Pausing To Notice The Beauty In Front Of Us - Week 5

My artist date streak continued this week, week 5, with an exploration of the Humboldt Park neighborhood on Chicago’s west side. I’m in this neighborhood every week but I never venture too far from where I need to be. This week, though, I decided to take a detour. As I wandered down 1000 N. California, I stumbled upon this large-scale mural on the side of a building. Turns out it’s by a Chicago visual artist named Jason Brammer. His storefront studio is in this building.

If you follow my Instagram account, you may notice that I love any type of art, but especially public art. One of the reasons I love Chicago is because there is so much art around this city, from large sculptures in parks to murals beneath viaducts. Sometimes we just need to take a moment to let us see what’s in front of us rather than constantly rushing or allowing ourselves to be distracted.

Thank you, Jason, for making our city a bit more beautiful for us.

Appreciating Art In All Its Forms - Week 4

This week I took a little detour as part of my artist date. I tacked it onto a client meeting I had in the Loop and decided to go a bit earlier so I could stop and really enjoy the Marc Chagall mosaic located in Chase Tower Plaza. The piece is called Four Seasons and since I come to it from the east side since that’s where I get off the subway, I rarely ever have the chance to walk around the entire thing and just take it in. I intentionally gave myself extra time so I could enjoy all four seasons, like we have in Chicago. It was such a lovely experience, just to sit and look at the piece on the west side as well as the north and side sections. It helped that it was a gorgeous day so many people were out and enjoying the weather and their company.

Marc Chagall’s Four Seasons in Chase Tower Plaza in Chicago.

After my meeting, as I rushed to grab the train back since I had plans that afternoon, I decided to pause and walk into St Peter’s Church on Madison. In all the years I’ve lived in Chicago and worked downtown and trekked into the Loop for client meetings and passed this church, I’ve never once walked inside. Granted, I’m not Catholic so that may be one reason since it’s a Catholic church. Still, I craved the solace and my daily morning meditation has helped to remind me of the importance of slowing down so I figured, why not…I’m going to walk inside.

I guess I wasn’t the only one who needed the solace and quiet from the busy-ness of life. While I wouldn’t say it was packed, for a Thursday afternoon, there had to be at least a good 30 people in the pews. The church is massive and beautiful. Marble statues, rows of wooden pews, candles lit, it really felt so calming. I left feeling not as rushed or anxious and it was a lovely feeling.

St Peter’s Church on Madison Street in Chicago.

Stopping to Smell the...Tulips? - Week 3

I’ve been visiting the Chicago Flower and Garden Show annually for several years now and one of the reasons I love it is because it makes me hopeful that winter is on the way out and spring is around the corner. In this case, spring arrived (at least on the calendar) on Wednesday, March 20. We still need to wait a couple of months before we can plant any vegetables but I’m hoping to get started with growing my herbs indoors next month before I bring them outside. Baby steps, friends!

Pink tulips are my favorite spring flower. Seeing them annually at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show makes me smile.

Women’s Journeys in Fiber usually has an exhibit at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show and I love to walk through it and take in the art. This one by Natasha Lehrer Lewis made me pause. It’s not big but it caught my attention. The theme of this year’s exhibit had to do with time and her piece, entitled Time, asks the viewer to try and recall the last time we took the time to stop and smell the roses. The piece has a little girl clutching flowers, inhaling their aroma and appreciating the sunny day and the innocence of childhood. “In time, storm clouds of life gathered in the distance, and the rumblings of adulthood could be heard,” the artist writes in her description of the piece. “Before long, these clouds hung over us, dark with the cares that now preoccupy our once creative minds.”

She goes on to write, “I am learning more with each passing day, to make choices and find balance for my soul. Never let the child-like innocence be clouded out by your storm clouds. Life is just too short.”

The art piece by Natasha Lehrer Lewis made me pause. Perhaps not to smell the roses, but to consider how I’m trying to balance the storm clouds and life’s demands with more opportunities to feed my creative soul.

It was another great week of seeing friends and meeting new ones. I’m really enjoying these artist dates as well as getting out to see people. This winter has been brutal for me so it’s nice to feel more alive and happy. Thank goodness the sun has been making more appearances, too!

My New Love Affair - Week 1

Don’t these handmade papers beg to be touched?

There are many things in life that make me happy. Textiles, handmade paper, art, and trees are among them. Books and coffee, too. So when I set out to start dating again, to take myself out on “artist dates” as Julia Cameron from The Artist’s Way calls them, I started jotting down some places I could visit to reclaim some of the creative feelings I seem to have lost in the bustle of day-to-day life. I suppose it’s no surprise that my first date was to BLICK, an art supply store in Chicago’s Loop.

While Cameron advocates for time alone during these artist dates, and I’m committed to doing them alone, I’m also trying to schedule more time with friends. I was able to follow-up this lovely artist date with a real date with a friend who I met for lunch nearby at Miller’s Pub, one of my old haunts when I worked around the corner and attended graduate school at DePaul University.

If you care to follow along, I’m hoping to use my blog to stay accountable and an online diary of sorts as I post my weekly artist dates here. If you have any recommendations on places to visit, please let me know. My goal is to keep these dates going through the end of the year.