Fran Meneley

Spring. Really?

Springtime in Colorado...I'm wanting Spring to spring, and have made my spring alter, just waiting for warmer, greener days ...

...but what I have is this. A little more snow and cold. Patience. Always patience as we wait for spring to really arrive here.

I love the spring food holidays and this year combined the big ones into "EaseOver" - Friends eased-on-over and we shared matzo, deviled eggs, matzo ball soup, Honey Baked Ham, Horseradish Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus and matzo candy and coffee! I'm sure somewhere this would offend someone, but it seemed just right for our little tribe.

This lovely snow has made our backyard a mud pit...waiting for the weather to cooperate for our new patio. Patience. Always patience.

Whiling away these last few snow days...I finished miss Guadalupe...

...and have started Mr. Fox...a great Ryan Berkley pattern, compliments of Sublime Stitching.

 

And now for the best film tip I will give you all year...Sound City. This documentary, while seemingly about the recording biz of days gone by, is really about the power of the human experience in the arts. A very, very inspiring story. 

 

After you've watched it you'll want more Dave Grohl. Insanely talented musician and now filmmaker, he gave the Keynote Speech this year at South By Southwest (SXSW). He's a masterful storyteller and as he unwinds his story about how he became a musician and the chances he took...I kind of fell in love. Seriously. It's 45 minutes and it's worth every single minute. Watch it. You'll be inspired. This was one of my favorite parts, 

"There is no right or wrong. There is only YOUR VOICE. YOUR VOICE screaming through an old Neve 8028 recording console, your voice singing from a laptop, your voice echoing from a street corner. A cello, a turntable, a guitar, serrato, a struder. It doesnt' matter. What matters most is that it's YOUR VOICE. Respect it. Cherish it. Nurture it. Challenge it. Stretch it. Scream until it's fucking gone. Because every human being is blessed with at least that. And who knows how long it will last. It's there if you want it."

Wow! That applies to all of us. Musicians for not. Us as artists and us a human beings.

Hope you are finding your voice this spring...rain, shine or snow. 

Inspiration Monday

 

Well...the month of February was consumed with illness. This season's cooties took me out, one right after the other. Lots of Vietnamese penicillin...AKA Pho, helped nourish my weakened corporeal existence.

I did get in a quick trip to Seattle with my son...love that city and it was fun to take my traveling companion to my favorite spots. The new Chihuly Garden and Museum was amazing and we managed to get a clear, blue sky day to view lovely Puget Sound from the Space Needle.

But then it was back to sick bay and more stitching! This is another one of Rebecca Ringquist's lovely samplers... 

...and another...love what you love, make what you make...my new motto. Because for me THAT was the month of February. I have a new appreciation for both the month of March (because it's NOT February) and my returning health.

My addiction/obsession/infatuation continues with this new piece using iron on transfers from Sublime Stitching, another great embroidery resource. I'll post when she's done. Hopefully it won't be soon...I need to return to my life and get out of sick bay!

Pretty much anything embroidery is on my radar these days and I have to share a little company that I've been in love with for a while...Coral and Tusk. A small, woman owned company out of Brooklyn, their dear pieces are so charming and were featured in February's Martha Stewart Living. Stephanie Housley is the proprietor and she says it best..."Embellishment can transform something really simple into something magical." Fabric and thread and imagination. Inspiring.

These are done by machine from Stephanie's drawings...

...so whimsical and fun and unique. Go here to watch the Coral and Tusk video to see how the pieces are made and where Stephanie gets her ideas - well worth your time. A great shot of inspiration.

Yesterday I ventured over to Fabricate, Boulder's new fabric shop...and inspiration abounds. A tiny shop, but filled with wonderful fabrics, a sewing studio for teaching and some nice embroidery patterns. If you are in town or near by, check it out.

 

And I leave you with this wonderful TED Talk by Dresden Dolls singer, Amanda Palmer. The Art of Asking. Just watch it. You'll see. Inspiring and provocative. Brave.

Fire and Ice and an Interview

 

This sunrise last week had me stepping out onto the back patio in my slippers and just gawking, slack-jawed as the sky caught fire. Truly awe inspiring. I felt very small in a very signifcant way, humbled to witness this fire in the winter landscape. When I move to town in March I will miss my view of the wide open prairie and the sunrises. New sunrises on my horizon in town, just through the trees.  

