mini cupcakes and a birthday month sale!

sweets,

i've been remiss in writing here. there are big exciting things brewing and dream lists to write for 2011 and a birthday month to celebrate. and holiday parties. and children to babysit for. and paintings to be made. and hikes to be had. and movies to be enjoyed. and music to download. and letters to be written. and life to be lived. dishes to be washed. baths to be had. fights to be fought, kindly. and through out it all, you are here.

thank you.

in gratitude i'm offering 20% off in my shop for the ENTIRE month of December off of EVERYTHING, including this print below. Just enter in the code: BIRTHDAYFUN



xxx
mrm

fun and easy= flow

my sweet, wise, beautiful very pregnant superhero friend andrea led some friends and i through a core values exercise a few years back... mine was, no surprise here, that i'm a treasure seeker. i wasn't really sure what that meant to live that out at the time, but as i paint it, it's coming into focus.

i believe dear kelly rae's core values phrase was brave in sadness and brave in love. i borrow this sometimes personally too to help me. i think she's shared this sentiment on her blog before and don't think she'd mind me telling you ;)

and andrea's i believe was fun and easy. i am just starting to understand how this can apply to my life more fully too.

andrea recently shared this in her interview that i linked to a while back. i love this concept she explains below:

MK: How do you nurture your creative spirit within the boundaries of the “do more with less” mentality of minimalism?

AS: I try to live by the law the buddhists call “The law of least effort.” This basically means
that more effort does not equal more results, but right effort equals right results.

I don’t like to pain over my work… write when it’s not coming, sit for many hours
at the computer trying to wring something out of myself when I really just need to fill the well and be replenished.

I listen closely to my intuition, live my real life as much as possible, and write in bursts
from the richness of my actual life. This is how I nurture my creative spirit. I listen for when there is a story that wants to be told.

i had a skype conversation with my brilliant smart agent/mentor Lilla recently about how can i "step things up"? and she basically said i'm doing everything right (thank you) and that i should paint things that are fun and easy for me~ smooshy color, line and what comes naturally to ME, not to others-- that's where your authentic voice lives.

it was a very big A HA moment. paint what is easy to me? wait, i don't have to WORK at it? make it perfect? make it like math? i can keep it mysterious and evocative and fun? i can play with color and paint and go off on little painting explorations? love. it.

thank you for helping me piece together these puzzle pieces friends.

intermixed are close-ups that my friend bob lake (the fantastic jen lake's mister... if you're in the bay and need a photog-- hit him up!) took of my recent treasure seeker series, which means, high quality prints soon y'all!

smooch,

mati

genuineness trumps cool every time

feather power in black, original available here

everyone has a story and beauty can be found in the most unsuspected places. this i believe.

i have a wide range of friends. i subscribe to a wide range of super low brow (people mag) and high brow (the new yorker) reads. i thoroughly enjoy block buster rom coms and obscure black and white documentaries. i may sound indiscriminating, but i think it keeps it real to take in the wide range of culture.

it's one of the things i like about my husband hugh too. he has such a range of friends and interests and in particular movie tastes! hello, when i first met him he had seen all the oscar contenders! and he likes the more avant garde flicks too.

anyway, i think it extends to my art too. sometimes i feel like making more edgy pieces and other times more accessible ones. in the end i have to follow my own impulse. mostly, i try to make art that makes me happy in the hope that that happiness extends beyond me. sometimes making dark paintings make me happy and other times sweet bright ones do the trick.

all that to say, i try to be genuine in my actions and intentions in life and relish taking in the wide swath of what the world has to offer. incongruities in life keep things interesting!

be well,
mati

cute chubby baby birds & bouncing balls

Baby Birds original available here

so many of my friends are having or have recently had babies! it's a really exciting time! in particular i want to welcome to the world my friends kate & eric's new baby william ezra! hurray! i'm so happy that i'm able to gift my friends art for their babies rooms. i can't think of a more satisfying feeling as a artist, to think of children growing up with my art and having it be part of their sense memory. i feel like i have such strong memories from childhood that i may tap into more often than most in playing with paint and drawing child inspired animals.

speaking of play, i've been taking andrea & jen's dream lab and on a daily basis am encouraged to play and rest. is anyone else taking it? it's been a serious treat! new sessions are coming up too!

case and point, saturday i was struggling with a painting and had been for days. silly really to sit and struggle because you know it's definitely not going to turn out good with that mentality. anyway, we have these great young studio mates for the summer (21 + 22 year old guys) and they have continually been reminding me to take breaks and play. on saturday i heard outside a continuous, but random tapping against the concrete and looked out and one of them was bouncing a beach ball by himself. he seemed so curious about how high it'd go and was so obviously playing. such a good idea to take a break to get physical and play and let your mind wander, right? other times i've seen them throwing a basketball back and fourth, making chalk art and the coolest thing by far is creating a communal and live "newspaper" on big chalkboard walls outside the studio doors. they've brought such energy to the studio that i didn't even know was missing! they also really remind me and make me miss my little 20 year old brother andrew who is studying abroad right now in new zealand.

Peep original available here!

anyway, i'm so tangental. i loved reading your comments on yesterday's post! totally embrace your "J" or "P" and inner introvert or extrovert... it's really all good and just a tool to help us understand ourselves best, eh? i also am excited to be in the company of so many people who get the being alone bit. my friend commented on the video something like "i miss my quirky alone time. can i still be quirky and alone with a kid and husband?" i think that raised a good point... how do we carve out that alone time or fuel ourselves when we cannot literally be alone?! good question! i don't know, but i think it's about taking just a minute or 2 and really just paying attention and being in the moment. whether it's watching your child on the playground, reading a book, taking a quick nap in the grass, walking down the street to the post office... when your mind is open and curious to the moment, i think you can be fueled just like being alone.

xoxoxo
mati rose

ps- i'm on quite a roll of listing original art in my etsy shoppe lately. i'm clearing out to make room for all the new paintings i'm making in my small studio! plus, it's an obvious part of my abundance talk is to do the work and make it available for sale (sometimes i forget that part! no one can buy my work if i don't make it available, hello!) convo me if a piece calls to you and you need to pay in installments... i'm flexible. although i'm listing so many of them for a steal of $50-100! also get in touch, if you're interested in a commission of something similar in my shop too please!

colors connect

outside my studio door....

inside my kitchen...

perhaps soon in a painting!