In Love with Stories!

It is Thanksgiving day, and almost every blog I read today and yesterday is some one's list of what they are thankful for. It's getting to be a bit much. So, as some one who is thankful EVERY day, for so much! I won't bore you with my list.

Although, something happened yesterday that really blessed me.

I am showing about 60 of my paintings on silk and watercolors at the Vashon Community Care Center through January 30, 2014.

Looking at the World Through a Heart Shaped Hole

Yesterday I went in to hang a painting in the staff room. After all, the staff need cheering, too. Pam was pushing Kate down the hall in her wheel chair, and we stopped to chat. I think Kate may have had a stroke since I saw her last, as she was barely able to mumble, and her words were hard to understand. Some how, she was able to tell us that she loves one painting in particular. Pam wheeled her down the hall, until she indicated the piece I call "Looking at the World through a Heart Shaped Hole."

I told Kate the story, that this painting is about looking at the world through love, and that makes the world so beautiful! Kate just glowed as I told her!

Love Birds

Shiwa had been turned into a bird, and his beloved, 

Humei, was no where to be found. Finally he heard her

singing. She had been buried in the mountain.  Shiwa dug 

until he opened a hole big enough to go through--and there 

was Humei! She turned into a bird as well, and they flew

happily off, free!

And it gets even better.


On the way home, I stopped for tea at the Vashon Tea Shop. I mentioned to Boo, the proprietor, that I have a show of my paintings at the Care Center. "Oh, you are the artist!" exclaimed a young woman at the next table. "I LOVE those paintings!"

She went on to tell us she has been walking with her 94 year old grandmother down the halls of the Care Center. "My grandma stops at every painting and shows me the details she loves. When we walk by again, she stops and points out different details!"

And that's why I show my work.

Telling our Stories

Building Community through Stories
November 15^th

7:00 PM

Vashon Community Care Center
15333 Vashon Hiway SW
Vashon, Wa 98070

Sail Away and over 50 other paintings

 will be on dispay at Vashon Community Care Center

November - December 2013

Sail Away 

The current runs swiftly through Dodd Narrows in Canada, changing direction with the tide. To get through on a small sailboat, one needs to wait for slack tide, when the tidal current is quiet before it changes direction. Coming into the Narrows, one cannot see what is on the other side. Major changes in life are like that: one needs to choose one's timing carefully, then proceed with faith that there is something good on the other side.

Getting married at age 66 is like that.

Stories connect us. When we know some one's story, that person becomes more than an aquaintance. We have more compassion for our neighbors and feel less alone. We are more able to meet each other's needs and our own needs are more easily met. When we tell each other our stories we are building community.

Paintings tell stories. I tell my stories on silk, in vibrant colors.  My silk paintings (now showing at Vashon Community Care Center) tell stories from China, stories from friends, and some of my own stories. The paintings will be on display November through December.

On November 15^th at 7pm, I will be telling the stories in some of my paintings at Vashon Community Care Center, to celebrate a show of more than 50 of my paintings on silk hanging on the walls there. I will show slides of my paintings and will invite the audience to share short stories of their own experiences and memories which the paintings might bring up.

To tell our own stories—takes courage. Will we be judged? Will our friends cease to be friendly? And yet, we need to be heard. We need understanding, to be known by those who care about us.  Will you join me at the Vashon Community Care Center to hear some stories, and perhaps share some of your own? Or share your stories here on my stories page?

Golden Pathway

We had been sailing together on the boat Sea Change, in the Gulf Islands in July. The weather was perfect; sun for warmth but not too warm, wind for sailing but not too much wind. We had been married seven years, and were still very much in love. Life was perfect. We did not know this would be our last sailing trip together. Bob was diagnosed with lung cancer that winter and died the following July.

This painting has come to mean being someplace I love, being with one I love and being loved, and doing just the right thing in the world.

Do you have a story to share?

She still dances at age 89!

Marj
at our booth at Strawberry Festival
my painting is in the background

Barely 5' tall and 120 pounds soaking wet (she thinks she's overweight!) this young woman is still dancing at age 89! That's my mom! She's set the bar pretty high, don't you think?

And now she plans to be in a play! I don't think she has been in a play since high school! She will be the old lady ("type casting," she says) in A Child's Christmas in Wales, adapted for stage, to be performed Dec 19-26th on Vashon Island.

That's my mom. She does Qi Gung daily, and is working on her 3rd historical novel. She plays the stock market and wins, writes a regular cooking column for a local paper. And she always has an answer when I need a natural remedy for what ails me.  

I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance.

drummer

Friedrich Nietzsche
: Without music, life would be a mistake… I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance.

