Are Holidays blurring together or am I just seeing Double?

"Kayla" enjoying her squash, surrounded by pumpkins.

I recently got an announcement for a Christmas project and I haven’t even planned for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Do you ever see your life just whizzing past; the constant hubbub of what to buy and when turning your calendar pages into an animated blur?

Of course, it’s necessary to plan ahead. But why can’t we ever just enjoy the moment. Writers and artists especially must work six months in advance; so must retail markets to stock their shelves and plan their staff far in advance of any sales.

September is “back to school” and the harvest season. Fall leaves and apples dot advertising pages. Halloween and Thanksgiving appear on the same shelves and eventually get crowded out by the upcoming Christmas Season.

"Americana" 16 x 20 acrylic on canvas in barn wood frame

But who am I to deny pleasure and profit to anyone? If I’m slow to get on board or always playing catch-up, I have only myself to blame. It does seem that we hurry from one event to another with little time to enjoy the moment.

When my boys were young, they spent every summer building a spook alley in our basement. They created crawl through tubes out of blankets and boxes. They placed dishes of slimy spaghetti in strategic places, and used flashlights to transfigure innocent faces into ghoulish creatures. What else they did is best left to the imagination.

I wasn’t small enough to crawl through their maize, but they were convinced that each year’s spook alley was better and scarier than the last. The Ring Leader of each year’s project was the “King of Creep,” my son, Sid. He had decorated his own bedroom with the remains of cicada shells pinned to his cork ceiling tiles; would that I could fall asleep under such crunchy canopy.

"Sand crane's Dreams" 18 x 24 mixed media on canvas

What is it about being scared and horrified that people love? I’m a wuss when it comes to horror films. I’d rather not see them. But when I was a child, I reveled with everyone else as mummies and zombies crept from under slime and out of caves to attack our heroes. We screamed with delight and shuddered with fear; the scarier the better.

Maybe it’s an age thing or the “feminization” of our culture. Today on Halloween we see cute little carved pumpkins with grins and missing teeth. Costumes, along with the usual array of goblins and witches, come in a range of harmless monsters like Shrek and Casper.

Of course, zombies have made a comeback. Zombie festivals are making waves throughout the country. Adults who felt deprived in their youth for having missed those early horror films are the first to don a costume and bloody make-up for the thrill of parading down the streets in hopes of scaring someone.

"Raccoons at Sunrise" 16 x 20 acrylic on canvas in barn wood frame

Now is the time to gather together your ideas for crude cards and pitiful paintings to celebrate the season. Black is in and pastels are out. The Season was originally devised to scare evil back into hell. It was called “All Saints Eve.” It was not a day to celebrate evil, but to put it back in its place.

If we’re lucky, perhaps we can make it a day and evening of harmless fun. When did the evil pranks begin, the putting of razor blades into apples, and the destruction of property and people? Keep your kids safe and enjoy the day. Use your art creatively to scare and frighten, but do it wisely and in good conscience.

Featured Artist:
Shijun Munns from Atlanta, Georgia. Here is a link to her post: https://www.facebook.com/artshijun   Followed by her painting: "Blue Boat in the Bay"

Does Fear have a Strangle Hold on You?

First Place winner in PanAmerican Alliance juried competition

This is the month when spooks, goblins, superstitions, and zombies celebrate the hidden fears and foibles we normally bury. Costumes and disguises parade as evil to ward off evil.

In reality, we all harbor secret fears that are sometimes disabling. Psychiatrists have names for these phobias. Some people overcome them through faith in God or a power greater than themselves. Others struggle a step at a time to unchain the demons within.

Second Place winner in PanAmerican Alliance juried competition (colored pencil)

I was talking about fear with my daughter, who is having difficulty finding employment. Each interview becomes more mountainous and treacherous. She finds reasons for not following through with an appointment: “They won’t hire me anyway. They’ll find some reason why I’m unsuited. I can’t go through it again.”

I feel for her, but at the same time she can’t remain frozen in time. “Don’t let fear keep you from doing what you really want to do,” I told her. “Don’t let fear control your life. If you do, you’ll regret it forever.”

I try to live by that advice myself. We all have to get out there and show the world what we’ve got. It may not be as good as someone else. It may not be as flashy and flamboyant, but it’s unique and represents who we are.

One of the greatest barriers to self-appreciation is making comparisons between yourself and another person. Because of insecurity or lack of self-confidence, the other person’s accomplishments always seem greater than our own. Our talents and skills pale in comparison. So why do it? Why compare yourself with others at all?

Progress is made and skill improved when we compare our last efforts with our present efforts. Compete with yourself until you feel more confident, and then you can comfortably compete with the world. It works for Olympic athletes. It works for pianists, writers and performers.

I look back over the years at how my work has changed and improved, and I’m clearly amazed. Don’t discount yourself; move ahead with the belief that you will get better. You must get better. Natural law predicates it. Practice and repetition do make a difference (your mother was right!).

My blog contains photos from a PanAmerican Alliance juried competition in Cape Coral. I attended, but did not show any of my work.

Featured Artist

Shijun Munns  was born and raised in Foshan; an old town in the South of China. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and “numerous pets.”

“I look at the world with an artist’s eye, and a poet’s heart,” Shijun said. Her work definitely reflects this. Link http://www.facebook.com/shijunart