I Am Thankful…

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Abstract Art Online By Sharon Cummings, Family, friends, gratitude, gratitude prayer, Happy Thanksgiving, sharon cummings art, thanks, thanksgiving, Thanksgiving 2016

To my family, friends and collectors….I am thankful for all of you!  My art collector family:  you have a special place in my heart for giving me the support and income needed to have a successful and fulfilling career life.  Friends and Family:  I am honored by the connections we have made.  For those in my past, I appreciate the companionship and lessons learned (both the good and the bad).  I am eternally grateful for any kindness (big or small).  For those in my present, you are all of the above and my treasured lifeline.  I cherish each and every one of you.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

L.O.V.E. And Friendship…

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best friends, boyfriend, Family, friends, friendship, girlfriend, husband, love, lovers, romance, romantic art, romantic gift, wife

“Love And Friendship”

New Mixed Media Art With The Words of Henri Nouwen

Sharon Cummings

2015

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A R.A.I.N.B.O.W. On Your Shoulder…

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art, blessing, Colorful Art, Family, feather, friends, house warming gift, love, native american, native american art, prayer, spirit, spirituality

Cherokee Blessing Prayer

Colorful Feather Art Print With The Words Of A Beautiful Blessing

Sharon Cummings

2015

I wish all of you many happy trails this year and I hope that my art can be a rainbow on your shoulder sometimes. 🙂

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Here’s To H.A.P.P.I.N.E.S.S…

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Family, friends, happiness, happy, inspirational, love, love art, love quotes, lovers, positive affirmations, quotes, to be loved

“To Be Loved”

Sharon Cummings

2014

Wishing you the gift of happiness today and every day….

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We Make A Family

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abstract art, art, Artist, blue and yellow, blue art, blue paintings, bold abstracts, Children, colorful, colorful abstract, colorful abstract art, Colorful Art, contemporary art, energy, faabest, Family, Fine Art, fun shapes, healing art, love, marriage, modern, modern art, relationships, retro, sharon cummings

People often ask me about what pieces of art I have in my own home.  I not only create, but I also collect.  I have some amazing pieces from all over the World.  Paintings and sculpture.  Fine art from artists from Canada….Australia….Japan….France….The United States…and more.  I am highly eclectic in that if I see art that I love and can afford, I just buy it.  I do not worry about whether or not it will match the sofa.  It matches my soul.  The piece above titled “We Make A Family” was painted (by me) around 10 years ago.  It symbolized me, my husband and our daughter and the bond we share.  It hangs over my bed and I sleep under it every night.  Enjoy!

You can learn more here:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/we-make-a-family-abstract-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

Back To The F.U.T.U.R.E…

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death, deep fried, deep south, Family, ga, georgia, grocery stores, hazelhurst, hazelhurst ga, hazelhurst georgia, life, loss, love, piggly wiggly, piggy, pigs, sharon cummings, south, southern, stores

 

I just returned from a trip to the town where I was born.  I had not been this deep into South Georgia in over 30 years.  It was startling to me just how little had changed.  The Piggly Wiggly where I spent many gleeful moments with my Granny was still standing and looked exactly the same.  The hospital still had it’s yellow brick exterior and had not grown.  We drove around for hours just looking.  A few things were gone, like some trees and the old Tastee-Freez. But Dairy Queen was still serving it’s frozen soft serve.  Some places were closed, but no one was taking over.  It was like a time warp.  Even my grandmother’s home looked just like I remembered.  I felt like I could just go in and she would be there sitting in her recliner ready to offer me some sweet tea.  But alas, she is no longer there. In the span of 3 years right before I hit puberty, my family lost my Dad, my Uncle and my Granny. One family member per year.  It was a tragedy that left my family devastated and since they all lived in and around each other, I had never gone back. The pain was just too great.  Everything seems so backwards there, including the hushed whispers like “He married a black girl.” and “She’s gay you know.”  Segregation is still alive and well and those parts of my visit were uncomfortable.  I have Celiac disease and eating gluten free was a real challenge as there were very few restaurants and the ones available had “deep fried” in front of everything on the menu. When I got home to Tampa I did truly feel that I was “Back To The Future”…

But there was comfort in my visit with my cousin and his family.  Their lives may seem simple compared to the cluttered city life I enjoy, but one basic thing remains:  love.

Forgiving Our Fathers…..

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Artist, Dad, Daddy, faabest, Family, Father, Father's Day, Fathers, Forgiveness, hope, love, Men, sharon cummings

This is my second Father’s Day without a Dad.  I lost my “Daddy” when I was 10 years old and my “Pop” two Summers ago at age 43.  Both loses have their own particular kind of sting. That’s me in my Daddy’s arms as an infant in the first picture and me in my Pop’s in the later.  As with Father’s Day in the past, forgiveness always comes to the surface.  It isn’t that I have not forgiven these two men for their shortcomings.  Both had many and I have long since come to terms and found peace.  It is more about the fact that without either of them here, forgiveness is something that I can cherish.  It is much easier to celebrate someone’s life and their positive role in yours if you can let go of past hurts.  If you can see them for their humanity.  See the ways that they must have felt pain inside and the ways they tried to make themselves feel better.  I have had to forgive alcoholism, physical abuse, suicide and more. I have had to go beyond my inner child to see theirs.  It took years for me to fully open up and allow their love to move freely through my thoughts and my heart.  But I have and they do.  So today on Father’s Day I want to celebrate love and be thankful for forgiveness which truly has set me free!

The Wonder Years….

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Are you trying to hold on to your youth?  Your children?  A dysfunctional family?  A job that isn’t right for you?  A marriage that doesn’t work?  That D you got in trigonometry in high school?

