monday musings: mondo beyondo

(see bigger here~ the view from my hotel in cortona, italy)

mondo beyondo has been rocking my world!

i identify as a dreamer. i think in particular as a child i was always dreamy. a head in the clouds kind of girl. now i've seen how this ability to day dream has paid off in my creative pursuits. it's become part of my process as an artist to be able to let my mind wander while i'm washing the dishes, folding the laundry and especially while i'm painting and dreaming up new paintings. it also has probably been a good coping mechanism when times are hard.

to quote Eleanor Roosevelt~
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

i really believe in this. it takes dreamers to build a better future. to believe in magic combined with hard work and focused intention pays off. a little stubbornness in the conviction of your dreams helps too!

i've been looking back at some of my older dreams and how so many of them have come true. i really believe in the power of writing these dreams down and how that catapults you further. especially when you share them with others. my list from my 32nd year while in some cases humble (running sneakers) has mostly come true and then some. i could have never dreamed that by putting "go to italy" on my list that i would not only go there~ but go for over a month, to teach painting!!! and for our honeymoon! it was quite literally a dream come true on so many levels.

looking back to when i first started this blog i wrote a list after my 29th birthday. i love how i also included dreams that i had already accomplished and acknowledged myself for those. that really is key. to celebrate in the process! relish the dream making and then enjoy them as they pan out. rather than just moving on to the next check box!

i have to include that in dream making it is not always about the glorious dreams either, but about the broken bits as well and figuring out ways to heal those and move forward. this is almost more dream like for me to imagine say~ conquering my recent fear of flying over winning the lottery. did i really say that? yes. i think the more i move into getting to know myself better these dreams of healing wounds, anxieties and ego are really the biggest leaps. basically to quote someone in my course who commented after reading my dream list that i'm dreaming~ to be happy, healthy and whole.

that said, i do still have some fancy feeling dreams to share (i've omitted a few too) during my 33rd (the magic number year!):

* publish a children's book with an excellent publisher
* publish a creative book that will unfold naturally as i write
* get a passionate, helpful agent
* be an awesome mentor and inspire my interns to make their own way creatively
* expand to textile design and be wildly successful
* live fully and integrated
* relish my time creating and living expansively
* drive in SF confidently, safely and with pleasure
* buy a home in SF in sunny spot with a claw foot bath tub, hardwood floors, a long table for friends, exposed beams and magic spaces and secret gardens filled with art and love
* buy a home in Maine near my family
* be bi-coastal
* make a healthy baby and feel completely excited, at ease and confident and radiant in being pregnant and as a parent
* have a solo show with big lush colorful paintings
* conquer recent fear of flying
* try acupuncture
* continue running and do another empowering race
* feel beautiful on a daily basis
* eat delicious healthy food
* go to the ocean weekly
* continue to grow strong and deeply in love with my husband hugh
* allow space for hugh to follow his creative dreams
* throw more dinner parties that feel full, alive and lovely
* be a bigger part of my nieces and nephews lives
* have a romantic visit to paris with hugh
* surround myself with people whom i love and are emotionally supportive
* embrace my full life

we all have this capacity to dream. dream big wild dreams, but the harder part is believing that we deserve these dreams and then figuring out how to access them. i'm in my 2nd week of my mondo beyondo dreaming course and i feel held and supported by a community of almost 200 other dreamers. it's quite dreamy, actually. if you feel at all inspired to take andrea and jen's next course i highly encourage you to sign up!

happy dreaming,

mati rose

grateful friday

there are truly a million things i feel grateful about today, but one that i'm celebrating this week is our *2nd* wedding anniversary!

i haven't shared many photos here of our wedding because it feels intimate, but i love this one for how clearly adoring i am of my husband hugh. we've come along way over the 7 years of being together and building our dreams H and it feels good.

kudos to michael rauner our awesome photographer.

xxxx
m

thursday style inspiration

as an artist, avid blog reader and color lover i'm always bookmarking and clipping inspiration to put on my wall or in my many binders (i'll have to show you these sometime).

today i culled together a trend of late of grey and yellow, plus a little feather love, that speaks to me like one of my feather power paintings~

both the headband and the shirt were originally discovered via one of my favorite style blogs modish. the room inspo was dragged onto my desktop and i neglected to note where (please let me know if you recognize so i can credit). what i love about the headband is that it's handmade and transferred watercolor... and the detailing on the shirt and cut and color combo of course... and the room i love because it reminds me of simple ways to potentially switch it up with the antlers, chalk board, paint and re-upholstering.

