#artstew52

At least the desolate holds potential but it’s been forgotten by some other lifetime we couldn’t live to see Maybe it got tired of carrying the burden... All that life is too much for one pair of shoulders

My love, you must be in pain to live in a cocoon Left alone to tear yourself apart to boil yourself down to the essentials “What is love?” “What is purpose?” “What is life?” “Who am I?” “Where do I fit in the grand scheme of things?” “Who am I to become?” “How do I know if I’m doing it right?”

From those essentials alone and cold  drowning in thoughts without manifest (or is it the other way around?) with no guidance you build yourself again entirely new A gentle beast of both memory and belonging If you can’t you don’t survive

But, my love, you’re wrong You are not the butterflies in your stomach They may be all the colors you put forth -  yellow in your cheeks pink in your hands blue in your feet red on your lips green... when? - They may be all these colors and more but they are one of the same mind that resides in all our stomachs too

No, my love you are not the butterflies in your stomach You are a dove with wings dressed in all your best intentions to lift you and carry you when you feel low when you dare to go higher

You recall the color of the earth because it’s home to you it’s the only place you’ve ever known You’ve outgrown this old tree that’s held your mother, your father your grandparents before that and before that It’s served it’s potential now lift it of its burden

 The first five weeks. 

{January 2nd-5th of February} 

For the past five #artstew52 weeks I’ve been watching artists love on each other without thought or hesitation. It’s like, I know we care for others and all but I know sometimes it’s hard to find a way to tell them or give back, especially online. You guys are beyond willing to care about each other’s work and you have also emboldened me to keep cranking out the prompts and effort for the Art Stew.  

It started as a project for myself and @alyssa.kinde ! Two people. Alyssa already tends to create content quickly and I thought she would be a good one for motivating me and holding me accountable. 

When I’ve done these projects in the past they tend to fizzle around five weeks (we’re at five weeks now so we’ll see) ;) but on a whim I decided to DM all the artists I could think of that I already had a bit of a connection with. Even in that one night when I sent out the proposal EVERYONE responded they were interested!  

SINCE then the support for the stew has been happily simmering and bubbling and boiling… (I love these stew metaphors—sometime we need to make punny t-shirts.)

So I guess what I’m trying to say is I have two things on my heart especially.

1. I’m very appreciative of everyones passion for this project so far and for everyone that is supporting as observers.

2. I find myself feeling warm and fuzzy and smiling everyday that I read your comments on each others contributions. I want your ways to rub off on me and I think it’s more likely that will happen if I stay surrounded by all of your stewy hearts.

Okay, now for a recap.

WEEK ONE—A WORD FOR 2017

There were so many words floating around. I think most everyone was feeling positive or trying to think of a word that would double as a resolution. (Everything in bold is a link to the art piece.) :

Dino-mite, flourish, pursue, fight, rooster (year of the rooster), do, grace, can, determination, heal, patience, love, wild, wellness, possible, journey, spark, faith, bravery, passion, abundance, self-belief.. one Steward’s word was vision and he designed a 3D art piece that resembled an eye. (I think it was so brilliant we probably didn’t catch it right away.) Another Steward said their word was despair which I found so hilarious and humorous in it’s honesty and contrast to the others.

Art by: @alyssa.kinde (Core Artist), She articulated it best for the Art Stew, “The prompt for this week was "a word for 2017″. A word I had already chosen for this year was - adventure - the project came together nicely and I think it does have "the spirit of adventure." Happy New Year everyone! Have lots of adventures!” See all of Alyssa’s contributions here: #alyssastew52

WEEK TWO—SNUG

Week two I believe was my personal favorite because we had enough time to really focus on the prompt and on each other. The prompt kicked off the Art Stew community in all the snugly ways (and I mean all of them.) 

For example: 

Art by: @kristentillmandesign (Core Artist), “It's week 2 of #artstew52 and this week's prompt is "snug". I thought of cozy socks, cuddly babies and such, but I couldn't get this ink elephant vision out of my head!” See all of Kristen’s contributions here: ktartstew52

@mich.elle.imagery however interpreted the other side of snug for us very nicely, “Cozy socks, wool blankets, candles and oversize sweaters encompass all of these things. Beyond that though, after full days of getting out of my comfort zone, I also believe it's a feeling to come back to at the end of the day as a way to recharge before starting the next day of adventure.” (I’m seeing an adventure theme here.) See Michelle’s photo for snug here.

