theartstew

[theartstew]

Steward Collectable Card, Arielle Bacon - July

Arielle Bacon

Wonder Whisperer

Instagram: @destinedtowonder

Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia

Mediums: Poetry and prose, graphic design and photography

Favorite quote: “The body grows slowly and steadily but the soul grows by leaps and bounds. It may come to its full stature in an hour.” - L. M. Montgomery

Get to Know Arielle

Arielle, since the very first bubblings of the Stew, has unintentionally been my go to guinea pig. I asked her to do the first Friday Introductions on the account and the first live. I asked her to schedule time for the first Zoom meet up... I think it is because I just know that whatever she is apart of will go off without a hitch! (She is rolling her eyes right now) but it’s honestly how I feel. So I thought it appropriate to have the very first page of the Art Stew 52 book to be a quote written by her. So this contribution will be short and sweet but I recommend reading it twice.

“The thing I appreciate most about art as a whole is its intentionality. Intention is a delicate and furious medium. It is entirely individual, but its message is fully collaborative. It is who one is, but also what one creates. This is art.” 

Steward Card portrait and design by gracie klumpp.

[theartstew]

Steward Collectable Card, Kate Laing - June

Kate Laing

Lionhearted Explorer

She cultivates whimsical seeds and her bravery blooms while hiking the trails of our wild earth.

Instagram: @bravelykatelaing

Location: Somewhere in the forest

Mediums: Foraging, collaging, weaving

Favorite Quote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” - Mary Oliver

Get to Know Kate

My first impression of Kate Laing was that she loves everything and everyone with the strength of a lion but struggles to not feel like a mouse. This gives her a very special insight on how to understand us when we feel especially mousey. She has a beautiful shop and blog here and because I have always been drawn to her perspective of the world, I asked her to write an article to be published in the future book! Coming soon!

Steward Card portrait and design by GRACIE KLUMPP.

[theartstew]

Steward Collectable Card, Rachel Heffington - May

Rachel Heffington

Whimsy Personified

Life is, to her, just a Great Perhaps. She laughs and runs her fingers through possibility, for all is made lovely in time.

Instagram: @lipstickandgelato & @gelatobee 

Location: Norfolk, VA

Mediums: Watercolor, pen & ink, pastels, pantry ingredients

Favorite Quote: “Have courage and be kind.” - anonymous

Get to Know Rachel

If you have been a listener of the Art Stew 52 Podcast then you might remember her interview from Ep. 6 (you can listen to it here) where we all learned Rachel has written books. BOOK(S), plural! On her blog she is constantly blending her skills for writing and her love for food and one day I stumbled upon a post I knew you guys would love and asked her if I could feature it as an article in the future Art Stew 52 Book. I thought you guys might enjoy getting the first look!

TOAST A LIFE PLAN

Photo by Tina Zorzi

When you reach your mid-twenties and are still feeling your way toward making your passions into a career, the most common question you receive on any given day from any given stranger (or family member) is: “So what do you want to do with your life?”It is a question infallibly asked in a crumb-scattered tone and always followed with a readily disappointed smile.Usually you pull together a semi-coherent response from the shreds of clarity spinning through the rich Silicon Valley of your brain's complex path and manage to put forth a socially acceptable response. Some dulled, calmed, sedated version of what you mean.But I'm almost twenty-five. I want to begin to respond honestly. And by honestly I mean, I want to look my questioner square in the eye and reply:“I plan to be more like toast.”Sadly, people aren't well enough acquainted with toast to allow for this being a passable response. It's always this way in the world: to be given a chance at being taken seriously we must respond with the things people will understand; wanting to be more like toast isn't one of them.But being more like toast is, to me, a life's work. To be reliable and well-loved. Trustworthy. Life-giving. Nourishing. I want the experiences and relationships of my life to flavor me like gem-tone jams and jellies. The serious business sliding on smooth like peanut butter, the hilarious moments scattered over-top like sliced strawberries or confetti sprinkles. I want to be versatile. I want to be bruschetta one night and an open-faced sandwich another. I want to be dipped in flavored oil here and spread with herbed goat cheese there. I want passion to soften me like dark chocolate heated then drizzled with olive oil – a sprinkle of fleur de sel to draw out the depth of the moment, to savor forever.I want to taste like home. I want to sustain and to comfort. I want kindness and charity to pour through me like butter melting through the golden weave of a perfectly toasted slice of sourdough. I want to enter a room and be known for who I am: to be the same person every time; able to adapt to the nuances of a rich life without once losing my essence.For toast, at it's heart, is toast.You may fix your toast differently each morning, but you know that it is still toast and there's a homely delight in the knowledge. You may use a different loaf of bread...cycling through the loving names we give to all the varieties of leavened magic: rye, focaccia, whole-grain, chapati, sourdough, brioche, pumpernickel. I'm especially fond of pumpernickel – not the bread, just the name. The whimsical, devil-may-care word,pumpernickel. I want to care very little or not at all if I have a funny label or if some people don't find me to their taste. I want to be a person other people come to when they need help or a hug. I want to be what my children beg of me when we're all still half asleep on a rainy Saturday morning. On days of heartbreak or illness or sadness, I want to be “cimma-nin toast.” I don't want to be exotic and temporary and flash-in-the-pan. I want to be...I don't know...wholesome, established, genuine. I want to be the Velveteen Rabbit of women, gaining status as something real through giving myself for others. It isn't a sexy ideal. It isn't glamorous. It isn't alluring, but let's see what has lasted over the eons: Team Macaron or the multi-faceted toast genre? So the next time a well-meaning, inquiring mind asks what I want out of life, I might throw social graces to the wind and pull a strategy from the pumpernickel playbook: “What is my life-plan? To be a little more like toast.”

