Things change.  They ebb, flow, grow, shrink.  They shift.  With every step, with every breath, things take on a new shape, and if we're paying attention, we can get caught up in the shape-shifting and feel everything as new.  Different.  Fresh.  Somehow this is where I found myself this summer, observing subtle moments when I could feel my world revolving.  Evolving.  So, I grabbed hold and unfolded into the shifts and now, today, I find myself here at the storm row studio blog, welcoming readers.

So what's it all about?

Since 2011, I've been expressing myself online.  First with my art site, gongoozler art, and then with a wellness and creativity blog called small yellow songbird.  In 2012, I built a second blog as a writing home base for my independently published YA novel, wildflowers.  The r mccormack writes blog has grown with me.  Until this summer.  When the artist-me and the writer-me and the creative-me converged, tangled and knotted.  I could no longer deny they needed one, simple place to reside together, and so, storm row studio shifted into view.

You can learn the history of the name on the herstory page.  As for my writing projects and art, it's all here together.  In the near future I'll phase out r mccormack writes, though all its posts have been imported here, and the gongoozler art website, replacing it with an Etsy shop.  Small yellow songbird has already been taken off-line, but elements of my wellness journey will show up here. Mostly because I've experienced first-hand how connected our creative lives are to our general well-being.  With that said, it's fair to say creative expression is what this new blog is all about and I plan to heap loads of it into my posts.  Here's a preview:

the drawer of wonders - showcasing inspiration through collected vignettes

on the worktable, in the typewriter, at the easel - sharing what's new in the studio

gongoozler book & art love - hollering about beautiful books, gorgeous art, and their gifted makers

re:Vision - an offering of useful tips for revising and editing

creative cheerleading - posts with lovely quotes to lift and boost

And now I'm off.  To make art with words and illustrations.  Thank you for stopping by and having a look around.  I hope you check in again soon, as things are ever-shifting.

"Everything you can imagine is real."  Pablo Picasso

I've spent the summer being inspired...

...and putting that inspiration to work.

Where will it lead?

To something new and different...and real, I imagine.

Hope you're having a fine summer too.

"Hanging softly over the black Singer sewing machine, it looked like magic, and when people saw me wearing it they were going to run up to me and say, "Marguerite, forgive us, please, we didn't know who you were," and I would answer generously, "No, you couldn't have known. Of course I forgive you."

Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Last Wednesday teacher, activist, and artist Maya Angelou died.  The news reached me via Twitter, as I happened to posting when a flood of beautiful sentiments filled my home news feed.  Profoundly moved by tributes and comments, I read post after post. Her own words rang out and were shared by people of all ages, colors, creeds, and genders.  It was deeply touching, and as an artist myself, several of the quotes people added to the conversation struck me in the heartspace.  And not just because Maya's words are always succinctly powerful.

For me, part of the impact came in seeing just how many others had been touched by the same sentences or lines from a book or one of her poems.  I knew she was popular, of course.  She's a best-seller.  But I didn't know know. And seeing the proof of how far one woman's words can travel, I had to pause and give thanks for her will to use her voice and pursue her life.

Then, in that midst of that pause, something new occurred to me.  In the act of living her life with an expressive and willful nature, she's provided a great lesson for writers, artists, and...well...creatives of every kind.  I mean, consider this: Maya was San Francisco's first African-American streetcar conductor...at the age of sixteen!  She wanted that job, so she got that job, ringing that trolley bell with confidence.  It's so wonderful and simple.  And a great inspiration!

For many of us, the inspiration doesn't end with her writing.  She also demonstrated her commitment to her own courage by actively perfuming the world with real ideas about equality and peace.  How?  By showing up and telling the truth about herself.  By speaking from the gut and gracefully refusing to apologize for having something to say.  In the end, this is what most of us want...to tell our story in our own unique way, with poise and clarity.  Watching Maya do it, revealed how alike we all are in spirit.

To close, I'll pass along more of Maya's words.

May she rest in deep peace.

"There is no greater agony 

than bearing an untold story inside you."

"If you're always trying to be normal, 

you will never know how amazing you can be."