Studio Open Day...where has the time gone?

Apologies to my readers for not keeping up with my personal blog. In April I was on an artist in residence and May has been crazy-as! Hope to catch up with things in June, as I have a slightly quieter month...well that's the plan!

Here are two dates to put on your Callander. One is for this Sunday. Sorry about the late notice!

First is our Open Studio. Meet the artists, buy some art, book in for an art class, whatever. You are welcome. The other is the 'Decorated Ducks For Depression Auction' to raise money for mental health research. See below.

25th May 2014 & 1st June 2014.

Why blog?

                                            Not that bad really. Ha Ha!

Well, I've been in two minds, well actually it has felt like about 6 minds about wether or not to keep my blogs going. Now that I have started studying, a large part of the work at the start of this two-year full-time diploma, is based on my personal journey, which means I'm digging around some deep wells and having to reflect and write ....and draw and write some more! So, the last thing I feel like doing is sitting at the computer to write more reflections on my life.

There also seems to be two types of blogs. Those that are personal reflections and these are possibly meaningful to family and other viewers. Then there are those that are meant to be promo for your Business and shouldn't be banging on about yourself so much as being more about what it is your customers need and want. Okay, I wouldn't mind a few more art students to teach and I wouldn't mind selling a lot more paintings on-line and sharing art making tips, but when it all boils down the benefits to me are the process of writing out my thoughts and becoming more aware of where life is taking me, where I am trying to take life sometimes, and all the difficulties inbetween that teach me about spirituality, the body, mental health and relationships.

So that's it.... I have decided to combine my 'InterPlay' blog with my 'Life worth Living 'blog which will also be about my Art Therapy study, which is very interesting I might add. I will keep my Web page janetpfeifferartist.com and my Face Book page. My Visual Art blog will only be about Painting....I think?

They really do all meld into one. Probably need to think about this some more but right now I have run out of time!! The question is what do I want? Mmmmm......

March 2014 Update

My update on what's been happening in the last couple of weeks. You'll need a cuppa and an armchair!

Greg has a new second hand car. A little Audi sports coupe that he found at a bargain price. It is bringing him that little bit of enjoyment that keeps him going after a long week of work. It is good to see him taking pleasure in something he has always dreamed of even if it is only a car, it is meaningful and valuable to him and it hasn't broken the bank...yet. He wants to see how it pans out over the next 12 months before he decides if he can afford to keep it or not. I hope he can.

I too have some new wheels. I have a new bike. Just recently I was riding home from fitness training and thinking to myself...I love riding my bike! Next thing I knew, I'd hit a pot hole full of sand and instantly I was catapulted off the seat and fell onto my elbow and head. I broke a small bone in my elbow and my arm is in a sling, thankfully not a plaster, so I'm hoping that it will heal just as the head nurse at the hospital (who I don't think was not a Dr) advised me.

I also have developed a spur in the heel of my right foot which is being treated by phisio, ulta-sound and bandaging. The result has been a much more manageable pain level with times when there is no pain at all, which is great!

I have started swimming, that is when I am not when I am not floating around in a meditative state! It has been a great way to cool down after sweating it out in the studio when the weather is over 30 degrees.

I am currently in a month-long-group art exhibition at Houghton Winery. Sold 4 small paintings amounting to $280 less 20% commission, so that is not yet covering my cost of  around $370 for hanging fees! Still it is early days and anything can happen between now and 26th March when the exhibition closes. Come and visit if you live in Perth!

Residency in April - I am looking forward to another month as artist-residence at the Station Gallery in Beverley. I will be teaching the little bit I know about encaustic art, maybe some more InterPlay with the kids and spend some time focusing on the next couple of art competitions coming up.

I am just about to finish this months classes for Module 1 of my Advanced Diploma in Transpersonel Art Therapy which I started on 7/3/2014. I am loving it. Like coming home to where I belong. I am on a real high at the moment but trying not to show it too much, just in case I find out I am dreaming!

I'll be swinging into my first assignment next week. Already there has been so much self reflection and self-analysis and apparently this is just the beginning. I don't think there will be any dark corner left unswept by the end of this course - understanding, and where possible resolving what's going on in my own head using art therapy seems to be a prerequisite for helping others to do the same. Our own life story/journey is the material we use in class to practice the skills we need. Very interesting.

I want to add this last point which I feel is quite significant. For over 10 years I have been on a regime of medications to treat major depression. Two months ago my specialist started me on a program to slowly reduce the dosages with the aim to removing them completely over 12 months. Because of the regular reoccuring nature and severity of my depression I was originally advised to stay on them for life.

Having experienced no set backs in the last 10 years the suggestion was made to see how I go. I've experienced a few uncomfortable side effects but generally quite manageable. It's a matter of baby steps.

That's all folks!

I thought this was really special...

