Art is therapeutic and colour heals - bringing home an original painting by Belinda will light up your living space with a daily explosion of life & happiness. Belinda Fireman's colourful, inspiring art is guaranteed to lift the spirits, generate positive reflection and make you smile.
People who have bought Belinda's paintings say they can't stop looking at them, that they derive joy from them each day. Her paintings make wonderful, enduring and meaningful gifts.
Ever since my wonderful friend Mandy co-wrote the book “Yarn Bombing“, I have been itching to try it!
My 5 year old son has been knitting lots of different projects since he began knitting last year. He doesn’t quite have the patience to finish projects, though! So, when he saw this book, he wanted to use his unfinished scarf (originally planned for his stuffed dog, Dash) for some yarn bombing!
That yield sign is so much less unsightly now, don’t you think? 
What are you afraid of?
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We interrupt our regular programming to bring you this message from the outdoors – spring is here!
This post is dedicated to my bird-watching mom, @erbudd (that’s her twitter handle, folks, but maybe I’ll start calling her that!). I apologize in advance for the crappy photo quality. Most of these were taken with a Canon PowerShot, which doesn’t really cut it when it comes to zooms. Time for a Rebel!
I made a bird house in a workshop in May, and hung it up on our fence. I never expected to have birds inhabit the house this quickly. We have spent many moments now watching the birds as they bring scraps of dried grass and other bits to their nest. One of them likes to sit inside and poke it’s head out.
One day they were flying around and the male (we’ll call him Bird) was carrying a piece of straw in his mouth. He sat on the fence, waiting, as the female (we’ll call her Birdie) flew around him. Every so often, Bird would swoop up and try to get Birdie’s attention. It was like he was saying, “Hey, I’m trying to build this nest for you. Is this piece good enough? I can’t read minds, you know!!!”
These two have been so much fun to watch. We even caught them mating!! I’ve never seen birds do it before, have you??!
Aren’t they pretty?
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I’ve been thinking a lot about one item on my list from yesterday’s post: meeting and becoming friends with some people in the art world. A lot of analyzing has been going on, and while I still would love to meet these people, I think this is what is going on: by dreaming about becoming friends with them, I am attempting to validate my own self worth. If they were to like me enough to become friends with me, then that would mean I am 1. a good enough friend, 2. a good enough artist, and 3. successful enough to be friends with successful people. Something like that, anyway. If you have a psych degree, perhaps you can help me out with this one. Or maybe I’m just being too hard on myself; I have a history of doing that. After all, they are just dreams – things I wrote down on paper while the clock was counting down 10 minutes. Some of them I’m not sure about any more so I haven’t included them here. Here’s the expanded list, divided into the doable, and the need-help-able.
Me (things I can do, in time):
The Universe (things I need help with):
One action step I can take right now (just did) is to check out the dates of the next Michele Cassou workshop. I would love to attend one of the loooong ones!!
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(Be vulnerable.)
Meet and become friends with SARK, Andrea Scher and Marisa Haedike. They are amazing people. Edit: I am freaking out a bit about sharing this one, and questioning why I put “become friends with”. I am so over-analyzing this, it’s silly.
(Be brave.)
Ride a hot air balloon.
Travel all over the world teaching painting.
Teach Core Connexion dance.
(Be flexible.)
Perform onstage or in a movie. (yikes!)
(Be open in a new way.)
Write a book that showcases my art.
Discovered by a prestigious NYC gallery, and exhibit there.
Am well known and loved for teaching intuitive painting.
Illustrate books that are published and successful.
A famous person buys my art.
(Be trusting.)
Successfully sell paintings online.
Have a huge following.
Sell a painting daily.
Own a home in Greece or Italy with a pool, near a beach.
Teach amazing dance & painting workshops.
Some of these belong under multiple headings! I will feel free to add to this later. Or change it. It is not set in stone.
I’m having a hard time pressing “Publish”. Here goes…
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Dear gremlin living inside me (a.k.a. inner critic),
I give you permission to go on holiday.
I can take care of myself. I don’t need you to keep me safe anymore. It does not benefit me.
I give myself permission to know that I am safe.
I give myself permission to feel wanted.
I give myself permission to be BIG and take up space.
I give myself permission to be someone that people admire.
Thanks,
Me.
I’m starting to dream. I was going to say, “I’m starting to dream again”, but I honestly don’t remember dreaming like this before. I don’t mean the dreams you have when you are sleeping, I mean Dreams, that sit in your heart and soul, and wait to be discovered. Part of why I am dreaming now is thanks to an impulse I had, to sign up for Mondo Beyondo. And what I am learning is that impulses (backed up by intuition) are leading me to where I am meant to go. Where I want to go.
