The Moveable Feast in the Forest

"Ridges #2", watercolor on paper, 2011

There is a conversation traveling around weblands about the 

art of blogging. Terri Windling over at The Drawing Board 

referred to it as the "moveable feast", and the name has stuck. 

It has traveled winding paths from John Barleycorn Must Die to 

The Drawing Board, to A Mermaid in the Attic in Australia.

 It started with Howard and Rex of John Barleycorn Must Die 

and their around the table interview with Rima Staines 

of Into The Hermitage. I invite you to track back along 

the path to find many morsels of inspiration.  

March ninth marks my year anniversary of blogging, and I'm getting

 in on the conversation and telling a bit of my story about how and 

why I blog. Though I set up RavenWood Forest many months

before, I used it only once as an information board for a 

Summer Solstice event here. It sat idle for a long time 

until I had traveled around enough in the world of blogs 

to see the potential. 

When I discovered Rima Staines,Terri Windling, Midori Snyder, 

and the Journal of Mythic Arts a few years ago while looking

 for mythic artists to show my students, everything changed. 

I was instantly inspired by the beautifully visual worlds

 on each of their blogs, and began a journey down the 

many paths they laid in their link lists. I became quite

obsessed, really, though it was exactly the traveling 

I needed to do to offer my students rich and inspiring 

resources for a new class I was teaching, 

Myth & Symbol. 

"Orange Evening Sky", watercolor on paper, 2011

I'm not sure how it happened, but one day I decided that it 

was time to begin blogging in earnest, and I took the plunge. 

As my one year anniversary approaches, I reflect back that 

I had no idea how much this endeavor would gift me in 

inspiration and connection and how it would support my 

creative process. When I moved to RavenWood from

 Providence in 2003, I left a vibrant arts community, 

my 1100 sq. foot studio, and many, many circles 

of professional artists like myself. Coming here, 

I was making the choice to move close to my source, but 

also to move away from conversations, critiques and a 

community that very much understands creative process. 

"Wet Sky", watercolor on paper, 2011

I've discovered that blogging is an important part of my 

process. Christina over at A Mermaid in the Attic 

writes "I do not live in a close-knit creative community, 

and I can hardly accost a stranger in the street 

and force them to listen to the song I've just 

written or look at the painting I'm working on and expect 

an intelligent coherent comment." Having left my creative 

community behind, I have come to understand that 

blogging, for me, provides a format to write about my 

process and be witnessed. I have looked back at older 

posts and my work and seen threads of connections 

I might not 
have without the sequential 

nature of blogging.
 

I find that seeing my artwork online, in a new format, 

is a way of seeing it anew. Like the old trick we professors 

often advise our students - if you have been working so long on

 a painting and you no longer really SEE it, look at it in a mirror.

 And, of course, as Christina says above, its also helpful to get 

responses. When I started doing a series of spiral drawings, 

I found the comments quite interesting. They continue 

to give me insights into the spiral form - I love 

the things that people see in them. 

"Afternoon Mists", watercolor on paper, 2011

I'm participating in conversations in several overlapping 

online circles. The mythic artists buzzing around the 

artists and blogs mentioned above, and many of 

you who follow here, and the stitching, dyeing 

circles rippling out from Jude over at Spirit Cloth.

The richly inspiring communities which I now 

touch into not only help me feel connected once 

again to artists, but also continue to support me 

to be a better teacher. I am continually pulling out 

my laptop during class to show a student some 

unusual use of materials. Blogs give my students 

access to artists who are in the trenches and who

 are talking about it and who might not yet 

be published in a major catalog or book. 

This is a gift and an invaluable resource.

There is much more to say, and I'll continue my musings

 another time, as this post is reaching "mermaid proportions!" 

(You'll need to follow the above links to get the reference...)

By the way the heater is working GREAT, I've never been 

warmer in the studio in winter. All the paintings in this 

post were made in the last two weeks, 

I've been in there a LOT!

I'll leave you with some images from my afternoon walk 

with Pasha. The first in many weeks since finally he 

can walk on top of the frozen snow. I sounded like a 

freight train walking in my snowshoes today on crusty, 

icy snow, but it is still necessary as even with much 

melting from last week we still have several feet. 

Pasha was so excited, he raced WAY up these trees,  

and down in a long, gentle slide all the way to 

the ground. I've never seen him do that before!