Tales from My First Artist Residency
Greetings from My Final Week of My Artist Residency!
1. Alpacas Get FOMO Too. I went with a friend to visit a local alpaca farm (watch the REEL here!) and when we got to feed them they did something funny. The food was identical in all 20 serving bowls, but they raced from bowl to bowl wanting to try each one….as if their life depended on it. It was COMICAL. Every single bowl contained the very same brown grainy stuff–but they acted as if each contained a different delicacy they had never tried before and sometimes even fought each other for the right to try the “next best bowl”. They were also afraid of the dark woods at the edge of the field and of rabbits (because they jump out of nowhere and scare them!).
Animals are such amazing teachers and I saw myself in these wonderful alpacas. Specifically, I saw my (sometimes) daily struggle to feel like I am doing “the right thing”- the most satisfying thing…or to feel like I am being the right “way”….what if I am missing out- because I chose incorrectly?
But, I can choose to be present and enjoy HERE. NOW. Even if it seems the same brown grainy stuff is in my current bowl. I can breathe in and out and stay with it. I can stay with myself.
Rabbits and the dark woods are scary to me too!
And, the cure to suffering is always the same. I need to BE here.
Sometimes, in place of my morning stillness, I will listen to a teaching. This one from Thicht Naht Hahn is so beautiful
Want to visit the Alpacas? Check out the place I went to.
2. Friendship Trick: This Was Posted My One of My BFFs this Week and It Touched Me.
The only trick of friendship is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all.
~ Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
We all need our own counsel of wise ones—those folks (friends, mentors, teachers) that you can trust to tell give you praise and feedback.
I am in an art mentorship currently. I have noticed that I am sometimes!) resistant to learning new things. My mentor has noticed too. It’s sometimes hard to hear this sort of feedback…but, it is where I know I need to be to grow.
Is there a place right now where you are in resistance…fighting the very thing that could help you grow? How could you soften towards yourself?
3. Living the Dream Is Imperfect. My artist residency was something I put on my vision for 2024. I have been so blessed to be welcomed into a beautiful apartment with studio in Washburn, Wisconsin to paint to my heart’s content. The dream!!
And yet, when Mark and I took a ferry to Madeline Island this week, we got in a big fight (not scary–just hurt feelings on both sides). It felt terrible (as discord usually does!). I had forgotten that even while in the midst of a dream, there are hard things. My sister texted me from her own dream to confess that she was encountering some difficult moments in her dream too. What relief I felt to hear this! The dream life contains moments of goodness and also of grief. A REEL from this messy and imperfect day is here.
4. A Perfect Poem. I recommend listening to this one at spotify.
let my gardens speak for me when i am gone. let them speak in colored whispers of all the beauty i have seen. and felt. and lived. let them speak of how much death had to find me; how many hard seasons it took to make me a living, breathing thing. let them speak of my seasons of growth and abundance but let them also tell of my seasons of loss and decay. let the soft, wet earth be a reminder of hardness that didn’t win. of sadness that didn’t calcify. of surrender that triumphed over resistance. and let the glorious, fragrant blooms speak of my life and its greatest lesson: that the beauty we make never dies.
// come sit by my garden
Emory Hall
The line that hits deepest for me is “the beauty we make never dies”….it encourages me to make more.
How do you make beauty? I arrange flowers, try to slap on bronzer and a tinted lip now and again and I paint. I also feel like I make beauty anytime that I am paying attention to something or someone.
Here are a few photos from the residency!
“Maximalism Suited Her” 2024 36 x 48 Acrylic on Canvas- original available at Ghost Ship Gallery and can be shipped. Contact hello@ghostshipgallery.com for more info 1,700.00 US
Prints and more here.
My boundaries workbook is NOW HERE! Hurray- full color art filled pages make boundaries more FUN to learn about and apply!!
As always, I am so grateful for your help in spreading the word and sharing your positive reviews! I’ll be in touch soon!
You can always book a shamanic healing or coaching session here.
with love,
Sarah
Are you a coach, therapist or yoga teacher? Does your sacred space or healing studio need art? Please check out all of my available work here.
HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING SO FAR THIS FALL!
Local friends in and around Duluth…please SAVE THE DATE
A book launch party on September 24th from 7-9 pm with cupcakes and prosecco!
RSVP here at the facebook event to get updates.
Add here’s a link can use for pre-ordering the workbook from Zenith:
Saturday September 28 I will be at 47 degrees Art Gallery in Knife River, MN (47 Degrees
186 Alger Smith Road Knife River, MN 55609 tel: (218) 590-4532) from 11 to 5 pm signing copies of my new Boundaries Workbook – I may have a few art goodies with me too! Its a part of the wonderful 2020 art tour.
October 3-6 is the Duluth Superior Film Festival and the documentary I co-produced “Follow Your Feel Good: The Art of Sarah Seidelmann” is an Official Selection of the Festival….screening time is Sunday Oct 6 at 12:30 at Zinema. Come watch with us!
It will also be shown at the Eagan film fest on Sept 28! Info here.
Friday October 11 I will be signing copies of my new Boundaries workbook at Hemlock’s Leather at 115 north 3rd avenue West Duluth, MN 55806 Its such a fun and beautiful shop- please come shop and say hi!
Saturday October 12 there will be an opening reception for my show at the Ely State Theatre from 5-6 pm! Come see the beautiful work I have prepared for you!
This newsletter is reader supported! I typed this from my desk at GHost Ship Gallery while on my residency!
The best ways to support me are to:
1. Order my “How Good Are You WIlling to Let it Get?” CARD DECK today.
2. Take a CLASS from me.
3. Invest in yourself with a 1:1 session.
4. DOWNLOAD my APP for IOS for Divine Wild BEASTIE Support!
5. BUY ONE OF MY (SOON TO BE) 7 BOOKS OR Listen to them at Audible
6. Leave a brief review for any of my books at Amazon or Goodreads.
7. Purchase a print, mug, t-shirt, framed print, tote bag, shower curtain or other magical thing that I’ve created at MY ART SHOP.
8.Purchase an original painting from me.
9. FORWARD this newsletter to somebody who you know would enjoy it!
P.S. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made from links here, and it adds nothing to your cost. You can see all of my favorite books and other things here.