Steward Card portrait and design by gracie klumpp.

[theartstew]

April’s Steward Collectable Card, Jada Ford

Jada Ford

Hopeful Romantic

Jada wanted to be in a story, even if it didn’t end in happily ever after. Instead of waiting for someone to cast her in their book, she began to write her own and life became a fairytale.

Instagram: @closerbythesecond

Location: Marksville, LA

Mediums: Poetry & Story-Writing

Favorite Quote: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”—Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

Get to Know Jada

From the very beginning Jada’s writing made an impression on the Stew. For example if you follow her you might have read a haiku or two as beautiful as this:

“You, who are like stars, should not cover yourself in dark, desolate skies.”

Or

“Luna was more curious about the earth than the stars.”

Based on all the reading I did over there that kept pulling on my heartstrings, I became such a fan and asked her to write an “about me” for the future Art Stew 52 book. (AND you will notice a lot of the Steward features this year will be Stewards helping with the book!) Jada has a few goodies for you, here’s a surprise... this is the “about me” article Jada wrote for the book. I thought you guys might enjoy getting the first look!

Don’t Starve the Artist by Jada Renee Ford:

Though I find myself endlessly inspired in the fall, summer has always been my prime time for writing. When school let out, I usually split my days. In the afternoon, after chores were done, I would read. I’m a night owl, and inspiration arrived with twilight so that’s when I wrote.

Last year I entered my first semester of college. Away from strict parents and thrown into one intriguing situation after another, my head was brimming with story ideas. As usual, there was no time to write any of them out. However, when my college friend, whom I affectionately call Egg, started an Etsy account, I was thus inspired to have a place for my craft as well. I began a poetry and short story blog on Instagram.

However, I couldn’t put much time into it. I found myself at a “part-time” summer job that asked five days and eight hour shifts from each of my coworkers. Halfway through June, I felt more like a pool attendant than a writer. I was restless and dissatisfied with my existence. As I am a very dramatic person, I considered running away to some place I could write forever on the chunk change I had saved so far. I hated that I spent more hours at a pool staring at nothing and hoping for anything except what I had. So I did what all people with existential questions do: I went to Google. I found a fancy word for restlessness (akathisi, if you must know), which ended in many journalists telling me I would never be satisfied.

(Excuse me, never?)

One day, while doodling on my hand with a Sharpie, I realized there was actually hope for something close to happiness. I bought a small notebook to stuff in my work jacket and started plotting the book I am currently writing and wrote poems for my blog. Gone were the nights of staring blankly at my computer, wishing I’d had time to think a chapter through. I actually wrote more than I had during summers when I didn’t have a job.

One of the problems with being an artist is not having time to be one. Jobs, family, and other obligations usually always have to come first. But who says that you can’t doodle at a family reunion or hum a tune for a song in progress while you bring your kids or siblings to school? Make a mental note of how you spend your days and try combining tasks so that you may be able to squeeze in some creative time before bed. No one desires to be a starving artist, but if we do not find ways to cater to our talents and hopes, the artist in us will starve. So I hope to catch you all halfway in a daydream, sketching under a table or playing an air-guitar at work.

A Haiku Gift Collab To You From Jada & Brandon 

A free phone and desktop wallpaper for you!

You can download the phone wallpaper here...

And the desktop wallpaper here!

(I did not intentionally make all of Jada’s writing celestial themed BUT I’m not mad about it!)

Steward Card portrait and design by Gracie Klumpp.

