Moving my blog

I am gradually moving my blog to Wordpress. Getting Christmas cards out right now and working on other stuff but I am using Lynda.com to learn Wordpress and should be done soon.

New blog: WalkingSatellite.com

Check out new Christmas cards plus one scandalous one at Cafepress.

Vibrant Women

The font is done! We are calling it "Vibrant Women". Thirty-one characters dancing, skiing, reading, having coffee with a friend, playing softball, tennis . . . When it is up and running I will link to Rae's site but meanwhile I have done a set of cards featuring four of the women with more to come. They are up on Cafepress -- greeting cards, a few posters, you can even get an iPad sleeve of this one! In the above card, I used Rae's typeface called "Best Regardz" for the text and her "Leaf Doodles" for the vegetation at the bottom. She has really cool fonts and every month there is a FREE FONT! Check out her site:

www.Outside-the-Line.com

Women, Fishing, Yoga

Almost finished with the Woman Font which still does not have a name. Any ideas? If you think of something good there may be free fonts in your future. Just reading an article about how artists look at the whole painting as they paint -- I had to do that with this drawing when it was done. When I looked at each part, it seemed out of proportion but when I look at the drawing as one piece, it works. You can imagine the other arm somehow. And if that sounds like I don't always know how I do what I do . . . yeah, I can't explain it. 

My yoga class went well. I've taught other classes but this one seemed like the real deal. I think because it is an 8 week class, Yoga for Abs, and I made the whole thing up from scratch. It progresses. The students are cool. I did so much research, practice, thinking, thinking. I think the most important thing I learned was that a tense muscle cannot be strengthened. So forget about sucking it up. The main job of the abdominal muscles is to act as the Stabilizer and to strengthen them you have to use them in that capacity. 

New Class Starting

Yoga for Abs. I'm teaching a class at Pratt School starting Wednesday, September 28. Come if you can!

Yoga for Abs

7:30 to 8:45 PM

Wednesdays, September 28 - November 16

$45

Pratt School

66 Malcolm SE

Minneapolis, MN

Register: Minneapolis Community Ed

Just did this new T-shirt. You can find it on Cafepress.com 

song practice

Tonight You Belong To Me. I get to sit in with a small group of musicians and singers. They tell me I have to SING LOUDER! I'm shy but I'm starting to know the songs and the voices to harmonize with and sometimes it will be a song that I actually do know and I will get loud. This is one of the songs we are practicing and one of the group showed us this clip he found. It's all the same guy. The broom dance is my favorite.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

DStress

http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p347/heyemilyhey/807MarineCorpsEmblem.jpg

Callers will speak with veteran Marines, former FMF corpsmen with years of experience on 'the green side', and licensed behavioral health counselors who have taken Marine Corps-specific training to understand our culture. That's what it says on the website for DStress. It looks pretty cool, a service of the Marine Corps -- that seems like a good thing.  I think it's also for "attached sailors". Don't know if there is something like this for the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, 9/11 Firemen . . .



DStress
http://www.dstressline.com/index.cfm/about-us/

Thoughts on "Yoga for Vets". 

see "Nest of Stillness" on Facebook
(on the left)

One Bad Painting a Day

That's what my friend Jane said to me a long time ago when I was stressing about lack of talent, lack of ambition, time, whatever pathetic excuse I could muster, "Do one bad drawing a day." It takes the stress off of it. Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.

I met an artist here at a studio in the Northeast Arts District and fell in love with her paintings. Then got up the nerve to ask if she had classes or workshops because I had the rare feeling that I could learn something particularly valuable to me, if that makes sense. No workshops or classes but I could stop by and talk if I wanted. So I did, a few Saturdays later.

I didn't want to impose on her but she kept diving into dark corners and bringing things out to show me -- easels, brushes, sketchbooks, paintings, photographs. I was there for an hour. At some point I realized I was getting my first lesson. I got invited back.

One of the things she told me to do was start painting every day, just quick little sketches of things at hand. This is the first one, done in 45 minutes.