Messy Canvas

The Only Thing With Wings

mandy — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:00:21 +0000

It is interesting how you can be a somebody one place and a nobody in another. Interesting and frightening, Because nothing you show for yourself is viable in the nobody world. In the Land of Nobody, nobody is awake. They’re just stumbling numb, pan-handling for the next thing to smash into that hole marked cozy. And what [...]

Secret Message Society Zine Issue #2 is HERE!

mandy — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:42:12 +0000

Mailing out #SMSZine #2 tomorrow. I am so excited about this issue. I packed it full! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can read about the Secret Message Society Zine and get signed-up HERE. Thanks to your help, I was able to make my first month’s goal of 30 subscribers, and [...]

I Don’t Know – A Case of the High-Highs and the Low-Lows

mandy — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:35 +0000

“Call your sorrow a disease or don’t. Take drugs or don’t. See a therapist or don’t. But whatever you do, when life drives you to your knees, which it is bound to do, which maybe it is meant to do, don’t settle for being sick in the brain. Remember that’s just a story. You can [...]

This Day Cannot Suck

mandy — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:43:35 +0000

I awoke this morning to the sound of the doorbell ringing. We do expect someone to do that every morning – our neighbor who usually joins us for breakfast and rides or bikes with us to school, but this was a good 30 minutes earlier than he usually comes. “Do you think if I ignore [...]

Thrashing About With God – The Cover

mandy — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:40:34 +0000

My book has a cover! And I love it so much. It has a 70′s hippy feel, but it also reminds me of Alice In Wonderland and Tim Burton and the dark place I sort of fell in love with while writing this book. It was created by Nick. Thank you, Nick! The book is [...]

An Anthology of Babes – Book Review

mandy — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:00:11 +0000

“I almost never feel like I have ample time to indulge in my creative impulses and ideas. Nevertheless, I just keep making art anyway.” - Lori Landau, An Anthology of Babes, p. 25 “I’d always sensed [my mom] had felt caged and yearned for a deeper connection to a more earthly spiritual god; something deemed [...]

About May 15th!

mandy — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:23:44 +0000

The 15th is magic around here this week. Three things I want to share with you about that date: 1. The Secret Message Society Zine Number Two goes to print. That means issue one will no longer be available. So if you want to get in on the inaugural issue, I have 4 copies [...]

I’m Not Scared

mandy — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:00:11 +0000

“We’re all scared. If you’re not scared you’re not paying attention.” -Miranda Bailey, Grey’s Anatomy I have overcome fear. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m not scared of anything anymore. Nothing. Not my kids getting hit by a car as they walk to school alone. Not my husband finding some hot woman who pays [...]

Warble – Custom Secret Message Art Series

mandy — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:11:14 +0000

Psychologist, Author and Artist, Rachel Awes, has a thing for listening. She has created a book called All I Did Was Listen with beautiful graphics and hand lettered words. She also has a blog where she does a regular post called Listening to You. In this post she features other artists’ artwork centered on the [...]

Circling

mandy — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:57:54 +0000

I had a picnic on a mountain. We go to this mountain at least once every Spring so Tony can ride his bicycle up it. It always feels so surreal being there so high in the sky on a big rock next to lots of other big rocks, some more dangerously close to the edge [...]

Live You – Custom Secret Message Art Series

mandy — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:55:57 +0000

I believe I first heard about The Friendly Anarchist about two years ago, due to an eBook that was people were talking about called Beyond Rules: A Dilettante’s Guide to Personal Sovereignty, Space Travel, and Lots of Ice Cream. It was around that time I was exercising my right to be a rebel, and the contents [...]

From My Corner

mandy — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:46:06 +0000

I was starting out with a sleep deficit. I feel the need to say this because I had a hunch this day was going to be a rough one from the moment I tried to peel my eyes open and found they were glued shut. When I feel tired like I did that morning, everything [...]

Pain and Potential – Custom Secret Message Art Series

mandy — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:39:36 +0000

In my mind Tyler Braun is a writer. I know he is much more than this – father, husband, pastor, worship leader, human soul mingled with something divine, but I connected with him over words at some point on-line, and that connection has held steady. He was writing a book. He was trying to carve [...]

Wreck-It Girl

mandy — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:13:59 +0000

“I want to unfold. Let no place in me hold itself closed, for where I am closed, I am false.” - Rilke “In my next life,” I told him, “I’m gonna be able to fix anything, just like you.” “Is that right?” He said, walking out the door to his truck to get a hammer [...]

Everyone is Selling Something

mandy — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:00:35 +0000

I remember as a kid I used to listen to Zig Ziglar. He said everyone was a salesman. Everyone is selling something. And yesterday I got in a conversation with Tony and he said, a person can sell anything if they really believe in it. And my friend Carlos once said something on Twitter about [...]

Entertaining Dreams as a New Reality

mandy — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:23:38 +0000

“I was able to make some kind of meaning that would reconnect me to life here again…I started to dream wonderful dreams. I mean, I always dreamed, but these were incredible dreams. I can’t tell you what it meant that somebody could recognize this huge part of me and say, ‘It does make sense and [...]

The Sensual One – Custom Secret Message Art Series

mandy — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:42:07 +0000

Julie Gibbons has graced me with a sort of intangible bolstering when it comes to expressing my creative voice. She was one of the first three to purchase a piece of my art when I reopened my Etsy store in 2012 after a three year pause. (For me, a new trembling artist, this spoke volumes.) [...]

Cannot Be Tamed – Custom Secret Message Art Series

mandy — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:40:09 +0000

Amber Haines writes with words of poetry. I can prove it: “Our entire town will wake like a woman and not wash her hair. She’ll put on her favorite hippie skirt. She might be a little cold, but she won’t care. I can’t wait to see her walk around sighing great big sing-song sighs, toting [...]

A Place of Constant Becoming – Custom Secret Message Art Series

mandy — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:58:41 +0000

There is this artist, Eden Nova, who opened a new world for me. It’s the world of surrealism, imagination, play. It’s the world of synchronicity and tapping into the elusive dreamworld where the shadow side likes to play. I was first drawn to Eden because of her photography. I have a few of her pieces [...]

Looking Forward

mandy — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 13:19:05 +0000

A list I jotted down to help me move forward with detachment.

Spitting in the Face of Reality

mandy — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:24:43 +0000

I do not write lately because I feel trapped. Many things I just can’t bring myself to say out loud. That is a death sentence to a writer. I am a zombie walking. I feel numb, like my life is happening outside of my body. I have applied for jobs. The comical way that none [...]

It’s All Catch and Release These Days

mandy — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:03:45 +0000

In my practice today I took some time to really orient myself with chakras. I had this sensation that everything I’ve ever experienced is housed in my body and it felt good to visit each of the 7 resting places and know what gets stored up there and what freedom wants to break forth. My [...]

I Let Go of the Cage

mandy — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:24:12 +0000

The church wasn’t one I recognized from my past, so it could have been any old church. I was there with my kids, although I wasn’t hanging out with my kids. It was a kids event put on by the church, much like a Vacation Bible School, and I was there to serve in some [...]

A letting go of sorts

mandy — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:22:02 +0000

Enamored by hands and the way they grip. Re-touching my word #detached a little more gently. Liking the feel of this. #iamtaj #glueittuesday #artjournal

I Want to Sip Life

mandy — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:05:40 +0000

I want to sip life through a brand new straw with the protective paper yet unbroken. I want to be the one to break it. To tear into it like that time I opened the record The Monkeys all those Christmases ago. I want to sip as one would sip before they were given the [...]