Monthly Themes – Page 10 – Giants & Pilgrims

A New Song and a Silk-Screen Poster!

January 26, 2016/1 Comment/in Bellwether, Creative Process, Monthly Themes, Music /by Betony Coons

In response to our January theme of “Clearing” we have created a fully produced, beautiful song for you called “Empty”. You can listen below (and feel free to share it with folks!):

Using the lyrics from the song, Betony has designed a limited edition of 50 silk-screened posters. With silver ink on heavyweight, forest- green paper, it will be an impressive and framable 12×16 print.

Because of the silk-screen process we are only taking orders until February 7th! If you’d like one you can order it now by clicking right here (it’ll take you to our store).

About Bellwether and Our January Theme

At the beginning of the year Betony and I announced we’re working on a new project. Titled Bellwether, it will be an album and art series that explores belief (to be released November 2016).

Instead of just keeping the creative process to ourselves, we’re making it a bit more open; hoping to explore belief each month in ways that contribute and form the project being released.

So every month we’re doing a Practice & Process, choosing a spiritual practice and, in response, sharing the creative process.

For January our theme is Clearing and we wrote all about the Practice we took on (you can see some crazy pictures of our house-clearing too!)

Our plan is to continue releasing songs and posters throughout the calendar year- an ongoing process to these practices. Keep watching for more as the months progress!

January Practice and Process: “Clearing” pt. 2

January 22, 2016/2 Comments/in Art, Bellwether, Creative Process, Monthly Themes, Music /by Betony Coons

PRACTICE

As we are making our way through January, Betony and I have been staying true to practicing the two things we put forward at the beginning of the month:
Doing a massive “clearing” of our house.
and
Having a table alter with and a ringing bell to accompany prayer.

Below are some pictures of the house-clearing process. We’ve made it through the BIG categories of clothes, books, and papers. Then Betony has been taking on the major hot-spots of her art studio, sewing-closet and kitchen.

These photos make it look REALLY bad, but part of the process we are doing is to pull each category (clothes, books, papers, etc) out completely before putting it back.
Books Day BEFORE:

Books Day AFTER:

Clothes BEFORE:

Clothes AFTER:

Papers Day: (we ended up with two small folders of papers)

The disaster of the studio BEFORE:

Studio AFTER (still in process of repainting…) – can you even believe this is the same space?

There are things that we are learning and processing in doing this! (Please, feel free to leave some of what you’re learning in our comments!)

For me, I’ve been surprised by how the house feels BIGGER. We all of a sudden have plenty of space. We’re aren’t hurting for closets and the floor isn’t constantly covered in toys… I was really feeling the pressure this last year of upgrading our home, keeping up with the Jones’, you know? We’re a family of 5 now. How do we make it in this tiny house? (leaving out the perspective that the rest of the world seems to do just fine with a lot less space and things). Now with this clearing, things feel fine right now. We actually have AMPLE room.

It’s also made me excited to be home. When I look at our bookshelf, I look at the “greatest hits” of Betony and I’s collection. Each of the books we’ve kept mean a lot to us! Now that the closets and nooks and shelves are looking like that, it gives a great joy. We’re surrounded by things we’ve made a choice to keep because of their importance to us.

Another point with that- because they’re important to us, we want to take better care of what we have. I’ve always wanted to be a good caretaker of my stuff, a good steward. But I never have felt very good at it. I hope this practice of “keeping mainly the things that bring me joy” will help me intrinsically move towards better care.

Lastly, and this sounds strange, overall I feel like I’ve spiritually lost 10 pounds. I don’t know how else to describe it. Coming in to the home, things just feel lighter and less stress-filled. Maybe there’s a beginning sense of “this is what I want my life to be” rather than “I’m failing at the American dream”? Does that make sense?

PROCESS

Betony and I are taking these practices and letting them guide our artistic process:

As a result, Giants & Pilgrims will be releasing a new song! This is a single from a larger work called “Bellwether”, out later this year. I wrote it while processing this idea of clearing and subtraction then quickly recorded, mixed, and mastered the song with a host of incredibly talented people!

Alongside the song, Betony is creating limited run of a screen-print that will be sold online only the last week of January! It’ll bring a beauty and design to the lyrics from this new song.

Also, Betony is excited to begin the year with a wonderful, clean, and intention-filled studio.

PS

The number of trash bags full of stuff we donated was CRAZY! This is only about 1/6 –

January Practice and Process: “Clearing”

January 8, 2016/1 Comment/in Bellwether, Family, Lists, Monthly Themes, Online /by Betony Coons

In creating our new project Bellwether we’ve decided to share what we’re doing each month before it’s released at the end of the year.
We’re calling these posts “practice and process“.

