State of the Art

It is hard to imagine a world without art.  From the frescos of the ancient cathedrals to the finely honed strains of the symphony, local theater and the bands that play in Five Points, art is all around us and I think that life would be a little bland without it.

Some of you may know that I am an artist, a painter, a musician, a singer and a songwriter. My world has been drenched in art since a very early age. To say that this has been a rich blessing for me is true, although I really do not remember a time that I was not performing or writing….it is simply such a integral part of who I am that I do not know any different.  My life in the salon is also about art. Designing a cut and style and then creating the lines and direction, color formulation is not really any different than mixing oils, and deciding where you want the light to reflect and minimizing with depth and dimension…yes, I would say that what we do here is absolutely art.

While no one has ever paid me thousands for one of my works, and not many people are willing to pay me to sing or write the next “big hit”, many of you do choose to buy my art every day and even greater than that, you choose to wear it.  What a joy it is for me to be able to create form and beauty in my daily life and then to have you take it home with you to enjoy. Thank you all for helping me to maintain the art that I so love.

 

`Kiah

GRATITUDE

I am not good at making or at keeping resolutions. I use to begin every New Year with a list of grandiose goals and I was always sure that THIS would be the year that I kept them. They were usually the same ideas left over from the previous year…, to lose weight and to exercise more, to be more responsible with my finances, to spend a little more time in prayer, and so on. The thought was always great in theory however it usually lasted till around mid February and I would go off the wagon big time and right back into my old habits. I suspect that I am not the only one who does this and that most of you can relate to my dilemma.

This year I have a resolution, (for lack of another word) that I intend to keep. I want to show more gratitude for the richly blessed life that I am living. This is a lesson that my higher self has been trying to teach me for many months. I know this because I have been literally bombarded with the idea of “gratitude”. It has been on billboards that I pass, in pages of a book left open, in general conversation, in church sermons, in songs on television and the radio and so I know…FOR SURE, that this is a lesson that I am suppose to learn. Now let me say to you that it is not a matter of my being ungrateful so much as it is that I just get so busy with life that I very often forget TO BE grateful.

TD Jakes told the familiar Bible story of Jesus feeding the multitudes with only one fish and one loaf of bread. I have heard this story for forty seven years and yet I never really got it until now. We think, those of us who remember this story, that the miracle was in the division but it really was not. The division was the result of the display of earnest gratitude and so in reality the gratitude itself was the miracle. The very first thing that they did was to give thanks for the one fish and for the one loaf. Only after showing gratitude for the little that they had could it be multiplied into many fish and many loaves.

Now I don’t usually like to get too preachy on this blog, but it is worth noting that many times in my life, I can directly relate my circumstances and the inability to prosper in whatever way…be it financial or health related or in my spiritual growth…I can, almost every time, trace it directly to my reluctance to show my gratitude. So I think that there may be something to this story. I am resolving to list in a “Journal of Abundance”, five things a day that I am thankful for in a conscious effort to be aware of all that I have. My friend Ashley Lidikay is doing a “jar of goodness” in which she drops notes of something that she is thankful for every day and she will read them at the end of the year. This is a really cool way to do it.

Whatever the case and in whatever method we choose, let us take the time to be grateful this year for the little things that we have. I am excited to see what all has happened by this time next year.

 

MUCH LOVE

~Kiah