Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...
September 29, 2009
Life is forever changing. At some point you have to stop being an observer and start working on making it what you need it to become. I am frozen right now. For too long I have waited for someone else to make decisions for me. I have hoped someone else would do what I felt was the right choice for me. I am almost 50 years old; I wonder when I thought I would be old enough to make these decisions on my own? I have laid blame on others and sited their controlling nature as to why I had to suffer through their decisions for my life. About 2 years ago I made a big leap forward in plans for my future only to have it thwarted by another person's idea about what I needed to do. Insecurity and guilt have been my rulers and I am attempting to push past them to give that job to God. I figure if God can make the universe he can certainly help me take back my life from people's ideas about what is best for me. So here I go. We shall see how this works out for me and those...
[More]
Posted at: 10:39 AM | 1 Comment | Add Comment | Permalink
Summer Time and the livin ain't easy
July 17, 2009
I wonder how hot it is on the equator. If is is even marginally hotter there than here I feel bad for the people living there. I am feeling bad for the people living and visiting here in South Alabama.
This summer has witnessed me making good and bad decisions. Even some of the good decisions were not all that great. I think I shall blame it on the heat. I have friends I love dearly and hope my actions are not making them question my sincere affection for them. It is hot outside and I can't seem to get off my rear end or out of my house to spend any time with them. If someone would welcome me into their home at 5:30 a.m. we might have a bit more face to face time. Text messaging, while convenient, lacks the smile or inflection of a friends voice. I cannot decipher the non-reply from a text sent as anything besides someone not being interested in me or communicating with me. I know there have been times I was busy, or not near my phone and I did not reply... It was probably taken as a slight from the messenger....
[More]
Tags:
communication, friendship, summer heat
Posted at: 05:48 PM | 1 Comment | Add Comment | Permalink
Where am I?
March 31, 2009
On Friday night, March 20th, I slept in a box at Oak Hollow Farm with Christ Presbyterian Church's Youth group. At 5:30 in the morning I woke up to a perfect crescent moon suspended in black velvet and surrounded by more stars than I have witnessed since my childhood. It honestly looked as if someone had spilled a container of glitter across the sky. My thoughts of weeping were quashed by the realization that I would break the moment that was a gift to me. I lay under the dark early morning sky and wanted more out of my life. I have appreciation, love, friendship, what else could I want? I always wanted to travel, thought I would wait until I got older and sent my children on about their lives. Then I got sick and went broke. I took it as a sign that staying put was what was required of me. Now I am having trouble accepting that that is my life. I am on a quest, I am trying to find the person I left behind, not that long ago.
Posted at: 07:56 PM | 2 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Birthdays
January 19, 2009
I woke up this morning unaware that it was my first daughter's twenty-fourth birthday. She died when she was ten days old, I was twenty-five. There have been many years that I wanted to lay down and wail all day.
It has gotten easier through the years. In the first several years after she died I made every attempt to not let her go. I needed to keep her front and center or else I thought I wasn't being a good mother to her. Today is a good day. I forgot several times the significance of this day in my personal history. That was good. As the day continued on and my sweet family was spending some time with me I realized everything happens for some wonderful reasons. Sometimes it takes time. Sometimes 24 years is a long time but I am learning that it is barely a drop in the bucket of the world's time.
The ripples of the years passing since the initial pebble hitting the water are becoming part of that beautiful rhythm in the dance of my life. I would not be the person I am now without her life being part of my life. I...
[More]
Posted at: 08:59 PM | 7 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
January, February, June or July (?)
January 13, 2009
When and where to show again? Anybody out there have any suggestions? I am working on some small pieces with mixed mediums. I am considering some or all of these in each piece, acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink, and collage of papers from books. Working in a library gives me access to a lot of books. In the middle school books fall apart pretty often and throwing them away seems like such a great loss so ... into the art they go.
Currently I have 9 pieces finished that are pen and ink with colored pencil. They are framed with dark brown, pressed metal frames. I like them. The ones I am starting on now are a few heads with numbers that I like overlapping them. Once they are finished they will be paint, paper, pen and ink. I am thinking about tearing the book of Numbers out of the Old Testament and using it on the appropriately numbered painting. I guess they should be titled "A Gift From God" or maybe, "Ancient Rules I Tore Up."
