fun stuff

* registration is now open for the JOY retreat i'm teaching at up on the oregon coast... painting, polaroids and cooking! and the sea :)

* my friend cindy featured me recently for her sketchbook stories on an illustration i did for the cute magazine "baby bug"!

* toffee magazine is out! they did an interview with me for their current issue! you can download it here for only $2.95!

xoxo

mati

*

a long post on cultivating happiness & perfect protest!

I had the thought recently that i work very hard to be happy. How happiness does not always arrive when i wake up (i'm quite often a grumpy morning riser). It's a "wicked pissah" to use east coast jargon, when I have to wake up super early and don't have time to be sloooow, piddle and drink caffeine.

This thought occurred to me because I hope I put out there in the world my happiness. My paintings are happy (maybe some are dark or have a twinge of sadness too) and I use a lot of exclamation points sometimes to communicate excitement!!!! For those of you who don't know me personally or know my life story, you may think i'm super. happy. all. the. time! Not so. I consciously work at it. Not by denying the sh**t in life, but by looking at it and working to transform it and connect with others around it in a healing way.

I've been reading Brene's "Gifts of Imperfection" since I got it a couple of days ago. I've underlined the heck out of it! one of the things she wrote that spoke to me was the idea that we are " ...worthy now; right this minute. Worthiness doesn't have prerequisites."

These were some examples that spoke to me:

* I'll be worthy when I lose 20 lbs.

* I'll be worthy when I can make a living selling my art.

and this one really got me thinking...

* I'll be worthy when I can do it all and look like I'm not even trying.

Um, how many of us have had that thought? That the things that matter most to us, we often want them to look effortless and like the opportunities fell in our laps!

To be real... when I lose weight, it's because I've been diligently cutting back and exercising A LOT. Right now I'm enjoying food A LOT and exercising occasionally, and if I were to lose weight I would brush it off like it was no big deal, when it would mean 100's of hours of exercise and willpower devoted to it.

The 2nd example is HUGELY pertinent around feeling worthy for me: when I can make a living as an artist... and not just a meager living, but one where I have stability, savings and comfort and ABUNDANCE. I work so hard trying to make a living as an artist, and yet don't share here my horrifying to-do lists and energy spent making my art look EASY. Nope.

Not to mention the years of torment deciding to follow this path and believing I could, years building my portfolio, many thousands and thousands of dollars going back to art school and the years upon years of living rent check to rent check as an artist couple buying supplies and paying for a studio space to create. Oh my, I could go on, couldn't I? As all you artists know, it ain't easy, yet we may make it look like it is and perhaps that's a disservice. I obviously love making art and it is my passion, but it is absolutely not easy and has required a whole lot of sweat and tears and dedication. It's been totally worth it, but not easy!!

The other aspect of my life that I pretend is effortless is being happy. People, I have therapist(s), an acupuncturist, a creative coach, a supportive art agent, and a ton of creative support groups and friends that I regularly attend to keep me sane/happy and I work very hard being intentional and looking for happiness in all the ordinary spaces. Plus I have a regular practice of gratitude here and in my journals.

Recently I wrote a list of tragic things that I have experienced in my life (we all have them) and it filled a page and it was ugly. Then I remembered I have dozens of gratitude journals filled to the brim. Mixed in with sketches and venting, but I have so much gratitude for it all. All of it. I'm especially proud of the hard work it's taken on my path to be happy, healthy and whole.

here's a Perfect Protest pic of me and my AWESOME intern fanny (who um MET THE AVETT BROS this weekend!!). we realized after painting this giant canvas with our fave collective color turquoise, that oops, it's backwards in the iphoto :) alas... to imperfections!!! we are too busy writing backwards to be perfect!



translation: we're too busy getting our paint on to be perfect and too busy having fun to be perfect!

(don't fanny and i look a little like sisters here?)

XOXO

Mati

oregon coast

sigh, i miss this place and the beachy mems. i'm loving all the pinks & yellows... in my pal hula's textiles and collage and the sweet girl herself.
xoxox
mati rose

instant pick me ups

i'm all about quick happy easy fixes to boost your mood. if the flower garden didn't work for you from my earlier post here are a few more superficialcalifragilstic ideas!

background: i'm dealing with a burst h20 pipe/ plumber, 4 loads of laundry and shipping today. not to mention when i'm working from home there's a halfway house next door with a crazy man talking on the porch at all hours and and and a basset hound howling in the back, not to mention home construction across the street and constant pounding and drilling. i know, i know... i live in the city.

1) my lovely (and sadly now former) intern's cutie headband. i miss you jenny!

2) a large baubley ring

3. sparkly eyeshadow (the talented & gorgeous jonatha brooke tipped me off on this one aptly named "midnight cowboy")

4. a little sunkiss blush... i'm liking "the balm" bronzer (which a sweet woman who bought my painting hooked me up with a bunch of freebies from her company!)

5. korres lip butter. i'm wearing mango & like quince too.

