A West End resident is striving to help people incorporate artful living into everyday life.
Mary Chernoff is the author of INSPIRE, a newly released book that aims to provide encouragement and how-to so folks can tap into their creative sides and live a soul-filled life. The book evolved out of her blog, The Art Part of My Heart, where she writes about culinary, visual, literary and performing arts, as well as interiors, gardening and clothing.
“That was the focus of the book that just came out - it’s called INSPIRE,” says Chernoff, an interior designer and artist. “It’s encouraging people to be inspired to try things, to step out of the box.”
Chernoff enjoys incorporating beauty and creativity into everyday living, whether it’s eating in the garden, using funky metal items for garden art, coming up with ideas for interesting gifts to give people, or raising kids. A jack-of-all-trades, Chernoff has a knack for transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.
“It’s the underlying heart and soul underneath them. It’s not making the scones – it’s taking them to your friend’s house in the morning when they are still warm,” says Chernoff, who has lived in New West for nearly 20 years. “It’s personalizing. It’s breaking bread together. It’s being together. It’s community. It’s this other element that lies beneath the pretty stuff.”
Topics in INSPIRE include art, kids, friends, gifting, crafts, dressing, home, garden, food, entertaining, celebrations and décor – and many of the ideas are inexpensive are inexpensive to do.
“That is a huge part of the book,” she says. “It’s resourcefulness, it’s recycling, it’s how you can do fantastic things by repainting, recycling.”
Chernoff is hosting a series of small-group, intimate workshops in her kitchen and garden, where she’ll feature some of the recipes and crafts from her book. Topics include demystifying pavlova, stories behind the book, crochet 101 and making perfect pies and tarts.
“They are taking things from the book that are about artful and creative living and bringing them to life and doing small workshops around that,” she says.
The workshops are $50 each and include a copy of INSPIRE.
For more information on INSPIRE, visit Chernoff’s blog at www.theartpartofmyheart.com and to register for the workshops go to www.eventbrite.ca (search for Mary Chernoff). INSPIRE is also available for purchase at Black Bond Books in Royal City Centre.
