Daddy’s dog

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Art for Housewives

Los Ojos Studio, Rome, Cynthia Korzekwa

Daddy’s dog

My dad and I didn’t spend much time together when I was a little girl. One Christmas he showed up with a box full of gifts maybe as a way to compensate for those long absences. Inside that box was a little battery powered dog that would bark on command. I let it bark for a few days but then shoved it on a shelf where it collected dust for the next several years. There was nothing special about the dog until I moved to Italy.

When you move to a foreign country, there is an initial euphoria that, often, gradually transforms itself into a kind of hostility towards the new environment—the you you’ve always been is not compatible with the changed surroundings. Your way of dressing, eating, drying your clothes or decorating your home suddenly becomes “out of place”. Defense mechanisms are activated and nostalgia for the old competes with desire for the new. It was during one of these periods of Nostalgia for What Never Existed that I brought Daddy’s Dog to Italy.

The word “nostalgia” comes from the Greek νόστος (which means homecoming) and ἄλγος (which means pain). In other words, nostalgia is simply a yearning for home that surfaces when we feel needy or insecure. But home is not always a place. Sometimes it’s a state of mind. And the feeling that it’s okay for you to be you.

Luckily, I am no longer burdened by nostalgia. Having Daddy’s Dog in my studio reminds me that memories are, in part, fiction since we have a tendency to romanticize the past. So it’s best to focus on today. You know, Be Here Now.

related links: Being “in the moment” + Be Here Now book

Photo by Chiara Pilar

 

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L’oeil de Fluffy

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Art for Housewives

Padre Pio at Los Ojos

Padre Pio visits Adam and Eve

Even though it’s not the name on her birth certificate, I often call her Fluffy. Because she is soft and light and ever so cuddly.

Fluffy is a magical photographer making even the mundane photogenic. Click, click click and, voilà, the ordinary world becomes full of extraordinary delights.

And this is the lesson I’m striving to learn—how to make my everyday life photogenic.

Fluffy does not attempt to change what she is photographing. No props or gimmicks for her. Instead, she changes her position until she is able to approach the subject in such a way as to make it intriguing. She will climb on chairs, get down on her knees, move to the left or move to the right until she finds the viewpoint that renders the most.

The way you interrelate with the world determines its beauty.

photo by Chiara Pilar

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Directions

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Art for Housewives

Los Ojos Studio, Rome, Cynthia Korzekwa

direction determines your destiny

During the holidays, I try to avoid watching TV—too many films excessively and superficially glorifying Christmas. But today I had an unexpected surprise. “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” is a film based on a book by the same name. Written by Winifred Watson in 1938, Miss Pettigrew is the story of a middle-aged woman who desperately needs a job. An employment agency mistakenly sends her to the wrong place. Instead of a position as a nanny, she inadvertently winds up as a ladies maid for a glamorous nightclub singer. It is a mistake that will give her life a new direction. And activate a magical transformation. 

Ideals give me direction.

Link: synopsis of Miss Pettigrew

photo by Chiara Pilar

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Happiness is motion

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Art for Housewives

Los Ojos, Rome, Cynthia Korzekwa

dancing made her happy

Today I’m alone and want to take advantage of the silence to organize my thoughts and to create a strategy for actualizing my New Year’s Resolutions.

One resolution is that of finishing my graphic essay on transformation. Like a children’s coloring book, I have the contours but now I have to finish coloring inside the lines.

For the past year, I’ve done quite a bit of research for this project which led to reading Gretchen Rubin’s bestseller, “The Happiness Project”. One of Rubin’s goals in writing the book was to learn how to readily access to happiness when affronting adversity. More than something magical, often happiness is just a result of exercising the right kinds of habits. Although I agree with this concept, the book wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. Nevertheless, her “January” chapter lays out the standard blueprint towards any self-imposed transformation. You have to have energy. And to have energy, you need exercise, diet and enough sleep. Plus dancing daily helps, too!

 

photo by Chiara Pilar

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A Space of One’s Own

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Art for Housewives

Los Ojos Studio, Rome

 

We spent the morning working on our Resolutions List. I have a list of “standards”–the same things listed every year simply because I lacked committment. This upcoming year will be different.

Life is constantly transforming us but, like a leaf floating in a stream, often we are passive in the face of these transformations and just go where the current takes us. I’ve resolved to stop floating and to start swimming.

Part of the transformation I’m striving for means revolutionizing my studio so that I can work more efficiently. And, after two months of decluttering and reorganizing, my space is once again my own. There is still much to do but at least now there is room for my energy to flow.

Energy creates energy.

Transformation is about changing habits.  Here are some related links:  How Long It Takes to Form a New Habit +  William James on Habit

photo by Chiara Pilar

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