Starting the Year Off Right!

Its my birthday! I turn 36 today.  The number 18 in Jewish tradition is important as it symbolizes Chai: (Life)and traditionally significant/spiritual numbers in Judaism come in multiples of Chai (18), so at 36, I am double chai. Didn't follow that? don't worry about it!(You can click Here for some more info on Chai if you are interested).

In any case, today I am double chai--and, as I'm a big believer in living with intention, I plan to start my double chai, 36th year in the way that I want to live the whole year long.

Here are my intentions (plus one gift for you!) on my 36th birthday:

1. Spending quality time with my family.  I love them so much.  I remember this always, even if I'm sometimes a bit louder about other things.

Today, and every day, I want to appreciate them, and love them, and just be grateful that these amazing, crazy people are in my life.  

2. Making more time with friends.  With little ones and work and being so busy all the time, its easy to forget to make time with and for friends.  My kids are getting bigger, my work is streamlining (in some ways), and there is no more room for excuses.  I will be seeing friends this weekend (yay!) and will make more time during the year.

shoot--I have no good recent pics with my friends~  this is very telling.  I will  fix that in the current year. 

3. Creativity! Ive committed to being in my studio every day this year, and on this weekend, I want to put what I make out into the world.  36% off everything in my store.  use the code  bday36  at www.etsy.com/store/juliewohlcreations

 

 

4. Me time!  I'm getting a pedicure! and I might buy myself a sweater.


That's it for today! I'm off to enjoy my day.  I hope you have a wonderful day too!  don't forget to use code bday36 in my etsy store this weekend for 36% off EVERYTHING!

Confessions of a Wannabe Luddite

Luddite: a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology

I took a selfie!  because: not a luddite. 

Ok, Ok, I'm not really a luddite. I am not completely opposed to new technology. I am active on social media, I am writing this blog, I even have a smartphone.  (Though admittedly, this is new for me, possibly making me the last person of my generation to own one).

I am not afraid of technology, and I use it often in my work as an educator and curriculum writer. And yet, when I am not working, I am inextricably drawn to making things in a decidedly non-techy way.  I am sort of in love with the idea of being a luddite, even if I don't exactly fit the mold.  

This past weekend I went home for Thanksgiving break. (Is it telling that even though I am a married woman with two children, having lived outside of my hometown for over 15 years, I still "went home"?)

While there I discovered that two stores that I worked at during high school and college--Michaels Arts and Crafts and Barnes and Noble Booksellers, were out of business. I felt the shock accutely--not only in terms of nostalgia for my misremembered youth, but also in terms of my current lifestyle. Those places, filled with the paint and paper, canvas and clay, ideas and inspiration, poetry, novels, magazines, journals and coffee of my youth remain the primary comforts of my adulthood. I love to create, to read, and to rub shoulders with others who do the same.

And though I know that the absence of these stores does not mean the absence of these influences, I can't help it. I am saddened by the loss of these spaces. I do know that neither of these companies are out of business nationwide, but I am concerned about their futures. It is not surprising that they are the types of stores that struggle in a web based consumer society.

And while the rest of the world moves ever faster into the digitial world, I find myself more and more drawn to the concrete and the physical.

As a mixed media artist, I have resisted the digital tools that have infiltrated the field. I quite literally cut and paste, paint and draw, in real life, with real tools. 

Over the past year, in addition to painting, I have become obsessed with the creation of soft sculpture art dolls. I am intrigued not only by the final product, but by the very act of sewing. I find it to be relaxing, exciting, even meditative. Every time I pick up a needle and thread, I feel connected to the past, even as the work that I create is strongly influenced by modern imagery and contemporary art. I am connected to the act of creating,as much as to the final physical product.

I don't think I'm alone. I can only imagine that the new found popularity of adult coloring books is about a very real need amongst adults to do something creative, to make something that is tangible, real, that they can hold.

And so, while occasionally I worry about becoming a dinosaur before my time, I am more and more comfortable with my countercultural embrace of the physical and material.

I love reading real books I buy actual magazines.I write in a journal. I find no digital comparison to the act of scratching pen on paper and creating using real paint on canvas. I love the feel of fabric and the act of sewing, of creating something from nothing.



Am I a luddite? probably not. But one day, I hope to become one.

Busy Busy

Its been a busy time in my studio! I've been getting ready for my solo show "Tradition and Inspiration" that will be at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art starting January 22nd.  The show, which runs until April 4th, will include 45 original works that have been mainly created in the last 5 years.  I find this time frame to be most appropriate since that has been the amount of time that I have lived in Central Pennsylvania, and the time in which I have been my most productive, and most truly embraced the idea of being a working artist.

I am excited to share this body of work with you and to reflect on this theme which resonates so strongly through my experience as a Jewish educator and artist.

In addition to the work I have been creating for this show, and the work I have been creating for commissions or for sale, I have also been teaching.  I love how the act of teaching and developing communal art projects has been so invigorating, and how that work has inspired my own work, as well as the opposite.
As I endeavor to create and to be inspired, I am amazed at how fully this cycle is self perpetuating.  I teach, I create, I reflect, I begin again. I think I need to write a blog about this!  well, that will be more work for another day.

For today, I simply wanted to give you a glimpse into the work in my studio.  The works on my walls, on my art table, and on the side table (since I am out of room on my walls and on my art table), are all works in progress.  I can't wait to see what they will become, and to bring them all together, in their final form.

And this last piece is finally done...I think.