A house full of stuff is not just about my reluctance to spend my time cleaning and clearing. It is about letting go of attachments. This doll and cradle are a perfect example. The cradle was made with hand tools by my great grandfather for my mother as a birthday gift when she was a little girl. My mother is now 72 years old. My grandmother gave me the cradle when I was young to “take care of.”
today’s sketch 11″x14″ artist colour pencils “Doll and Cradle”
I wasn’t a doll girl so didn’t have a doll to put in the cradle until I received a Katie, with her gorgeous ceramic hand-painted face and beanbag weighted body. She feels real when you pick her up.
I was 35 years old when Katie came into my life. I had wanted another baby but that was neither possible nor practical. My partner at the time presented me with Katie. A large, rough and burly logger, he had gone to a doll show and had a couple of elderly women help him pick out Katie and choose a set of cloths for her.
The doll and cradle has always had room my home because of these attachments. Someday I may need to find a new home for them – but not today.
Sprout Question: How does attachment influence your creativity? (your home, your subject choice)
p.s. I have lots of children in my life. I have two birth children and six step-children plus two grandchildren. The burly logger is now working in the oil fields and is a life-long friend from my childhood.
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Creative Potager 
Sprout Question: How does attachment influence your creativity? (your home, your subject choice).
I retain very few things. Rather, my attachments are to the memories; they reside in my heart. I feel this leaves my creativity clutter free — clear, concise and articulate.
[The face in your drawing is the epitome of innocence.]
Laurie you have this simplicity thing mastered I think. Like I said, my aim is for half way between us… and is “the epitome of innocence” a good thing or a bad thing to you? Thanks as always for sprouting an answer to today’s Sprout Question. I also loved your Gaia post this morning with the photo of the tree and a link to your beautiful poem Dancing with Trees (which speaks loudly about “clear, concise and articulate.”)
Terrill, I love love love the quick sketches.
In answer to your question: I believe it was the attachment to my pets that brought me where I am as an artist today. When I had to put my beloved D down in Jan 09, I came home without him in my arms and I was crushed. But as I looked around my condo I realized he was everywhere. Not just in stray cat hairs, but the portraits that I did of him. The way I had to grab my sketch book and draw him, just because he was soo sweet in a curled up ball.
I now have my Lil’ Luna, and she’s just as an artistic inspiration as D was. I sketch and draw her all the time.
Christine, thank you for the quick sketches feedback. I know I need to do them everyday… and not just sit down to work on pieces that will become finished work. I thought I would try this commitment to my blog as a way of making sure it happens. Thank you for your answer to today’s sprout. I find your website page In Memory of D captures your answer for us and gives us a wee sample of your incredible body of work.
i might use your cradle to store art supplies in 😀
hhhaaaahh! Tobin! You wouldn’t! Sacrilege! This is an excellent point though – the same things do not have the same uses or attachment to different people or even the same people at a different time and place.
Attachment is often specific to a particular time a place in our lives. When moving I have put a box aside not opening it again until a couple years later only to then wonder… why-oh-why did I pack it in the first place. I was no longer attached to the contents at all and found it a mystery what had prompted me to keep the articles in the first place.
Thanks Tobin:)
Terrill – “The epitome of innocense” you captured in the baby face is exquisite.
[Thank you for pointing to my blog]
Thanks for clarifying Laurie and you are welcome.
I think the attachments at certain points in my life represent different possibilities for creativity. As a single guy with just a dog, I could focus on our trips, meeting friends, and the freedom that I enjoyed. When I became a parent, the creativity shifted to a parent’s perspective and seeing life through a child’s eyes–something I had forgotten.
Slamdunk – glad you could drop in and provide a sprout to today’s question. Would it be fair to say that your attachment is about love? Your dog, friends, children?
It is curious to think about my attachment to “things” as my attachment to those I love who maybe I am not able to see daily or maybe not at all because they have died. I wonder how much of my home is a shrine to unexpressed love? The remembering that is held in my daily items – which are often old… hum???? n fact, I prefer other peoples old things to new things because of the passage of energy that is attached to the item. For example, we have a very old Mongolian sideboard. When I open it up I can still smell the years of wood smoke that has soaked into the wood from traveling with nomadic people in the past. When is it just the right amount of things and when is it too much and what are the consequences? Yes, I believe there are consequences to our choice of homes and what we put in them. How might this effect our creativity? More on that tomorrow.