I love how life amps up in the fall.  Each weekend filled with our favorite seasonal activities and preparations for baby’s arrival in January.  I’m eagerly plowing through my to-do list as I anticipate my body grows larger and slower with each passing week.  I’ve made a few new paintings in October.  My art show at Batdorf and Bronson was extended another month and I was able to replace a few of the sold paintings with new ones.  It’s been a really successful exhibit and I feel so lucky to have had such a great spot to show my work.

In addition, I’m beginning to make Christmas gifts.  I need to plug Sew, Mama, Sew’s annual handmade for the holidays project ideas (click button on the side bar for crafty inspiration!)  I feel like a pretty lousy craft maker and fear my creations will soon end up on super snarky Regretsy, but I do love receiving handmade gifts and value the love and attention that goes into each crooked stitch.

A couple paintings I made last month:

Baby quilt I hope to finish before baby is in college.  I plan to hand quilt it, because I’m a bit obsessive:

Mogs’ preschool is earthy goodness:

Apple cider making party.  My banner photo was from this day, too:

Costume contest at the farmer’s market.  Mogs was voted “Best Storybook Character”:

Little Red Riding Hood has a bit of a sugar high:

Mogs Made Art: Dias de los Muertos masks:

What to do with those silly little decorative pumpkins:

We used non-drying modeling clay.  It’s kinda like a DIY Mr. Potato Head.  You can peel off the clay and start over anytime.

Current list of books I’ve checked out of my local library with the overly ambitious hope of actually reading them:

Novel–The Other by David Guterson

Non-fiction–The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Feminist Essays on Art by Lucy Lippard

Artist Biography–Edouard Vuillard (I think this book weighs at least 10 #!)

Children’s Book–When You Were Small by Sara O’Leary

La Patisserie 1899 by Edouard Vuillard

My brain is so scattered lately due to the combination of pregnancy hormones and caregiving.  Ideas and images float in and out of my brain all day.  I try to lasso them to my mind as I go about my errands.  As I drive down the road I try to hold on to that great quote or gesture, imprinting it onto my mind until I get the chance to capture it on paper:

The way Tony holds his coffee cup; a Japanese Anemone in bloom; and, the sing-song that Mogs mumbled to herself on the drive to preschool.

Each day I attempt to pace myself so that I’ll have energy when the moment arrives to set to my own work.  Most days the pull of a nap or the call of a mindless video is all I can manage.  What would my creative life look like if I could gather all those pink cloud ideas as they appeared? Where would these wispy thoughts lead if there were no distractions?

It was Fall ArtsWalk last night.  The semiannual art event in downtown Olympia.  I showed recent paintings at Batdorf and Bronson Coffeehouse–which will be on display throughout October.

I really loved the space I had to work with–the color of the walls played on the color in my paintings in a nice way and the overall installation was smooth.  The evening itself was the best night I’ve ever had sharing my work.  So many friends came to visit, I made a number of new contacts and I sold more than I expected.  I came home feeling really high!

I didn’t get the chance to take many photos, but I did manage to capture a couple of my favorite moments:

My little friend C. stopped by and played the cutest violin in the world for us.  He doesn’t know any songs yet, but he can hold the bow and play a few notes!

I enjoyed seeing two moms nursing their tiny infants next to my painting featuring a mom breastfeeding her baby.

The event was pretty tiring for Mogs, but at the end of the night she had some good cuddling story time with Tony:

So, stop by sometime this month for some coffee and some art:

…what I overheard my daughter shouting in the kitchen last night.

She also recently asked Tony if he and I had playdates when we first met.

Having a 3 1/2 year old is incredibly challenging.  I’m constantly turning to parenting books for advice, as I often find myself quickly reaching the end of my parenting abilities.  My current favorite author is Alfie Kohn and his ideas on Unconditional Parenting.

It makes me long for the idle days of nursing a baby or the hours of baby talk from a one year old.  Yet, Mogs has also reached this place where she can make Tony and I laugh so hard with her intricate stories and just plain silliness.  One thing I’ve learned about her is that she seems to be a visual learner.  In order to process different ideas, she requests that we draw them.  Since I’m a visual and experiential learner myself, I totally understand where she is coming from.  This drawing below is based on a dream she had about our family visiting the cider mill.  Afterward we rode home on a horse.  I love that she is including soon-to-be born baby sister in her representation of our family.  (I helped her with the horse part.  She really wanted me to add the mare’s labia–as she is figuring out body parts–but at that angle, I didn’t see how to include it!)

This is a drawing she made of a pig.  I love that she added hooves and her standard see-through stomach.  I think her fascination with stomachs and what’s in them must relate to my own growing belly?

On the agenda for this afternoon’s drawing session is depicting a rainbow colored house and cars, as well as, an earthquake.

I’m gearing up for my upcoming solo(!) show at Batdorf & Bronson.  (Sure it’s a coffeehouse, but in Olympia there are very few galleries or decent exhibition spaces.  B & B is a popular hangout and a good spot to have my work seen.)  The opening is Friday, October 2 at 5 PM during Olympia’s Fall ArtsWalk.  My paintings will be up for the whole month!

I returned to working with fiber for this piece on the suggestion of my friend Suzanne:

I Gather Strength © Carrie O’Neill 2009

The image was inspired by this poem:

You who gave me birth between your sturdy legs
are dead. You who gave me food and drink
and washed my clothes, ironed my shirts,
took me shopping for a suit and coat are dead.
Now that I am old I sing you back
to stay with me, companion that you were to me
in youth, as now I gather strength to come
to where you are and rest with you.
–David Ignatow from Shadowing the Ground

Looking Back © Carrie O’Neill 2009

Its Death Had Made Sweet Odors © Carrie O’Neill 2009
(Title suggested by Tony based on a quote by George Eliot)

White Lilies (and detail view) © Carrie O’Neill 2009

What You Endure Becomes A Gift © Carrie O’Neill 2009

Since baby girl is due in January, this will likely be my last art show for the next year.  I plan to keep on painting–if nothing else, to preserve my sanity.  I struggle with the prospect of decreased productivity, but I’m trying to be realistic about my expectations in the coming year.  After going through a rough first year when my older daughter was born, I really want to savor all the moments with baby girl and allow myself the space to get used to raising two girls.

It is an interesting dilemma that women face as they become mothers–preserving a sense of self while acknowledging the impact of motherhood on our identities, energy and time.  I find myself becoming frustrated with the prospect of slowing down creatively; yet I know that the experience of becoming a mother has not only enriched my life, it has giving me rich themes to work with and made me more focused in my work habits.  When I’m in a good space I try to focus on the long-term.  To see the time spent raising little kids in the larger context of a long life with many different periods.

We make a lot of mess in our house.  When we’re in the thick of a project, bits of paper, tape and glitter fly.  I sometimes wish we had a nice kitchen table (or kitchen for that matter), but then I might be stressed out by this sort of activity.  We always clean up when we’re done–but mid-process, chaos reigns.  Mogs is currently working on a series of paper doll chickens and has plans for a rooster.

A few finished fairies:

Fairies in their habitat.  Note their purses–repurposed from a birthday card:

Reading an old issue of The Believer, I came across a fun interview with the artist Robyn O’Neil.  Her giant graphite drawings amaze me in their scale and interest me in terms of their end of the world subject matter.  She is also a weather watcher, making daily notes on the weather conditions at her house.  I like thinking about her toiling away in her studio, emerging to make a quick notation on the weather, and then returning to her drawing.

I also found a piece on her on the PBS Art Beat site.