6. anything hot pink. i think my ruffled tank is just old navy, but it makes me happy.

ps- no mean comments please! NO i have not showered... our plumber is working on that sitch! yes, i'm i'm this awkward stance bc i'm showing you my baubley turquoise ring from venice glass blowers and simultaneously plugging my ears.

pps- i remember when i first started this blog 5 years ago i'd never show photos of myself and i think i was in my late 20's and at least 20 lbs thinner. what was i thinking?! i guess i'm less self conscious as i grow up. i suspect i'll be piling on more baubley rings, hot pink, sparkly eye shadow the older i get.

peeking out to say hello

i've been quiet lately! it usually comes with busyness, but i've also been feeling lost for words on what to share. i'll start with myself in my new bathroom. it's a wonder what a new perspective will do. our old bathroom was tiny, dark and had a loud fan (6 years of this). our new bathroom is light filled, with a clawfoot (i feel i yell this from the rooftops) and large counter for my baubles and view outside to our lemon tree (this i yell too). it does wonders for my self-esteem. who knew?
xoxox
mati

ps- i also recently got a hair cut-- about half of it! it was long and just hung down droopy. now i wear pigtails + have heaps of new gray hair to boot.

i love these bright little ellies

my new ipop magnets with madison park greeting are coming out soon! they aren't on the website yet, but if you're a boutique (or even an individual) you can order them and i'll have them in my shoppe asap!

xo

some sweet things that are making me happy~

* Beautiful Denise, Boho Girl in the True Love Necklace. I love how she added her own beads! As always I love to see my art on your body (hee) or in your home... so please send me photos :)

There's just one True Love Necklace left in my shoppe!

* the Avett Brothers~ so good. blue grassy with a twist. thanks jesse long for the rec!

* The Incredible Print Show which I'm partaking in... scroll way down ;) so many amazing artists!



* The First Annual Squam Art Show! The deadline for submission is swiftly approaching, but so very do-able... April 30th!  Info for submission here

* My friend and student in Cortona, Italy Laura's new blog (she is lucky enough to live in Cortona year round and share with us the good life). She's also an incredibly talented artist and textile designer to boot.

* My friend Sofia's AMAZING unique earrings that when I wear I get compliments on at every turn. so excited that she opened up an etsy shop named forage studios! she is super talented. 

love love love xxxx

loving these gloriously sunny days!

i feel so happy when the weather is like it is... almost balmy tonight. i took a walk in the hood to buy a book and all the folks were outside eating NYC summer style. i wish it was always like this!

ps- in full disclosure these photos were taken back in January during our first summer heat wave... sorry east coasters!

collaborative painting

when i was up in seattle a few weeks ago kelly mentioned she wanted make a painting for her bedroom on a piece of long canvas to go above her bed. we were excited to try one collaboratively! we've worked so well together planning classes, traveling and dreaming out loud about our art. we thought it would be fun to see what it'd be like to paint together and we also wanted to break in her new studio and try out her camera! here is kelly's account! the above is our sped up seemingly manic monkey painting (it was filmed over the course of an hour). so fun and seamless working together! i'm wishing snippets of the conversations of art, life and hysterical expressions were captured, more than our backsides;) next time!

i like how you can see our process of making a mark, wiping it off and trying again differently. so true to life, right? here's the finished painting now rested above kelly and her husband john's bed. i'm realizing there are so many points we could have stopped at and then we could've kept kept on... that's the craziest and sometimes most difficult thing about making a painting-- when do you deem it finished??


ps- if you haven't signed up for the giveaway below, you have till friday at 5pm west coast time!

xxx

today feels pretty special

hugh and i got up early (for us) and biked down to civic center to watch the big screen and be among the crowd popping champagne, selling obama shirts (will they be on sale now?), and holding their kids up high on their shoulders. lots of boo-ing at appropriate parts and tears too.

i have a lot of hope. or as they said in italy... "HOPE-AH" when we got into cabs and they would smile and say "obama hope-ah". yay! such a different feeling traveling after he got elected, i tell you.

i wanted to share this video that got hugh and i a bit choked up a couple days ago: this land IS yours, mine and our children's~

our first anniversary!

we celebrated a year of marriage on monday. wow, that flew by!

here's to many, many, many more my love.

we tried to take our annual (for dating) photobooth pic, but went to FOUR bars with photobooths and they were ALL broken. so we came home after an amazing dinner at blue plate and biking all around the city to find the elusive working photobooth and decided to take them at home with the photobooth function on our mac :) our 6th year of dating plus one year of marriage.

oxoxo

happy to be home

Hello neighborhood, hello spanish speakers, hello grit and humidity, hello color, hello bike, hello husband, hello bed, hello studio, dear friends, my coffee shop, big sticks filled with cotton candy and kind people carrying them, hello mariachi singing in the public transit, hello free public transit day, hello sweet swaddled baby on your mother's back so round like buddha, hello dollar stores, hello clean sheets, hello earrings, hello cool kids rocking white sunglasses and skinny jeans in yellow, hello china town at lunch time, hello bananas and avocados under a $1 at the corner market, hello co-workers and talk of textiles and back-to-school fashion, and best of all hello summer in the city and late nights with the door open and typing and listening to this american life right now. hello home, i've missed you.