Dear Jan,

    Any excuse I suppose to stop work on a busy day but this one is special.  I was thinking of the meaning and value of gifts.   Its a lovely sunny morning and one of my rare washing days (About 3 a month)  As I hang out the washing I pick out the pegs that you took the trouble to hand paint for me what could be nearly 15 years ago by now and the effect is always the same.  As I handle the peg, a simple gift but a special gift because I am the only one who has this gift . . . .as I handle it, I see your lovely face and red hair and its almost like you are here helping me.

   I hope you don't think that I am losing it, its just that I see you at that time, very short of money but never short of love, making your Dad something that is useful and to me, it carries more thought and treasure than the gift of a gold watch.

   I thank my God for the gift of you in my life,

   Dont answer Jan . . . .just know that I love you very much.

   Dad . . . . xxx

Christmas 2013

Recently arrived home from Adelaide after a crazy, joy-filled, full-on Christmas with my daughter, son in-law and 3 grand kids. I say full on, compared to my usual quiet Christmas where there are no excited children tearing off christmas wrapping paper to see what Santa has delivered!

Though I only have 3 grand children, I've been in the precense of 17 kids over the last 48 hours while visiting parents in-law and friends of Jade and George. The ongoing supply of delicious food and drink and watching the exchange of gifts between family and friends was quite overwhelming as there were so many more people gathered together. 

Santa is for kids. I felt like I had been in a Christmas movie where I had spent a couple of days in a trashed toy department store! I've never seen so many colourful toys and discarded wrapping paper in one place before.

Let me see if I can remember some of the gifts that Santa bought for all these children I spent Christmas with....

Loads of Lego from Lego-land and Maccano machines 

Princess dress ups, The Little Mermaid and. Ninja Turtle outfits with Ninja masks.

     Minneo's that talk gibberish, burp, giggle and fart very realistic farts!

    A two-headed dragon and a flying dragon with the widest of wings.

Spider-man with his super stretchy suction pads inside his rocket-like racing car

A whiz around loop-the-loop matchbox-car-race-track

Beautiful barbie dolls with beautiful clothes and little shoes 

Trolls with their own private hairdressing salons set up to style their fluffy green and purple straight-up-in-the- air-hair.

Huge cuddly soft toy dogs with Santa hats.

A barbie-doll pink plastic dolls house fully furnished with dinky little furnishings

Wooden farmhouses with little farm animals. 

Cute  horsey merry-go-rounds that you fill up with water and glitter

Blow up punching bags, a water-slide, even some handcuffs and pink guns on a belt

Computer games, connecter pens and other crafty things

Colorful plastic skate boards and a Pop-the-balloon game. 

And finally Santa stockings full of lollies and those good old gold chocolate coins which seemed to be on the floor of every room in the house, much to my daughters dismay! She threatened if she found any more on the floor they would go straight in the bin...and she meant it!

Seeing the children tearing the wrapping paper from their present was stage 1. Next came the impossible task of removing the packaging. You needed a fair amount of grit and some very sharp scissors to separate the toy from the grip of it's casing. I realise the department stores dont't want these items stolen but hello, we grandma's need to be able to cut the damn thing loose if we want our grandkids to start playing with it!

The items are finally released and O-oh! Now they need to be assembled. Then come the instructions! An arms length worth of instructions to read, which is no small feat when you have several excited children breathing down your neck.

 This is where I take my hat off to my daughter who would swing into action, sit down on the floor with instructions in one hand and all manner of bits and pieces to build or connect in the other.

I must have seen her assemble half a dozen or more toys and not once did she swear or loose her patience. She took her time and methodically followed the instructions step by step and persevered even when parts didn't fit together. I was so proud of her!

She wondered why she felt like she hadn't stopped running and that we hadn't had much time together to chat. That's because every time I looked at her she was reading a new set of instructions!

Well done Jade! 

Christmas 2013. It was great to be with my daughter and husband and 3 little grandees, especially while they are still young enough to believe in Santa and be wide-eyed with the wonder of Christmas. To watch them have their imaginary world come to life through these spectacular toys and in amongst all of that to hear the words "I love you Nana and I want you to stay with us for ever!"

Dive Down Into The Whole

I haven taken this from a Tara Brach post on her web page. I personally had never heard of the 'keeper  hole' and I'll try to remember this next time I am overwhelmed by fear. Hope it is helpful to you too

The key to being with fear is in contacting what is here now, rather than trying to push it away. Here’s a story from the river that helps us understand that. In kayaking, you learn about what is called a keeper hole. It’s a swirl in the river that catches a boat or a body and pulls it down under the water. You can drown because you get stuck in that swirling current and you can’t get out of it.  If you get caught in a keeper hole, the only way out is actually to dive right into the center, down as far and deep as you can, toward the bottom, because if you get to the bottom you can swim out the side of the swirl.

So you do the opposite of what your instincts tell you to do. Your instinct, of course, is to fight your way to the surface. But it won’t work; you’ll keep getting pulled into the hole. No, you have to dive down into the hole. 

So This Is Christmas...2013

A Blessed Christmas to you. It is a fact that 2,000 yrs ago, this child named Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and the rest is His-story. Peace to you, especially at this time of the year when for some of us, expectations can be a bit over the top!

Love Janet