New ART and the Hat WINNER!!!!

I have been ill and so I am remiss in holding the drawing for a HAT hand knit by me. Feeling much better now and so pulled a name out of the hat ;-) and the WINNER IS: ROSEMARY! thanks you Rosemary for your kind comment here, I hope you enjoy the hat!

I wanted the share with folks one of two painting I created for my Grandson's room---when he turned 2 last August I painted two painting for his room. Well, technically, these are more drawings than paintings--since they are created with pen and ink and prisma colored pencils.


One is already framed and hung up and I am shipping this one off this week (why that is so delayed is another whole story...suffice it to say that I suffer from STARTITIS when it comes to projects...not from "end-it-is"). Each painting contains a surprise in the randomness of the alphabet....(hint: what is my Grandson's name?). These were really fun to create.

here is a close up of the little birdie in the tree....

I am currently working on a few more children's designs....zoo animals and so on...so check back.

Postcard Sketches

Here are a couple of small sketches I did recently---I like to doodle on to postcards, then I can send them to someone...

these two will probably go to a friend who is recovering from an illness...I like the idea of sending my art out into the world for free...and who knows where it ends up?  maybe it graces someone's fridge for awhile? or it is used as a bookmark? once sent out into the wide world, the art then has a life of its own....

"I am an artist who, for forty years
Has stood at the lake edge
Throwing stones in the lake,
Sometimes, very faintly,
I hear a splash."  ---Maxwell Bates

D is for DOODLE!

Yep--all my life I have been a "Doodler"---here area few---frequently my doodles grow into larger pieces of art or textile designs....doodling for me is a way of daydreaming....


I believe that doodleing is important to one's mental health....whether you do it with a pen or on a guitar...or with cooking...in fact just daydreaming is a form of doodling...and the more you doodle (or daydream)--the more your creativity will flow.

1001 Journals: Traveling Journal No. 3326

My long time mostly online friend Carla (we met online eons ago when the internet was still a new phenomenon) invited me to participate in this "traveling journal"---over the years Carla and I have done some great mail art projects together--so I guess I seemed a perfect candidate for this. Here are my two doodles for the sketchbook....

a very doodly heart--doodled while watching a romantic funny movie...on graph paper--I love to doodle around on graph paper....


and here comes the sun....and spring....

Simple Things : Happiness and Gratitude

Today a friend on Facebook pointed me toward a website about HAPPINESS--- Happier.com, and the website posed a question for me that I have been considering : what makes a good day for me? can I even answer this question? I can tell you what an ideal good day is...but how often do I pay atention to my good days? (how often do you?)

I know that when I have a bad day--or a horrible day--I pay attention to that---I may even tell someone : "I had a very bad day today"--but how often do I call a friend and say, "I had a very good day today?"

How come we tend to pay more attention to the negative in our lives and just take the positive for granted? I have been trying to perpetuate a new habit in my life : acknowledging all the good that comes my way every day. I no longer want to dwell on the negative aspects of my life---and to do this I am deliberately cultivating the habit of daily gratitude. So, I try to spend some time every day to make a written list of everything I am grateful for in my life. If I miss a day--I do not chastise myself, I just remind myself to do this every day. I believe that cultivating daily gratitude will make me eventually happier, healthier, more joyful and relaxed.

Part of all this, is also learning to enjoy and savor the day-to-day events and simple things in my life, and be grateful for them, aslo...and to this end, I also try to create a drawing (again everyday!) of some "simple thing" in my life that I am grateful for....hence the black and white drawing here.

Today's Quote: " There are two ways to live your life. One is as nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein

Drawing: "I'll Fly Away"

I guess since I have been in a transitional stage of my life for the past six months, much of my drawings seem to reflect moving or flying....this small (10" x 7") drawing is titled I'll Fly Away

Pen and ink with prisma colored pencils--and soon will be for sale in my Esty shop--Borealis Beads---check out my shop for some affordable original art!

Sketchbook Exchange (again)

Sketchbook Exchange or SWAP

Here are a couple of pages I doodled for my current sketchbook---for the sketchbook exchange--12 sketchbooks making their way around the country to 12 very different artists...each artist sketches about 5-6 pages in each book...so you have over 60 sketches in your book by the time the sketchbook you launched makes its way back to you. This is the 3rd sketchbook I'm now drawing in...counting mine. I like this project with a monthly deadline--because I am forced to sit down and draw (and 5-6 pages takes me awhile)----drawing is always good for my soul.

another doodly journal page

the SKETCHBOOK EXCHANGE

I'm participating in a SKETCHBOOK EXCHANGE--- started by artist Jim Doran ---where all the artists who signed up (13 of us) buy a new sketchbook (like a Moleskin) and draw on the first 7 or so pages then mail it off to the next person on the list---and when you receive someone's sketchbook you draw on the next 7 pages, then mail it on--until you receive your own sketchbook back.....so I will be drawing at least 7 pages in 13 different sketchbooks before we are through.

I realized today as I was drawing in the new sketchbook---how very little drawing I have been doing lately. So, this will be very good, for me since it will force me to draw...