I have been having such fun at the Dances of Universal Peace! These are circle dances, easy to learn and to sing, from traditions all over the world,  prayers in song and motion. I love this quote from Rumi:

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”
― Rumi

musicians and dance leaders preparing for the dance

A typical Dance evening might include movements to Ava Maria from the Catholic tradition,  La illa ha il Allah from Muslim worship, a Celtic earth song, a Hindu song, and a Jewish song. Each short song is taught by a trained dance leader, then danced and sung several times until there is an easy synergy flowing among the dancers. The dances are easy to learn. Musicians accompany the dances to keep the beat and the melody.

And they are coming to Vashon! Rifaat and I are organizing for dances every month starting in January. Musicians will come from Seattle, and everyone is invited! Initially we will dance in my living room, and will find a larger venue as needed. 

musicians preparing for the dance

http://dancesofuniversalpeacena.org

Healing Memories in the Forest

A forest trail at Burfoot Park, Olympia, WA
A place of beauty, A place to heal

September 2013: I wrote this several months ago--then felt too vulnerable to print it.

April 2013:  It has been a long day. My head throbs. My stomach is in knots. Ancient sorrows and terrors have begun to surface. I need some green growing...I need some nature.

I am in Olympia training to work with people caught in domestic violence. What ever possessed me? Just because I've had some....um...interesting experiences, like being in what I thought was a common law marriage with someone who insisted on growing marijuana illegally. Like getting busted for said marijuana and nearly losing my children. Like being on and off of welfare until I finally learned to make a decent living for my family-- and now own my home free and clear.

I thought I might have something to offer women who are struggling as single moms through some of the same issues. So I volunteered where my skills might be useful, and found that the greatest need is working with people caught in domestic violence situations.

Trillium growing in the forest

I didn't know the training would bring up those long buried memories. I didn't know how these memories would affect me physically and emotionally. I did not at first know why I am exhausted and my head hurts. I knew only that I need wild, I need green growing things, I need trees.

I drive away from the city, past the house I once lived in, a house that carries some of those memories, past the school where my children went, to the park I remember. Walking down the trail through the woods to the beach, some of my tension eases. The beauty of the woods engulfs me. I touch again that deep joy that lives within me.


Can the beauty of these woods help to heal other people? Might I share this beauty some how, through my paintings, with people who need green as I do? Who need healing from...um....interesting experiences?

Elf Island Journaling Society: the Art of Going in Many Directions at Once

So....I spent some time this afternoon (instead of the much needed studio cleaning) thinking about where I am going with my art. The trouble is not lack of inspiration; it's TOO MUCH inspiration. Focus on one thing? Ummmmm ......How? I want to do them all! Or at least most of them!


I am tired of scarves. At least scarves for the sake of scarves. I am excited by the landscape photos I took this summer, and byWendy Pini's Elf Quest stories and illustrations. OH MY HEAVENS she is a wonderful artist! her characters rock! the expressions on their faces perfect! Her stories have depth, pathos, adventure, romance, and more! Homer, move over! I can't think of a classical writer that is better in any way, or an artist who expresses herself better!

I love Fantasy. And story telling.

Last Spring, a friend and I began a story telling group we are calling the Elf Island Journaling Society. A group of 8-9 people get together to explore a mythical place we call Elf Island, creating a story as we go. We had three meetings before we stopped for the summer, creating three stories.

And this summer when I had a booth at the farmer's market, I took lots of photos so that I can do a series of watercolors featuring the people and ambiance of the market.

And I am still interested in painting with dyes on silk. And on cotton. And using natural dyes. And

Shibori.

And I want to somehow share the lessons life has taught me so that others can experience the JOY that comes from deep inside.

So...how can I combine my watercolor painting, natural dyes, story telling, landscapes of the Puget Sound area, textures of tide flats, the luxurious feel of silk, character development (visual and written), and my experiences at the market all into one focus?

What if.....I made Elf Island the focus. I can write stories and do illustrations for those stories. I can create a whole visual culture for Elf Island, complete with art motifs, clothing, mythology....a written language...... architecture....markets....

And I don't really have to do all the creating. Perhaps there are others who would like to join me?

After Three Days Alone

I woke up this morning wondering, am I still married? Did we really do that thing--that Wedding thing? Is it really REAL??

I get that way after the third night sleeping alone. Maybe because being married is still new.

We are not sharing a house full time yet. He has a house and business north of Seattle, and I live on this island. He's moving over, slowly. Getting his house ready to rent out. Taking care of business. Wishing he was always here. But he's not. Yet.

Then I look at our Vows, framed and hanging on the wall by the door.

           On this day, June 22, 2013
   Suzanna Leigh and Rifaat Rich Osborne
                declare that we will,
with the help of God and our friends and family,
          be true and faithful partners, 
 creating a living and growing life-long union
    that expresses and is an instrument of
                      Divine Love

Yes. Yes that's it. That's what I am about. What we are about together. Creating a living and growing life-long union that expresses and is an instrument of Divine Love.


---And he just called!