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Rumi

New start!

OK here goes.....

Here I am, a rare photo of me, one thing I am thinking of doing is changing that and taking more photos of me this year......

Time to take care of this unhappy girl once and for all. As I said in my last post I am ready to take on some changes in the name of radical self care. I brainstormed a list of things to take on, some deep, some silly. Collectively they will create an awesome 2012 and I look forward to showing a different picture in December. I read all the time that one of the key drivers to success in any project is to declare your intention and document it so here I am. This is not a weight loss blog, no lists of calories and food. It is a life change blog.

It will a progress to turn this girl's life around and also a declaration of commitment for me to this project.

So, 2012 will be awesome because I will :

• read more books
• choose healthy
• cycle more
• eat more oranges
• drink more herbal tea
• drink more water
• volunteer 
• get a job
• add new recipes to my repertoire
• get baptised 
• work for my church
• keep a one sentence diary
• blog more
• spend more time behind a camera
• get rid of useless belongings
• finish more paintings
• listen to more music
• Live the good advice I seek and hoard
• grow some food
• enjoy the garden
• develop my personal style and look nice every day
• light more candles
• Grow more flowers
• journal and create
• 
  

Enjoy your day xxxxx

Change

I think this blog and my life are ready for a monumental paradigm shift and I am quite excited about that.

For the last couple of years I have experienced a number of life shattering events : being bullied and put down, redundancy, dad’s death which have kept me down and behaving like a victim. While I have collected advice from many sources, especially blogs, I have not absorbed it, although collecting it has given me some comfort it has been the equivalent to me of comfort eating, something else I have been doing a lot of lately.

I have also loved the idea of blogging too. I like blogs and I love writing and designing why not do my own? But yet again it was another thing that I set up but not put  to good use.

The second half of 2011 was when I got some peace and reflection time in my life. I began to go to church and I met some amazing people who supported me in my desire to change – to become a better version of myself. I am now in a happy place, a lot better than I have been in a long time. I feel ready to take on some life changing challenges and I would like to use this blog to document the journey. After all, the one thing that I don’t do is put the project out there, just in case I fail, then I have no comeback.

Recording 2012 will help me to understand the journey and the change process.

I feel ready now to make some bold changes and I know it is going to better for me of I documented them in this blog. It will be the story about a girl who becomes braver, fitter and stronger. She will have more confidence, look fantastic and will be ecstatically happier .

How do I do this? - this is a plan I am mapping in my journal and I will present it to you by the end of the week.

Love for now Gill xxxx

From my sketchbook

Cy Twombly, 1928 - 2011

Cy was a great inspration to me as an artist. Not only did he break free from the medium of paint, he created a language and a poetry that was rich and breathtaking. The spaces he created sweep you in and immerse you. This quote from NYT sums it up:

“The work is hard to grasp and impossible to understand. But if you are lucky enough to be in a room filled with Twombly's and they grab hold of you, well then you are very fortunate indeed.” 


Cy's work clicked with me because he used pencil and mark making on a large scale he worked on paper and he used text. I knew paint was not my medium and I dared to break from this tradition, a art teacher of mine suggested I looked at the work of Cy Twombly and I can say I was blown away that someone had dared to work like this already. It was an epiphany and I studied him intensely and as a result I entered art school with a portfolio of pencil drawings - large scale sketches incorporating quotes and streams of consciousness, collectively creating a rhythmical composition that could be consumed as a whole or zoomed in to be absorbed into the minutiae. Not pastiches of Cy's work ,that could not happen, but mine.
As many people are scathing of his work as are enraptured. It was love at first sight for me and made a connection that has stayed with me for a long time and always will.
Thank you Cy - you are my one true inspiration and always will be. See you in heaven xxx

p.s My favourite piece of work? 

Aristaeus Mourning the Loss of his Bees (1973)

Wilder shores of Love 

The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus, 1961

Hero and Leander

Herodiade

Apollo and the Artist

I could go on and on ......