 

A counter point to that firey sky is this lovely little video of a true photography pioneering genius, Wilson Bentley. Brought to you by Miss Jaihn over at Truly Spacious. His ingenuity, passion and perseverance inspires us all.

If you'd like to read an interview with me discussing my thoughts on creativity and intuition, skip on over to Meri Arnett-Kremian's blog, Finally Me - a blog whose target audience is women of substance,intelligence, wisdom and experience who are continually growing and responding with grace. Posting articles on relationships (marriages, live-ins, friendships, family); transitions (empty nest, menopause, deaths, divorce, caring for parents, having kids come back home, mid-life dating and mind-body-spirit issues with a concentration on women's passions including art, travel, books, films and photography. Lots of great articles and interviews with other women of sustance. And thanks Meri, I am very honored to be included here.

Some Inspiration

As the first days of 2012 roll by, I thought I'd share a bit of inpsiration that has come my way.

I was really delighted to find a new magazine! As a lifelong magazine-a-holic, and former magazine adveriting director, I am always thrilled to find a new magazine to tuck into. And it is a sad state of affairs these day, at the newsstand. We used to have a really good shop in town that carried dozens of great titles and many, many foreign publications. Inspiration abounded and the gratification was immediate. Now, not so much. It's slim pickings and I think the expense for shops to carry a breadth of national and foreign titles has just gotten beyond the reach of most indie shop owners. So when I saw that there was a new magazine of "style and substance" available, I instantly subscribed.

I'm a paper girl, through and through, so I will eagerly await it's arrival in my post box. If however, you  just can't wait...they have a digital version! Anthology is both a blog and a magazine - how great is that!! The brainchild of two very acoomplished publishing mavens, Anh-Minh Le and Meg Mateo Ilasco (read their bios here) had a vision to create a publication that was a "shelter and lifestyle magazine that takes a narrative approach to its coverage of home decor, travel, design, entertaining, and culture." I think they have succeeded beautifully. Check them out and be inspired.

 

For the design geeks in all of us, watch this trailer for a film I caught on PBS about a week ago.  This documentary delves into the private world that Charles and Ray Eames created in their Renaissance-style, Venice Beach, California studio, where design history was born.Very inspirational and you get to see inside both their design studio and their home! Eames: The Architect and The Painter is available through Netflix here or check your local PBS listings.

If you're like me and like to peek into other people's studios, you'll love Where They Create - a blog and a book! No shiny coffee table tome, this one gets in before the creatives have time to clean up for company. A fun and voyeuristic skip into the spaces of our tribe. Find the blog here and you can order the book from here.

Hope this jump starts some homegrown inspiration in your creative workspaces!!

Ending/Beginning

 

I finished a journal up this weekend. I jump around in them, so it sometimes takes me a while. This one I started in February at the PLAY retreat and finished with my Taos trip. I made another one so I'd not be without one - they've been sitting together on my work table, getting to know each other. Passing secrets to one another. One will move to the shelf soon and the other one has already had a new beginning.

Old Work, New Work, Finished Work

 

This week I finished up work in two journals...completion feels good. I tend to jump around from journal to journal, so not all the pages are sequential in time and space. So when they are done it feels good to stand back and see the journey they took me on. I learned from my friend Mardie that journals like to hang together for awhile...the old and the new. Saying goodbye to one and hello to the next. And so they sat on my work table this week. Hanging out. 

In addition to finishing up journals, I have been deliciously enjoying and savoring a new stack of book finds that I gathered from my friends at PLAY. One of the best things about the retreat, besides uninterrupted work time, is all the new connections and resources we learn about from each other. New books to check out from the top...Wabi Sabi, It Takes A Long Time To Become Young, Love Letters To The Universe, The Mandala Book, Masters Collage, Painted Paper, Exploring Color.

The soundtrack for the weekend was my new music crush...Amos Lee. The heart and soul of a poet and a carmel voice from the south...he's THE MAN as far as I'm concerned. I LOVE, and I mean love like a junior high crush can't stop listening to the album sitting for hours with the liner notes learning every word of every song, LOVE, his newest release, Mission Bell. 

   

Here are the two finished journals with a little Amos Lee soundtrack. Enjoy!

Dreaming of spring...