Friday 27 July 2012

Philosophy Friday - Change can be good !








" All great changes are preceded by chaos"          
                      - Deepak Chopra  



Truer words were never spoken!   Chaos was the operative word around here this week beginning with a bit of a thermal meltdown in the old pc.  I've thrown enough money out the window on it in recent times, so I opted to invest in a new one.  On the way home with our new prize, the brakes on my car acted up. A one day repair in the shop turned into three and so it goes. I was also side swiped by a few other little glitches that rather drove me to distraction. It never rains but it pours.

One of my good buddies informed me that Mercury is in Retrograde as a way of trying to cheer me with a valid explanation for my misfortunes. I'm not really buying into that one but I do believe that fate has played a hand in things.

We are so often set in our ways and don't like change of any kind - it's a human trait that we all seem to share.  Change can be scary, challenging, and daunting . It takes us out of our comfort zone and can be frustrating and stressful, especially when we don't set out to seek the changes.

Whether we like it or not, it's a fact that change is the one constant in our lives and who we are as individuals is the grand sum of all the changes we've ever experienced. Therefore change is not always a bad thing is it?  It can be freeing, rewarding, and positive.  Change affords us opportunities to move forward, to be flexible and can offer a myriad of new possibilites we had not considered previously.  For me personally, this has proven to be the case.
The new pc has definitely been a learning curve for me but I am finding that is not necessarily a bad thing.  I am rather enjoying the challenges and I am beginning to see how this updated programming might open some new doors for me.  Out of chaos, does come change and that can be a good thing.
I've learned that you can indeed teach an old dog new tricks and I think I am barking up the right tree!



                                   

Friday 20 July 2012

Philosophy Friday - Summertime.....



.....and the living is easy, as the song goes.



                              
So go for long walks.  Indulge in great conversations.  Read some good books or stitch in the garden.  Question your assumptions.  Love yourself.  Pay attention to the moment.  Be a little crazy.  Count your blessings.

Let go for a little while and just be.......

                                                                                     



No Art Bras these but.......

......genuine medieval bras?  We've come a long way baby! 


" Think Pink"
- designer, Victoria Adams Brown
- collection of L. Hartley-Hoover


An amazing discovery in 2008, in an old castle vault in Austria has just been brought to light.  The earliest documented bras, along with other female undergarments - 600 years old and a cause to change the history of fashion for certain.  The information has just been published in a well written,  highly detailed article by Beatrix Nutz, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Innsbruck, and which can be accessed here:

 http://www.historyextra.com/lingerie

The Art Bra ladies have had quite a lively discussion regarding this finding and one in particular, who has a marvellous sense of humor,commented that she had some lingerie that resembled those in the photos and perhaps it was time to sort her undies drawer out.  Cracked us up!
But in a more serious vein, it is fascinating to see the similarities in this medieval bra to the modern day bras and to comprehend how women from that era coped with support, style and hygiene.  




                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                      
                                                           "Little Miss Dynamite "
                                                                                - designer  - Léonie Hartley-Hoover
                                                                                - property of Somerset County
                                                                                         Health Dept. Westover, MD    

Friday 13 July 2012

Philosophy Friday - Friday the 13th !



         

                                                                                  
                             
                                         


                      May good spirits protect you
                      And bless you today.   
                      And may troubles ignore you
                      Each step of the way.
                  











Diego, our little good luck charm!

Monday 9 July 2012

The Perfect Man !


This is priceless!

Only those who stitch, value their scissors and live with men will fully appreciate this pic......
 Now if we can only get them to figure out colours (-:






PS:
I'm afraid I don't know who to credit for this pic as it was passed along to me " as is" but if someone knows, please advise me so I can acknowledge properly. Thanks! LHH

Saturday 7 July 2012

The Moral Dilemma Issue - debate and comments





" About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. "  - Ernest Hemingway

     There's a thought provoking moral dilemma that has arisen on previous occasions, although fortunately not often, but it recently came to the fore once again.  I decided to poll a group of artists and other people whose opinions I respect for their input on this.  The results were most interesting in that they were divided into two distinct fields from a male and female perspective.  Those who responded knew that I might blog about this but out of respect for their privacy, I am not going to use names but will offer some quotes from their responses.

