Hi There!

Well, it certainly was a productive week in Portland. The highlight was spending a couple of days in Sharron’s studio and being introduced to encaustic (”hot wax painting”). These are my first three pieces and I hope there will be many more to come, as soon as I can clear out a studio space in the house!

The Mystery of the Mended Heart, © Erica DeNorscia, 2009

More about The Mystery of the Mended Heart on my creative explorations website:
http://web.me.com/eschafer/Erica_Art/HeART_.html

You can also view the whole process of encaustic artmaking, as I learned it, if you are interested:
http://web.me.com/eschafer/Erica_Art/Encaustic_Heart.html

A fellow blogger recently invited her readers to submit who they are most grateful for in their lives, and she would reward their submission with some of her art.

I wasn’t able to submit on time, but it made me think about one person in particular, for whom I am so very grateful. (And I’ve been rewarded by art & beauty in abundance) It’s my mother, Sharron Huffman. In short (because I don’t want to embarrass her too much!) I am grateful for these fundamental qualities and values that she raised me with:

• an open heart and home
• good hospitality
• creativity
• humor, wit, and laughter
• curiousity
• grit and tenacity
• a willingess to trust the world, the Universe, and to go with the flow
• adventurousness
• self-sufficiency balanced with a strong community network

Sharron has a fresh new website featuring her gorgeous artwork, a variety of nature printing, gyotaku and encaustic. Check her out!

Sharron Huffman, Artist
Herring Cove Originals

If you are brand new to blogs, like I recently was, keep reading…. If you are already experienced, skip it!

I avoided blogs for a long time, because I’m sensitive to being overwhelmed with information and emails demanding my attention. Then I taught myself a few simple things about how to manage and view only what I am interested in, and it’s opening new worlds and conversations to me.

What I like about having my own blog, is that I often have things I want to say/share and converse about, but I don’t want to clutter people’s emails if they aren’t really interested or don’t have time. This way, it’s their choice to tune in or not. And I can reach a whole lot more people that share my interests

For you newbies, blogs aren’t just a passing techno fad – they represent an evolution of communication/connection with each other, and a powerful communication tool. 

And the basics are really simple.

• “Blog” is short for “web log”
• It’s a chronological list of “posts” (can be any articles, messages, tidbits of info, photos, etc.) Most recent appear at top of the list.
• You can view a blog online, or
• Better yet, subscribe to a blog you like, so you can receive new posts as the author publishes them.
• You can have your blog subscription automatically delivered to your email, or a reader like Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, MSN, etc. (More below about Google Reader, my favorite)
• It’s like a newspaper or a newsletter, only more & better, because…
• You can can comment on a blog post, so everyone can see it – then it can become a conversation. But you don’t have to.
• You can just read blog posts. Or not. Your choice!

This what the subscription choices look like on my blog, in the right margin:

Consider using Google Reader.

I’ve discovered that Google Reader is a great way to organize all the news and blogs I’m interested in. Keeps the email box much less cluttered!  It channels all that info onto one page you can browse through, like a newspaper, each day. Click the image of my Google Reader below.

If you have an IGoogle home page, you can add widgets (a small program) that display a single blog or news feed, or a list of your subscriptions in Google Reader.  Click the image of my IGoogle home page below:

Good luck and have fun!!