They will detail the spiritual/life practice we’re doing,
give a look at our in-process art that we’re creating in response,
and then include a whole host of resources and activities! (like the new desktop wallpaper, book/music/movie lists, recipes, explorations for kids, etc. This is so as a entire family we can engage in this year’s exploration of “belief” we’re calling Bellwether.

JANUARY Theme: Clearing

To me January is about resetting, starting fresh. It is the metaphor of a clear desk space – putting away all old projects and supplies, shining the surface, pulling up a stool, and opening up a new blank sketchbook, and beginning.

Practice:

As a family this month, we plan on doing two main things.

Clearing out our house of it’s excesses – stripping down to the objects that give us joy and clearing room for creativity to breath.
After a book has been recommended to me by 3 different people independent of each other, I figure it is time to read it. While we were home for Christmas, Tim and I both read this book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Marie Kondo is quirky. She personifies objects and houses. I particularly loved how she talked about socks.
(“The socks and stockings stored in your drawer are essentially on holiday.”
I can’t say I have ever really thought twice about how hard my socks work.) Here are the basic ideas in the book –
- Start by discarding. Then organize your space, thoroughly, completely, in one go.
- Discard by category – not by location (first clothing, then books, etc…)
- A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming. Then everything has its right place and tidying becomes easier.
- when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too.
- Surround yourself only by the things you love
“Letting go is even more important than adding” – Marie Kondo

What I have discovered by going through this process, at least so far, is that through discarding, I begin discern more clearly what is most important to me!

2. For our second spiritual/life practice we’re setting up a table altar. When the meal is finished and the table is cleared and cleaned ring the bell and say this prayer together: Lord God and King we thank you for your sustaining love.

Process:

Artistically, January is a month of exploration for me. I have some initial ideas for Bellwether, but mostly I am letting things steep. I will be drawing in my sketchbook a lot. And working through several boxes of beautiful old books to be used as collage material donated to me by the Greeley History Museum. I’m resetting and clearing my studio space to begin a new year of creating – I can’t hardly bear to post this picture of my studio right now. It is in SUCH a sad shape of disaster (this is what happens when the year ends with 3 major art shows). But, by sharing it here, it is just even more motivation to get it to where I want it to be.

Tim is working on recording a song around the ideas of subtraction and clearing. Hopefully for use in a really cool upcoming project.

(by the way if you haven’t checked out the new January calendar and desktop you definitely should)

Resources for “Clearing”:

JANUARY Dates to Take Note of:

January 11th – Winners of the major Children’s book awards are announced
January 18th – Martin Luther King Day – listen to this playlist or this one

Local: Greeley, CO events:

January 9th – Missoula Children’s Theater Rapunzel @UCCC
Starting January 18th – Centennial branch library is hosting a “Discover Nasa” exhibit
January 29-30th -The Annual Father Daughter Dance – tim takes the girls each year, and they all just love it.
(Here are the pictures from last year, we still giggle at how much these two shots capture the girls’ personalities)

Let me know if you have other fun Greeley events I should add to this calendar!

READING:

I am reading a lot of parenting and “how kids learn” kind of books, because we are thinking about shifting up how we teach our kiddos next year.

I have been really digging into Michelle Garrels new blog/resources at her site The New Domestic.

I want to listen to this podcast interview of her.
Her resource lists are particularly wonderful for learners of all ages.

Tim has been reading The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse by M. Gungor
Every snippet he has read to me has been just wonderful. I can’t wait to pick it up too.

I have seen some powerful reviews of When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
I am very interested to read his story.

Here are some of the books I have on hold at the library for the kids this month:

We are also planning on rereading the financial classic Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (if I can get past the Cheese factor). It is a proven system of money managing that has worked wonders for us in the past.

LISTEN TO:

Chvrches – Every Open Eye (my current favorite track is Clearest Blue – it makes me want to go running)

This liturgists podcast called “Vapor”

WATCH:

Selma

SCIENCE EXPLORATIONS:

Since the theme is “Clear”ing, I would love to do this vinegar egg experiment with the kids

Since it is ridiculously cold here right now, I think this would be a beautiful little science experiment to try as well.

FOOD:

We are in the midst of the Bon Appetit food lover’s cleanse for 2016. A practice we have done for the last 3 years. For our family it is a lovely reset. I do simplify and rearrange the menus for the sake of our grocery budget. So far our absolute new favorite is the Oven Roasted Chicken with Grapes.

ART:

Read and be inspired by this children’s book and experiment with our own scratch art.

Because one of our sub-themes is subtraction, we want to play around with Soap Carving with the girlies. Also seem like they would be fun for the bath if we made little boats.