happy thursday,

mati 

artist spotlight: squeak carnwath

a few weeks ago... maybe a month even... i was walking post-brunch around lake merrit and noticed signs overhead for squeak carnwath's show at the oakland museum. it felt like a sign meant for me! i dropped all other saturday plans and walked over what seemed like a maze of overpasses and underpasses to find the museum. 

i have admired squeak's work for years, but haven't seen much of it in person. there was a funny older docent whom i initially listened to, but had to give her a rest and just experience the paintings on my own. they were large and all encompassing of the space. it felt a little bit like what i imagine the holiness of church feels to some to see the lush paint up close and mark making.

i love so much about her work. one element was her "scientific" explorations of color and fake graphs that don't really make sense, but play with that idea of science. i also love her willingness to simply play and experiment with the unknown and how through looking at her painting you can follow her messes and how she changed her mind in one corner and painted over or spilled her paint or put her hand print in. her paintings capture moments in time. paintings capture the essence of time and if they were made at any different point in time would  be completely different! like life itself. exactly.

this painting above and concept of a "guilt free zone" in particular rocks! somewhere in the context of the show it was described how squeak had a friend who was diagnosed with cancer and how she wanted to give her friend a "guilt free zone" during that time. i love this.  we should all give ourselves a little guilt free zone, right?

squeak makes me want to paint. big with color and my personal symbols incorporated and writing too.

thank you squeak for inspiring me and for your adorable name.

tuesday news

hi there,

thanks for your comments in my last post and getting where i'm at ;)

i'm excited to share that i have a few upcoming shows i'm participating in!

*the first i've mentioned before (and participated in maybe 4 or 5 times now!) is the Enormous Tiny Show at Nahcotta Gallery! always a pleasure to be part of this show near my hometown of Kittery Point, Maine.

Opening: Portsmouth, New Hampshire Friday Sept. 4th from 5-8 pm 

Dates: Sept 2nd-28th

here are a few of my newest birdies for this show~

*the 2nd is another New Hampshire show! the "Vision of Squam" show which will be held at Artstream Studios. It will feature teachers and students for last year's Squam Art Workshop. This show was lovingly conceived of by Liz Kalloch and generously hosted by Susan Schwake. i'm sad to be missing Squam this year, but happy that my art will be there!

Opening: Rochester, NH on September 11th from 5-7pm during the city's art stroll

Dates: Sept 1st-30th

This piece below is one of a few of mine that will be included~

*the 3rd is not opening till november, but i'm very psyched to be included in this novel concept working on mannequins~

I'll let you know more details about these shows as they progress...

xoxo

mati rose

monday musings

farmer's market flowers taken with my i-phone

hello,

i've been feeling the urge to add structure to my life in all ways. i'm creating a new exercise and work schedule and encompassed in my work as an artist is this here blog too. 

i think it's fall coming. the beginning of school. the call for something new! do you feel it too?

i'm learning that as much as i resist structure sometimes it allows me freedom. the not needing to make decisions about the dailyness. i love working for myself because every day can be different and i don't feel tied down to a routine, but sometimes it leaves me feeling a little weightless.

so with that in mind, i've been thinking about the evolution of my blog and how at first it was a place for me to chronicle my thoughts about going back to art school and it was incredibly personal and un-edited feeling and then in the last year or so i've pulled back a bit and experimented with feeling more "professional" and now i'm looking to integrate the two. my art is my life and vice versa. while i don't want to include every aspect of my life here... and the general focus is still on my art and process, i'm inevitably affected by my life's ins and outs with my art making and i may share that influence more fully. do you follow?

so my "structure" that i'm going to experiment with this blog is:

monday-musings

tuesday-news

wednesday-artist spotlight

thursday-style inspiration

friday-gratefulness

i also want to add that my blog is a place for me to keep track of my thoughts and connect with others and be part of an art community, so i love to read your comments and get to know who's out there, but it's okay if you're quiet too. also, like a journal/diary i write here freely and with out much editing so typos happen! it's important to me that this feels like a place where i can write loosely and as part of my artistic process vs. more work. therefore the above schedule is a little experiment that i may choose to abandon if it doesn't work for me too ;)

fun to re-imagine my blog here...feels like adding some colorful paint or pillows to a room!

saludos,

mati

make new friends, but keep the old

being in Maine last week reminded me filled me with nostalgia. 4 of my best friends from childhood--Kate, Bekah, Lynn and my sister Jesse are my gold and i feel so grateful that they are all part of my life. riding home from the memorial with Jesse, Bekah and i were all seated in the back seat of Bekah's mom's car as she drove, while we looked through a box of old photos and laughed. Then we stopped at DQ and had soft serve and i felt like we were 10 again. it was one of the most healing moments of the trip for me.

these pictures are cracking me up! the first one is of my sister Jesse, Kate and myself. love my beads and bathing suit. Jesse's scrunched nose and how tiny and cute Kate is. the 2nd one is my sister and i... we were "hot stuff". i was especially trying to look cool with my stance and collar up! i LOVED purple. and unicorns. and that slinky bracelet. and the oversized lunch bag. wow.