Here is my first page---the entrance to my traveling sketchbook....(---I will be posting pages from these sketchbooks here from time to time..)

Mermaid Dreaming : Creative Every Day

Painted with gouache, pen and ink details, and prismacolor pencils on archival cream colored paper. She's up on my Etsy shop --- so stop by there.

Mermaids have always had a special meaning for me--for many years working on the sea I always "dreamed" I might catch a glimpse of one.....

This Week: Creative Every Day?

My how a week can just fly by! here are some projects I have been working on this week ---all WIPs, none of them finished, but they are getting close.

First--2 drawings, done in pen and ink, with prisma color pencils and some gouache paints (on the mermaid) on archival cream color paper. I intend to put these two small original drawings for sale on my Etsy site when I finish them--so if you like them, do check back, or shoot me an e-mail.


(Please don't take these images and use them anywhere without my permission)

And on the needles, I have about 4 projects (if you count the cotton dish clothes), but here is a hat....
Can you tell I like color and repetitive patterns ?

Postcard Give-away!

In my big bag I carry some blank postcards--which I "doodle" on --mostly when I'm bored--like when I'm waiting at the doctor's office or somewhere. Sometimes I like my postcard doodles enough to color them and then mail off to a someone....YOU could be the next lucky owner of one of these 3 unique, original postcards! Just leave a comment--and include your e-mail address and on November 1st I will have a drawing which will include everyone who has commented--and you could be one of the three WINNERS---then I will happily snail mail you one of these postcards!

Fabric Journal

I have started a visual fabric journal-- well the journal is sewn--but I am mixing paper and fabrics on each page. The paper is all my own designs---mostly small "roughs" from my fabric design classes (visit the design school here)--in color palettes I ended up not using, or designs I haven't completed. I wanted to create a textile "sample book" or "swatch book" with some of my designs--and so far this is the result. I used grommets and ribbon for the binding. Here the large flowers in purples and green on the pink background are my design--painted in gouache. I eventually chose a very different palette to use with this design.

The left page here is part of a of a flower design I created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and the right page has part of a design painted in watercolors with inked linework (midpage).

On this page the orange arrows on lavender are my design--painted in gouache.

Here the left side is part of a "doodled" design--but I used a very different color palette for the finished design. I drew this in black and white, then scanned it into the computer and colored it in Photoshop. On the right, the dark gold, brown, and red design is another "doodle"--never used. The nice thing about the ribbon/grommet binding is that I can easily add pages as I make them since this is an on-going journal.

Vision in the Night, or owl dreaming

OWLS --nocturnal, a bird of myth and mystery. The owl in some cultures is the symbol of the feminine, the moon, and the night. The ancient Greeks associated the owl with the Goddess Athena. This owl just grew from my pen one day while I doodled...sometimes I dream of owls, which are the eyes of the night, seeing what is not in the open....wisdom and secrets. Many consider the owl a bird of magic and darkness, of prophecy and wisdom--so what does it mean when an owl inhabits my dreaming?

And the blue feathers? they just happened one day, also--bluebirds? blue jay? a feather is a symbol of balance and the wind....

Doodle Flowers or Patterns of Life

Since I was a small child, I have loved patterns--patterns in nature, and human made patterns--which are mostly derived from the natural world. The noted anthropologist Angeles Arrien says in her book THE SIGNS OF LIFE, Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them, "I discovered that five basic shapes appear in the art of all cultures: the circle, the square, the triangle, the cross, and the spiral...the study [she conducted] also confirmed that people in different cultures do give similar meaning to these shapes. The circle symbolizes wholeness, the square indicates stability, the triangle represents goals and dreams, the cross stands for relationship, and the spiral means growth. It also became evident to me that the meaning attributed to each shape stands for a process of human growth, and the shape carries this process within itself."

Thus--patterns I am attracted to carry cultural meanings--which most of the time, I don't even think about or consider. Today I wandered around our house, snapping photos of a few of the patterns we are surrounded with.





Perhaps that is also why I am drawn to poetry---since poetry tends to arrange language and words into patterns much of the time.

I will speak to you in stone-language
(Answer with a green syllable)
I will speak to you in snow-language
(Answer with a fan of bees)
I will speak to you in water-language
(Answer with a canoe of lightening)
I will speak to you in blood-language
(Answer with a tower of birds)
----Octavio Paz



Arrien's book has a process to use the five universal shapes "as an effective tool that can be used to determine the connection between a person's preference for certain shapes and the same person's inner, subjective states." For example, if you are drawn toward circles and triangles--what does this say about you and your cultural world view?





Since I could draw--as a young child--I have drawn and doodled repetitive patterns, and now--in my fabric design classes, I am learning to create repetitive patterns---from these universal shapes, or from nature.

I call this "pattern" I designed DOODLE FLOWERS.

Journal Pages

For years I have kept a drawing journal---well, for me it is really a doodling journal--I doodle obsessively, and sometimes those doodles become designs or paintings or find their way into altered books or other projects...today I decided to share some images from my journals.












Quote of the day: "If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." ---Vincent Van Gogh