Inspire Your Heart with Art

Have you seen these old-fashioned flower of the month quilts? i am making one for a customer.

Inspire Your Heart With Art Day

No surprise that I love floral quilts. A customer just sent me 12 embroidered, flowers of the month floral panels to make into a custom quilt for her bedroom and I was delighted to go through the blocks, they look very similar to the red floral quilt blocks quilt I found at an estate sale.

I suppose it's also no surprise that I enjoy all manner of handmade items, from little pottery bowls to oil paintings including my personal favorite, kindergarden student drawings of their teachers. Art is all around us, if we just take a moment to appreciate it.

That also applies to where many think "real art" is stored. When I visit a museum, I like to take my time. I make a beeline for the benches some have scattered around. Benches give me time to let my mind and heart settle on whatever catches my attention. Sometimes I wonder what the artist was like, not so much by reading a biography but by what life experiences we may share. There's a smudge in a corner, did the artist's cat helped by walking across the canvas?

Some art is downright inspiring. Original oil and water color paintings of - well, yes, flowers - speak to my soul. I came across a traveling exhibit of Claude Monet's water lilies a few years ago. I was sitting on a bench looking at it next to an older gentlemen. We seemed quite content in sharing our quiet moment together until I leaned over and pointed to a corner of the water color, where a particular lily had caught my eye.

If you haven't seen his Giverny water lily paintings, look up Oscar-Claude Monet, he was a french painter 1840-1925 who established the Impressionist Era, particularly the plein-air landscape paintings. In his later years as he became more successful, Monet also became an avid gardener. Basically his paintings interpreted what he saw in nature. My words, I am sure if you are a Monet specialist you can correct me but that's how Monet's art speaks to me.

With a twinkle in his eye, the man sitting on the bench whispered back "they thought Monet was crazy because he wanted to spend all of his days in the garden."

We smiled at each other. I do the same, in part because my garden inspires my creativity, in part because I feel closest to my maker among my flowers. There seems to be a balance, and perspective, in a garden, even when nature is furiously working her magic. It's a very personal experience, and it's a gift of time I give myself. 

I showed him my roughed up, nailess, almost clean, gardening hands. He showed me his gnarled, roughed up, nailess but spotless hands. We smiled again.

Guess we gardeners are all just a little bit crazy.

Charlotte