Tags:
art shows, books, collage, numbers
Posted at: 08:39 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Getting things in order
December 27, 2008
This is a rare day in the life of Robin Richards. I am getting all kinds of things in order. Maybe once all of this is done I will be able to concentrate on being a painter. We shall see.
Life is crazy until you stop and pay attention. It really is the same as always. The difference is how we react to the ebb and flow of the day's energy. Too many times I try to control it; that never works. To see everything as a dance and each opportunity to make a choice to stay in rhythm makes everything so much easier and enjoyable for the participants and the audience.
Posted at: 10:40 AM | 4 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Frequently Asked Questions
November 10, 2008
This is a list of frequently asked questions. I shall attempt to answer them here.
1. What inspires me? Life. I guess that's the most concise answer I can give.
2. Where do I get my ideas? Quite often I wonder that myself. To say that art is divinely inspired sounds a bit lofty BUT I cannot figure out where some of these ideas start. Who am I to say that they are all of my own creation? That, to me, sounds a bit arrogant. I shall have to bow out of this argument and attempt to give credit where credit is due. It is not of my own brilliance that this art comes to fruition.
3. Are these some sort of a strange flashback? If flashback is referring to past hallucinogenic drug use then the answer is "no". Maybe there are observations that have gone unrealized until pencil and paper met or a loaded paintbrush danced across a canvas. If that is a flashback, then, yes.
4. Do you really see colors this way? No. But I am not sure that I am seeing the same color that you are seeing when we refer to a color's name. Is...
[More]
Tags:
frequently asked questions
Posted at: 04:21 PM | 1 Comment | Add Comment | Permalink
what made me say that?
October 27, 2008
Saturday I was at a workshop thing that was a spiritual sort of day. There was lots of praying and lectures on finding your dream and following it. At one point I was introduced to a woman I had met before and she aknowledged that she knew me as an artist and followed that up with "That is one of your gifts, isn't it?" I replied that I would make a good stripper too. WHY in the world did that idea decide to escape my brain at that time?
Not that I wouldn't make a good one. Maybe I would be just dandy with such an occupation but it doesn't need to be said. Later when I shared this with my friend, Connie, she said I was probably just trying to get off the "Oh, you artist, you" train of conversation. Sometimes the lable "Artist" makes me cringe. It is often said with a strange mix of awe and disgust. I don't want to have to explain or apologize for what I do believe is a gift from God.
Tags:
art, exotic dancers
Posted at: 11:56 AM | 2 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Seven p.m. on a Friday night
October 10, 2008
I really don't have much to say right now. I just feel like I should write something. Maybe it will make me want to draw something WHICH MIGHT make me draw something and then I might paint. I am going to go soak my feet and come back to this.
I am back. But now I think I will go for a walk. I think this is a bit of creator's block. Ugh. Anybody ot there, been here done this? The giant canvas is looming.
I see that I started this at seven this evening. It is now an hour and a half later. And my feet don't feel that marvelous.
If anyone has ANY helpful hints please post them. Thank you.
Tags:
hitting the creative wall.
Posted at: 07:00 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Running Loooooooooowwwwwwwwww on art and energy.
September 23, 2008
I just went through this site and was shocked at what is NOT posted and what was still posted as available. I have got to finish some things and post some art that has been finished but not placed on the world wide web.
Life makes me need a personal assistant.
My personal assistant would wake me up in the morning with my lunch prepared and ready to go then she would and remind me that no one really cares what I am wearing to work as long as I am covered up. She would say "Robin, just wear what you picked out last night. It is fine. That is unless it stinks, then you might have to re think that choice." Then my personal assistant would sniff my clothes while I went to eat breakfast. Yesiree I needs me a personal assistant, a free one. A free one with a good sniffer. If my dog, Janet, could speak so I could understand her and she understood the importance of clothing I would put her to work. Problem with that plan is that she likes stinky stuff. I guess if she suggested that I wear something I should take it...
[More]
Posted at: 06:50 PM | 1 Comment | Add Comment | Permalink
