El Camino

First things first, Mr. Bluebird wishes you nestloads of happiness in the new year! El Camino means the path(and yes the record review will come later in the blogpost so you can read the beginning). My path to where I am today has been quite a journey. Today I am an artist with nestloads of wonderful opportunities and the peace and joy that comes with doing what you love and having other people love it enough to buy it. But my journey was hard and treacherous and some days I wanted to retreat to my bed and pull the covers up tightly. The last few blog posts have been about some of that early journey which probably had a lot more under the covers days. But I was blessed too, I had a mother who loved me unconditionally and totally and even though I lost her at a young age I know she has taken the next 20 years to shape my life and she has found living angels to kind of pick up the slack. My father was very conflicted and in the end just wanted to be happy. He might have made mistakes but all was forgiven and I love him very much and miss his charming smile.(that is the reason I took down yesterdays post because as much as he is part of the journey, a lot of my journey with him was tempered and shaped by loss).

I had wonderful grandparents and I was blessed with all of them, wonderful aunts and cousins and family friends. Then I met Peter and journeying together we have a very nice life now and hopefully my son will find his pot of gold and a girl to go with it when he is ready.

I had wonderful friends all throughout my life, very fortunate to call many wonderful people my friends. Some I haven't seen in years but thanks to Facebook you can find everyone from your best friend in kindergarten to your first boyfriend.

My trusty needles have been my finest companions, they have seen me through grief, love, death, anger(well you get my drift) although to be honest the person using those needles would have never believed she could utter the word artist and be talking about herself.

I was taught the needlearts when I was about 6, all of them except quilting, from my father's mother. I did hand embroidery kits and knit scarves and crocheted afghans. I gave them as gifts and made myself things but never really considered that my art. Then I had my son and a mother friend of another boy saw my work and suggested I try to sell some of my ornaments, so I did with very little success I must say at first. But then I taught myself how to make christening outfits and because they were so well made people bought sweater sets and I would make pillows to supplement that income, still didn't think of myself as an artist. If you read my blog regularly you know the rest of the journey is longwinded and you've heard it before.

Suffice it to say being a hand embroidery artist in the year 2011 is not the easiest line of work especially if you don't do things the way your grandmothers did(although a beautiful sampler made the way your grandmother made it is a piece of art work by my estimation) and to be fair it is probably easier to look at me and see grandmotherly work but I like bright and cheerful and happy things to look at. I love to do an occasional barn or house but the colorful bright things make my heart sing.

And now I am an artist something I never dreamed of. In all my days I never really thought something I loved so much and did all my life would be the answer to all my questions about life. I am a stitch, I like to make people laugh, I try to bring people together, I stitch up little holes left behind by mere mortals and I spend most of my happy time with a needle in my hand and a needle on a great CD(ok now you can tune out).

El Camino by the Black Keys is about their journey, the voice that you cannot believe came out of a twenty year old(maybe I feel a kinship because of the bright colors), the tortured soul music which has a beat and you can dance to it, the perserverance of ten years of constant touring and selling 700,000 records(brothers)and varying amounts much lower then that with their previous works. I think that must have been incredibly hard to do and now I want you to reward them by buying El Camino(I kind of feel like a fairy grandmother to the two of them). It's a fabulous fun CD with the influences of the Kinks(my favs), TRex(my faves), the Cars(my faves) etc., etc.,etc. All of the bands that influenced them were my favorite bands when I was their age(slightly younger actually). I can't pick out a favorite song because I like them all for different reasons. I like all the Black Keys songs, and I do mean all, for different reasons. But I guess the reason I like them so much is they are artists with a voice and a guitar and a drum. A little bit different(ok a lot different) from their peers. (They can actually sing and play their own instruments, a number of different instruments)They love music and each other(not that way)as much as I love my embroidery and all of the wonderful friendsisters I've been so lucky to have. So go out and buy their CD or some other CD that speaks to that small person that lives in your head who thinks gee I wish I could be an artist. You just have to find some music that makes you happy and do something that makes you happier then anything else in the world, combine them and then magic happens. God Bless and Happy New Year!