So many of us cling tightly to what is familiar or comfortable.  Others bind themselves to the past and allow it to punish them for their entire lives. Change is scary.  Some just cannot picture a life different than the one they currently have.  I have learned that the harder you grasp something, the more it hurts when it slips away from you.  The secret to life is “letting go”.  Also known as acceptance.  This has nothing to do with giving up and everything to do with knowing when it is time to move on.

I had a few years of uncertainty and fear as I moved into middle age.  I was panicked at the thought of my little girl out in the big mean World all by herself. My marriage had a major hiccup one Summer and I was not sure we would make it.  I noticed that I was starting to lose the interest of men when I walked into a room.  My body and face were aging and I did not know how to handle it. I was also very confused about what I wanted to do with my business.  I considered shutting it down and taking a different path by getting back into Holistic Medicine.  I call those years “the worry years”.

Slowly I started to realize that I could not hold onto all of those things that I wanted to remain the same.  More importantly, I did not want to. I discovered it was safe to let go and just celebrate where I was headed.  I was not only physically different, I was also mentally and emotionally transformed.  At 45 I am now excited to watch my daughter leave for college and blossom into her own life.  I will not be keeping her bedroom as a shrine where I can focus on the past.  Instead it will be converted into a sanctuary for yoga and thinking. She will be welcome to visit anytime, but I will use that space for mediation.  I have learned to work “with” my partner instead of “against” him as we weather life’s bumps.  I am less selfish.  I have also decided that I will not be artificially preserving my youthful face.  It’s gone and no amount of face lifting, injecting or sand blasting is going to bring it back.  It’s o.k. to have wrinkles and fine lines.  In fact, if you allow yourself to let go of what society dictates is beautiful, you can actually admire them for what they really are: signs of a life that has endured numerous storms and celebrated many triumphs.

As for my career that is still being pondered.  I have a few new ideas about what direction I would like to move in. But whatever I decide, the process leading up to it will not be fraught with anxiety.  No, these are truly “the wonder years” for me.  The dictionary tells us that “wonder” means:  a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.  And that is exactly where I am.  Bring it on life!

What Is Success Anyway?

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art career, asian, asian theme, botanical, botanical art, botanical photos, botanical prints, career success, Family, floral, flower, flower art, flower photography, flower photos, flowers, happiness, koi pond, lily pads, lotus, lotus flower, love, meditation, mom, mother's day, mothering, pond, relationships, sharon cummings, spring, success, successful art business, successful career, yellow flower, yoga, zen

 

What makes a person successful in this life?  Is it dying with a big ol’ pile of money?  Is it having the most friends?  Is it the big house and fancy car?  Is it being recognized by others for your achievements?  Is it being pretty and well liked?  Is it bagging a perfect spouse?  Getting that kid into Harvard?

Over the years I have dramatically redefined my perspective on personal success.  Everyone has their own criteria, but for me it has nothing to do with any of the above.  I have come to realize that true success has little to do with worldly achievements and everything to do with the inner peace that comes from not needing them.

Am I a successful artist?  Absolutely.  I am not getting rich off of my creativity, but I am earning a living.  If my spouse died, I could support myself entirely on my income.  I only have to work a few days a week now thanks to years of time investment.  I make money while I sleep and on the days I do not work too.  In my own mind, that is success.  I ignored those that said I couldn’t do it and I worked hard to achieve my goals.

Am I a successful Mom?  You bet.  I turned away from my abusive upbringing and defied the odds.  I did not perpetuate the abuse and I’ve helped my autistic daughter find her own voice.  I have supported her every step of the way and encouraged her to love herself just the way she is.  I did not teach hate or prejudice and as a result she has friends of all races, religions and sexual orientations. She is now enrolled in college and doing all of the things normal folks do.  She didn’t go for an Ivy League school, but one that fit her goals.  She didn’t win a bunch of awards or get a perfect SAT score.  But she is happy.  To me this is one of my greatest achievements and I feel pretty successful as a parent.

Lastly, am I successful overall?  The are so many ways to achieve success: Relationships, Job, Health, Family, Hobbies, Fitness, etc. The simple answer for me is:  Yes.  The detailed answer would be far too long to expect the average blog reader to get through.  I am at a point in my life that I no longer concern myself with how others view me.  I am satisfied and happy with who I am and all I’ve done. In the end, that is all that matters.  So, yes, I am truly successful.

Do you see yourself as a success?

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A Sacred Place

Tags

abstract art, art, art collectors, Artist, celebration of life, cherokee, Children, contemporary art, faabest, Family, healer, healing, life, love, Memorial, modern art, mother, mothers, native americans, spirit, spirituality, tribute

I don’t just sell art.  I form relationships with my collectors.  I bring people together, make a house a home or an office a welcoming place.  I create and inspire.

A few years ago one of my collectors contacted me with a very special request.  She said it took her many months to get up the nerve to ask because she thought I would say no.  Her Mom had passed away and she wanted to do something special with her ashes.  She wanted to know if I would be willing to incorporate some of her mother into one of my pieces.  A commission based on “Fire Over Copper Lake”.  I did not hesitate and said yes.

I was soon touched to learn that we shared a Native American ancestry.  Her Mom was a healer in this life and touched many souls.  In my lifetime I have had a spiritual guide named Ama which means water in Cherokee.  The piece I would be creating had to do with a “lake”…or water.  Her mother’s Indian name was “clear water”. Creating this memorial painting felt more than right for me….it felt like a homage to my own spiritual mother as well.  She arrived in a beautiful pouch surrounded by the sweet smell of sage.  I handled her with care and blessed her ashes before I mixed them with the paint.  The piece turned out beautifully….my collector was moved beyond words…and I like to think that a few ashes are here in my studio still and that Ama is with me always…..