WEEK THREE—EVERGREEN

This week was jam packed with simplicity and beauty. Exactly like @ariellebacon ‘s piece here and this written piece below:

Prose by: @a_hilst (Writer), “The woods always smell of burning, a strangely comforting smell, that smell of dying trees. I walk under a gray sky, sticks snapping under my brown boots, the ones I wore in the snow when I carried his tiny body, warm and safe in mine. I stare at the dull green of the pine trees, vivid against the brown trunks and exposed branches. I catch a whiff of smoke again. Two things never say enough: fire and death. Isn’t that the proverb?”

One of my personal favorite aspects of the Art Stew are the writers and this particular style of writing stood out to me. I love bits of writing that end in a question. So well done Ashly. Read the rest of this beautifully chokey piece here.

WEEK FOUR—LUNAR

I thought everyone loved the moon but I overheard one Steward, @kristentillmandesign (nudge, nudge) saying she was utterly uninspired by the “annoyingly boring white blob”. We all have that blob in our life don’t we and yet after Kristen focused on it a bit this is what she concluded, 

“Upon further thought, I realized that perhaps I dislike said blob because she asks me daily "What did you accomplish today?" and most days, my honest answer is "not enough." But maybe I'm hearing the wrong question. Perhaps she's asking "Were you loved and did you love today?", to which I can joyfully respond "yes!"—See Kristen’s not so uninspiring blob here.

Photo by: @hellozorzi (Photographer, I’m guessing she’s a writer too.), “Last week's word for #artstew52 was LUNAR and I couldn't get the right shot anywhere. Not the sliver of the waxing moon, or the opalescent colors, or a photo of my Moon Spells. Nothing was 'it'. And today driving back from my school site, I could have kept trucking ahead in the snow back to Amherst, or taken a right and pulled into the Bookmill. I took the right, shook my boots off before entering the tiny cafe there, and saw @magknowlia's hair from the back-- neck craned into a book of modern poetry. When you see exactly the person you wanted to see and didn't even know it and they have a window seat view of the snow-- get a mug of coffee and join them. Because between us saying how we'll never actually read The Federalist and how we both have eerily similar hidden dreams-- she raised her hand to her chin and THERE IT WAS: the 🌙  I had been looking for. Found you, little Luna.”

WEEK FIVE—A FAVORITE BOOK

Last but not in the slightest least! This week the word torture was tossed around so much you would have thought that we weren’t having the best Art Stewy week of all! 

I’m going to list all of the favorite books here so we can add them to our “to read” lists. Click on the name in bold to see more info on the book and contributions for the week.

HARRY POTTER (series)—@jennapaddey (pictured below), @klaing_, @bertillustration, and myself.

ANNE OF THE ISLAND—@ariellebacon

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR—@mich.elle.imagery

WINNIE THE POOH (original)—@lipstickandgelato

PRIDE & PREJUDICE—@wilkinsonsophie1

THE LORD OF THE RINGS (trilogy)—@ranilynreed

ST. LUCY’S HOME FOR GIRLS RAISED BY WOLVES—@emilyh_art

THE HUNGER GAMES (trilogy)—@opallonia

CORALINE—@coreycatkins

THE SNOW GOOSE—@alyssa.kinde

CAN’T YOU SLEEP LITTLE BEAR—@teathoughts

JANE EYRE

THE HELP

HEARTLESS

THE BOOK THIEF @gracie_eyre ‘s top four (cuz she couldn’t pick just one) ;)

THE BLUE CASTLE—@a_hilst

ANY HUMAN HEART—@thewordfairy

THE TWO PRINCESSES OF BAMARRE - @teaganolivia

THE LITTLE PRINCE - @lacelit 

NEVERWHERE - @themythicalphoenix

@blackberry​square picked her freshly made gardening book and if I had a garden that would be my treasure book too. (Click her name to see.)

EDIT: To be continued... the week isn’t quite over.

There is your list! If you want, treat yourself to one of these books for your own personal #newbookday and share what you decide on in the #artstew52 tagging the person that inspired it.

Art by: @jennapaddey (Core and Digital Artist), “I mean, come on. It's not really a surprise is it? I definitely have a long list of favourite books, but I've read the Harry Potter series more than any other, it was definitely a huge part of growing up and i love it deeply. So here's a wee little Harry heading off to Hogwarts.”

The highlight of the whole month for me was the presence of @opallonia! If you ever need her she’s probably already in the comments telling you all the things she likes about you and your work. She has helped me keep this stew cooking all month. I’ve made so many new friends and I bet Appolonia is ALREADY one of yours. So, I’ll leave you with a piece of Appolonia’s awe-inspiring awesomeness...

A video posted by ｐｏｐｓ (@opallonia) on Jan 19, 2017 at 2:08am PST

SO! How’s that for our first Recapitulation? I’ll post one for every month of the Art Stew because really, there is so much goodness to stew in here.