The question ?

     If you were to enter a piece of your work into a competition for an organization you belonged to,  let's say for the sake of argument a guild or a professional affiliation, and then as a member of that group, you had a private vote to select winners in certain categories which included your own work, would you feel you had to vote for your own piece, or if you looked at all the entries and saw something that was amazingly super fantastical that spoke to you, would you still feel comfortable in voting for yourself over that other work? 

     If I were a politician, I would have no compunction in voting for myself, as I feel in that capacity, it is expected of one.  However, back to art - if another person's work speaks to you loudly, is technically sound, creative as hell and emotionally touches you, could you overlook that and still vote for yourself?  I have always had very mixed feelings about this question and the answers I received have given me further food for thought.             
    Amazingly enough, the majority of women said they would have no problem voting for someone else's work if it really moved them.  The majority of the men said they would probably not vote at all if they were put in a position of having to vote for a category that their own work was in.  A few responses were very cut and dried but most leant one way while offering some other " what ifs".

     One of my longstanding and dearest male friend's opening line was " It is my surmise that only people who have morals, worry about moral dilemmas".  I might have expected that from him (-:   However, he continued with " Choose the one you feel more comfortable with and go for it, no regrets."
     Female response: " Sometimes you are just taken by another's skill and creativity but even more the spirit of the piece takes you.  Then, that's the piece you go with! "
     Male response: " I would step down from any position that I would be forced to judge my own work, outside of my studio. I would step aside rather than enter the domain of conflict."
     Female response:  "No dilemma here. Use your gut not your head."
     Female response: " I vote for the one I deem best regardless of who created it - including me! I think though that the majority of people who enter assume everyone votes for themselves."
     Male response: " A designer should never be allowed to vote in an exhibition where they have submitted work...case closed!"
     Female response: " I would have to vote for someone else's work over mine if it just grabbed me on so many levels."
    Male response" I suppose one could avoid the issue by not voting at all, although I suspect that might not be the right thing to do."
     Female response: "If someone else's work dazzled my socks off, I would have to vote for it. It would nag at me, if I did not, even if my work was in their category. But on the other side, no matter how pleased I am with my design, my confidence never matches the effort. Even though I would be pleased; I would be vacillating. But in a category where my work was above the other entries in creativity and execution; no problem voting for my work."
     Female response: " Bias will be towards your own work, often because of the personal investment but if I saw another piece that really wowed me and I liked it even better than my own, I'd vote for it."
      Male response: " You have invested time, energy and money into your piece. Knowing you , it would not have been entered if you thought it was second rate.  Why would you vote for someone else's work? "
    From a lady with great wisdom, whom I highly respect : " Your question is a difficult one.  I think if your work shows a unique aspect which the others do not, you should have no qualms about voting for your work. I can understand your wish to be fair to others but there are times when we put our talents aside when we should promote them."

I found it fascinating the similarities in the male responses and again, in the female responses.  That was something I definitely did not expect.

 I guess for me personally, the quote from yesterday's Philosophy Friday sums it up nicely  " Always trust your intuition; it will rarely lead you astray."

Friday 6 July 2012

Philosophy Friday - Listen to your gut !

                                                       

" Always trust your intuition; it will rarely lead you astray.  If it doesn't feel right in your gut, then it probably isn't. "


" Don't make a decision based solely on popularity.  Just because other people are doing it doesn't mean it's the best choice for you. "



Two very powerful and meaningful quotes this week which definitely reflect on the upcoming blog post.  These are ones to mull over for a day, and tomorrow I will follow up with the results from the Moral Dilemma poll and some very interesting opinions from other artists and intellectuals.





Meanwhile, it is stinking sultry hot here ( read oppressive) with 100+ degree  F temps and it feels like we're in the tropics so this calls for a tropical remedy:

     CHEERS !!   CHIMO !!  SANTE !!

           From Canada !