Meet April Vega, one part of the trio that is Harp 46. April and I met when she and the band spent a year in Seattle exploring the Pacific Northwest.  Listening to April play her Celtic harp while our soulcare community lay blissfully on the floor is one of my all-time favorite memories of our house on Densmore street is. True, the harp is a lilting and peaceful instrument; but it’s April’s presence as a musician that brings relaxation and inspiration to every musical moment.

One of my favorite holiday albums is Harp 56’s Angels Among Us available to preview and for purchase at CD Baby, orITunes. (Don’t miss it, it’s amazing!)  And now April, along with her husband Nuc and brother-in-law Posido, have released an intriguing new album, Entanglement — a blend of world rhythms to enliven you day. I find  it to be energizing without being frantic — a rare gem for your listening pleasure.

In this Monday’s guest post, April talks about living the creative life when baby makes three, and how the collaborative process works for the band as they write new music. I love what she has to say about how parenting while creating focuses your vision, and how sometimes you have to change a project mid-stream when The Muse decides to take it another way. Here’s April…

I’ve always loved how song emerge out of your jam sessions together. How would you describe the process of writing a new songs together?
      
Harp 46 is as collaborative as it gets, artistically speaking.  It’s funny, this album actually started out as an idea that I had to finally do a solo album.  You know, I wanted to make the voice totally my own, have complete artistic control, really let myself go a little crazy.  But as I started writing the songs, and performing them in front of small cafe-type audiences, I couldn’t help but either hear other parts for Nuc and Posido; or hear weaknesses in the songs that I knew my rhythm section would be able to strengthen up.  I guess it just wasn’t the right time for a solo album!

Our writing process varies.  Some of the songs on this album, maybe half, were little song-zygotes that I composed during my son’s nap time.  I’d bring them to rehearsal and they would, inevitably, become more complex (and therefore more interesting).  The rest were just born out of extended jam sessions, where one of us would start playing a little snippet – maybe just a couple measures of music – and then we’d just follow the music and see where it led us.  That’s very much our style – just using our ears as a guide to write music.

Nuc and Posido have this compositional approach to things – an approach that is both endearing and maddening – where they like to have one piece of a song that sounds really good, and then they try to find the most odd, incompatible thing they can play either superimposed on it, or right next to it.  They do that during rehearsals, and then I’ll generally state my opinion of the sound (not usually positive) and then we just work on getting that odd piece of the puzzle to fit in.  It’s a little confrontational, actually. So we have a lot of that mixture-exploration in all our music – a gospel beat under a Celtic jig, for example, or a hip-hop bass line that emerges from a middle-eastern sounding tune.  Eventually we play with it and it works.  I guess that’s how we create our own little challenges to overcome!

I’ve been listening to your music for a long time now, and it’s a delight to see your work evolving as an artist. How does this album vary from your previous work?

You know, I wasn’t expecting this, but when we first heard the album after being in the studio for a few days, I was just knocked out by how mature it sounded.  Not “mature” like, old lady music, but just that the music had so much more depth and intricacy than our previous albums.  I’m not saying I didn’t like our earlier work – I really do like it all – but this album is just a different step for us.  For one thing, the compositions are much more complex.  There is also clearly a lot of improvisational “conversation” going on between us – it’s much more akin to how we sound in a live concert situation, I think, when we are just letting loose and having fun with the music.  I had no idea it was going to sound like that, by the way.  Sometimes the microphones hear a lot better than our own ears!

How has your creative process changed and adapted now that you and Nuc are parents?

Oh, it is just so much more difficult.  I’m sure that won’t surprise you or any of your readers!  I don’t even know how we got the thing done, to tell you the truth.  It’s half miracle.  We had babysitters galore for a few weeks when we were in the studio.  We tried to rehearse after our son’s bedtime (he can sleep through anything) but sometimes needed those day-long rehearsals too… so much juggling.  And now, with album promo on the front-burner, let me tell you, it is impossible and I’m not doing enough of anything.  My immune system is taking a major beatdown.  All of this used to be so enlivening for me and now it is just crushing me!  Amazing how much work those little people require.

