Nostalgia...

In every real man

a child is hidden that wants to play.

Friedrich Nietzsche

A few days ago,

i was thinking about my childhood

and how fortunate i was

to have such loving parents

and so many cool toys. :-)

I wanted to share with you

some of the toys i remember most.

i'm guessing some of you

might recognize a few of these. 

The 1970's version of an ipad.

Even then, there were selfies.

giggle.

This actually played music.

I was so impressed. 

Who hasn't played with Fisher Price?!

i remember the pig was my favorite.

Just cause he was so damn cute.

Yeah. Barrel of monkeys.

We spent hours playing with these little guys...

hooking one arm into the other.

Why we didn't end up in an asylum

after 2 hours of this

i'll never know. ;-)

colored lights,

the freedom to create what we wanted,

and a dark room...

what more could an artist want?

DON'T BREAK THE ICE...

You had to slowly knock out the ice blocks

without breaking the whole surface.

If the surface broke,

and your little guy fell through,

you were scarred for life.

And you lost the game.

Double whammy.

Who remembers these?!?

Basically, a free trip

to the emergency room.

I smashed more fingers, wrists and elbows with these babies

than i care to recall.

(yes, elbows. I sucked)

For a while back in the 70's

telephone pole wires everywhere 

had these "Clackers" hanging from them.

This is how we rated

whether a town was cool or not.

"Yeah but dad, they're probably really BORING here!!

I see no clackers ANYWHERE!"

Today's Canadian health & safety version.

(yawn...)

Poor kids. They don't know what they're missing. 

ah.... Doodle Art.

An overdose of fun.

And of butterflies.

These large format posters

were sold in tubes back then,

along with the markers.

Kind of like a huge coloring book page

on its own.

They all had specific themes.

My favorite theme was the underwater ocean one...

For obvious reasons.

In one of my past lives,

i was a fish.

Ah... another free trip to the hospital...

Basically, a pen with a metal tip 

that you plugged in until it was hot enough to burn wood.

Or skin.

Or the kitchen table. 

It came with several different tips,

and a series of different wood designs...

Flowers, horses, scary clowns.

Whenever i needed to threaten my brothers,

this was the object of choice.

Who needs Mafia when you have a wood burning gadget?

...and the Etch a sketch... ;-)

Do any of these resonate with any of you?

Did you have a favorite toy as a child,

or a favorite thing to do?

I have tons more i could share

but i'll keep those for another post.

Thanks for hanging out.

xox

sad girl and Rainer Maria Rilke

hi there.

Feeling a little off today,

so no words of wisdom.

Here's what i painted this morning.

(acrylic and charcoal on watercolor paper)

There's a quote by Picasso that i love:

Every child is an artist.

The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. 

So this morning,

i felt like connecting to the artist i may have been

as a child.

It's a real challenge for me to let go of control

and paint from a place of innocence

rather than judgement.

I do like her...

...and her red shoes. :-)

I may have shared this with you already,

but i'm doing it again.

I read these words often,

by Rainer Maria Rilke

the genius poet.

His words comfort me

in times of doubt,

more than any other words ever do.

*****

Your work needs to be independent of others' work.

You must not compare yourself to others.

No one can help you. You have to help yourself.

Criticism leads to misunderstandings and defeatism.

Work from necessity and your compulsion to do it.

Work on what you know and what you are sure you love.

Don't observe yourself too closely, just let it happen.

Don't let yourself be controlled by too much irony.

Live in and love the activity of your work.

Be free of thoughts of sin, guilt and misgiving.

Be touched by the beautiful anxiety of life.

Be patient with the unresolved in your heart.

Try to be in love with the questions themselves.

Love your solitude and try to sing with its pain.

Be gentle to all of those who stay behind.

Your inner self is worth your entire concentration.

Allow your art to make extraordinary demands on you.

Bear your sadness with greater trust than your joy.

Do not persecute yourself with how things are going.

It's good to be solitary, because solitude is difficult.

It's good to love, because love is difficult.

You are not a prisoner of anything or anyone.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

*****