Canvas Talk and Gratitude

Good morning folks - First of all, this is the last chance until 11pm tonight to vote for my crazy little musical audition video for 24-Hour Musical's One Night Stand Contest!

And now for some gratitude...

Thank you so much to everyone who came to Tusk & Cup on Saturday!

A wonder Artist's Reception!

It meant so much to me that I was able to share my art with you all.  I truly realized last night that painting my art is only 1/10th of the experience for me.  The other 50000% (I'm great a math) is sharing it with others.  To hear how my work inspires you all makes everything I've been through worth it and more.  You all make me so thankful and elated, blessed and incredible fortunate to have gone on my beautiful detour, because as an artist, all I really strive to do is connect with others through my passion.  You have only spurred me on MORE to keep creating and sharing.  

The lovely Tusk & Cup Fine Coffee

My dream is to eventually start some kind of organization, foundation, or widespread movement/program - something much larger than myself - that advocates for helping others through creativity.  I can honestly say that I would not be here if it weren't for the fervent, almost manic drive to create.  Creativity helped me locate my vitality after I had literally faced death.  It helped me access what I was feeling, and that felt wonderful - not meaning that I felt happy all the time, but it felt good just to know what I was feeling, at a time when I didn't even know who I was anymore.

The most common question I get is how my work can be so joyous when it was created at such a difficult time in my life with an overwhelming amount of uncertainty and crisis.  I thought about that, and then I realized that I don't see my work as happy or sad.  Rather, it's an intense gratitude for being alive.  For the pain, heartache, difficulty, and joy - it's a wondrous feeling just to...feel - it's the experience of being alive that drives me mad with awe and wild with wonder.

Maybe it is because I had the opportunity to experience life almost as a newborn.  When I came out of my coma, it felt like I was experiencing the world as a newborn - I remember seeing the sun set for the first time, and I had this puzzles look on my face and childlike astonishment.  It was the first time I had been outside in almost a year.  I might have been in a wheel chair, with an oxygen tank, tubes, bags, unable to eat, drink, uncertain of a discharge date, if I'd ever heal or be normal, fragile as air and homesick for a world I could never get back...but it was a surreal state of sheer fascination.  I had faced death and now I felt my own mortality at 18.  I felt like an infant seeing the world for the first time, and an old soul, wise beyond her years, who had been through hell and back.  Life didn't feel real - it felt magical, like I didn't even know what it was anymore...

So I was forced to reexamine my life and the world I had inhabited for 18 years.  And just like art, sometimes you have to come away from it for a while to see things differently and find that radical amazement.

"Singing Tree"

"Singing Tree" will always be the embodiment of that.  The tree just seems so joyous, reaching out to the sky.  And with appreciation does come joy - you'd be crazy not to be tickled silly by all the beauty around us, and what gives us breath.  There is so much to take in in this world.  Hardships are just more opportunities to learn and grow - and how awesome is that, that any human is capable of learning and change.  Otherwise life is just boring.

So, basically I realized I can't really describe my art as happy, sad, positive, negative.  It's just present and aware.  Aware of the blessings and miracles that surround me every day and acknowledgment of how lucky I am.  That's been my attitude throughout.  I had happy moments as well as depressed moments, but what grounded me was gratitude.

Me with Laura, the cafe's owner

And so on that note, I'm grateful that I could share this all with you -  thanks!  I will be posted a video of the talk I gave last night some time this week.  But pretty much it's what I just wrote here!

When thinking about what I had to go through, I always remember one of my favorite quotes by Victor Frankl:

“To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the "size" of human suffering is absolutely relative.”

Suffering is relative and I really believe that.  That is why so many people relate to my art.  My trauma is no worse than a hardship in everyone else's life - it's what you do with it that matters.  And I hope that my showing my art and telling my story, I can help anyone get through anything, or at least make them smile.

My work will be at Tusk & Cup for the next month.  After that, you can still see my art at Blue Lemon in Westport for the "Pairings"  Exhibition sponsored by the amazing Beechwood Arts - where I'll be giving my next artist talk on March 19th!

Last night, I got many requests for prints, books, and cards of my work.  They are in the works!  For now, I am selling greeting cards of "Singing Tree", but it will be wonderful so have a little book out there of my art with some inspirational quotes and some lessons along the way.  Coming soon so check amyoes.com for updates!

Contest/Advice/Help!

So...I made this painting the other day...

And it made me quite, quite happy - I do love my trees!  

End Of Summer

Winter Meeting 

This feels like the next phase for me - a period of happiness, romance, joy, carefreeness...I was thinking of what I wanted to title this but nothing has popped out at me so far.

So...give me your advice!  I could call this a contest, but I'm not giving this away any time soon - perhaps an I.O.U. for when I get prints made of this!  Yes, that's my informal promise!  I will send you a print (one day...) if I like your title!

It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to the week ahead.  Miracles around us every day...don't forget!

And on that note...I'll leave you with a little poem I wrote about that...

Nature's Wonder - A Poem by Amy Oestreicher

The warm sun beating on my back

The dancing wind ‘round naked branches

Nature fills up what I lack

Nature gives life second chances

Now the outside world can mirror

All the hues I feel inside

With Spring, I see so much clearer

With the light, who wants to hide?

Days are longer, richer, brighter

Growth is stirring underground

Make our self-connection tighter

Change is blooming all around!

I am just a fertile seed

Opening enough to thrive

Sunlight, water’s what I need

Wow, it’s good to be alive!

Nature’s beauty shares such wealth

For those who seek some inspiration

Nature’s the model of health

Health that fills each inhalation

There is so much to take in

With every grasp of cool fresh air

We only need to begin

To savor it and be aware

Worry clogs up too much space

The bigger picture dims and shrinks

Let us find our happy place

Not be controlled by how we think

When you’re caught in anxiety

And can’t zoom out from your fear

Now that nature’s strong and mighty

It will keep you grounded here

Problems seem so huge an dark

When you let them fester and brood

For me, springtime lights a spark

And uplifts any sour mood

Life is challenging and frustrating

Life can make you want to fee

But Spring is about celebrating

Leaving behind the “old me”

Shedding our old skin, moving on

Accepting what’s already gone

Looking forward to the unknown

Making our soul and our body our own

Listen to the sweet song of birds

I can almost hear their words

“You’ll recover if you start

to love yourself with all your heart.”

If it’s hard to love yourself,

Put your focus somewhere else:

Look at nature’s gorgeous view

And know you’re part of nature too

You’re beautiful as daffodils

That spread across the sloping hills

You deserve a full-fledged life

Not one of worry, stress and strife

With the springtime, make this vow

I WILL LOVE MY “HERE AND NOW!”