I guess if there’s one positive influence on my creative process it would be that I have more ability to just sit down and get it done.  Time is such a commodity, as any parent will tell you.  I don’t have time to meander through thoughts and ideas – although that kind of time may very well be beneficial to me! – so there were several times with this album, particularly in the beginning stages, where I would sit down with the harp and just kind of force myself to spit something out.  Good, bad, mediocre – didn’t matter.  That’s another benefit of the collaborative nature of a band – I could take something half-baked to rehearsal and we could fix it up and make it sound good.  I guess having a kid around made me a lot more dependent on the rest of the band, which seems to mirror life in general – I know I’ve certainly become a lot more dependent on practically everything in our community now that I’m a parent.

If you were the virtual DJ feature on my Zune, what three songs/artists would you mix into a playlist with this track?

Hmmm.  I would probably go with Lossby Al Petteway and Amy White , Kothbiroby Ayub Ogada (this is on the Constant Gardener soundtrack), and Jump!by Van Halen… but that’s just because I dig Van Halen :)

You can find April’s music at the Harp 46 website. Give someone you love the gift of music this season! Thanks for being here.

It the Christian tradition, the season before Christmas is called “Advent,” meaning “to come.” It is season of preparation, and a time to wait.

Regardless of your spiritual tradition, this time of year is indeed a time of waiting. Waiting for the Light, for presents, for the arrival of loved ones. Waiting to see the smile on your child’s face when gifts are opened. Waiting to kindle the candles of Hanukkah, or for the return of the Light at Solstice. Waiting to pass on traditions at Kwanzaa, or for the arrival of baby at Christmas.

But all too often this Advent season turns into a season not of waiting, but of rushing. Rushing to the store, to make cookies, to clean house, to wrap, to rehearse,  to dress-up, to attend.

I love a little hustle and bustle. It’s fun!  But a little holiday bustle can go a long way.  Over all, I like the holiday season to be peaceful and intentional. I want it to be ripe with meaning and lush with memories. 

Over the years I’ve developed a trick to help keep our holidays happy, but not hustling; joyful and peaceful. You guessed it, it’s a list! Each year I write out the *8Things we must do this holiday season. Writing a list of the most important moments empowers me to say “NO” to the rest. Every time my eager-beaver mind draws me to another craft project or an additional adorable downtown Christmas event, I return to my list. If that new thing threatens my ability to make one of my essentials happen, I say goodbye. I wait for another year. After the season is over, I tack my list to my calendar for the next December — when we’ll keep some items, and trade out some others — adapting our traditions each year as our household alters.

Here’s my *8Things for a Peaceful Holiday  list for this year. 

1. Make a meaningful gift for the immediate family members. (Hello Burb.com!)
2. Bake Paul’s favorite Christmas cookie.
3. Sing with the Copenhagen Gospel Singers, and the Jr. Gospel Singers.
4. Bake muffins once a week to get Catie out of bed through the dark season.
5. Light the Advent wreath. Pass on the story.
6. Dole out the Christmas picture books at the breakfast table, one each day through Advent.
7. Show my parents the hyggliet bits of a Danish Jule.
8. Decorate the tree and set a pretty table Christmas Eve.

What’s NOT on the list:stay up too late making a zillion kinds of cookies; attend every cool event in town; make an elaborate meal and collapse with a migraine before I can eat it; stress out trying to finish handmade gifts at the last minute (tho I will buy handmade as much as possible!); spend more than I can afford on presents; stress out trying to get everyone dressed and out the door to a zillion church services.

What’s on your *8Things for a Peaceful Holiday list? What do you need to do to make your holiday season meaningful? What would make it something to savor? And just as importantly, what can you leave off the list? Do tell us in the comments, or grab a button and play along by leaving your permalink in the list below. Thanks for being here, and Happy Advent!

L’Orangerie, built specifically for Monet’s last great work, his waterlilies series.

Paul and I both love Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. We’ve traveled the world to worship at Impressionists Temples: The Getty Museum, our Mecca in Los Angeles. The Art Institute in Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Even the tiny Impressionist room in the Glyptotek in Copenhagen, with a painting by Renoir of our neighborhood park. And now, at long last, the Musee d’Orsay and L’Orangerie in Paris.