Here’s a little list of the times I have used my intuition, and/or acted on impulse, and it has brought about a big change in my life.
1. When I first met JP, literally, like 5 minutes after meeting him, I KNEW he was the guy I would marry. My mother can attest to this, since I called her that night to tell her.
2. When I was pregnant with my daughters, I somehow KNEW that I would no longer be an art conservator. I gave notice at the museum shortly after that. I’ve never looked back!
3. I got an email from a friend a year ago about the Sketchbook project, and I KNEW it was something I should do. I did it, and I am so glad I did. It HAS led to bigger things!
4. Talking to Nancy one day, she told me she needed someone else to become her client (for personal coaching) and I JUMPED in. This led to my next point.
5. Nancy dared me to hold a painting class. I JUMPED in again. So glad I did.
You should know that this jumping in thing is quite against the style of perfectionists! I am building the courage to do it more and more. The more I do it, the more I CAN do it.
P.S. I am featured on Stacie’s Jewelry blog!
I just finished my second painting class, and Carmen paid me a compliment that made my day. She said, “Every word out of your mouth was something I needed to hear”. Um, how awesome is that?! For a fledgling teacher, and someone who is prone to doubt, let me tell you: It is SUPER awesome. Thank you, Carmen! You made my day!
I CAN trust myself.
Why did I post this photo of a varnish-troubled magnet? Read on…
Tomorrow I will be teaching my second painting class ever. I have been mulling over how the first one went, what I would do differently, how it made me feel, and I want to get it out of my head, onto the blog (mostly so I can attempt to make sense of it, and also to stop thinking about it all the time). I’m worried this may come out sort of discombobulated. I don’t consider myself much of a writer (as I’ve mentioned before), but I’ll do my best(-ish… I’m not going to try TOO hard. This isn’t English class, after all. I had a huge crush on my Grade 11 English teacher, by the way. But, I digress.).
I should probably mention what brought me to teaching in the first place. To start, the word “teaching” came up during an art/dance/writing exercise during a Core Connexion workshop. I swiftly wrote it off as unimportant, but it kept popping up in my thoughts. Then, a few weeks ago during my coaching session with Nancy, I realized that I want to have more fun. During the process of figuring out what that meant, “teaching” popped into my head again. I tend to allow these “pop-ups” and express them, because in my experience, even if I don’t know what it means, it will lead me somewhere that I need to go. So I said it. After discussing it a bit, Nancy dared me to advertise for a painting class the following week. Meanwhile, my gremlins were “having a feast” (Nancy’s words, and totally appropriate!), giving me all kinds of reasons why this couldn’t and wouldn’t work. I ignored them and took the dare!
Had Nancy not dared me, I probably would have taken about 2 years before even considering teaching. I would have had to read all the books, paint for at least a year to get the experience, take a few workshops – my perfectionist part/gremlin wanted to hold me back, to keep me from having fun!
One of the things that usually keeps me from starting anything is the unknown. Should I invite just kids or just adults, or mix it up? How much do I charge? What kind of supplies do I need? How will I set it up in my home? Should I paint with them? In the past, I would never have started without knowing. I took this on as an experiment, and I have to say, I am enjoying this! I like that I am making mistakes and figuring out how to make the classes better by learning from them. Here are some of the things I have learned so far (in point form, because I make more sense that way):
So, back to the magnet. First of all, the message on it is an ongoing affirmation of mine. It underlies everything I do. I want to believe this to my core. Secondly, yes, I made a whole batch of these and the varnish cracked on almost all of them. I’ve had a similar problem in the past, but never that bad. I finally contacted my friend and painting conservator, Bonnie Rimer (we were in the same year at Queen’s University, both in art conservation) for some ideas. She had a crapload (oops, sorry, is that a no-no on blogs? Well, it’s how I talk) of ideas, and it made me realize that I am approaching this painting class the same way I am trying to figure out what caused the cracking of the magnet. I make mistakes, I get frustrated by my mistakes (more or less, usually less these days), I educate myself, and make things even better next time. And I have fun doing it.
This is my super lazy post just to present a funny photo of the kids. They dressed up as Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack from the Incredibles. I love that they can make these outfits without help from me (because I’m lazy when it comes to costumes! I’m definitely NOT one of those moms that sews them for Hallowe’en. You want to be a super-ninja-power-ranger-thingamabob? SURE! I’m confident you can come up with a great costume for that! Go for it!!). Cute, eh?