Years ago I thought I was clever justifying my cluttered workspace with a quote:  Order breeds Routine; Chaos breeds Creativity.

For the past two weeks, attempting to find artworks to add to collections for this website, I've been forced to plow through a locked room full of boxes stored for one year after a major move of schoolhouse, studio, and woodworking shop.  Initially, during the move, there was order as I packed, but chaos  soon reigned as remaining days dwindled.  Determined to sort and eliminate excess "later" every box was consigned to one room and the door closed...  Since then, random raids to find things have only intensified the problem.

The chaos is killing my creativity.  It is strangling into paralysis the excitement and joy I expected to have; that I DO HAVE when pulling together the elements of each project I want to present.   Finding bits of THIS and THAT, I think, Oh! Yes! I could...but where is... and then find another wonderful bit of nostalgia, pages of lyrical descriptions ('So PERFECT to introduce...I can just crop here and add...') that suddenly I'm immobilized as surely as if a falling net had enmeshed me on the spot.  Yes.  A thick and heavy cargo net, woven of one woman's chaotically obsessive documentation of creative projects pursued during her life  ('Wonderful stuff...it'll make a book and...ooOh,  wow, I could hand-bind them when I start making paper!').  Ugh.

I had just sighed, overwhelmed by the enormity of organizing so many possibilities--had decided to give up composing and save this as a draft--when saw I'd started and not finished two other drafts!  These had even MORE emotionally charged possibilities for creative depth...

BLOG DRAFT #1  "...how can you give up your Art to build a boat--don't you want to be famous?!" and,

BLOG DRAFT #2 "Poverty is No Excuse."

The last title was to have been the first posting, a tribute to Sue James, a brilliant New Zealand artist who initially taught the One Candle Schoolhouse students to make their own brushes and paints, then, during a more recent visit, published a small book of the drawings Avelino had created using those materials! Seeing it, I was stunned.  Thrilled to see that I was holding in my hand, in print, a student's published book I was totally green with envy and self-castignation. I had been too distracted and disorganized to follow-through on any of the book projects I'd always envisioned for the kids.

Sue is a woman who JUST DOES IT and moves on...uncluttered and freed for creating. She is an astonishing artist, prolific and inspiring as a warm breeze that wafts lovely showers of blossoms from fruiting trees.  Me?  I'm the mad squirrel hiding nuts beneath those trees and then is totally dazed trying to find them again in winter.  (I think it was Luann Udell that called it "Frozen Brain"?) (No, it was Caroline Henderson, in her brilliant blog post, Brain Freeze)

Determined to become more like Sue,  wanting to show gratitude for her unswerving loyalty to everyone in this community by honoring her with a blog post, I immediately made scans of Avelino's book covers and neatly put them in a file. Oh, but that was too simple, wasn't it?  No-o-o... I wanted to show the ARTfullness of what she'd done with the students, wanted to include the children's own paintings. 

So it was the looking for old photos of students making their brushes, paints, searching for their color swatch pages that initiated the unlocking of doors, That finally forced reckoning with dusty, taped boxes. Which, all of them, could have been labeled by Pandora, herself.  Luann knows what I'm talking about. 

In the meantime, since life for this squirrel continued to present a field of luscious nuts for collecting, using this website's Newsletter seemed like a great solution for gathering them into a tidy bunch to: 

• inform friends I would no longer be posting to One Candle Schoolhouse, but to One Candle Firebird
• update with photos of boatwork on PILAR
• announce the signing of a second year's lease for continuing projects at the shop/house/studio
• photos of Precy's jewelry, progress on her livelihood project
• the truck garden at the house, another possible livelihood project
• Hamuel's progression from bed-ridden to using a walker
• (the new pups!)

and, most importantly:

• invite everyone to an OPEN HOUSE, on Palm Sunday, March 29th, noon to five, a CELEBRATION of above events and a farewell party for the family who can now return to their own home, because of Hamuel's recovery progress.

See what I mean?  Nuts over the place. 

Everyone, please come to the Open House where we can eat and drink and talk endlessly about all the wonderful, creative projects in life...

UPDATE: 

Sunday's Open House was a HUGE success!  Lots of food and most important,

lots of wonderful guests to enjoy the company of each other.  Thank you, everyone who came, brought food, and shared our celebration. 

While downloading photos and videos of recent events late last night, one short video demanded to be immediately shared, so without any editing or artistic titles, I posted it to YouTube.  Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/0pG3VYs6rgQ

It deserves a blog posting of it's own, as an example of finding true artists in all fields of work.  Analou Suan, the physical therapist for Hamuel, demonstrates her high level of skill in the multitude of ways she supports him the first time he stands and takes steps, without the aid of a walker. 

In the very large and wonderful house that I rent for my studio and workshop, there is a family temporarily living there.  Later, I will be writing more about them, but for this post (which is a quick, possibly indulgent update for family and friends while I explore the various facets of my new website) I will focus on an unexpected aspect of our connection with each other.

Precy is the mother of Hamuel, who is convalescing from a motorcycle accident.  Last December, when they arrived after release from the hospital, I gave Precy some beads and jewelry supplies to fill her hours when her son did not need her.  These were materials left from the days when students of One Candle Schoolhouse were developing livelihood skills by crafting bracelets and earrings.  It soon became obvious that Precy had a talent for designing, plus a real interest in consistent production quality. I began giving her better and better beads to work with, lovely beads that had been donated by Cathy Short, beads that were obviously too beautiful and expensive to be fully appreciated by fledgling designers.

Soon, I simply gave her the numerous trays containing the beading wealth, stopped miserly parceling small handfuls of them out to her from my locked storeroom. 

I then began wearing a few of her pieces when I went into town,

or went to Friday Night Buffet with other cruisers on yachts from the anchorage. 

Everyone has admired her work, and not a few have begun purchasing her jewelry! 

So it is with delight and a bit of 'first night' anxieties that I want to announce a significant upcoming event in Precy's life: next Friday, March  6th, 2015, in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, Philippines, at the local women's weekly luncheon, Precy will be displaying her work! 

Thanks goes to Ann Wood, who initiated the popular gathering and suggested the venue.

I am particularly gratified because, for so long, I have believed in helping make this sort of experience possible for the local community.  That I haven't been more successful has been due to my own ignorance of marketing, and of the subtleties within a foreign culture, but the learning curve is accelerating.  One step at a time, Yes, but with the peaceful and satisfying acceptance that everything falls into place as it should.

UPDATE:

Not only did Precy's work find welcoming approval...shared interest and support for several women's independent livelihood projects were explored during the luncheon with promising discussions for future collaborations, adding an extra-rosy glow to our faces as we parted company.