As a teenager I would see posters and calendars full of pastel reproductions of Monet’s waterlilies or Van Gogh’s sunflowers and think, “Ick. Too pretty.” Then I went to the Art Institute of Chicago, walked into the enormous Impressionist wing, and nearly fell to my knees. The impact of those pieces in real life, the depth of the paint strokes, the vibrations of the color — there’s no way to reproduce it. No way at all.

The more I’ve learned about the Impressionists–and perhaps even more so, the post-Impressionists– the more I’ve come to feel a kinship with them.  Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and dear, broken Vincent Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Latrec: I adore them all. I feel if I could meet them today we would be like siblings: all bickering and laughing: remembering and reaching. These painters, who we now see as little more than producers of decorative posters, were once brave, bold radicals.

In the last 1800’s, there were two ways to succeed as artists: show in the Salon, or show in the Academy. Both French institutions presented perfectly executed works of art. And, both institutions insisted there was only one way to create and present said art. “Real” art, said the Institution, was neo-classical art. These acceptable pieces depicted the same set of myths and Bible stories, all portrayed with familiar, formulaic precision. It was pretty, perfected, and above all tame.

The Impressionists saw another way, craved another way. Truth came at them from odd angles, and they wanted to express the impressions reality made upon them. But the Academy and the Salon had no room for exploration. The new work was considered ugly, inappropriate, and misconstrued. So the new Impressionists broke away. They left paying jobs and secure posts. They gave up the professional credentials and the assured success that  came with membership in the Institution. They risked everything. The Impressionists were reformers — not to make a name for themselves — but because it was the only way to be themselves. 

Take for instance Edgar Degas, a privileged child from a family of wealthy bankers, who painted successfully in the Academic style — until he met the Impressionists. Or Edouard Manet, formally trained and accepted into the Salon, who threw his “opportunities” aside and instead surrounded himself with artists experimenting in new techniques. Or my favorite, Vincent Van Gogh, a seminary student with a guaranteed career in the church, who left it behind to follow the deep pull art, truth, and post-impressionism had on his heart.

I suppose by now you are seeing the parallels that draw me to these rebellious souls. I too had a career which was controlled by two great institutions — the Catholic and the Protestant. I too was set up for immenent success within that system. I too fell in with a crowd of outliers. I too left it all behind to follow a pull towards something “post.” (In this case, post-modernism as opposed to post-impressionism.) Like Van Gogh I battle depression. Like Toulouse-Latrec I work around a broken body. Like Monet I tend to circle around the same source material over and over again.

These are my kinsmen, these heretics we. And in their stories I find comfort.

What great artists are your withmates? Who in history partners you on your journey? Do tell in the comments below. 

Stayed tune for my next Post-Impressionist post: Vincent Van Gogh and The Terrible Need. Join the mailing list or follow me on Twitter and you won’t miss a thing. Thank you for being here!

I feel a little hesitant to write about Rowena Murillo’s work, because I feel quite unsure about how to describe how it effects me. I’ve been thinking about this the last few days, and the only thing I can come up with is that Rowen is so in it. She doesn’t stand outside her work and create what she thinks will sell, or even what she thinks people might need. Instead she creates what is present. And you know what? It is exactly what people — at least what this person, needs.

I think part of it is that Rowena has a naturally perfected balance of  the show and the tell. She doesn’t  show us too little, making it impossible for us to get at the meaning. And she doesn’t tell it too us to straight, which would make us resistant to the obviousness of the message. Instead she gives us just enough direction to get us into the rabbit hole, and the pull of wonder takes us the rest of the way.

Speaking of rabbit holes, don’t miss what Rowena is doing on her blog right now — a new series of Flying Girls as an altered book, rooted firmly in the words of Miss Alice of Wonderland. And as you do your holiday shopping, please remember her well-stocked Etsy shop with affordable prints.

Someday I will have a datebook with page after page of Rowena’s goodness. Someday I will have a painting as large as my living room wall of  Flying Girl Swims, or Explore Undiscovered Lands. Someday we will share opposite sides of a second-hand table, painted red, and make wonders. But until that day, I think we all should say a little “hallelujah” for the way Rowena and her Flying Girls help us live in our own skin. Can I get an “Amen?”

