Red Dirt Farm and Studio

Lingering snow. My hibernation excuse.  Hanging on by a thread too.

A beautiful sunrise with the kitchen lights behind me reflected in the window.  It’s my favorite part of the day.

 

 

 

 

I’m so in love with this beautiful woodpecker that came in the recent snow.

 

 

Perhaps from the these photos you can’t tell that the winter white has turned to horrid ice.  Every step I take I hold on to my walking stick with all my might hoping not to tumble down and end up a pile of old broken bones.  It is especially dangerous on route out to the chicken coops and runs.  The gathering of eggs each day turns into a dangerous olympic sport. NOBODY wants scrambled frozen eggs.  Mr. Red Dirt seems to navigate these activities better than I do.  I hold my breath for him too as he is out there in the bitter cold cleaning and filling the frozen waters and scraping frozen chicken poop off the roosting bars.

Frankie Roo and Violet and Frida come inside for a quick warm up and a bit of Boo dog’s food.

 

 

I baked a boxed brownie mix to which I added a handful of chocolate chips and chopped pecans.  Fresh and hot from the oven a dollop of ice cream was just the thing to to make my thighs wide(er) and my lips and tummy happy.  What the hey it’s a good winter doldrum chaser.

I shared on social media  this week how much I struggle with sharing my creative makings and that I have to force myself to show up each day and be accountable for my makings. AND THEN the WORST is saying my art is for sale.  It’s an uncomfortable thing for me and I have talked about it before.  So many of my fellow artists and creative spirits say they feel the same way.  It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my space of discomfort.  We can perhaps give each other the courage to show up.  To dream and to shine and to share our uncomfortableness and then maybe it will be less so.

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I want to create stories with talking animals, and magic and love and hope and courage and a place where dreams come true.

Have you read the Narnia Books, or watched the movies?  I have not.  Back in the summer I started working on the idea of shadow box type creations that would tell stories of the surrounding wildlife real and fantasy that live here on the farm and in the woods that surround our little slice.  While I was thinking of these little creations on and off over the months I kept hearing other artists talk about moving into winter season and snow, and their feeling of loving the beauty from winter and that snow felt like they were in the story of Narnia and beautiful it was.  So I decided to purchase the movies because I have trouble reading and I am a person inspired by visual experinces.  I struggle with SAD and I hoped the beauty of the winter depicted in the movie would help inspire me to embrace winter weather and to help me with my story telling.  I thought it would also be a lovely little quiet interlude for Mr. Red Dirt and I to enjoy during a snow storm.  Little did I know that when the snow came, the power would go out for days on end.  Nope, no video watching.  The power returned but then last week one day the TV just stopped working. What the hey?  It’s back again, magic perhaps?  Who knows.  We still haven’t watched the series.

I am spending my time hibernating and working on creating some new story boxes.   What I like about these is feeling like I am telling a story with bits and bobbles from my vintage collections and my handmade clay pieces and wire nest sculptures.  I start with one of my little paintings then I create a story in my mind surrounding that painting.  They make me ridiculously happy.  I still don’t like winter and snow all that goes with it.  But at least my mind has gone to a happy place in creating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you remember when I first started making these – a year or so ago?

 

Dream **************

 

 

Courage **********

 

 

 

A Winter Nights Dream. *************

 

 

 

Fairy under a love spell ************

 

 

 

Another project, I started cleaning out my office space this week.  Sadly, it doesn’t even look like I have made progress.  So many boxes that I need to donate to the thrift store.  I moved this that and everything out of my way, hauled in the ladder.  Climbed said ladder, hung a string of twinkle lights for extra ambience magic.  Five minutes later half the lights went out.

 

 

 

What projects are you working on?  Are you baking and cooking your way through winter too?

 

My art is available in my Etsy shop.

Thanks for being here,

xo, Kim