A Rite of Spring

One of my favorite things to do in early spring is buy plants.  The Growing Place is a riot of spring color, texture and gardening inspiration, and today was the perfect day to go.  Here are a few images from my annual trip.I can't remember what these fiery ones are, but the burst of color makes me smile.

 Look at how the delicate purple color makes the yellow pop on this primrose.

Another dainty blossom enjoying the sunny day.

This iris is getting ready to pop.

 Wouldn't this be fun to have in a backyard garden?

 This miniature garden looks like fairies might actually come and visit at night!

 This tiny pollinator was enjoying himself.

 I had to laugh at this gentleman.  While his wife shopped, he found a cozy spot to read his paper.

 Here's another spot to relax, and these moms and kids are taking advantage.

 Finally, the front of our house BEFORE.  It looks green, but don't look too closely at all the weeds and overgrown bushes.  Hopefully I will post an "after" photo soon!

Inspiration -- Day 3

More from Julia Cameron, March 19th entry:

Gentleness, enouragement, safety -- these are the watchwords to be put in place for criticism.  I have been writing for thirty years.  I have seen more good writing destroyed by bad criticism than I have ever seen bad writing helped by good criticism. . . . I have watched plays start to find their feet, only to be tripped up by too many people contributing fixes. . .

I am fortunate to belong to an art community in my area as well as this larger community of art-bloggers.  Both of them have provided ample opportunities to give and receive rich encouragement for those artistic endeavors we might be hesitant to share.  In light of these words on criticism, I'd like to say "thank you" to my artist friends for input, encouragement and guidance.  It's great to be able to share positively in each other's artistic journeys.

Tuesday Inspiration

Continuing in The Artist's Way Every Day, I came upon this for March 9th:

Art is not linear.  Neither is the artist's life, but we forget that.  We try to "plan" our life and "plan" our career -- as if we could.  We also try to plan our growth.  This means transformation catches us by surprise. . . experience teaches that life, and especially life in the arts, is as much about mystery as it is about mastery. . . "Something" is telling us to make art.  We must trust that something.

This picture reminds me of this.  Yes, I took it because of the cute little squirrel.  But the path below is one that we followed all over the cliff.  And it was so much better for all its twists and turns and surprising vistas.  Linear is nice and predictable, but don't we love the breathtaking "aha" of sudden inspiration?