Artist’s Statement: Rowena Murillo

 ”I almost never know what I am going to paint until I put the brush to the paper.  Or perhaps I have an idea of where to start, but the process of creating transforms the concept, the idea, and the artist.

Visions don’t come real. Accidents detour the plan. Unexpected happenings change the goal. Synchronicity picks the path.  But I keep going. I keep looking at what I have and seeing what I could have.  I am guided by the process. 

My philosophy on life is much the same– follow the serendipity and acknowledge the beauty, and through that, find meaning.”

See that little button over there? The blue one with the pink ribbon? Jenn and Amanda made that for me. They also let me play along when they made these hygge affirmation cards, and then they gave them way for free! That’s the kind of people they are. And that’s why this week the ladies of  Kind Over Matter are not only my Current Crush, but also today’s Favorite Things interviewees!

 When did you start Kind of Matter and what was your inspiration?

Jenn says: Amanda and I started Kind Over Matter February 2009. For me, the inspiration was just wanting to bring a smile to someone’s day, be a spot of brightness for others.

Amanda says:  I guess it was after I made some printable “kind” cards for my etsy shop and I wanted to spread them around, guerilla-style, to make people smile. I know sometimes I run around doing errands totally in my own head and I thought if I found a little reminder to Smile or Be Kind, it would totally snap me out of the hurried haze I was in and put me in the present.  I ended up sending them to Jenn and we talked about making a  flickr group, hoping to get more folks involved. The idea spread into a blog & it totally just blossomed into what it is today—so organic.

Will you tell us a favorite reader reaction?

Jenn says: My favorites are always after we post who won the giveaway — the person who won is always excited and I love it when those who didn’t win offer their congratulations. That’s so nice. 

Amanda says: Oh man, there’s been so many!  Almost daily we get emails or comments from readers saying how much they love Kind Over Matter, thanking us for inspiring them and others; they all really warm my heart.  I actually saved a few of my favorites, I’d love to share one with you all!  This is from a random comment on one of our entries: 

“ I just wanted to let you know how much I love this site. It’s positive, upbeat, happy & truly meaningful….Your page has been a ray of hope & kindness on tough days, & given me encouragement when… I was unsure. ”

How has your Kindness work colored your days or shifted your perspective?

Jenn says: Doing all of this with Kind Over Matter has helped me be kind more freely, it’s opened me up to other people and to try to be a light for them.

Amanda says: I try to be more conscious about going out of my way to be kind.  I try to smile more, be in the now more.  It really is a state of mind and you must be willing to work at it if it doesn’t come naturally.  Working on Kind Over Matter shows me daily that there are so many people on this planet that are doing good, or who want to do good, it’s all really inspiring.

What is the kindest thing that’s happened to you recently? 

Jenn says: The other morning, I was in an elevator coming up from the subway, there were so many of us crammed in there, I bumped into this woman, apologized & she said, “It’s ok, sweetie.”  Everyone was so nice, so polite to each other, making a joke out of the situation instead of letting it put a cramp in their day. When we were all exiting the elevator people said things like “Have a wonderful day” and “I hope you have a blessed day.” You could see that they meant it.  It totally made my day.

Amanda says: I’ve been doing my Christmas shopping online and I just got a package today with what I had ordered. There was also an extra little box inside with a note explaining that the seller wasn’t listing the extra item in her shop anymore, but instead of keeping them all for herself she wanted me to have one. It truly melted my heart.  I love buying handmade!!

Jenn Gibsonlikes to laugh & be silly, take photographs & skygaze. Together with her soul Sister Amanda Oaks, she helps run Kind Over Matter , a blog dedicated to kind acts and projects, inspirational art and Feel Good Nouns. Bits of her personal story can be found at Papers & Prayers, and the beginnings of a collaborative photo project lives at Distance & Directions.   

Amanda Oaks is one half of the Kind Over Matterteam and lives in western Pennsylvania, where she is a mama to her 2 year old son Zenin & another little light soon to make their appearance in the Spring.  She also runs verve bath press a micro-press that publishes handmade chapbooks. She is the author of several of poetry chapbooks including love notes & bloodlines.