I also am feeling very grateful for my lovebomb peeps, although i missed the actual retreat, i got kissbombed with photos and added into the group shop. thank you lovebombers... i'm feeling the love rubbed off.

thank you to all of you for supporting the mere idea of my new biz! you guys are the BEST. 

if you have written to me, i have been away for a week and am VERY behind in my emails, but will get back to you soon.

xxxx
m

ohhh aww

i just got the best new business idea! i was sitting at my favorite little beach in maine called seapoint and like a lightening bolt the name and concept of the business struck. nothing revolutionary and an extension of what i'm already doing, but it feels so exciting and good that i must capture that intial feeling here.

ideas are fleeting in... i can already envision the business card and the steps i need to take! wahoo! i love it when creative ideas after much mulling crystalize like magic and it just feels right. also, i think coming back east to grieve with my family over a loss of a loved one has allowed me to dig deep at what i want out of life to make it richer and create space for rebirth.

above is a photo from earlier this summer when it was all but raining and foggy and now it is hot and humid, with a capital H!

off to lunch! craving seafood and am in the right place.

xo
mati

maine bound

i'm leaving tonight to go back east to be with family. i have some bird paintings in my suitcase to hand over to the gallery!

here are 2:

thank you to holly at decor8 for letting me share a few of my favorite things!

xoxo

mati

a window

my heart has been heavy this last week with family sadness and feeling far away from them during this difficult time. tonight i feel like i got a window of lightness and i want to capture my view. spending time with our 3 year old niece lily and her cute ways "silly auntie mati + hugh" she called us many times. walking down the street hand in hand with her and hugh swinging her every few feet up into the air... whee! so cute. watching her eat chocolate ice cream and how it got on her nose and she smeared it all over her face.

taken with hugh's i-phone

then walking back home with hugh carrying her in his arms and her holding my hand while she was in an ice cream daze. children can be such an anti-depressant, i swear. then some uplifting and energizing friends who stopped by took a seat on the floor with us and told some stories. the whole night made my heart swell. yes, i remember that feeling. thank you.

and for some added comic relief we present the 4 stages of courtship:

interpret as you will~my take is 1) hmmm 2) lust 3) wtf 4) bliss

also a really sweet website that i'm quite honored to be part of called the goodheARTed. take a peek!

xoxox

american goldfinch no. 529

this is my first piece for nahcotta's 6th enormous tiny show! it was inspired by my family's elderly neighbor mrs blake in maine. when she passed on she left my family her bird books chronicling her sitings in the seacoast new england area from the 1920's onward. fascinating! i love her perfect penmanship with notes of places i know-- "large flock at seapoint beach".

i'm experimenting here trying to combine my more intuitive painting style alongside a more planned out composition. it's been a bit of a struggle and growing pains honestly, but it's good to be back in the studio sweating it out. painting is my medicine. and as i read recently somewhere "you learn how to make the work by making the work" and there's no getting around that one.

the retrieval project

Hi everybody! This is Jenny. I've been interning with Mati for the last few months, and loving every minute of it! She is super encouraging as I'm (artistically) a late bloomer. She's been so supportive and inspiring. I'm amazed that she finds it helpful to have me around. I feel like we're playing and having fun. I enjoy the time away doing something out of my norm, and am learning so much. We eat good too... great little spots all throughout the mission district in SF.

My husband Joe and I have a big project going on right now and Mati graciously asked me to write a post here to let you know about it.

A little bit of background.... my husband and I, along with our four kids, moved from California to Minnesota and back within a six month time period. It's a long story, which you can read here, but in a nutshell, we had to leave our belongings in a storage unit in MN when we came back to CA in January and have not been able to set aside the money needed to go back and get it yet.

The Retrieval Project is a daily art project created in effort to raise the funds we need to "retrieve" our stuff. 

Joe is a tattoo artist and paints mostly with watercolor.

Jenny is a mixed media artist. 

"Pursuit" by Jenny Swanson

We have made a list of 50 titles, all having to do with moving, transition, journey, California, Minnesota, etc. For each title, Joe and I will both do a painting. Each day we will list two paintings (one title, his and hers versions), until all 100 paintings are out. There will also be a few extras thrown in here and there, so you might want to check in often!

We began the project on August 1st and are already feeling the love of the community of family, friends, artists, bloggers, etc. We'd love it if you would pay our site a visit and leave us a comment to let us know you were there.