, worship, and seek guidance from the God of Creation. She seems to assume that acknowledging a god is outside of her readers’ comfort zone. I gather this because she tells us she is not talking about the old Christian god, which presumably we’ve already rejected and grown beyond and are too sophisticated to believe in. She says it doesn’t much matter what you call the God of Creation, as long as you realize that he wants you to create and that if you follow your artistic desires you will be following him.

Well, I am not too sophisticated to believe in the old Christian God but I see her point. Often we do believe that God is this stern disapproving parent figure who wants us to shut up and do our duty and never to indulge ourselves by having fun or acting on our most cherished dreams. This view of God has more to do with our fear and social conditioning than with the nature of God. But I believe that it does matter very much what you call God. The Bible is all about identifying who this God is and what He is like and also what He is not. I also believe that is not only possible but quite common to have all manner of desires that are not within God’s will.

But if your desires are to use the gifts He has given you, and you honestly seek to be true to what you were created to be, then yes, ideally your desires would be in perfect accord with the desires of your Creator. That would the best possible life.

Cameron indicates that if you believe you are an artist by nature, meaning any kind of creative person – writer, painter, sculptor, film maker, etc. – then your art should be your highest priority, even if you have to sacrifice other things, such as time with your family. Again, I agree with this concept up to a certain point. Every choice you make eliminates other choices. Not that I can’t multitask. Today I actually drew illustrations while driving between errands. Please don’t report me! I only drew while stopped at traffic lights. I had to try out some new colors I just bought at Jerry’s Artarama.

 

 

But writing and art demand focus and attention and preclude spending your time on other things, such as socializing or keeping up with reality shows. There was a certain period in my life when I had to draw the line and decide to focus on something other than my creative desires. It was a long period, beginning with the birth of my first son 18.75 years ago and lasting until approximately now. The balance between raising children and pursuing one’s creative dreams and goals is a big huge subject for me that has dominated my life and thoughts for …well 18.75 years. That is a subject for another post.

Top 5 benefits you get from doing art and some new fall pictures

I love autumn – especially October, before the pressures of holiday prep begins (except for Halloween, but that doesn't count because prep is minimal in comparison with the other holidays). October is a time for idealizing the season, taking walks on cool crisp fragrant days, daydreaming, and absorbing the colors, and then coming home and trying to reproduce them in pictures.

My favorite Prismacolor marker colors for fall: sienna brown, dark umber, light vermillion, mahogany red, Tuscan red, light olive, tulip yellow, and scarlet lake. Acquiring art supplies is one of the great pleasures of doing art. One of many.

My top five benefits of doing art:

1. The feel of marker or pencil on the surface of good paper.
2. Those sensual and imaginative color names. As a child I loved the names of my Crayolas - Violet Red, Pine Green, Cornflower, Midnight Blue.... and now I love the names of my paints, pencils, and markers even more.
3. Getting in the "zone" and losing all track of time or sense of worry. You can also think of it as the state of being in moment.
4. Related to #3 but a little different: the flow of creativity when ideas for lines and shapes and colors follow each other and magically build into a picture that has never existed before.
5. The chance to share the result with others.

So now I will enjoy #5 and share a few of my newest pictures, inspired by my October walks....

Swirly leaves

Meeting a friend in the park

Finding the perfect pumpkin: I think this one is the most sincere pumpkin in the patch

By the way, those top five benefits of doing art art not definitive! Another day I would probably list five different benefits. Here I don't even touch on the therapeutic and health aspects of art. Thanks for visiting my blog!

This dog keeps showing up in my pictures

This brown puppy keeps showing up in my pictures. Maybe it's because I love my dogs and keep wanting to write about them, but usually repress the urge and try to write about "more important" things. So the dog shows up when I go into auto-mode and draw.

Puppy with tulips

After reading Temple Grandin's book Animals in Translation I am beginning to think that for many people, there is not much more important than our dogs. Temple Grandin is an animal behavior scientist and professor at Colorado State University who is also autistic. I've never read a book that has given me better insight to lives of animals and as I read the book, I could even begin to imagine how they see the world.

I began appreciating and understanding my dogs even more and even got some tips on better ways to pet and speak to them. Their wildly enthusiastic reaction to my new short firm petting technique indicates that Grandin really knows what she's talking about. Grandin talks about why she believes that autism gives her her a special insight to the minds of animals, and shows how her experiences is backed up by recent brain research.

Dogs have always been an important part of my life: Jiggy (1970-1977), Casey (1980 - 1994), Freya (1988-1989 - tragic story), Petra (1990 - 2006), and my current dog friends, sibling Springadors Cocoa and Pippin (2006 - _____). I know I am not supposed to have favorites. I love them both, but it seems all the pictures below look a lot like Cocoa.... I will have to have a concerted effort to draw some that look like Pippin.

Puppy love

A special connection

Berry picking

* * * * *

So here they are: meet Cocoa and Pippin, my inspirations and creative companions. You can probably guess which is which. They do me such an important service, keeping silent company yet encouraging me when I sit down to write for draw. I'd have a harder time getting into the zone without them. For one thing, they have inserted themselves comfortably into my writing and art routines, and it's hard to resist their expectant little faces, expecting their snacks as I sit down with my notebook and coffee. They know exactly when I am getting reading to sit still and work. They love their routine and that makes me want to stick to mine.

Our Springadors, Cocoa and Pippin