One of the more challenging parts of living a creative life is discovering your best working rhythm. We all have a work pattern that suits our energy levels and nurtures us with alternating periods of work and rest, gathering and creating.

I have spent plenty of time trying to force myself into a “productive” work routine that ended up being anything butproductive, simply because it didn’t match my natural habits. Like lifecoach Jena Strong always says, ”It’s all about function.”  That’s why this week’s  *8Things is all about uncovering your creative patterns. The rhythm is already there, you just have to pull off the blanket and see what is there waiting for you.

How do you like to work? When do you like to start, how long it takes for you to get into the flow, do you like to work in silence or with music? Your intuitive voice will help access the information you need to uncover a work rhythm that supports your creative pursuits. Write down *8Things you know about Your Creative Rhythm and put them in the comments below or grab a button and play along by putting a permalink to your post in the list below.

Special thanks to this week to Sarah and at Creative Lessons who gave me the idea for this *8Things list; to Jen Lee for her excellent “Making Soup” metaphor about the ebb and flow of the creating process; and to Dee Wilcox at the Creative Perch for sharing this *8Things list with a wider audience. Thanks for being here!

Rachelle’s *8Things: Creative Rhythm

1. Embrace Your BioRhythm: There is no point in me trying to write before noon. I do administrative work in the morning in my PJ’s, shower after lunch, the get to writing.
2. Manage Your Downloads:  Just because I have a huge download of creative ideas doesn’t mean I have to do them all at once. I can suppress the hyper-mania if I remember they’ll keep.
3. Know Your Tender Spots:After announcing a project or sending it out to the world I’m virtually guaranteed to have a bout of self-doubt and insecurity. I enlist help.
4. Trouble Shoot Your Wheel of Work Weak Spots:  I like generating ideas and starting things. I’ m not so good with the middle and the finish. During that part of the a project I have to write out an hour by hour daily schedule to get it DONE.
5. Don’t Isolate:  I live abroad and work at home — so seeing another adult IN REAL LIFE at least once a week is imperative!
6. Know What You Need:  It’s true, I’m a feedback whore. I like immediate reaction to what I’m working on. Thus, I blog.
7. What’s Your Addiction of Choice?: Facebook and Twitter I can manage, YouTube and Hulu suck me in like a black hole
8. Your Nutrional Needs. Must. Have. Input. Artists dates are a must. I try to go to a gallery, garden, or performance once a month.

Eden and Cate’s amulet for their bedroom: rock salt, favorite polished stones, and a card from Jen Lemen.

It’s been a good couple of days over here in Magpie Girl world.

Monday Cate and I went through all our rooms cleansing and blessing the space we live in. Suzie Ridler gave us some ideas, and we picked the ones we liked best: holy water, a blessing of light involving a candle, and making little amulet bags to hold our intentions for each of the rooms in our home. It was really meaningful to me and I definitely felt the energy shift within myself and within our house, bringing in fresh hope and inspiration.

The night of the cleanse I woke up with a start, and free-wrote an entire plan for how I want my ecourses to work. Oh friends, I am so excited about this! I really think it’s coming together. Instead of short-term ecourses, my new offerings from Magpie Girl will be offered at a sister-site, Flock: a soul spa, with magpie Girl
(What do you think? Something like that? Other ideas?)

Flockwill be a membership site, with one price covering the cost of a number of soulcare options. Sort of like a spa health club with one membership fee, but lots of services and classes. Both of the soultribes I’ve been working on– the High Holy Days series and the Soulcraft Circle — will be there, along with a collection of Priestessy Things to do alone or in a group, and once we get rolling I hope to add something for the DO LESS Revolutionaries, and a book club. Oh, the possibilities are so inspiring!

The creator of the SoulFood layout, Neil Sittler of Stickflower Design, is working on the Flock site now and it will be ready in December for sign-ups and a January start.  I’m wildly curious to see how Flock’s on-going groups will help create lasting Soultribes for spiritual misfits like us! Can you feel it? It’s got good mojo.

