With Eyes Wide Open

As a child there are people around you that you don't always see clearly. Neighbors or friends of your parents. You know their name or that they live in the blue house at the end of your street, where you always get peanut butter cookies.

As an adult with my own thoughts and concepts, I've had that veil be removed. The relationship with some of these people can alter and shift into the path it was meant to form all along. One such relationship jumps to mind for me and never fails to make me smile.

This is my Godmother, Pauline.

Growing up, behind my childlike veil, she was just my mother's best friend.
She was the daughter of my Grandmother's best friend.
She was the sister to one of my aunts.

We would make sure to visit her and her family when we'd come back to Bear River for our vacations. I can remember a wood stove from one of her homes. I can recall how she hung a ladder from the ceiling of a living room and that a jungle of plants grew from it. I always said I'd hang a ladder in my home when I got bigger.
She was......Pauline.

As the years passed away, things in my life shifted and that veil slowly drifted away.
She became someone different in my eyes.
Nothing had changed with her but something great had changed within me.

I saw how incredibly soft spoken she was. The sound of her voice has become a very calming element to the chaos that sometimes surrounds me in life. Her touch when she hugs me brings me peace.

With my eyes wide open, I could now truly see how her spirit was artistic and spoke strongly to my own.
In the back of my mind, I could recall artwork hung in the homes I'd visited with faint whispers of "oh Pauline drew that".

The other day, I took my camera to her home.
Asking if I could capture a few images to share and she said yes and then teased me that she would have cleaned better if she knew I was going to take photos.

Artwork that she has drawn over the years that hang on on the wall leading you upstairs.

The emotion that washes over you from her pieces is incredible. Her work pushes me to keep trying. To continue to hold a pencil or piece of charcoal in my hands. An inspiration when she didn't even know she was.

Over the years, I've watched her creative passion shift thru different mediums. Pencil, pastels, onto clay for jewelry and now we share another passion. She was introduced to the world of felting.
On one of the many joyful visits to her home, I surprised her with an array of spun wool. Every color under the rainbow. Watching her eyes sparkle with light and seeing the concepts forming in her mind with how she was going to begin to use them was very intoxicating. I tend to feed off her excitement. She fuels me like no other.

I started felting my miniature landscape necklaces and Pauline took felting in a whole different direction.
She blew me out of the water. When she showed me these pieces, I was speechless and in awe.
She has fanned the desire to attempt a larger piece of art.

The motion she has been able to recreate with the wool is amazing.
The texture is soft and yet so realistic.

When she first showed me this autumn tree, I jokingly told her she was to leave it to me in her will.
(Alright.....I wasn't really joking! ) She did a few other pieces of work for her daughters that were wonderful as well.

Then she began to really play and experiment with the wool.

Look at these!

Incorporating real bird feathers, dried grass and even a small tree branch that she felted a birds nest around.
The birds she felted with dimension and they look amazing.

Then I just walked around her home snapping photos while smiling. Her knack for placing items and conveying a mood makes me envious. I look forward to someday placing my own items around the farmhouse and having such moods of love, harmony and comfort flow from them.

Her home conveys her soul. Her spirit and her loves are showcased in every corner of her home.
Earth colors float out from everywhere. Pieces of mother nature whisper to you from nooks and crannies. Dried flowers, driftwood gathered off a beach from a family vacation,amongst book shelves covered with hours of escape. Old wooden frames hang on walls surrounding art that she either did herself or that somehow spoke to her heart. Family heirlooms reveal the connection to the past and done with love.
You tend to notice something different each visit that has a wonderful tale of love attached to it.
A visit to her home instantly makes my heart smile.
Knowing my day is going to include talking and visiting with her is immediate joy.

She hadn't finished this latest felt piece but she indulged me and allowed me to take some photos.
It is going to be a wedding present for someone she knows. I jokingly told her I didn't know I was getting married again ;)

I am beyond blessed to have this incredible woman in my life.
Pauline encourages me to try anything. She fully believes in my talent.
She loves me and that can be a rare trait in some folks. I cherish that I know she does.
Laughter is in my life because of her.
Artistic desire is fueled from her.

A level of just unending joy is brought into my heart from her.
Thank you for always being in my life and waiting for the childlike veil to fall so I could see you with my eyes wide open.
I love you!
xoxoxox