[theartstew]

March’s Steward Collectable Card, Anya Campbell

Anya Campbell 

Fearless Maker

Anya finally learned that the secret to progress is saying yes to projects she was scared to try. Now she revels in the tingling sensation of creative fear.

Instagram: @somedaymaker

Location: Ashland, VA

Mediums: Sound is her main medium, as well as fiber arts.

Favorite Quote: “How you spend your days is, of course, how you spend your life.”—Annie Dillard

Get To Know Anya

Anya Campbell is a very old friend of mine and once I saw she was creating and making on Instagram, I immediately invited her to the Stew. Anya was sharing a lot of her fiber arts there BUT I also knew she had a lot to say with her voice. Her perspective on the *magic* creating brings to your everyday is something I knew the Stewards would really appreciate SO I organized an interview with her for the Art Stew 52 Podcast. That was way back at Ep. 4, MAKING ART-MAGIC with ART-MUGGLES. (If you missed it and would like to get to know the artist behind the Steward card a little better, have a listen.)

I especially knew I must feature her on a Steward Card when she willingly composed a jingle for the Patreon Stewsletter Podcast. You can have another listen, here.

A Gift to You from Anya

(Each of these blogs will include some kind of treat from the featured Steward and for this one Anya is sharing yet another lovely perspective I know you will find encouraging on how to live more fully as an artist.)

How To Change Your Life in 10 Minutes

(A crispy sampling of common sense, served up on mod-fusion small plates!)

Maybe my favorite author of all time (at least for invigorating inspiration) is an educator from Great Britain who lived over 100 years ago. Her name is Charlotte Mason, and she’s been posthumously kicking my rear for the past few years, as I slowly underline my way through her 6 volumes. She talks about habits a lot; how almost all of what we do in a day is habitual to the point of not even being aware of it (ie: brushing our teeth, or drinking water, or not drinking enough water).

“A habit is 10 natures.”  -- What we purposefully do to the point of it becoming habit is far, far, far (and 7 more fars) stronger than our natural bent.  And there’s no start too small, which sounds partly inspirational, but is true, too!  It means the statement, “I suck at lettering.”,  or “I’m so disorganized.”, or “I’m not a math person.”, or anything else you can think to plug in here can be changed -- with nothing more than a bit of gumption and a timer.

Further, if we don’t purposely develop habits, we’re more likely to be pulled around by whims and circumstances, rather than taking baby steps toward fulfilling our goals.

Haha, so now you know I’m not a motivational guru -- but for real, guys, this idea of taking a few minutes of purposeful, careful, thoughtful (and all the other adjectives that also mean the same thing) time toward something --- and I’m talking 10 to 15 minutes a day --- can change, not only your perception of yourself, but your actual ability. Here’s how, in 4 steps!

Make a (very) short list of one change that you’d like to see in yourself or your life in the next month. Please be on your own team, be friendly, and be realistic -- so don’t write “be debt free” or “run a 4 minute mile” or “learn to play Mozart D Major violin concerto” -- but opt for things you’ll succeed in, like “practice lettering,” “take 5 deep breaths of fresh air every day,” “read at least 2 pages of a book every day,” “clean the kitchen,” etc.

Minimize distractions and disruptions. Put your phone in a drawer. Turn off the TV. Purposeful work is absolutely key to making new habits.

Set the timer for 10 or 15 minutes. (I got a sweet Casio watch on clearance for $5. It has a built-in timer and I literally never work without it. I love it so much that I’ll share the Amazon link below. In the event of no sweet Casio watch, use a kitchen timer or phone on airplane mode.)  

With your distractions gone and your timer set, put your hand to your task. Work carefully and diligently until the timer rings.  This can be a lot harder than it feels like it should be (thanks for nothing, 15-second attention span world!) - but if your mind wanders, gently shepherd it back to your task (remember, you are your friend). When the timer rings, allow yourself to be done for the day (you want to want to come back tomorrow).

So come back again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. Don’t miss a day for 31 days and you’ll be well on your way to a fine new habit, which means it’ll be just as easy to do the thing than to not do it.

Slow, careful practice turns little things into big things. Honest it does. All it takes is diligence and trust (pixie dust optional), and a short term goal you can stick to without burnout (remember to be your friend).  These ideas (as with alllll ideas) feed each other…shoot for little, repeatable habits that can build on each other to achieve big goals.

I won’t be offended if you’re still hungry -- small plates aren’t supposed to be a full meal. Here’s hoping maybe these thoughts sparked an even greater appetite to greatness!

And perhaps, buy a watch.

Steward Card portrait and design by Gracie Klumpp.