Now don’t worry. There will still be great stuff, FOR FREE, here at Magpie Girl. I plan to continue Monday’s guest post series with fascinating artists and coaches.( In fact, I’m booked through January!) *8Things will defintely be featured at both sites. And all the choice little tidbits and “ah ha” moments that don’t fit into the on-going offerings at Flock will still be incubating at Magpie Girl. I’m also cooking up a way to offer a few reduced-price memberships, and of course, I’m always open to trades and swaps and all kinds of creativity.

Keep in mind that I offer discounts and special treats to people on my mailing list. So with the SoulRetreats book this close to being done, and Flock on it’s way, you really should hop on the mailing list so you don’t miss a thing.

Alright lovelies, give me all your feedback and ideas! I’m off to work on a delightful joint project with Rowena Murillo for awhile and then it’s time to draft an essay for Jennifer McGuiggan’s holiday collection. Oooh…I love do so love it when like-minded souls come together!

Much Warmth!

Rachelle

Sometime Twitter yields real treasures. Such is the case of Naoko Stoop, a beautiful artist I discovered via a kind tweet. Naoko’s beautiful images transport me to magical world. Handcrafted scrapbooking goodness combined with fine draftsmanship make each image a delight to the eye. After viewing this slideshow of her work, I feel like I’ve been submerged in a warm bath.

Naoko has beautiful prints for sale on line, as well as perfect, understated hoilday greeting cards. You can find her at ther site Brown Paper Bag, or at her Etsy shop. And you can learn more about this clever artist in her statement below. Thank you Naoko, for bringing warmth and whimsy to our winter days!

Artist’s Statement: Naoko Stoop

Hello, I am Naoko Stoop, a self taught artist, based in Brooklyn NY. I love to read fairy tales from all over the world, and live in a magical world myself. 

Since I was little, I was fascinated with creating things on used paper: old books, newspapers, magazines, wrapping paper, letters and envelops.

My “Brown Paper Bag Collection” came from this fascination. I use recycled folded brown paperbags as my canvas. They have already had a sense of purpose in their previous forms. It is like detatching them from their old roles and combining with my mischievous drawings to create something new form something old. After a lot of experiments with paper and various inks, I have established a way to draw on used paper bags without losing the color and texture of the medium.

I also draw a little girl with a red knit cap. This series is playful and cheerful with colorful paint on wood panels.  She is not someone but she is everyone. She is a childhood image that everyone has in her or his mind. I am trying to create images that project the beauty in life.

Please visit Naoko Stoop at her website and her online shop. Tell her Magpie Girl sent you!  

photo of dancer Albertina Rasch, 1915. via the amazing Shorpy.

Art is not the application of a canon of beauty, but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs.
-Pablo Picasso

 If you’ve been following the A Year Without Clothes pledge, you know that part of my motivation for buying no clothes in the next year is a desire to spend less so I can give more. My charitable donations from the project will be going to The Apparent Project in Haiti — a small effort I wholeheartedly believe in.

 The Apparent Project is run by two long-time friends, Corrigan and Shelly Clay. Togther with their children (biological and adopted), The Clay’s take care of young ones in Haiti, most of whom are ”orphaned” not because they are without parents, but because thier desperate parents could no longer feed them. In addition to taking care of the children who are already “orphaned”, The Apparent Project also works to create cottage industries for the mothers, so that abandonment will not be a necessity.

As artists, parents, and philanthropists, Shelley and Corrigan never cease to inspire me. Today in a guest post, Corrigan explains about the cost of  living in Haiti, and connects the dots between our Year Without Clothes, and a Haitian child’s year with clothes.

A Year With(out) Clothes
by Corrigan Clay

“If you are poor things get cheaper.” This was the cosmic justice I created in my mind as a child. I think I developed it somewhere between being told that starving kids in China wanted to eat my cold asparagus, and finding out that a Mexican Peso was worth something like one gazillionth of a dollar. This misconception was further ingrained in my mind when “Third World” philanthro-tourist friends returned from their global treks talking about how they had paid a quarter for a handcrafted cardigan that “must have taken that lady 9 days to make.”  Church youth groups would come back from missions trips rejoicing that they had built a house for somebody for a mere $100.  Heartbreaking flies-on-kids infomercials for child sponsorship agencies would promise to feed and educate a child for only a dollar a day.  All of this made me think that life in the Land of Naught must be pretty cheap…. Read the rest of this entry »